Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-08-17

les in France.
rection of a bayonet thrust and con-
trolled by a button at the left hand
grasp of the rifle. Besides his rifle, all
of these men carried six or eight Mills
No. 3 hand %grenades, weighing from a
seven ounces each.
The Lineup.
They are the same shape as a turkey
egg and a little larger. Upon with
drawing the firing pin a lever sets a
four second fuse going. One of these
grenades will clean out anything hv-
ing in a ten foot trench section. 1t
will also kill the nan who is throwing
1t If he holds 1t more than four sec
onds after he has pulled the pin. The
third man of each ten was an expert
bomb thrower, equipped as lightly as
possible to give him freedom of ac-
ton. He carried a few bombs himself,
but the main supply was carried by
the fourth man, who was not to throw
any unless the third man became a
casualty, in which case No. 4 was to
take his place. The third man also
carried a knob kerrie, a heavy bludgeon
to be used In whacking an enemy over
the head. Ours were made by fasten-
ing heavy steel nuts on a stout stick
of wood, a very businesslike contri-
vance. The fourth man, or bomb car
rfer, besides having a large supply of
Mills grenades, had smoke bombs, to
be used in smoking the Germans out
Of dugouts and later, If necessary, In
covering our retreat, and also fumite
bombs. The latter are very dangerous
to handle. They contain a mixture of
petrol and PHOSPHORUS and weigh
three pounds each. On exploding they
release a liquid fine which will burn
through steel.
The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth
In line were called utility men. They
were to take the places Of any of the
first four VINO might become casual
ties. In addition they carried two
Stokes gun bombs each. These weigh
nine pounds apiece, have six second
fuses and can be used In wreck1ng
d1gouts-T The ninth apd +aath- men
were sappers, carrying slabs of gun
cotton and several hundred yards of
instantaneous fuse. This explosive is
used In demolishing machine gun en-
placements and mine saps- The sap
pers were to lay their charges while
we were at work in the trenches and
explode them as OOH as our party was
far enough out on the return journey
to be safe from this danger. In add
ton to these parties of ten there were
three of US who carried bombs and had
orders to keep ear the three officers,
to take the place of any n of them
that might go down and meanwhile to
use our " judgment about helping
the jolly old party along. l was as
signed one of the three.
In addition to the raiding party
proper there vas a relay call across
No Mans Land at ten PAGES interval
making a chain to show US our way
back, to assist the wounded and, In
case of opportunity or necessity, to re
enforce us. They were ordered not to
leave their positions when we began
to come back until the last man of our
party had been accounted for. The
final section of our encourage was com.
| posed of twelve stretcher bearers, who
had been specially trained with us, SO
that they would be familiar with the
trench section which we were to raid.
The Raid and It's Result.
There were two things which made
it possible for our raiding party to get
started across No Mans Land. One
was the momentary quickening of the
blood which follows a big and unac.
customed dose of rum, and the other