Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1918-05-23

| lAC uiuuc VI Which, ~ 0UUuI olBuI
inches long with heavy steel guard
over the grip. This guard is studded
with steel projections. At night in a
trench, which is only about three to
four feet wide,,it makes very handy
weapon. One punch in the face gen
orally Skaters a. mans Jaw and you
can get him wlthtthe knife as he goes
down.
Then we had what we called our
"come-alongs." These are strands Of
barbed wirej about three feet long,
made into afnoose at one end; at the
pther end, the barbs are cut OF and
Tommy slips his wrist through loop
TO get gcodtgrip on the wire. II the
prisoner waptsto argue the point, why
just place. the large loop around his
neck aud Hho matter II Tommy wishes
to retum!,t Ito his trenches at the walk,
trot or ga4lop. Fritz Is perfectly agree
able TOT maintain Tommy's rate Of
| speed.
We were ordered to black our faces
and hands. For this reason: At night.
the English and Germans use what
they cab star shells, sort of rocket
affair. They are fred from q large
pistol about twenty inches long, which
Is heldaovertthe sandbag parapet Of the
trench, and discharged into the air.
These star shells attain height Of
about sixty feet, and range Of from
fifty to seventy-five yards. When they
hit the gpnnd they explode. throwing
out a strong calcium light which lights
up the ground TN a circle of radius of
between ten to- fifteen yards. They
also have parachute star shellswhich,
after reaching a height of about sixty
feet, explodes. A parachute unfolds
and slowly floats to the ground, light
ing up large,ctrde in No Mans Land.
The official name of the star shell is
"Very-light." Very-lights are used
to prevent night surprise attacks on
the trenches. If a star shell falls in
front Of you, or between you and the
German lines, you are safe from detec.
ton. as the enemy cannot see you
through the bright curtain of light.
But if it falls behind you and. as Tom
my says, "you get in the star shell
zone," then the fun begins; you have
to lie Hat on yt0Mr stomach and remain
absolutely mosDnless until the light Of
the shell dies out. This takes any,
where from foEty to seventy seconds.
If you havenE time to fall to the
ground you must remain absolutely
still in whatever position you were In
when the light 9 EXPLODED: 1t is advis-
able not to breathe, as Fritz has an
eye like an eagle when he, thinks you
are knocking athis door. When star
shell is burning In Tommy's rear he
can hold his breath for a week.
You blacken your face and hands SO
that the light from the star shells will
not reflect on your pale face. In a
trench raid there is quite sufficient
reason for your facetoAbe pale. If you
don't believe me, try it just once.
Then another reason for blackening
your face and hands is that, after you
have entered the German trench at
night, white face" means Germans,
''black face" English. Coming around
a traverse you see a white face in
front Of you. With prayer and wish.
ing Fritz "the sbest o. luck" you intro
duce him to your 'persuader" or
knuckle knife.
A little later-we arrived at the COM
munication trench named Whisky
street, which led to,the fire trench at
the point we were toN 60 over the top
and out In front.
In ourrear were, -four bear
ers and a corporal Of the R. A. M. G.
carrying a pouch containing medicines
and frst7aid appliances. Kind of a
grim reminder to US that our expedi-
ton was not going to be exactly a pic.
mic The order Of things was reversed.
In civilian life the doctors generally
come first, with the undertakers tag.
ging in the rear and then the insur-
ance man, but in our case, the under
takers were leading, with the doctors
trailing behind, minus the insurance
adjuster.
The presence Of the r. A. NJ. C. men
did not seem to disturb the raiders, be-
cause many az joke made in an under
tone, was passed along the winding
column, as tn who would be first to
take ride on one Of the stretchers.
This was, generally followed by a wish
that, If you, were to- be the one, the
wound would be a "cushy Blighty
one"
The streteher bearers, no doubt,
hoping that, If they did have to carry
anyone to the rear, he would be small
and light. Perhaps they looked at me
when wishing, hecause,I could feel an
uncomfortable. boring sensation be-
tween my SHOULDER blades. They got
their wish all right.
Going up this trench, about every
sixty yards or SO, wewould pass lone
~ sentry, who in a whisper would
wish us "the best o. luck. mates" We
would blind ,atefhm UNDER our breaths :
that Jonah aph1ase to uss sounded very
ominous.
WithoutsanY casualties the minstrel
troop arrived at Suicide ditch, the
front-hne. trench. Previously wiring
party Of the Royal Engineers had cut
lane through our barbed wire to en-
able us to geta1t into No Mans Land.
Crawling through this lane. our
party of twenty took up an extended
order formation. about one yard apart.
We had tap code arranged for our
movements while In No Mans Land,
hnn