Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1917-10-31
news NOTES FROM
CAMP DODGE
Interesting Information From the
Place Where Our Boys
Are Training.

Division Headquarters, Camp
Dodge, a., Oct. 29-"Remember men,
get your man or he'll get you-kill
him or he'll kill you. There is no draw
or quarter when you're face to face
with bayonets."
Lieut.. Richard Pugh, 351st United
States Infantry, was addressing a
squad of selectives of the Eighty
eighth hivision lined up for their first
lesson in the grim business of the
sworded rifle.
He spoke quietly, seriously. His
seriousness reflected in the faces of
the men of the new army. 1t was their
first insight into the kind of a game
they are going to play when they join
the poilus of the tri-color in the bitches
Of Flanders next spring. They had
read something about bay0net fight
ing. But they were no longer onlook-
ers as they stood there. Their eyes
showed they were visualizing them
selves across the big pond, advancing
with the dawn for the great adven-
ture. And the next time they read IN
war dispatches that "The French and
English, attacking in concert, carried
the first and second lines of the en-
emy's trenches over a front of thou
sand yards" they'll know more about
what it cost to make possible those
few words to the waiting world.
The school of the bayonet started, at
Camp Dodge this week. Lieutenant
Pugh is the chief instructor, fresh
from rigid training of weeks at a
bayonet school at Fort SILL The men
he began to teach this week will be the
instructors of tomorrow.
Within few days instruction in
grenading will start under the divis-
ions chief Grenadier, COL William
Mapes. At the same time, Capt. H. T..
Woltman will start the operation Of
his "gas chambers" to teach the old
iers to combat Germany's fendish
chlorine and mustard gases and to de-
stroy their fear of the stuff by SUBJ
jecting them to an actual gas attack.
Until now, the training of the soldiers
at Camp Dodge has indicated nothing
more than that their business is to be
parading and passing in review before
high officers and distinguished men.
Today they are learning what comes
at the end of the march.
The first lesson in bayonet fighting
is how to carry the gun. The soldiers
are taught that they will advance ION
guard" the point of their bayonets On
line with the Threats of their adver-
saries. Next will come the charge
against battery of dummy Germans,
gunny sacks filled with paper or wood
shavings or hard-packed leaves. There
will be placed in the sacks, pieces If
thin board, the "bones" of the dummy.
They're building two sets of trench
es, opposing trenches just as they
stand on a battlefield, at Camp Dodge.
Soldiers will soon be charging over
the top in sham bayonet fight yell
ing as they 60. There will be dunn
mics here and there in unexpected
places for them to bayonet.
It may seem bit foolish to charge
over trenches and stab paper filled
sacks. There's reason and vital
one.
Yelling is part of the game. It is
only permitted in bayonet charge.
The soldier is taught to be blood
thirsty. Yelling calls to mans alb
original instincts. That's what he
needs. And while he charges and
yells, his instructors will run at his
side, deliberately working himself in
to rage and urging the soldier. The
Instructor will be serious, deliberately
serious, that his spirit of hate and
blo0dthirstiness will enter the brain
of the soldier.
Its the system the French and Eng
lish bayonet instructors are following
in the training of Pershing's men be-
hind the battle lines today. It's the
system that makes soldiers of the al
lied cause equal to the barbarOus fight.
ers of the Kaiser.
The English -bayonet manual is be-
ing taught at Dodge. It's the develop
ment of the present war altogether.
The American manual taught the sold.
Ter how to retreat. The Briton code
does not know the word There is no
retreat now. It is drilled into the
brain of the soldier that it's either kill
or be killed. He mechanically follows
what has been pounded into him in
days of drill, to go always forward.
The "gas chambers" which will give
the Dodge soldiers their first taste Ct
the stuff will soon be ready for work.
This is the system that Captain Volt
man expects to follow.
The soldier will first be sent into
the chamber unmasked. Just a drop.
so to speak, of gas in various forms
will be liberated. One kind will af-
feet the eyes, another the throat and
lungs: 1t will be just enough to give
the soldier the sensation that he will
recognize it Immediately when it rides
on the wind from the lines of the en-
envy. Then he will be sent into the
chamber wearing gas mask and the
gas turned on full To all purposes,
he will be in the heart of a real gas
attack.
The purpose of this training is to
eliminate the fear of the soldier for
the gas. To realize he is set upon by
a deadly foe he cannot meet with his
guns or his physical strength, the SOL
der who has never been thus gassed
Immediately becomes terrified Even
tho he may have his gas mask, he
may delay too long in adjusting it be.
cause of his nervousness. Or he may
mt n1S r~k