The Benson signal., 1918-03-30


intosh, steel helmet, two blankets, tear
shell goggles, a balaclava helmet.
gloves and tin of antifrostbite grease
which is excellent for greasing the
boots. Add to this the weight of his
rations, and can you blame Tommy for
growing at twenty-kilO route march?
Having served as sergeant major in
the United States cavalry, I tried to
tell the English drill sergeants their
business, but it did not work. They
Immediately put me as batman in their
mess. Many greasy dish Of stew was
accidentally spilled over them.
would sooner fight than be waiter,
so when the order came through from
headquarters calling for a, draft of
unteered.
Then we went before the M. o.
(medical off1cer) for another physical
examination. This was very brief. He
asked our names and numbers and
said "Fit," and we went out to fight.
We were put into troop trains and
sent to Southampton, where we de-
trained, and had our trench rifles is
sued to us. Then in columns Of twos
we went up the gangplank of little
steamer lying alongside the dock.
At the head of the gangplank there
was an old sergeant, who directed that
we line ourselves along both rails Of
the ship. Then he ordered us to take
life belts from the racks overhead and
put them on. have crossed the ocean
several times and knew was not sea-
sick, but when I buckled on that life
belt I had a sensation of sickness.
After we got out into the stream all
could think of was that there were
million German submarines with tor
pedo on each, across the warhead of
which was inscribed my name and ad->
dress.
After five hours we came alongside
pier and disembarked. had at
tanned another one Of my ambitions.
was somewhere in France" We
slept in the open that night on the side
of the road. About six the next morn
ing we were ordered to entrain.
looked around for the passenger
coaches, but all could see on the sid
ing were cattle cars. We climbed into
these. On the side Of each car was
sign reading "Hopmes 40, Cheveaux
g." When we got inside Of the cars,
we thought that perhaps the sign
painter had reversed the order of
things. After 48 hours in these trucks
we detrained at Rouen. At this place
we went through an intensive training
for ten days.
The training consisted Of the rudi-
ments of trench warfare. Trenches
had been dug, with barbed wire en-
tanglements, bombing saps, dugouts,
observation posts and machine gun en-
placements. We were given smat-
tering Of trench cooking, sanitation,
bomb throwing, accommodating, listen
ing posts, constructing and repairing
barbed wire, carrying in" parties,
methods used in attack and defense,
wiring parties, mass formation, and
the. procedure for poison-gas attacks.
On the tenth day we again met our
friends "Hommes 40, Cheveaux g."
we arrived at the town Of F..
After unloading our rations and
equipment, we lined up on the road in
columns of fours waiting for the order
to march.
A dull rumbling could be heard. The
sun was shining. I turned to the man
on my left and asked, "What's the
noise, BillY He did not know, but his
face was of a pea-green color. Jim,
on my right, also did not know, but
suggested that I "awsk" the sergeant.
Coming towards us was an old griz-
zled sergeant, properly fed up with
the war, so "awsked'' him.
"Think it's going to rain sergeant"
He looked at me in contempt, and
grunted, "Ow's it a-goin' ter rain with
the bloomin' sun a-shinin'?" I looked
guilty.
"Them's the guns up the line, me
lad, and you'll get enough Of 'em be-
fore you gets back to Blighty."
My knees seemed to wilt, and I
squeaked out weak "Oh!"
Then we started our march up to the
line in ten-kilo treks. After the first
days march we arrived at our rest
billets. In France they call them rest
billets, because while in them Tommy
works seven days a week and on the
eighth day Of the week he is given
twenty-four hours ION his own"
Our billet was a spacious affair,
large barn on the left side Of the road,
which had one hundred entrances,
ninety-nine for shells, rats, wind and
rain, and the hundredth one for Tom