Norwich bulletin., 1918-02-05
OVER THE ,,.E ARTHUR GUY ErEY I'!l x

morning. At two o'clock our artillery
 will open up with an intense bonn
 bartlment which will last until four.
 Upon the lifting of tho barraget the
 first. of the three waves will go over"
 Then he left. Some of the Tommies |
 first getting permission from the ser
 geant went into the machine gun !
 ners' dugout, and wrote letters. home, i
 saying that in the morning they were
 going over the top and also that if i
 the letters reached their destination
 it would mean, that the writer had
 been killed. E s These letters were turned over tol the captain with instructions to mail
 same in the event of the writer's be- ing killed Some of the men made out their wills in their pay book un- der the caption will and last testa- ment." s
 Then the nerve-racl1ing wait com menced. Every now and then I would i glance at the dial of my wrist watch ] and was surprised to. see how fast i the minutes passed by. About five minutes to two I got nervous waiting ] for our guns to open up. could not l take my eyes from my watch 1 | strained my muscles in a death grip
 upon my rife. As the hands on my 1 watch showed two o'clock a blind l ing red flare lighted up the sky in 1 our rear, then thunder, intermixed :; with sharp whistling sound in the air over our heads. The shells from our {; guns were speeding on their way to- ward the German lines. With one
 accord the men sprang up on the fire
 step and looked over the top. in the direction of the German trenches. A line of bursting shells lighted up No Mans Land. The din was terrific and 1 the ground trembled. Then, high | above OUT heads we could hear a signing moan. Our big boys behind the line had opened up and 9.2's and 15-inch shells commenced dropping i into the German lines. The flash of
 the guns behind the lines, the scream
 of the shells through the air and the
 flare of them, bursting was a spec ;. tacle that put Pains greatest dis ) play into the shade. The constant pup, pup of German machine guns ) and an occasional rattle of rifle firing l gave me the impression of huge audience applauding the work of our batteries.
 | Our eighteen -pounders were de- stroying the German barbed wire
 while the heavier stuff was demolish- ing their trenches and bashing in l dougouts or funk holes, } Then Fritz got busy.
 Their shells went screaming over t head, aimed in the direction of the 1, flares from our batteries Trench v mortars started dropping "Minnies' Q in our front, line. We clicked severa s casualties. Then they suddenly a ceased. Our artillery had taped ol d silenced them.
 ] During the. bombardment you could y almost, read a newspaper in oul t trench. Sometimes in the flare of { n shell-burst a mans body would h' r silhoutted against the parados O t the trench and it appeared like. { e huge monster. You could hardl. g hear yourself think. When an orde e was to be passed down the trench
 as a funnel into the ear of the maj
 sitting next to you on the fire step. Il
 about twenty minutes a generou rum issue was doled out. Afte .s drinking the rum which tasted lik Id varnish, and sent a shudder throug ,e.t your frame, you wondered why the Id made you wait until the lifting of tn n barrage before going over. At te ,e minutes to four word was passe \ I OOWn. Ten lO SO- Su I1l1l is utes to live! We were shiyering a ,- over. My legs felt as if they wer T. asleep. Then word passed down ,+ First wave get on and near tn .d scaling ladders"
 "a These were small wooden ladder
 which we had placed against tE - parapet to enable us to go over the to
 on the lifting of the barrage. Lad s ders of Death" we called them an vertically they were.
 It Before charge Tommy Is the DC ..-. litest of men. There is never ar y pushing or crowding to be first |
 these ladders. We crouched arour r. the base of the ladders waiting f' es the word to go oyer. was sick ar or faint and was puffing away at z '. unlighted flag. Then came the wor
 Three minutes to go;" upon the If 0o ing of the barrage and on the bla ed of the whistles "Over the Top wi the Best O Luck and Give The alt He'll" The famous phrase of u 'l- Western front. The Jonah phrase as the Western front. To Tommy
 means if you are lucky enough ns come back you will be minus an ar on or leg Tommy hates to be wish + declared, if it ever is, and you meet ns Tommy on the street, just wish hi h. the best of luck and duck the bri ny that follows.
 .. I glanced again at my wrist-watc lls We all wore them and you cot a. hardly call us "sissies' for doing ch It was a minute to four. could S to the hand move to the twelve, then
 dead silence. It hurt Every o on looked up to see what had happent ny but not for long. Sharp whistle bias stn rang out along the trench and wi
 a cheer the men scrambled up t oI ladders The bullets were cracki oI gun would rip and tear the top of my sand. bag parapet. How got up. tf Fl ladder I will never know. The fiji len. .T-a ,,.e.od +l,.,,.b +t,a 1o1as ir z : .,, :, barbed wire. I knew I was runni il but could feel rfo motion below " waist. Patches on the ground seem HIS to float to the rear as if I were or II, treadmill and scenery was rushi ene past me. The Germans. had put d fbarrage of shrapnel across No Ma ln Land, and you could hear the pie' ss,e slap the ground about you.
 eat After 1 had passed our barbed W and gotten into No Mans Land , Tommy about fifteen feet to my ri tet front turned around and looking 1av my direction put his hand to
 mouth and yelled something whicl na could not make out on account of
 of noise from the bursting shells. I'll
 he coughed stumbled. pitched nv ward and lay still. His body seen heIl to float to the rear of me. I co