Connecticut western news. [volume] (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1970, 1918-08-08

can tell who you are by the neck DISK;
IL your head is blown off, they do not
care who you are.
In the reserve trenches you can
make yourself more comfortable, but
you cannot go 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; 1t
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 q
cootie on them. Some of them cry.
II they really knew what it was going
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 1t
Is In this way that couple of men get
to be trench partners and come to be
pals for life-which may not be long
time at that.
In the front-line trenches 1t is more
comfortable to fall asleep on the para
pet fire-step than in the dugouts, be-
cause the coolies are thicker down
below, and they simply will not give
you a minutes rest. They certainly
are active little pests. We used to
make back scratchers out Of certain
weapons that had flexible handles, but
never had time to use them when we
needed them most.
We were given bottles of a liquid
which smelled like 1ysol and were sup
posed to soak our clothes in 1T. It was
thought that the coolies would object
to the smell and quit work. Well,
cootie that could stand our clothes
without the dope on them would not
be bothered by a little thing like this
stuff. Also, our clothes got so sour
and horrible smelling that they hurt
our noses worse than the coolies. They
certainly were game little devils, and
came right back at us.
So most of the poilus threw the
dope at Fritz and fought the coolies
hand to hand.
There was plenty of food in the
trenches most Of the time, though once
in a while, during a heavy lombard
ment, the fatigue-usually a corporaPs
1x,l It'll 1a1 3ya he
munication trenches and we would not
have time to get out to the fatigue and
rescue the grub they were bringing.
Sometimes you could not find either
the fatigue or the grub when you got
to the point where they had been hit.
But, as say, we were well fed most
of the time, and got second and third
helpings until we had to open our
belts. But as the Limeys say: "Gaw
blimey, the chuck was rough" They
served a thick soup of meat and vege-
tables In bowls the size of wash ba-
sins, black coffee with or without
; sugar-mostly without land plenty
of bread.
! Also, we had preserves in tins, just
like the Limeys. If you send any par
cells over, do not put any apple and
| plum jam in them or the man who gets
1t will let Fritz shoot him. Ask any
Limey soldier and he will tell you the
same. I never thought there was so
much jam in the world. No Mans
Land looked like a city dump. Most
of US took it, after a while, just to
get the bread. Early in the war they
used the tins to make bombs of, but
that was before Mills came along with
his hand grenade. Later on they fiat
tened out the tins and lined the dug
outs with them.
Each man carried an emergency ra-
ton in his bag. This consisted of bully
! beef, biscuits, etc. This ration was
never used except in a real emergency,
because no one could tell when it
might mean the difference between
life and death to him. When daylight
catches a man in a shell hole or at a
listening post out in No Mans Land
he does not dare to crawl back to his
trench before nightfall, and then is the
time that his emergency ration comes
in handy. Also, the stores failed to
and we had to use the emergency
ratiOns.
Sometimes we received raw meat
and fried it in our dugouts. We built
regular clay ovens in the dugouts, with
iron tops for broiling. This, of course,
was in the front-line trenches only.
We worked two hours on the fire.
step and knocked off for four hours,
In which time we cooked and ate and
slept. This routine was kept up night
and day, seven days a week. Some
times the program was changed; for
instance, when there was to be an at
tack or when Fritz tried to come over
and visit, but otherwise nothing dis.
turbed our routine unless it was a gas
attack.
| Tho ambition nH Yoooc+ roe -