Williams news., 1918-09-06
CHAPTER xi.
Over the Top.

! Over the Top. r. On my second trip to the trenches sour officer was making his rounds of inspection, and we received the cheer full news that at four in the morning we were to go over the top and take the German front-line trench. My heart turned to lead. Then the officer car ried on with his instructions. To the best of my memory I recall them as follows: At eleven wiring party will go. out in front and cut lanes through our barbed wire for the passage of troops in the morning. At two o'clock our artillery will open up with an in tense bombardment which will last un- til four. Upon the lifting of the bar rage the first of the three waves will go over." Then he left. Some of the Tommies, first getting permission from the sergeant, went into the machine gunners' dugoD' and wrote letters home, saying that in the morning they
 were going over the top, and also that if the letters reached their destination it would mean that the writer had been killed.
 @ These letters were turned over to the captain with instructions to mail same in the event of the writer's being killed. Some of the men made out their wills in their pay books, under the caption, "Will and Last Testa ment"
 Then the nerve-racking wait com menced. Every now and then would glance at the dial of my wrist watct and was surprised to see how fast the minutes passed by. About five minutes to two I got nervous waiting for oul guns to open up. I could not take my eyes from my watch. I croucheG against the parapet and strained myl muscles in a deathlike grip upon my rife. As the hands on my watch showed two o'clock a blinding red flare lighted up the sky in our rear, then!E thunder, intermfxed with sharp, whfs- ting sound in the air over our heads The shells from our guns were speed. ing on their way toward 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 the ground trem. bled. Then, high above our heads we could hear a signing moan. Our big boys behind the line had opened ul and 9.2's and 15-inch shells commenced dropping 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 8 spectacle that put Pains greatest dis play into the, shade. The constant pup, pup, of German machine guns and an occasional rattle of rifle firing gave me the impression of a huge audience applauding the work of the batteries. |
 Our 18-pounders were destroying. the | German barbed wire, while the heavier | stuff was, demolishing their trenches and bashing in dugouts or funk holes.
 Then Fritz got busy.
 E Their shells went. screaming over head, aimed in the direction of the flares from our batteries. Trench mor- tars started dropping "Minnies" in our front line. We clicked several cas- ualties. Then they suddenly ceased r Our artillery had taped or silenced them.
 During the bombardment you could almost read newspaper in our trench Sometimes in the flare of shell-burst a mans body would be silhouetted against the Jparadoss of the trench and 1t appeared like huge monster. You could hardly hear yourself think. When an order was to be passed down the trench you had to yell it, using your hands as funnel into the ear of the man sitting next to you on the fire step. In about twenty minutes generous rum issue was doled out. After drink ing the rum, which tasted like varnish and sent a shudder through your frame, you wondered why they made you wait until the lifting of the bar rage before going over. At ten min utes to four word was passed down, ''Ten minutes to go!'' Ten minutes to HNel;ElWe were shiverfng all over. My, legs felt as if they were asleep.