Norwich bulletin., 1918-01-30
Copyright by ARTHUR GUY EMPEY

shoulders; suspended on the bottom of the pack was my mess tin or can teen in a neat little canvass case. My waterproof sheet, looking like jelly roll, was strapped on top of the pack, with a wooden stock for cleaning the breach of the rifle projecting from each end. On lanyard around my waiss hung a huge jack-knife with a can-openr attachment. The pack contained my overcoat, an extra pair of socks, change of underwear, hold all, l rther brush, shaving soap and a razor made of tin, with Made in Eng land" stamped on the blade; when try ing to shave with this it made you wish that you were at war with Pata- gonia, so that you could have a 'hol- low ground" stamped Made in Ger many; then your housewife, but ton-cleaning outfit, consisting of 8 brass button stick, two stiff brushes, and a box of Soldiers Friend" paste; then a shoe brush and box Of dub bin, writing pad, indelible pencil, en- velopes, and pay book, and personal belongings, such as small mirror. decent razor and sheaf of unanswer- ed letters, and flags. In your haver- sack you carry your iron rations, meaning a tin of bully beef, four bds- cults, and a can containing tea, sugar. and Oxo cubes; a couple of pipes, and package of shag, a tin of rifle oil and a pull through. Tommy generally carries the oil with his rationS: it gives the chees a sort of sardine taste.
 Add to this first-aid pouch and 8 long ungainly rife patterned after the Daniel Boone period, and you have an idea of a British soldier in Blighty.
 Before leaving for France, this rife is taken from him and he is issued with Lee Enfield short-trench rifle and a ration bag.
 In France he receives two gas hell nets, sheepsldn coat, rubber mack intosh. steel helmet two blankets, tear-sheIl goggles a balaclava helmet, gloves, and a tin of anti-f -frostbite grease which is excellent for greasing the boots. Add to this the weight of his ratioHs, and can you blame Tommy for growing at twenty kilo route march?
 Having served as sergeant-major in the United States cavalry, 1 tried to tell the English drill sergeants their business, but it did not work. They immediately put me as batman in their mess. Many a greasy dish of stew was accidentally spilled over them. I would sooner fight than be. a wait CT, so when the order came through from headquarters calling foh. draft of 250 endorsements for France, volunteered.
 Then we went before the NJ. O. l (medical officer) for another physical He asked our names and numbers and said Fit" and we went out to fight. We were put into troop trains and sent to Southampton, where we de- | trained and had our trench rifles is- sued to us. Then in columns of twos went up the gangplank of a little steamer lying alongside the dock. At the head of the gangplank there was an old sergeant who directed thai we line ourselves along both rails ot | the ship. Then he ordered us to takt l life belts from the racks overhead
 and put them on. I have crossed th'
 ocean several times and knew I wa:
 not seasick. but when I buckled ol l that life belt, l had a sensation o sickness.
 After we got out into the stream al I could think of was that there wer
 a million German submarines with | torpedo on each, across the Warheat of which was inscribed my name ant
 address.
 After five hours we came alongsid a pier and disembarked. I had at
 tained another one of my ambitions l was somewhere in France" w slept in the open that night on tn
 side of a road. About six the mex morning we were ordered to entrain I looked around for the passenge
 coaches, but all could see on the sid
 ing were cattle cars. We climbe
 into these On the side of each ca
 Chevaux S." When we got inside tn
 car, we thought that perhaps tn
 sign painter had reversed the orde
 of things. After forty eight hours il
 these we went through an intensiv
 training of ten days.
 This training consisted of the rud
 iments of trench warfare. Trenche
 had been dug, with barbed-wire en 1 tanglements, bombing saps, dugout!
 observation posts ,and machine-gu l emplacements. We were given ; smattering of trench cooking, bomb throwing, reconnoitering, listenin posts, constructing and repairin barbed wire, carrying in' partie methods use in attack and defence , wiring parties, mass formation an the procedure TOT pOlSon-g attack On the tenth day we again met or friends "Hommes 40, Chevaux 8 , Thirty six hours more of misery, an , we arrived at the town of -. After unloading our rations an equipment, we lined up on the roa l in columns of fours waiting for tE [ order to match.
 l A dull rumbling could be heard. TT 3 sun was shining. 1 turned to the ma 5 on my left and asked, What is u l noise, Bill?" He did not know, b1 his face was of a pea-green color. lii 5 on my right also did not know, bl t suggested that "awsk" the sergean Coming towards us was an o l grizzled sergeant, properly fed vii 9 the war, so I "awsked" him.
 . Think it's going to rain. sergeant
 He looked at me in contempt, aY
 grunted. "'Ow's it a'goin' ter rain vii