The chronicle=news., 1915-01-02
war. SICRI| Re
Tells GRAPHIC
STORY OF
F|GHT|hG


London, Jan. 2.-The following ac-
count of life at the front Is fron Il
correspondent who volunteered for
service at the beginning of the war,
and has since been promoted to the
rank Of officer.
During the latter part Of Novem-
Der the army in the trenches was
well nigh porishing with cold since
early December 1t has been the VIC
tim of persistent rain and flood.
Night after night. whole companies
are flooded out OF their trenches,
while rearrangement Of the forces
has made II Impossible to give. the
mon their former weekly three days
OF rest in the villages behind tho
lines. All the advanced forces will
remain In their trenches now for is
days; then they hope to have brief
relief.
1T il difficult to give an ile1 Of,
what rain means in the trenches. The
lines under frosty conditions seem
sucl, an orderly. permanent and
town-like series of cubby-holes that
when they all start to melt away and
cave in under the influence of thaw
and rain. 1t Is as if>0ne were trying to
travel through pitch dark London
in ruins. Officers who were glorying
in line 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 here Is that the
Indian division and the Germans were
SO close to each other q day or two
ago that they used the aame arapet
for their trenches and took turns at
firing through their mutual loop
holes. That, of course, Is little ex-
aggerated. but serves to illustrate
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 200 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 a trench
even to sight rifle. Many OF the
sharpshooters are using periscopes
much like those Of the submarine,
and with these they can sight and
shoot accurately without coming
anywhere near the top Of the trench.
The opposing shsrpshooters Of course
in efforts to hit the tube OF the peri
scope aud frequently succeed.
Since the rains and floods came
the communication trenches have
largely o0zed away. Some of them
are like rivers: others are knee deep
with pasty mud of exactly the same
consistency as bakers dough. A
regiment which passed through one
such trench day or two ago left
three men behind and had to send a
relief party back TO dig them out.
Under such, circumstances, the
labor of bringing up ammunition
and rations from the rear is terrific,
and the men assigned to this labor
roach their destination in state OF
utter fatigue; nevertheless they have
to take their turn at sentry duty la
ter in the night.
The enemy Is very business like
and misses no chance to shoot any
man who exposes himself. Today. for
instance, an English soldier was up
in a willow tree cutting withes. A
shot passed him, and he sportively
signalIed "a miss: left A second shot
came and ne signalled "a miss; right.
The enemy protited by his advice. and
the third shot passed straight thru
his head. .. .t--s .- ~
There are the strictest orders
against men exposing themselves;
but some of the careless ones are sur
prisingly disregardful Of their safety.
Yesterday a private who was drag
ging sack of coal walked slowly
along the top of communicating
trench for a considerable distance in
full view of the enemy. merely be-
cause the bottom of the trench was
muddy and travelling down there i'll
safety would have been more labor
ious than on the firm soil above. A
hail of bullets missed him, but he
even stopped to light his pipe be-
hind nm 1S-ineh willow before he de-
ltverately climbed back down into
the trench with his load.
The whole army is very tired of
willow trees and poplars. 1t would
be a relief to know that we would
never have to see them again. Will
low stumps are particularly annoying
because in the dark they look exact
0ly like q crouching soldier, with per-
haps n stray limb resembling level
ed gun.
Il was out scouting two nights
ago, and went farther ahead than
had intended. had no rifle with
mo About 40 yards from the enc