Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-01-02
SOLDIERS LIFE IN
TRENCHES TOLD BY
FIGHTING JOURNALIST

service at the beginning of the war,
and has since been promoted to the
rank of officer.
During the latter part of November
the army in the trenches was we'll
nigh perishing with cold: since early
F., December it has been the victim OF
persistent rain and flood. Night after
right. whole companies are flooded out
of the trenches. while a Encouragement
of the forces has made it impossible to
give the men their former weekly three
days of rest in the villages behind the
lines All the advanced forces will re-
main in their trenches now for eighteen
| days: then they hope to have a brief
relief
/ 1T is difficult to give an idea OF
/ what rain means in the trenches. The
| lines under frosty conditions seem such
an orderly. permanent. and town-like
series of cubby-hoie that when they
ali start 10 melt away and cave in
under ne influence of thaw and rain,
! it is as if one were trying to travel
thru a pitchdark London in ruins.
Officers who were glorying in fine new
dug outs equipped with all the trench
comforts, suddenly found themselves
buried in mass of collapsed earth OF
the consistency and quality of thick
paint.
THE latest gossip is that the Indian
division and the Germans were so close
TO each other day or two ago that
they used the same parapet for their
trenches and took turns at firing thru
their mutual loop holes. That OF course
/ is a little exaggerated, but serves TO IL
4 lustrate the manner in which the two
armies keep continually getting closer
and closer. Hand grenades and home
made bombs fashioned out of biscuit
tins can be used advantageously at
many points.
| generally. however. the front
trenches are about two hundred yards
apart in this section. That gives the
sharp shooters plenty of chance to get
in their fine work, and it is dangerous
to push ones head above trench even
20 sight rifle Many of the sharp
/ shooters are using periscopes mucn
like those of the submarine. and Wltn
these they can sight and shoot ac-
curately without coming anywhere
near the top of the trench. The OPP
posing sharpshooters of course delight
in efforts to hi; the tube OF the
periscope. and frequently succeed.
Since the rains and foods came. the
communication trenches have largely
oozed away. Some of them are ike
rivers: others are knee-Geep WIN
pasty mud OF exactly the same consist
ency as bakers dough. regiment
/ which passed thru one such trench a
day or two ago left three men behind
and had to send q relief party back TO
dig them OFT.
''U.!Ger such circumstances. the labor
OF bringing up ammunition and rations
fro.I. the rear IS terrific. and the nlen
assigned to this labor reach their des-
tination in a state of utter fatigue:
nevertheless they have to take their
turn al sentry duty later III the night
The enemy is very business like and
misses no chance to shoot any man
VINO exposes himself. Today. for in
stance an English soldier was up in
willow tree cutting withes. A shot
passed him, and he sportively sisnaiea
a miss left A second shot came. and
he siGnale, a miss, right The en-
envy profted by his advice and the
third shot passed straight thru his
head.
There are tho strictest ordNs
against men eXposirg themselves; but
| some or tie careless ones are surpr.S-
insiy disregarJtu, - their safety Yes
@ terday a private who was dragging
f sack OF coal. wall;a5 slowly along the
g top of a communi"a ting trench for {
. considerable distancn N full view 81
the enemy, merely because the bottom
+, of the trench was mudd;- and travelling
s down there in safety wouid have hca.
: more laborious than on the firm sol
Q above. A hail of bullets missed him
!. but he even stopped to light his PIPE
i behind an eighteen inch willow before
he deliberately climbed back down int
the trench with his load
The whole army is very tired OF will
low trees and poplars. 1t would be
d relief to know that we would neve
have to see them again. Willow stump
s are particularly annoying because il
n the dark the look exactly like a crouch
Y ing soldier. with perhaps a stray lim1
r resembling a leveled gun
: II was out scouting two nights age
s and went farther ahead than had in
: tended. l had no rifle with me. Abou
forty yards from the enemy's trench
suddenly saw what thought was
German crouching down with levelle
n gun. My heart stopped and hastil
: me, only to find it not loaded Then
looked again and found the Germa
was only willow stump.
On my way back, crawling caGti
u ously. for these turnips crackle mos
aiarmingly under foot-suddenly u
II went one of their star rockets, whic
!, make the neighborhood light as day fo
mile around. 1 dropped down. T
my horror, I discovered that my fac
= was close alongside German corps
: that had lain there since their last un
, successful infantry attack six week
:. ago. Another and another rocket wer
e up. and it was many minutes before
could get away from that grisly oh
9 ject. I brought back his helmet an
rifle as souvenirs.
There is a great supply of news
the trenches but much of it, regre
Is to say, is unreliable. Today, for in
T stance, we heard OF great naval vic
tory for the English. a great Galicia
\ victory for the Russians, and for TT
r. twentieth time, that the kaiser is sic