Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1917-12-05
NEWS NOTES FROM
CAMP DODGE
lnterestlng Information From the
Place Where Our Boys
Are Training.

DIVISION E1eadQuafCefS, u m p
Dodge, a., Dec. 3.-"Over the top
and given 'em Help That's the
English Tommy's battle-cry as he
leaps the parapet Of his trench and
"carries on" with bayonet at guard,
headed for the scrap in the dugouts
Of the Huns. -
Soon it will be heard at Camp
Dodge. English officers will shout it.
And it will be taken up and carried
along a line Of charging khaki-clad
soldiers as it swings across the
bloodless and bu]let-less No Mans
Land in the pastoral fields Of Polk
county, Iowa
There will be casualties, real cas-
ualties, but none serious: For they've
adopted system of bayonet prac-
tice for the soldiers Of the Eighty
eighth Division that is about the
nearest to the real thing that any
man desires, perhaps too near for
some. 1t is not idle jest to say there
will be casualties.
Beginning this week, sham bayonet
attacks will be staged in the trench
work of Camp Dodge. The first bat
tie will be fought between the cap
tains and majors Of the division on
one side and the ieutenants on the
other.
AS THE MEN COME OUT.
He who stands on the side lines
and watches the attack will see odd
things. The men who come out of
the trenches will be encased, head
and shoulders, in wire cage, cap
able of sustaining severe jab with
out being pierced. They will be arm
ed with what appear to be regula-
ton army rifles But on the end of
the bayonet will be seen a little dark
ball. With head and neck thus pro.
tected and thus armed, the majors
and captains will swing across the
terrain to meet the ieutenants as
they leap from their trenches to ere
pei invaders" They too will be sim
ilarly equipped.
Then there will ensue fierce fight
ing Officers will lunge at each other
jabbing hard in whole souled effort
to "kill'' the other. The killing will
be adjudged accomplished when the
vanquished man has been hurled tc
the ground by the thrust of his op.
ponent.
The rifles used in this new bayone1
practice are wooden. The balls or
the end are Of soft rubber, pneumat:
ic. Outside of that, everything is
real.
TWO RIBS FRACTURED.
Such drill is so real that Lieuten-
ant William T. Farley, the officer who
will teach it at Camp Dodge, came
back from the intensified. training
school at Fort Sill, Okla, with two
fractured ribs. A jab from a rub
ber- balled, wooden gun did it.
"Such casualties are numerous ir
this drill" declared Lieut.. Farley
"The officers are taught and the mer
will be taught as the officers are
graduated, to enter this practice
fighting with all the spirit and vim al
their command. Who wins is decided
by the men put out of action by
a bayonet thrust. It's NO child's
play, is this training. We expect
some fractured ribs and some bac
bruises But it's the training thai
counts. Its question of the mans
ability and not his weapon when its
hand to hand for life"
The English officers who came di-
rect from Haig's fighting line to in
tensify the training of the Ameri.
cans, will be on the sidelines direct.
ing the charge and. defense. Thei1
duty will be to get the ginger into il
that Tommy has been taught to pu,
| into II over there.
Watch for the casualty lists.
"GAS HUTS" READY.
Everything is in READINGS for ar
even more serious Irritation with
death for the Dodge boys. The "gas
hut" as the English officers call it
where officers and men will be taught
not to fear. poison gases, was com.
pleted this week.
Americans call it the "gas bung.
alow." Its a one room affair, about
20 by 80 feet, that looks like an ole
fashioned smoke house in many re-
spects. Medical officers will be the
first to be initiated in the deadly dan.
gers the Hun mustard" and chlor.
inc gases. They will enter the gas.
filled house with gas masks adjust.
| ~ IN g.