American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1918-08-09
lover the Top"
By An American Soldier
Who Went
ARTHUR GUY EMPEY
Machine Gunner Seroing In France
(Oopyright, 1911. By Arthur Guy Hmpeyl
CHAPTER XVI.
Machine Gunner Seroins In France
All Quiet ~ on the Western Front.

W 49, 80 1t@
At brigade headquarters l happened
TO overhear a conversation between our
g. o. G. general officer commanding
and the divisional commander. From
this conversation I learned that we
were to lombard the German lines for
eight days, and on the first Of July the
'big push" was to commence.
In a few days orders were issued to
that effect, and 1t was common prop
erty all along the line.
On the afternoon of the eighth day of
our "strafeing," Atwell and 1 were sit
ting in the front-line trench smoking
Tags and making out our reports of the
previous nights tour of the trenches,
which we had to turn In to h%eadquar-
tiers the following day, when an order
was passed down the trench that Old
Pepper requested twenty volunteers to
go over on a trench raid that night to
try and get a few German prisoners for
information purposes. 1 Immediately
volunteered for this Job, and shook
hands with Atwell, and went to the
rear to give my name to the officers In
charge of the raiding party.
1 was accepted, worse luck.
At 9 40 that night we reported to the
brigade headquarters dugout to receive
instructions from Old Pepper.
After reaching this dugout we lined
up in a semiclrcle around him, and he
addressed us as follows:
"All I want you boys to do is to go
over to the German lines tonight, sur
prise them, secure a couple Of prison
ers, and return Immediately. Our ar
tillery has bombarded that section Of
the line for two days and personally I
believe that that part of the German
trench is u~noccupied, so just get a cou-
pie of prisoners and return as quickly
as possible"
The sergeant on my right, in an u
dertone, whispered to me:
"Say, Yank, how are we going to get
a couple of prisoners if the old fool
thinks personally that that part Of the
trench is unoccupied sounds kind OF
fshy, doesn't 1t mater"
l had a funny sinking sensation in
my stomach, and my tin hat felt as II
It weighed about a ton and my enthusi'
asm was melting away. Old Pepper
must have heard the sergeant speak
because he turned In his direction and
in a laundering voice asked:
"What did you say?"
The sergeant with a scarlet look or
his face and his knees trembling
smartly saluted and answered:
Nothing, sir"
Old Pepper said:
"Well, don't say 1t so loudly the mex
time"
Then Old Pepper continued:
"In this section of the German
trenches there are two or three ma
chine guns which our artillery, in tn
last two or three days, has been I'm
able to tape. These guns command tn
sector where two of our communica
ton trenches join the front line, an
as the brigade is to go over the top tc
morrow morning 1 want to capture tw
or three men from these guns crews
and from them I may be able to obtai
valuable information as to the exaC
location of the guns, and our artiller
will therefore be able to demolish theI
before the attack, and thus proven
our losing a lot of men while usin
these communication trenches to brin
up re-enforcements."
These were the instructions he gov
us:
Take off your Identification disk
strip your uniforms of all mineral
insignia, etc, leave your papers wit
your captains, because 1 don't want tn
Boches to know what regiments al
against them as this would be valuabl
information to them in our attack t
morrow and / don't wa2t any Of yC
to be taken alive. What 1 want is tv
prisoners and If 1 get them l have
way which will make them divull
all necessary information as to the
guns. You have your choice of tv
weapons-you may carry your pc
suaders' or your knuckle knives, ar
each man will arm himself with fol
Mills bombs, these to be used only
case of emergency"
A persuader is Tommy's hickman
for a club carried by the bombers.
is about two feet long, thin at one Ell
and very thick at the other. The thi'
end is studded with sharp steel spiks
while through the center Of the eli
there is a nine-inch lead bar, to gi'
1t weight and balance. When you 9
a prisoner all you have to do is Ju
stick this club up in front of him, al
believe me, the prisoners PATRIOTS
for Deutschland ueber Allies fad
away and he very willingly obeys t
orders Of is captor. If, however, t
prisoner gets heightened and refuses
follow you. simply persuade" him
first removing his tin hat. and then
well the usa of The lead weight In Z