The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1917-11-27
At Zero Hour

| vi dll lle SlOIleS IlIol nave SOlit
from the western battle front, none,
| perhaps, has given such a concise
and enlightening account of the
technical details of a wave" at
/ tack, which official and unofficial re-
| ports mention in every dispatch, as
the one published in the December
number of Popular Mechanics Maya
| zine under this head But it gives
much more than that. 1t is full Of
dramatic, not to say tragic human
! interest anecdote.
! The story was told to the anony-
nous writer by the sole survivor Of
one of the incidents related, and ev-
I cry word of it bears evidence of its
! truth Indeed it is so lifelike that
it might we'll be called a moving
picture in words. The very first par
agraph puts the reader right into the
/ trenches with the actors. To quote:
Il counted four of them, and all
! l could see at any one time was about
! 50 yards of trench. The truth of it
was that we all were near the border
! line of insanity from the suspense,
and these four were weaker links
that couldn't stand the stress. All
along the line 1t was just the same,
| LII SNSIN mail hhSN II W lS IOiiIIiI
| and yet did not know when. 1t stood
! for zero hour the moment our big
/ attack was to start"
After relating some queer instan-
ces OF mental alteration in the
| heat of battle, the story goes on:
Somehow or other an incident
like that brings home the hideous
reality of war stronger to me than
even the ear-breaking thunder Of
heavy shells, for it emphasizes the
| strain that we all are having to bear
One sees every detail, while in the
more active moments OF conflict the
mind is blessediy oblivious to most
everything but the footing and the
| aim.
And the worst of it is that these
weak ones that go under often take
ished himself and Carney, and
thought for two hours that 1 was
| gone, too. The three of us went oy-
| ing about three o'clock. to be exact
to determine whether or not the
| Germans had evacuated their first
| line trench.
| Wright, Carney, and l crept out
| tA~aNy SiOuuo NONSISo LhO w hOlC Shy
not even letting the glimmer of a
for for reco Sn the tp ad e coJ9afed
about 40 OF the 70 yards, and were
beginning to hear gutturals now and
then, when suddenly l smelled gar
| lic-not garlic cooking, but the
stencil that comes from the breath Of
a person who has been eating it.
Il touched Carney on the leg and
he signaled to Wight, who was just
beyond. That same instant we saw
the Hun, hulking shadow, creeping
toward us and very near. The three
of us put an end to his scouting duty
quickly and without much noise. We
just made sufficient, however, in
choking him. to arouse the trench
ahead of us. Stealthy sounds came
up of many men scrambling to the
edge.
We could have no further doubt
that the trench still was occupied,so
Carney and l started back without
more ado. We could not see Wight,
but thought, of course, that he was
at the side of Us. Just as we were
20 feet from home, however, we
heard a blood-curdling yell behind
us. Outlined roughly against the
lesser blackness of the sky came
Wight, running and waving his arms.
"A commotion arose in our
trench. AS Wight charged on, our
sentries, evidently mistaking him for
the van of German surprise attack,
opened fire and brought him down.
Carney and l both lost our heads for
a second and started up. That was
enough for Carney. He went down
h1,11 Lotto hrn lCDh
him. One shot cut through the skin
on my arm just above the elbow,
and it brought back sense to me. |
| dropped fiat.
For the next two hours l remain
ed without moving, afraid to attempt
to make the trench before the dawn
guard was posted. 1 tried to call
| the attention OF one of the earlier
sentries. but to no avail. | knew
! that the barrels of 80 rifles and two
machine guns were hanging over the
edge, pointed in my general direc-
ton, waiting for more Germans.
With the first streaks of dawn l
gathered all my courage and called
my captain by name, and then each
of the officers in turn. Then l crawl
| ed in, to be met by very suspicious
sentry, who had great difficulty in
| recognizing me.
| Three days later l found out that
| Wight had apparently gone daft up
| on overcoming the German we met
out on the waste. He had stopped
! to search the body, and then had
! donned the helmet of our adversary,
| and started a charge all by himself
and in the direction of our tren-
ches.
The twist of psychology is hard
| to understand, perhaps, but it is
! common. Once in a big university
| football match | saw the captain lose
his head in this manner, and forget
which goal his own team was de-
! Tending, but it always seems to Dor
i 4 L. To o