Connecticut western news., 1918-07-04
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 @ AN AMERICAN SOLDIER WHO WENT a < AQIIlUl GUY YTfIpIzY
MACHINE GUNNER SERVING IN FRANCE-
l 0lH7 DY l l lRRTHuJS GUY El1Pfvl

in having it in my possession 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 1t very simple for Tommy to- find, even in, the dark, any point In. the German lines.
 tof These imitation trenches. or, trench E modeis,:Wereswell guarded from obser- 7: vattpn by numerous allied planes which constantly, circled above them. .- No German airplane eould approach within obseryston distanee. "A, ,re- stricted area was, maintained and DO civilian was xllowed within three miles, so ws felt sure that we had a great snrpeass in store for Fratz.
 When we took over the front line we received m awful shock. The Germans displayed fsignboards ever : the top of their trench Showing the |, names that | ws had called thesr / trenches aaThe. signs ,f read 'sFaar," -sFact." " ~Fate." and ''Tsncy.". and 70 on, accofding to the code names on | our map. Then; to. rub. ts in,. they l hoisted some more signs which read \ Come on. wa, gre ready, stupid Eng ' Asn1FAsts FFa < 5 Y. agA d. J
 His stlli mystery to me how they obtained this knowiedge.& There had been no raids or prisoners taken, 90 it must have bsen> the work of spies '@An@ ou~ own inca @- ,. N -. . "a These+oxt .foaK dayss bsesRs tnssbax push we tried to shstter rrttxs nsrves by feint attacks, and partially sucs i, ,ceededaas the offciai reports of Jply I showa, r. sE.,5 ', VI .gs.s .e 2 Although we were constantly bonn barding their lines day and night, still we fooled the Germans several times. This was accomplished by throwing an intense barrage into his lines then using smoke shells we would put E a curtain of white smoke across No Mans Land, completely obstructing his view of our trenches, and would raise our curtain of fire as If in an actual attack. All down our trenches the men would shout and cheer, and Fritz would turn loose with machine-gun, rife, and shrapnel fire, thinking we were com ing over.
 After three or four of these dummy attacks his nerves must have been near the breaking point.
 3 On: June, 24. 1916, at 9:4O in the morning our guns opened up, and hell was let loose. The din was terrific, a constant boom-boom-boom in your ear.
 At night the sky was a red glare. Our bombardment had lasted about two hours when Fritz started, reply ing. Although we were sending over ten shells to his one, our casualties were heavy. There was a constant stream of stretchers coming out of the communication trenches and burial parties were a common sight.
 In the dugouts the noise of the guns almost hurt. You had the same sensa- ton as when riding on the subway you enter the tube under the river going to Brooklyn-a sort of pressure on the ear drums, and the ground constantly trembling.
 The roads behind the trenches were very dangerous because Roche shrap- nel was constantly bursting over them. We avoided these dangerous spots by crossing through open fields.
 The destruction in the German lines was awful and I really felt sorry for them because realized how they must be clicking it. ''.'s ~
 From our front-line trench, every now and again, we could hear sharp whistle blasts in the German trenches. These blasts were the signals for stretcher bearers, and meant the wounding or killing of some German in the service of his fatherland.
 Atwell and had a tough time of it, patrolling the different trenches at night, but after awhile got used to 1t.
 My old outfit, the machine gun com pany, was stationed in huge elephant dugouts about four hundred yards be- hind the front-line, .trench-they were in reserve. Occasionally I would stop in their dugout/ and have a confab with my former mates. Although we tried to be jolly, still, there was lurking feeling of impending disaster. Each man was wondering, if, after the slogan, "Over the top with the best of ! luck" had been sounded, would he still be alive or would he be lying "some- where in France" In an old dilapidated house, the walls of which were scared with machinegun bullets, No. 3 sec f ton of the machine gun company had it's quarters. The company's cooks pre- 1 pared the meals in this billet. On the 1 fifth evening of the bombardment a l German eight-inch shell registered a : direct hit on the billet and wiped out ten men who were asleep in the SUD- ! posedly bomb-proof cellar. They were
 buripd inc next day and attended the