The Benson signal., 1918-08-31

over the grip. This guard is studdet
with steel projections. At night in 4
trench. which is only about three to
foGr feet wide, it makes very handy
weapon. One punch in the face gen
eraHy skaters mans jaw and you
can get him with the knife us he goes
down.
Then we had what we called Oul
'come-alongS." These are strands OF
barbed wire about three feet long.
made into moose at one end; at the
other end. the barbs arc cut off and
Tommy slips his wrist through lOOI
TO get good grip on the wire. If the
prisoner wants to argue the point, why
just place the large loop around his
neck and no matter if Tommy wishes
TO return TO his trenches at the walk,
trot, or gallon, Fritz is perfectly agree
able to maintain Tommy's rate OF
speed
We were ordered to black our faces
and hands. For this reason; At night,
the English and Germans use what
they call star shells, Il sort of rocket
affair. They are fired from a large
pistol about twenty inches long, which
is hetd over the sandbag parapet Of the
These star shells attain height OF
about sixty feet. and a range Of from
fifty to seventy-fve yards. When they
hit the ground they-explode, throwing
out strong calcium light which lights
up the ground in circle Of Il radius of
between ten to fifteen yards. They
also have a parachute star she'll which,
after reaching a height of about sixty
feet. explOdes. A parachute unfOlds
and slowly floats to the ground, light.
ing up a large circle in No Mans Land
The official name. of. the star shell is
II ''Very-iight." Very-lights are used
to prevent night surprise attacks on
the trenches. If star shell falls in
front of You, or between you and the
German lines, you are safe from detec'
ton, rs the enemy cannot see you
through the bright curtain of light.
But if 1t falls behind you and, as Tom
my says, "yOu get in the star shell
zone" then the fun begins; you have
to lie fiat on your stomach and remain
absolutely mOtlOnless until the light Of
the shell! dies out. This takes any.
where from forty to seventy seconds
If you haven't time to fall to The
ground you must remain absolutely
still in whatever position you were in
when the light exploded; 1t is advis'
able not to breathe, as Fritz has an
eye like an eagle when he thinks YOU
are knocking at his door. When q star
shell is burning in Tommy's rear he
can hold his breath for week.
You blacken your face and hands SC
that tile light from the star shells will
not reflect on your pale face. In a
reason for your face to be pale. If you
don't believe me, try it just once.
Then. another reason" for blackening
your face and hands is that, after you
have. entered the German trench art
night, "White face" means Germans,
''hlacls face" English. Coming around
a traverse you see q white face in
front Of you. With prayer and wish.
Ing Fritz "the best o. luck" you intro
duce him to your "persuader" or
knuckle knife.
A little later we arrived at the COM
municatiOn trench named Whisky
street, which led to the fire trench ut
the point r"A were to go over the top
and out in frOnt
In our rear were four stretcher bear
ers and corporal Of the r. A. NJ. C..
carrying pouch containing medicines
and first-aid appliances. Kind Of
grim reminder to us that our expe6i-
tion was not going to be exactly a pic
mic. The order Of things was reversed.
In civilian life the doctors generally
come first, with the undertakers Tag
ging in the rear and then the nsur-
ance man, but in our case, the under
takers were leading, with the doctors
trailing behind, minus the insurance
adjuster.
(TO BE CONTINUED)