Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1918-08-21

fellas." We counted fourteen prison.
ers IN the bunch. Pat sure thought he
was rolling in wealth.
After we were rested up we were
issued rifles, Shrapnel helmets and
belts, and then started down the COM
municatiOn trench. These trenches
are entrances to the fighting trenches
and run at varying angles and vary
ing distances apart. They are sell
dom wide enough to hold more than
one man, so you have to march single
file in them. They wind in and out,
according to the lay Of the land, some
parts Of them being more dangerous
than others. When you come to a
dangerous spot you have to crawl
sometimes.
There are SO many cross trenches
and blind alleys that you have to have
a guide for long time, because with
out one you are apt to walk through
an embrasure in a fire trench and
right out into the open. between the
German front line and your own.
Which Is hardly worth while!
If any part Of the line is under fire,
the guide at the head Of the line is on
the lookout for shells, and when he
hears one coming he gives the signal
and you drop to the ground and wait
until 1T bursts. You never get all the
time you want, but at that you have
plenty Of time to think about things
while you are lying there with your
face in the mud, waiting to hear the
sound of the explosion. When you
hear it, you know you have got at least
one more to dodge. If you do not hear
it-well, most likely you are worrying
more about tuning your thousand
string harp than anything else.
In the communication trench you
have to keep your distance from the
man ahead Of you. This is done so
that you will have plenty of room to
fall down in, and because If shell
should find the trench, there would be
fewer casualties in an open formation
than in closed. The German artil-
lery is keen on communication
trenches, and whenever they spot one
they stay with 1t long time. Most
Of them are camouf1aged along the top
and sides, so that enemy aviators can
not see anything but the earth or
bushes, when they throw an eye dewn
on our lines.
We took over our section Of the
front line trenches from a French line
regiment that had been on the job for
"a days. That was the longest time
I have heard Of any troops remaining
on the firing line.
Conditions at the front and ways Of
fighting are changing all the time, as
each side invents new methods of
butchering, 50 when try to describe
the Dixmude trenches, you must real
lie that it is probably Just history by
now. If they are still using trenches
there they probably look entirely diff
ferent.
But when I was at Dixmude they
were something like this:
Behind the series of front-line
trenches are the reserve trenches; in
this case five to seven miles away, and
still farther back are the billets. These
may be houses or barns or ruined
churches place that can possibly
be used for quartering troops when
off duty.
Troops were usually In the 'front.'
line trenches six to eight days, and
fourteen to sixteen days in the reserve
trenches. Then back to the billets for
six or eight days.
We were not allowed to change our
clothing In the front-line trenches
not even to remove socks, unless for
inspection. Nor would they let you
as much as unbutton your shirt, unless
there was an inspection of identifica-
ton disks. We wore disk at the
wrist and another around the neck.
You know the gag about the disks, Of
course: If your arm is blown off they
can tell who you are by the neck disk {;
If your head Is blown of, they do not
care who you are.
In the reserve trenches you can
make yourself more comfortable, but
you cannot 60 to such extreme lengths
of luxury as changing your clothes en-
tirely. That is for billets, where you
spend most Of your time bathing,
changing clothes, sleeping and eating.
Believe me, a billet is great stuff; it
is like sort of temporary heaven.
OF course you know what the word
"cooties" means. Let US hope you
will never know what the coolies
themselves mean. When you get in
or near the trenches, you take course
in the natural history of bugs, lice
rats and every kind of pest that has
ever been invented.
It is funny to see some of the new.
corners when they first discover 9
cootie on them. Some of them cry
If they really knew what it was goine
to be like they would do worse than
that, maybe.
Then they start hunting all over each
other, just like monkeys. They team
up for this purpose, and many times II
is In this way that a couple of men gel
to be trench partners and come to be
pals for life-which may not be a lone
time at that.
In the front-line trenches it Is more
comfortable to fall asleep on the para
pet f1re-step than In the dugouts, be
cause the coolies are thicker dow1
below, and they simply will not Civ,
you a minutes rest. They certainl!
are active little pests. We used t,
make back scratchers out Of certain
weapons that had flexible handles, bu
never had time to use them when W,
needed them most.
We were given bottles of a lQui,