The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-02-06

Makes Good StOm0C0S.
mo, it's most extraordinary. but
men who have had stomach trouble
and had to be careful of their eating
before they went into the trenches
find. after a week or 80. that their
stomachs become fine and strong.
They can eat anything and as much
as they want. They don't get much
new men OF them.
You see really we're in winter
quarters. So are the Germans.
don't suppose the generals of either
side intended that there should be any
lull in the fighting this winter but ma
ture had its way. We couldn't fight
If we wanted to. I've been in an i'm
portant part Of the line and we
haven't done any real fighting for six
weeks.
Its a wonderful sight though-the
trench country. ALI you can see. are
barbed wire fences. The trenches are
SO we'll made that you can't distin-
lance. There's utter silence, most of
the time. It's at night that we have
lively times. Each side is expecting
the other to pour out of the trenches
and make an attack; the situation Is
always very tense. in the darkness.
Fire at Nothing.
I'm not saying that the men don't
steep, OuL LnSI6 dTC lOOhOuLS WAOSC
nerves are trained to high c all the
time. The slightest movement OF any
sort in the direction Of the enemy's
trenches sets the lookout firing. 1t
may have been only a weed, stirring in
the wind, but that's enough for him.
The men all jump and begin firing i'm
mediasely whether they see anything
or not. The firing runs down the
trench. sometimes for miles. This is
because we are afraid the Germans
may rush from their trenches and
charge us.
Then the Germans wake up.
afraid that all the noise means
that we are charging them. They
match us in the noise making. They
shoot into the darkness. even though
they see nothing.
This may go on for ten or fifteen
minutes and then an astonishing thing
happens; a great bomb of white light
explodes between the two trenches.
That's a bomb of good cheer. even II
the enemy did fire it. 1t means that
the Germans wanted to see whether
we were charging or not. And 1t also
means that the Germans are not
charging.
LETS quit firing and go to sleep
is what the German white bomb tells
u.s. or what our white bomb may tell
the Germans. And. the firing gradual
ly dies out; silence falls again on the
trenches and it isn't until daybreakH
that we really begin shooting again.
'I've never been able to explain the
shooting at daybreak. 1t always starts
up, whether the officers start it or not
The men do it themselves. / suppose,
perhaps, they do it to make good with
their officers for what's going to hap-a
pen at o'clock. q
What does happen at o'clock ~
Stop for Breakfast.
why, they all stop fighting until
breakfast is over. One man after an
other lays down his rifle and begins
to eat the food that has been brought
to him, via the communicating
trenches. And you can't hear any
shooting until o'clock. Both the
English and the German officers. by
a tacit understanding, give their men
from to 8 o'clock for eating and
4
These English and German solders1
know each other by face and even
by name. And the astonishing thing
is that they don't hate each other.
You can't keep up that feeling Of
blind hatred between the trenches.
You know that Christmas truce was a
bad thing for the soldiers, from q
standpoint" THEM the major
said an astonishing thing.
IF you wanted to end this war, all
you'd have to do would be to let the
men have another truce or two like
that Christmas one. They'd get to
talking to each other and suddenly
they'd decide that the whole business
was-foolishness, and they'd lay down
their guns and go back home"