The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-06-16
DEADLY, BRUTAL
RAIDS ENL|VEN z
TRENCH WARFARE
Monotony q. 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. - In
today's modern machine warfare,
where every man was supposed to
have become a pawn without initiative
of his own, has been developing the
deadliest form Of sport Imagination
can conceive, where every cembatant
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 a trench raid. No subject is more
tabooed in its details by tts censor.
Commanders do not want b let the
enemy know why their raid succeed
or fail, or why the enemy succeed
or fail. Invention fights invntion; Sc.
crecy fights secrecy.
All the elements of boing, wres-
thing, fencing and mob tctics plus
the stealth of the Indian Mo crept up
on a camp on the plains, ali the team
work of professional b eball nine.
are found Of value.
The weapon least needle lis the rife.
A sandbag or an Indian attla-ax or
spiked club is better. A bod Augger
without any weapon at alltaayllake an
adversary's loaded rifle ANY from him
and knock him down ar then kick
him to death.
The monotony Of trerh existence
these days is broken by repairing for
raids and against them. ..ttaiion COM
manders work out schems Of strategy
which would have won lem fame in
smaller wars. Fifty m65or = thou
sand may be engaged in raid. It may
be on front Of fifty yds Of . thou
sand.
It's object is to take tmany prison.
ers and kill and wom a. many of
the enemy as you cam = few min
utes; and then to geback 70 your
own trench. If you tito hold on to
the piece of trench have taken,
tho guns are turne3 on you, the
bombers close up on thor side, and
machine guns and Ri are prepared
to sweep the zone of Femept
An uncanny curioet givee the SOL
d.ers their incentive the raids. Or
dinarily they never 8tnSu enemy
hidden in his burrov cfoe esNo MANS
Land from their ow froM1. unseen
bullets from unse 1nipsrs crack
overhead. Unseens y ESuddenly con-
centrate in a delui sheits..
Grim Monott fcoatlnuss.
For months tn. Iort NJ thing goes
on, and the trent S0f stno ADVERSE
ries remain alwa. n the same place;
grim monotony O A Asaasill anu
watching contin's.
This arouses ie 0esllI9 70 get AZ
the enemy WIFI tho trench raid sat
isles It NEAR that you are going to
spring over " parapet and rush
across M MAS Land into the very
houses of tho lemy, and man-to-man
on his doorste prove whether you are
a better man Ian he TIL.
To 90 ove the parapet ordinarily
means death In order to make any
IRISH tbare 1T be "interference," as
thew saw ,ntootball, and the barb
wire in fro| 81 tne onelny 'ienen
must ha cuj This II usually done by
the euns aich become more and
more dead,i ii their ability to turn
accurate 8, ys Of destruction on CIV
an noints hey cover the rush and
thew covo he return of the raiders
with thei rlsoners.
But tns 1ns are not all; there are
all kinda organized trickery in or.
der tn A. e y body of soldiers to get
into tho Aemyg trenches for few
m,nuteo actfyity, when the invaded
throw u. hselyes on their invaders at
such iii quarters that it is a ques-
tim - kIna revolver is now prac-
tical V bon.
You hnot throw it over traverse
and d can u bomb. Running into
ae4n around the corner of 9
tr,vsl q blow may be better than a
II rhaye been trench raids where
aya,] an$Who went out was respon-
th,d M y casualty or a prisoner,
viii u raiders own loss was not
ora 81 to the enemy's. There are
alsa urss. >,
cess requires that every detail
sbA work out right. The British
inAurated trench raiding, which the
q hans promptly adapted. Where
development will end no one dares
(ture to say. One advantage of any
ID 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
VI officer who had been doubled over
y 4 she'll fragment which hit him In
he abdomen. Instead Of flow of
Hood crimsoning his blouse, all that
ras visible through the rent In the
10th was an abrasion on a steel sur
ice. >s
"But for your new corset your aorta
you'd have been opened, and you
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
laAkES RESCuER HIS HEIR