Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1917-10-22
PAGE TWO. ri
Al aRii II TRENCHES d.
SCR|BED BY SOLDIER
Sergt. Hoyt Holmes Writes Interest.
ingly to His Home Paper, the
Perry Chief.

Sergt. Hoyt Holmes of Perry, grand
son of Mrs. James Hoyt and relative
an interesting letter describing army
trench building and trench practice
which appears in this weeks Perry
Chief. Mr.. Holmes enlisted in a
medical corp at Omaha several months
ago and is stationed at Fort Riley
Kansas, where he is property SER
geant with regimental infirmary
connected with 21st cavalry. The
descriptive part of his letter follows:
You and the readers of your paper
have been hearing little about the
trenches in France. Recently tren-
ches have been dug here and have
been arranged exactly like the ones
abroad with one or two exceptions
and am going to do my best to de-
cribe them to you.
For the past three months men
who have been assigned to the pro-
visional companies at the medical
officers training camp, have been at
work on trenches" which are the
exact reproduction Of those being
used in France at the present time
with but few exceptions. The great
er part of this great feat of engineer
ing, for such it is, is now finished and
each day certain company or de-
tachment of soldiers is given the
opportunity to go through them and
see for themselves just exactly what
kind of a place they are to do their
fighting in when they reach the other
side. Thursday of last week it was
our privilege to 60 through and after
going through and having had every
thing explained to us we felt as
though there was some thing connect
ed with the war that we had given but
little thought. In other words we do
not often think of the seriousness of
the war when going about our daily
work.
The trenches which refer to cover
about 200 square feet of ground and
about 1000 lineal feet. The sides are
cut straight down, the ditch being five
feet deep in the communication trench
and fourteen feet deep in the part
which leads to the first aid station
which is thirty feet below this level
Stakes about twelve or fourteen feet
long are driven into the ground at the
sides Of the trench and -thenthe tops |.
are wired back to other stakes. Will
low bows are woven about these stalk
es forming solid wall on each side
which keeps the sides from caving
in. At the top and about eighteen
inches in the rear of and in front a
wall eight inches high is built Of
stakes and willows, the space between
It and the edge of the trenches being
used for a walk which soldiers on
guard may use. At no place does
the trench run over twenty-five feet
in one direction; on the contrary, the
whole thing is made in twenty-five|
foot angles. That prevents any fire
from being direct. A trench is al
ways entered from the flank or the
rear. Flanks are protected by ma
chine guns of great power and these
guns are also placed at the end of
each angle for the purpose of aiding
the litter bearers in carrying the
wounded. The turns are made cir
cular and for their protection all the
trench except the part known as the
protecting trench is covered. The
first aid station is a room twelve by
twelve. This does not give much
room to work in. but it is not intended
that much shall be done for the
wounded here. They receive only the
dressings here which can not be ap-
piled on the field. The protection for
this room is proof against everything
but high explosives and consists Of,
first: criss cross layers of logs, sec
ond, an eight foot layer of rock,
then comes layer Of willows and
then an eight foot layer of dirt which