Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1918-04-19

persuader Is demonstrated, and Tom
my looks for another prisoner,
The knuckle knife ls dagger affo'r,
the blade Of which Is about eight
inches long with heavy steel guard
over the grip, This guard Is studded
with steel projections, At night In Il
trench, which is only about three to
four feet wide, II makes a very handy
weapon, One punch In the face gem
orally skaters mans jaw and you
can get him with the knife as he goes
down,
Then we had what we called our
"come-aongs," These are strands OF
barbed wire about three feet long,
made into n moose At one end; at the
other end, the barbs are cut off and
Tommy slips his wrist through n loop
to get good grip on the wire. If the
prisoner wants to argue the point, why
Just place the large loop around his
neck and no matter II Tommy wishes
to return to his trenches at the walk
trot, or gallop, Fritz is perfectly agree
able TO 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 call star shells, sort Of rohSet
affair. They are fired from large
pistol about twenty inches long, which
is held over the sHndbag parNpet Of the
trench and discharged into the air
These star shells attain height Of
about sixty feet and n range Of from
fifty to seventy-fve yards, When they
hit the ground they explode, throwing
out n strong calcium light which lights
up the ground In circle Of radius Of
between Ten to fifteen yards, They
also have n parachute star shell which,
after reaching n height of about sixty
feet, eXplodes, A parachute unfolds
and slowly floats TO the ground, light
Ing up a large circle in No Mans Land.
The official name of the star shell Is
n "Very-light." Very-llghts are used
to prevent night surprise attacks on
the trenches If star shell falls In
front of you, or between you and the
German lines, you are safe from detec-
tiOn, rs 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 fat on your stomach and remain
absolutely motonless until the light of
the shell dies out. This takes any
where from forty to seventy seconds
If YOU haven't time to fall to the
ground you must remain absolutely
still in whatever position you were In
when the light exploded; II Is advis-
able not to breathe, as Fritz has an
eye like an eagle when he thinks you
are knocking at his door. When star
shell is burning in Tommy's rear he
can hold his breath for 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 face to be 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
traverse you see white face In
front of you. With prayer and wish
ing Fritz "the best O. luck" you intro
duee 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 to go over the top
and out In front.
In our rear were four stretcher bear
ers and corporal Of the r. A. M. 9.
carrying a pouch containing medicines
and first-aid appliances. Kind of n
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. M. G. men
did not seem to disturb the raiders, be-
cause many a joke made in an under
tone, was passed along the winding
column, as to 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 stretcher bearers, mo doubt,
hoping that, If they did have to carry
anyone to the rear, he would be small
and light. Perhaps they locked at me
when wishing, because 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 we would pass a lone
ly sentry, who in a whisper would