El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-03-14


NJ, Imperial Army.
Another line of mankillers that we
had TO move were -tofty apples.
This quaint little toy is a huge bomb.
pounds. with a long rod or pipe which
inserts into the mortar. Toffy ap-
pies are about the awkwardest thing
Imaginable TO carry.
This carrying stunt went on for
{ eight long days and nights. We
+ yoI ked on an average Of 16 hours a
Gay. It rained nearly all the time
/ ;Ni5 we never got dried out. The food
I was awful, as the advance had been
I so fast that 1t was almost impossible
/ to get up the supplies, and the men in
! the front trenches had the first pick
OF the grub.
I ter up TO the front The method OF
[ this was to use the five-gaIlon gaso-
lene cans. Sometimes they we're
Z washed OUT oftener they weren't
! Always the water tasted Of gas We
got the same thing, and several times
/ 1 got sick drinking the stuff.
When that eight days Of carrying
were over we were so fed Up that we
didn't care whether we clicked or
] not. Maybe II was good mental prep
aration for what was to come, for on
top Of it all It turned out that we
were to 90 over the top in another
big attack.
Holiness UnIueIy Days.
When we got the news got Dinky
out and seolded him. Maybe I'd bet
ter tell you all about Dinky before I
go any further. Soldiers are rather
prone to superstitions. Relieved OF
all responsibility and with most Of
their thinking done for them, they
revert surprisingly quickly to a state
Of more or less savage mentality
Perhaps il would be better to call
accumulate a lot of fool superstitions
and hang to them. The height Of
folly ana the superlatiye Invitation to
bad lick is lighting three Tags on one
match When that happens one Of
the three is sure to click 1t soon.
As one out Of any group of three
anywhere stands a fair chance OF get
ting his. fag or no fag, the thing is
7 reasonably sure to work out accord
I ing 10 the popular belief. Most
every man has his unluclzy day in the
trenches. One Of mine was Monday.
I The others were Tuesday, Wednes-
day Thursday, Friday, Saturday and
Practically every soldier carries
some kind Of mascot or charm. A
good many are erucifixes and religi-
Gus tokens. Some are coins. Sergt
Wells had a seasheu with three lit
tie black spots on it He considered
three his lucky number. Thirteen
Carries Black Cat For Luck.
Ny mascot was the aforesaid and
is a small black cat made Of velvet
He's entirely flat except his head,
which is becomingly round with yell
low glass eyes carried Dinky in
side my tunic always and felt safer.
He hangs at the head of my bed now.
and I feel better with him there.
realize perfectly that all this
sounds like tommyrot and that super
and ignorance. Never mind Welsie
sized the situation up one day when
thing
Maybe my shell agent dOin' ne no
good" says Wells. Maybe DinAy
agent dom you no good But q
agent doin' ye no arm So 'ang on
I figure that If there's anything in
war that agent dom ye no arm"
TO it,
It was Sunday, the sth day Of oc-
tober. that the order came to move
into what was called the 20. G. l."
That is the old German line You
will understand that this was the line !
the boches had occupied a few days |
before and out of which they had
been driven by the big push In front /
OF this trench was Eaucourt Abbaye. !
which had been razed with the aid Of /
the tanks.
We had watched this battle from |
the rear from the slight elevation of |
High Wood, and it had been a won
derful sight to see other men go out 1
over the top without having our 1
selves 10 think about They had 4
poured out. wave after wave, q large /
part Of them Scotch. swinging along 4
in perfect time. a smashing barrage /
going on ahead and the tanks lum- /
bering along with a kind OF clumsy
majesty. When they hit the obiec- 4
tive the tanks crawied in and made
short work OF It
The infantry had hard work Of It /
after the positions were taken. as
there were numerous underground /
caverns and passages which had to 4
be mopped out This was done by 4
dropping smoke bombs in the en-
frances and smoking the boche out
like bees