Williams news., 1918-09-06
Then word was passed down :.-"Fgfa wave get on and near the scaling lad


 ders."
 These were small wooden ladders which we had placed against the para pet to enable us to go over the top on the lifting of the barrage. Ladders of death" we called them, and vertically they were. ---
 Before a charge Tommy is the DO Htest of men. There Is never any push ing or crowding to be first up these ladders. We crouched around the base of the ladders waiting for the word to go over. I was sick and faint, and was pulling away at an unlighted flag Then came the word, Three minutes to go; upon the lifting of the barrage and on the blast of the whistles, Over the top with the best O luck and give . them hell.'" The famous phrase o1 the western front. The Jonah phrase of the western front. To Tommy it means if you are lucky enough to come back you will be minus an arm or a leg. Tommy hates to be wished the best of luck i; so, when peace. is de clared, if 1t ever Is, and you meet a Tommy on the street, just wish him the best of luck and duck the brick that follows.
 glanced again at my wrist watch We all wore them and you could hardly call us "sissies" for doing so. It was a minute to four. Il could see the hand move to the twelve, then dead si. lence. It hurt. Everyone looked uI to see what had happened, but not for long. Sharp whistle blasts rang out along the trench, and with a cheer the men scrambled up the ladders. The bullets were cracking overhead, and occasionally a machine gun, would riI and tear the top of the sandbag para pet. How I got up that ladder will never know. The first ten feet out in front was agony. Then we passed through lanes in our barbed wire. knew I was running, but could feel no motion below the waist. Patches on the ground seemed to float to the rear as if I were on a treadmill and seen cry was rushing paSts me. The Ger mans had put a barrage of shrapnel across No Mans Land, and you could hear the pieces slap the ground about you. sil After had passed our barbed wire and gotten into No Mans Land a Tommy about fifteen feet to my right front turned around and looking in my direction, put his hand to his mouth and yelled something which could not make out on account of the noise from the bursting shells. Then he coughed, stumbled, pitched forward and lay still. Hts body seemed to float to the rear of me. could hear sharp cracks in the air about me These were caused by passing rifle bullets. Frequently, to my right and left, little spurts of dirt would rise into the air and rico chet bullet would whine on it's way. If a Tommy should see one of these little spurts in front of him, he would tell the nurse about it later. The crossing of No Mans Land remains blank to me.
 Men on my right and left would stumble and fall. Some would try to get up, while others remained huddled and motionless. Then smashed-up barbed wire came into view and seemed carried on a tide to the rear. Suddenly, in front of me loomed a bashed-in trench about four feet wide, Queer-looking forms like mud turtles were s-. ainbling up it's wall. One of these forms seemed to slip and then rolled to the bottom of the trench. l leaped across this intervening space The man to my left seemed to pause in midair, then pitched head down into the German trench. I laughed out loud in my delirium. Upon alighting on the other side of the trench came to with a sudden jolt. Right in front of me loomed a giant form with rifle which looked about ten feet long, on the end of which seemed seven bayonets. These flashed in the air in front of me. Then through my mind flashed the admoni- ton of our bayonet instructor back in Blighty. He had said, "whenever you get in a charge and run your bayonet up to the hilt intosa German the Fritz will fall. Perhaps your rifle will be wrenched from your grasp. Do not waste time, if the bayonet is fouled in his equipment, by putting your foot on his stomach and tuggfAg at the rifle to extricate the bayonet. Simply press the trigger and the bullet will free t.".scIn my present situation this was the logic, but for the life of me I could not remember how he had told me to get my bayonet into the Ger man. To me this was the paramount issue. closed my eyes and lunged forward. My rifle was torn from my must have gotten the Ger man because lee had disappeared. | About twenty feet to my left front was a huge Prussian nearly six feet four inches in height, fine specimen of physical manhood. The bayonet | from his rife, was missing, but, he the barrel in both hands and was swinging the butt around his head. I could almost hear the swish of the butt passing through the air. Three |