The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-06-16
DEADLY, BRUTAL
RAIDS ENL|vEN
TRENCH WARFARE
&aRotony Of Existence Broken by
Preparing for Assaults or
Against Them.
RIFLE IS OF LITTLE use
Sandbag or an indian BattIe-ax or
Spiked Club the Better Weapon
Inventions Fight Shippers and
Trlckery - Many Saved
by Steel Corsets.
BY FREDERICK PALMER,

BY FREDERICK PALMER.
British Headquarters, France. II In
today's modern machine warfare,
where every man was supposed to
have become pawn without initiative
OF his own. has been developing the
deadliest form of sport Imagination
can conceive, where every cdmbatant
places his cunning, his strength and
his skill in -hand-to-hand fighting
against those of his adversary.
Hardly day passes that there is
not trench raid. No subject is more
tabooed in its details by the censor.
Commanders do not want to let the
enemy know why their raidt succeed
or fail, or why the enemy's succeed
or fail. Invention fights invention; Sc.
crecy fights secrecy
All the elements of boiling, wres-
thing, fencing and mob t,ctics plus
the stealth of the Indian VI 10 crept up
on a camp on the plains, al II the team
work of professional b eball nine,
are found of value. IL
The weapon least needle ts the rife.
A sandbag or an Indian. ,attle-ax or
spiked club is better. A lod slugger
without any weapon at all Shay take an
adversary's loaded rifle av1ay from him
and knock him down ar ! then kick
him to death.
The monotony Of trer Eh existence
these days is broken by Preparing for
raids and against them. ;httalion COM
manders work out schem1s of strategy
which would have won hem fame in
smaller wars. Fifty mGh or q thou
sand may be engaged in s9raid. 1t may
be on front of fifty yBhs or q thou
sand. H
Its object is to take q many prison
ers and kill and wowl as many of
the enemy as you can-in few min.
utes; and then to ge,nlback to your
own trench. If you tltl to hold on to
the piece Of trench fol have taken,
tho guns are turne on you, the
bombers close up on N, her side, and
machine guns and riT are prepared
to sweep the zone of rement.
An uncanny curios gives the sol.
diers their Incentive /. ~ the raids. Or
dinarily they neverN 3 their enemy
hidden In his burrows & 1cross No Mans
Land from their own burrows. Unseen
bullets from unseen Shippers crack
overhead. Unseen gums suddenly con-
centrate in deluxe OF shells.
Grim Monotony} Continues. q
For months tn, Iort Of thing goes
on, and the trepYheb of the adverse
ries remain alwa Is In the same place;
grim monotony. T! OF casualties and
watching CONTINUES.
This arouses The desire to get at"
the enemy viii yl the trench raid sat-
isles. 1t near that you are going to
spring over yHl hr parapet and rush
across No MaDoI !, Land into the very
houses of the. hemy, and man-to-man
on his doorste %Hprove whether you are
better man Nhan he is.
To go owe the parapet ordinarily
means death fin order to make any
rush there NJ 1t be interference" as
they say inDeootball, and the barb
wire in fro, I of the enemy's trench
must be cutg sThis is usually done by
the guns, / slich become more and
more deadx in their ability to turn
accurate sDn sys Of destruction on CIV
en- points. HeShey cover the rush and
they coveAtthe return of the raiders
with theil Ianrisoners.
But tneE G1ns are not all; there are
all kindsK * organized trickery in or
der to Ell Ne body of soldiers to get
into thes rlemy's trenches for few
minutes 4 activity, when the invaded
throw tsj sdselves on their invaders at
such clN Ia quarters that 1t is ques-
ton If " 8an a revolver is now prac-
teal vi bon.
You I Anot throw it over traverse
and vi EN- can q bomb. Running into
q Get In around the corner OF 9
travel 8 blow may be better than a
shot.
Thf have been trench raids where
everI nan who went out was respon-
s1blft pr q casualty or prisoner,
VIII The raiders own loss was not
one ten to the enemy's. There are
also #ailures.
scess requires that every detail
'hA $sd work out right. The British
d 4,urated trench raiding, which the
! mans promptly adapted. Where
III development will end no one dares
,.ture to say. One advantage of any
I'D is that those who return are
,und to bring back some information
value to the intelligence corps.
Steel corsets Save Lives.
"Score one for breastplates," said
IN officer who had been doubled over
BY she'll fragment which hit him In
the abdomen. Instead of a flow Of
blood crimsoning his blouse, all that
was visible through the rent in the
cloth was an abrasion on steel sur
face. ~" -
but for your new corset your aorta
would have been opened, and you
MAKES RESCUER HIS HEIR
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