Evening star., 1918-02-24

the fare lights. Also to distinguish
your own men when you get to the
boche trench.
Then we wrote letters and gave up
our Identification discs and were served
with persuader sticks or knuckle
knives and with Mills" bombs.
The persuader is a short, heavy
bludgeon with s'fiail.studded head.
You thump Fritz-on the head with it,
Very handy at close quarters. The
knuckle knife is a short dagger with
hand. Also very good for close work as
you can either strike or stab with it.
We moved up to the front trenches
at about 1880: At zero minus 1o.that
opened up. It was the first lombard
ment I had ever been under, and it
semed as though. all the guns in the.
world were banging away. Afterward
I found that it was comparatively light.
but it didn't seem SO then.
The guns were hardly started when
there was a sound like escaping steam.
Jerry leaned over and shouted in my
ear: There goes the gas May 1t finish
the blighters."
BIofeId came dashing up just then.
very much excited because he found we
had not put on our masks, through
some slip-up in the orders. We got
into them quick. But as it turned out
there was no need. There was fifteen
mile wind blowing. which carried the
gas away from us very rapidly. In fact,
it blew it across the boche trenches so
fast that it didn't bother them.
The barrage fire kept up right up to
zero, as per schedule. At thirty seconds
of II looked at.my watch and the din
was at its height At exactly II it
stopped short. Fritz was still sending
some over. but comparatively there Was
silence. After the ear-splitting racket
it was almost still enough to hurt.
And in that silence over the top we
went. -..--,.
Lanes had been cut through our wire
and we got through them quickly. The
trenches were abont 120 yards apart and
we still had nearly 100 to go. We drop
ped and started to crawl I skinned
old wire. and both hands. I could feel
the blood running into nay puttees. and
my rifle bothered me. as was afraid of
jabbing Jerry, who was just ahead of
me as first bayonet man.
They say drowning man or a man
in great danger reviews his past. /
didn't. I spent those few minutes Won
dering when the machine-gun fire
would come.
I,had the same gone" feeling in the
pit of the stomach that you have when
you drop fast in an elevator. The skin
on my face felt tight. and I remember
that I wanted to pucker. my nose and
pull my upper lip down over my teeth
We got clean up to their wire before
they spotted US. Their entanglementS
had been fattened by our barrage fire,
but We had to get up to pick our way
through and they saw us.
Instantly the Very. lights began to
go up in scores and ,hell broke loose
They must have turned twenty machine
guns on US, or at. u.s. but their aim evil
IDENTIFY was high. for. they only click
ed" two out of our immediate party. We
had started with ten men, the others of
the fifty being divided into four more par
10
When the machine guns started we
charged. Jerry and were ahead as bayo-
net men with the rest of the party follow
ing with buckets of "MilN'' bombs and
"Stokeses."
1t was pretty light. there were so many
flares going up from both Sides When /
jumped on the parapet there was whal-
ing big boche looking up at me with his
rife resting on the sandbags. was al
most on the point Of his bayonet.
For an instant I stood with a kind of
paralyzed sensation, and there flashed
manual for such a situation, only l didn't
apply those instructions to this enner-
gency.
Instead I thouxht-if such a flash could
be called thinking-how /, as an in
structor. would have told rookie to act
working on dummy. I had a sort of
detached feeling as though this was
silly dream. - - - -
Probably this hesitation didn't last more
than second.
Then out Of the corner Of my eye saw
Jerry lunge, and lunged, too Why that
boche did not fire don't know. Perhaps
and in on him. and the bayonet went
through his throat. " F..
Jerry had done his man and all hands
piled into trench
traverses We found a machine gun and
put an eleven pound high explosive
''Stokes'' under it. Three Of four Ger
mans appeared running down communica-
Millses after them. Then we came to a
dugout door-in fact. several, as Fritz,
like woodchuck. always has more than
one entrance to his burrow. We broke
thirty-foot hole. on dugout full of gray
backs. There must have been lot Of
them. I could plainly see four Of Ave
faces looking up with surprised express
Blofeld chucked in two or three Millses
and away he went
A little farther along we came to the
entrance Of mine shaft, kind of in
went In It little way and flashed his
light He thought it was about forty yards
long. We put Stokes. in that and
wrecked it.
Rounding the corner Of the next ira
verse saw Jerry drop his rife and nm
timber his persuader on a huge German
who had Just rounded the corner Of the
.,ns pay n,r1 He =; made s q good job Of it. get
simply caved him in. but not. before he
had thrown a bomb. + had broken my
bayonet prying the, dugout door Oh and
had. my gun upended-clubbed. .,.. =
When saw that hlrah cNrotpo = h,,n<>x5
at It like Ty Cobb trying to sacrifice. Il
was the only thing to do. I choked my
bat and poked at the bomb instinctiveM.
and. by sheer good luck, fouled the thing
over tho parapet. It exploded on the other
side. -
"Hlinnme eyes?' says Jerry. 'that,s cool
work. You saved US the wooden cross
that time 80
We had found two more machine guns
and were planting stokeses under them
when We heard the .Lewises giving the.
recall signal A ,g9od gunner gets 90 he
; can play q tune on s Lewis and the device
is frequently used for signals This time
he thumped out the old ons-"An police