The Arizona copper camp., 1918-07-27
battle of the Somme or 'Bii

The never-ending stream OF men,
supplies, ammunition and guns pour
ing into the front lines made a mighty
spectacle, one that cannot be de-
scribed. It has to be witnessed with
your own eyes to appreciate its vast
ness.
At our part of the line the influx of
supplies never ended. 1t looked like
huge snake slowly crawling forward,
never hitch or break, wonderful
tribute to the system and efficiency Of
Great Britain's "contemptible little
army of five millions of men.
Huge fifteen-inch guns snaked along,
foot by foot, by powerful steam tract
tors. Then long line of ''four point
five" batteries, each gun drawn by six
horses, then a couple of mine point
two" howitzers pulled by immense
caterpillar engines.
When one of these caterpillars would
pass me with it's mighty monster in
tow, flush of pride would mount to
my face, because could plainly read
on the name plate, made in q. S. A"
and would remember that if wore a
name plate it would also read, ''From
the IT. S. A." Then 1 would stop to
think how thin and straggly that
mighty stream would be if all the
'Made in u. S. A." parts of 1t were
withdrawn.
Then would come hundreds of linn
bers and &c. S." wagons drawn by
sleek, well-fed mules, ridden by sleek,
well-fed men, ever smiling, although
grimy with sweat and covered with the
fine, white dust Of the marvelousIy
well-made French roads.
What a discouraging report the Ger
man airmen must have taken back to
their division commanders, and this
stream is slowly but surely getting big
ger and bigger every day, and the pace
is always the same. No slower, no
faster, but ever onward, ever forward.
Three weeks before the big push of
July las the battle of the Somme has
been called-started, exact duplicates
Of the German trenches were dug
about thirty kilos behind our lines.
The layout of the trenches was taken
from airplane photographs submitted
by the Royal flying corps. The trench
es were correct to the foot; they
showed dugouts, saps, barbed wire de-
fenses and danger spots.
Battalions that were ito go over in
the first waves were sent back for
three days to study these trenches, en-
gage in practice attacks and have night
maneuvers. Each man was required to
make map of the trenches and ia
miliarize himself with the names and
location of the parts his battalion was
to attack.
In the American army noncommis
stoned officers are put through course
OF map making or road sketching, and
during my six years service in the
United States cavalry / had plenty Of
practice in this work, therefore map
ping these trenches was a compara-
lively easy task for me. Each man
had to submit his map to the company
commander to be passed upon, and i
was lucky enough to have mine select
ed as being sufficiently authentic to use
In the attack.
No photographs or maps are allowed
to leave France, but in this case it ap-
pealed to me as valuable souvenir OF
the great war and / managed to SNUG
gle it through. At this time it carries
no military Importance as the British
lines, ] am happy to say, have since
been advanced beyond this point, 40
IL having it in my possession l am not
breaking any regulation or cautions
of the British army.
The whole attack was rehearsed
and rehearsed until we heartily cursed
the one who had conceived the idea.
The trenches were named according
to a system which made it very simple
for Tommy to find, even in the dark,
any point in the German lines.
These imitation trenches, or trench
models, were well guarded from obser-
walton by numerous allied planes
which constaatly circled above them.
No German airplane could approach
within observation distance. A re-
stricted area was maintained and no
GlVlllan was dllOWeu WllIllu LurSS
miles, so we felt sure that we had a
great surprise in store for Fritz.
When we took over the front line
we received an awful shock. The
Germans displayed signboards over
the top of their trench showing tho
names that we had called their
trenches. The signs read "Fair."
"Fact," "Fate," and "Fancy," and SO
on, according to the code names OF
our map. Then to rub it in, they
hoisted some more signs which read
"Come on, we are ready, stupid Eng.
liSh.''
1t is still mystery to me how they
obtained this knowledge. There had
been no raids or prisoners taken, SC
it must have been the work of spies
in our own lines.
Three or four days before the big
push we tried to shatter Fritz's nerves
by feint attacks, and partially sue
ceeded as the official reports of July
1 show.