Sioux County pioneer. (Fort Yates, Sioux County, N.D.) 1914-1929, 1918-08-22
''OVER THE TOP''
By An American Arthur Guy Empey
Soldier WHOM Machine Gunner, Serving in France
1 - CntM By Arturo yEmpy

over the grip. This guard is studded
with steel projections. At night in q,
trench, which is only about three to
four feet wide, 1t makes very handy
weapon. One punch in the face gen.
orally skaters mans jaw and you
can get him with the knife as he goes
down.
Then we had what we called our
"come-alongs." These are strands Of
barbed wire about three feet long,
made into moose at one end; at the
other end. the barbs are cut Off and
Tommy slips his wrist through a loop
to get good grip on the wire. II 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 rocket
affair. They are fred from large
pistol about twenty inches long, which
is held over the sandbag parapet Of the
trench, and discharged into the air.
These star shells attain a height of
about sixty feet, and a range Of from
fifty to seventy-flve yards. When they
lift tho syro,nd thor, ovn1odo thrnvlnO
out strong calcium light which lights
up the ground in circle of radius of
between ten to fifteen yards. They
also have parachute star shell which,
after reaching a height Of about sixty
feet, explodes. A parachute unfolds
and slowly floats to the ground, light
ing up large circle in No Mans Land.
The official name of the star shell is
"Very-light." Very-lights are used
to prevent night surprise attacks on
the trenches. II a star shell falls in
front of you, or between you and the
German lines, you are safe from detec.
ton, as the enemy eapn2t see y2p
through the bright curtain Of light.
But II It falls behind you and, as Tom
my says, "you. get IN the Star shell
zone" then the fun begins; you have
to lie flat on your stomach and remain
absolutely motionless until the light Of
the shell dies out. This takes any
where from forty to seventy seconds.
II you haven't time to fall to the
ground you, must remain absolutely
still in whatever position you were In
when the light exploded; it is advis.
able not to breathe, 90 Fritz has az
eye like an eagle when he thinks you
afe knocking at his door. When star
shell Is burning in Tommy's rear he
can hold Els breath TOT q Week.
You blacken your face and hands so
that the light from the star shells yin
not reflect on your pafo face. In I
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 blackenins
your face and hands is that, after you
have entered the German trench at
night, "white. face" means Germans,
"black face English. Coming around
a traverse you see white. face in
front Of you. With prayer and wish
ing Fritz ''the best O. luck" you intro
duce him to your "persuader" OF
knuckle knife.
a little later We arriyssaa at the com.
mdnicdHon trench named Whisky
street, which led to the fire trench a1
the point we were to 60 over the tor
and out in front. 80
In our rear were four stretcher bear,
ers and a corporal Of the R. A. N. 6.
carrying pouch containing medicine,
and first-aid appliances. Kind Of .
gr!m reminder to US that our expedi.
ton vas not going tQ be exactly pic
mic. The order Of things was reversed,
In civilian life the doctors generally
come first,y 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 doctor.
trailing behind, minus the insurance
] ad1ustan- -. s!r zy'q g:
lTo BE coNT1NuED.I