The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1918-10-04

S'N NA~ S''p' AAh' 100 ~
with steel projections. At night in a
trench, which is only about three to
four feet wide, it makes a very handy
weapon. One punch in the face gen.
orally skaters q mans jaw and you
can get him with the knife as he goes
down.
Then we had what we called u
"come-alongs." These are strands OF
barbed wire about three feet long,
made into a moose at M end at the
other end, the barbs are cut off and
Tommy slips his wrist through u loop
to get n 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 gallop, Fritz is perfectly agree
able to maintain Tommy's rate Of
speed.
We were ordered to black u faces
and hands. For this reason; At night,
the English and Germans use what
they call star shells, q sort of rocket
affair. They are fred from q large
pistol about twenty inches long, which
is held over the sandbag parapet Of the
trench, and discharged into the air.
These star shells attain a height OF
about sixty feet, and a range Of from
fifty to seventy-five yards. When they
hit the ground they explode, throwing
out a strong calcium light which lights
up the ground in a circle Of a radius Of
between ten to fifteen yards. They
also have a parachute star shell which,
after reaching a height of about sixty
feet, explodes. A parachute unfolds
n slowly floats to the ground. light
ing up a large circle in No Mans Land.
The official name Of the star shell Is
a "Very-light." Very-lights are used
to prevent night surprise attacks on
the trenches. If q star shell falls In
front of you, or between you and the
German lines, you are safe from detec-
ton, as the enemy cannot see you
through the bright curtain of light
But If it 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 m~otionless until the light OF
the shell dies out. This takes my
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; IL Is advis.
able not to breathe, as Fritz has an
eye like an eagle when he thinks you
are knocking at his door. When a star
shell is burning In Tommy's rear he
can hold his breath for a week.
You blacken your face and hands so
that the light from the star shells will
not reflect ON your pale face. In a
trench raid there Is quite sufficient
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 at
night, "white face" means Germans,
BLACK face" English. Coming around
a traverse you see a white face In
front of you. With q prayer and wish
ing Fritz "the best o luck" you intro
duce him TO your "persuader" Or
knuckle knife.
A little later W. arrived at the COM
munication trench named Whisky
street, which led to the fire trench at
the point we were to go over the top
and out in front.
In our rear were four stretcher bear
ers and a corporal Of the r. A. NJ. G.
carrying a pouch containing medicines
and frst-aid appliances. Kind Of q
grim reminder to us that u expedj-
ton 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 "a and then the insur-
ance man, but in our case, the under
takers were leading. with the doctors
trailing behind, minus the insurance
adjuster.
rO 49,