Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1918-02-05
Only Sixty Feet of
No Mans Land
Between
Lines
by Associated Press Staff
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! With the American Army in France
Feb Observation-Disclosures troops
in trenches on the French front at on.
place are only sixty feet from the Ger
man line. In another place mile oil
No Mans Land separates the opposing
forces. At this point, however there
are number of ponds and neither
side apparently desires to occupy the
water covered ground.
The American trenches are in more
CT less marshy ground, making the use
= of Duck boards" necessary at all
times except when the trench water
and mud are frozen. The trenches
were shallow when the Americans
moved in, but since then they have
been deepened and improved.
WATER BANIsHES RATS.
In every dugout the soldiers work al.
most constantly at the pumps, keeping
out the water which seeps in. But the
watery conditions are unfavorable for
trench rats and few of them are seen.
In some places the artillery is on
ground but little higher than the
trenches, although a number of our
batteries manage to keep dry feet"
most of the time. The enemy artillery
is in some places on higher ground
than the American and within sight OF
one of our positions there is German
observation post overlooking much ter
ritory. This has been shelled repeat
eddy and doubtless has been hit on sew
eral occasions. On clear nights the
hill upon which this post stands out
against the sky is illuminated occasion
ally by rockets sent up by one side or
the other so that the men in the line
may see the shadows which mean that
the enemy is near.
NIGHT SCENE INSPIRING.
The scene at night is thrilling and
inspiring. On the firing platforms the
men stand near their rifles Others
splash through the trench, sometimes
slipping from the duckboards into the
water above their knees. If the posi-
ton is near the enemy lines hardly a
word is spoken and when word is
necessary it is spoken in a whisper.
Far away to one side of the position
white stream shoots up to the sky
and breaks into white balls that throw
a light as if from powerful electric bat
teries. The reflection shows the entan-
clements and scrubby bushes on the
hills nearby, then the lights die out.
ROCKETS WAR OF PERILS.
All the while there is the intermit-
tent roar Of guns and whistle as of
express trains, as projectiles of differ
ent calibres go rushing over the Amer
lean trenches. The American soldiers
have become SO accustomed to such
sounds that now they apparently pay
no attention to them. Every now and
then the sound of shell explosion is
but most of the time the artil-
lery targets at night are too far back
from the trenches for the men to hear
the projectiles explode. Every man in
the line at all times has his eyes open
for two kinds of colored rockets. One
is green and the other is red The first
one means asphyxiating gas and the
other calls for barrage. And the
green light to the men in the line
more than anything else, for in
a gas attack they know that their lives
often depend upon the speed in which
the gas masks are adjusted after an
alarm is given.
SHIPPERS WORK CONTINUOUSLY
Internationally during the night there
comes from different parts Of the line
the single crack of a rifle as sniper
fires, or the rapid spit of a machine