The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-06-15

means of communication for a week between Pc
king and the rest of the world.
But the tasks that confronted our signal men
In these wars were play compared to the WORK
that is being done every day on the western front.
Our signal men there have an area to cover about
the size of Pennsylvania and they have gone at IL
with a vigor and efficiency that spell volumes for
the superiority of Americans in this particular line
of work.
The hardy linemen who have strung lines and
repaired breaks on the Western plains or Dattled
with great floods and storms in the Rocky noun
tains have taken to this new work with a zest
which. is inspiring. On the foundation OF the
French system they are building a signal system
that will be a model of its kind.
Up to within four miles of the front construc-
ton is not different from what it is here at home.
The wires are strung on poles and most of the
poles have been planted by the French. But when
one gets inside the shell-torn section that stretches
at least four miles from the front wires have to
be protected by being buried from six to eight feet
deep, so that only a direct hit by q large shell will
disturb them.
Within half a mile of the front not even this
protection is sufficient, as the shells churn and re-
churn the ground. Therefore all wires in this zone
are duplicated and are strung along both sides of
the trenches. Sometimes q trench wall is covered
with wires.
In the battalion headquarters signal office, where
the hundreds of wires from the trenches and OBJ
Z DOSlo SChlS III hACle LIN CCSlNe
hum with the constant tremors of a world under
fire, plain Bill Smith lounges in a corner rolling a
cigarette and occupied in his own particular
thoughts. 1t is a dugout, this headquarters, and
the air is vile, but Bill got used to that long ago.
1.-THE wire to A battery is down." Smiths su-
perior officer says, turning to him.
"All right, SIR" Is the answer. And Bill climbs
out Of the dugout, repair kit over his arm and tin
hat on his head.
In the trench he finds the wire that is broken
and begins to follow it along. 1t is hot work in
the trench, shells are dropping thickly, but smith
doesn't mind-much. He follows the wire down
a communication trench and then after a long time
out into the open, where he has to crawl along
looking for the hole that will mark the place where
the line has been broken.
He gets nearly there when a shell lands near
him and Bill Smith, his face toward the break,
goes west. After a time, back in the dugout, an
other repairman Is sent out and perhaps he Is
luckier than Bill and finds the break.
Then he has to sit down in the shell crater, the
smash of bursting shells sc close that sometimes
he is half buried In dirt, calmly making the con-
nection that will enable the observation officer up
front to get in touch with his battery again. If he
gets back to the dugout he will be sent out again
and yet again If the bombardment is heavy, and
often for days and nights at a time these men are
under fire, snatching a nap now and then In the
dugout between breaks. But they keep the lines
open.
In an attack the signal men go over the ton with
the infantry, generally with the second wave, In
charge of the observing officer. They make for a
point where they can establish an observation
post, and as they pass on and through the enemy's
barrage they unroll their line and one of them car
ries a field telephone, through which they somehow
manage in the din of battle to make themselves
heard.
That telephone is like a battle flag, and many a
man goes down with 1t. only to have 1t picked up
and carried forward by another of these noncom-
Blatant troops. Their business is only to serve, not
to fight. and they do 1t with a cool daring which
is not surpassed in any branch of the service.
They are In the forefront of every advance and
in the retreat are sometimes the last to leave the