The citizen., 1918-05-30

soldiers have TO learn TO fight In the
trenches, and think a good many Of
our young fellows have that to learn
now. "Over there" they don't talk OF
peace or even of tomorrow. They SIT
back and take II.
We always held the Are trench as
lightly as possible. because II IL a
demonstrated fact that the front ditch
cannot be successfully defended In a
determined attack. The thing we did
and the thing to do is to be ready to
Jump on to the enemy as soon as he
has got into your front trench and is
fighting on ground that you know and
he doesn't and knock so many kinds
OF tar out OF him that he'll have to
pull his load for spot that Isn't 30
warm. That system worked first rate
with US.
During the day we had only very
few men In the fire trench. II an at
tack is coming In daylight there's al
ways plenty Of time ~ get ready for
It. At night we kept prepared for
trouble all the time. We had a night
sentry on each firing step and a man
sitting at his feet to watch him to see
he wasn't secretly sniped. Then we
had sentry In each bay" Of the
trench to take messages.
Orders didn't permit the man on the
firing step or the man watching him
to leave post on any excuse whatever
during their two hour "spell' Of duty.
Hanging on string. at the elbow of
each sentry on the fire step was a
siren whistle or an empty shell case
and a bit OF iron with which to ham
mer on IT, This. whichever 1t might
be. was for the purpose Of spreading
the alarm In case OF a gas attack. Also
we had sentries In listening posts"
at various points from 20 to 80 yards
out In "No Mans Land" These men
blackened their faces before they went
"over the top" and then lay In shell
holes or natural hollows. There was
always two Of them, a bayOnet man
and bomber. From the listening
post wire ran back to the fire trench
TO be used In signaling. In the trench
man sat with this wire wrapped
around his hand. One pull meant "All
o. K.." two pulls. 'rm coming in."
three pulls, Enemy In sight" and four
pulls, Sound gas alarm" The fire
step In trench Is shelf on which
soldiers stand to look out and shoot
between the sand bags on top.
In addition TO these men. we had
patrols and scouts out In "No Mans
Land" the greater part of the night,
with orders to gain any Information
possible which might be of value to
battalion. brigade. division or general
headquarters. They reported On the
condition OF the Germans barbed wire,
the location of machine guns and 9TH
er little things like that which might
officer 20 miles back. Also they were
ordered TO make every effort to cap
ture any Of the enemy's scouts or pa
trolls. so that we could get Information
from them. One Of the interesting
moments In this work came when
star shell caught you out In an open
spot. II you moved you were gone.
I've seen men stand on one foot for
the 80 seconds during which star
shell will burn. Then when scouts or
patrols met in "No Mans Land" they
always had TO fight IL out with bayo-
nets. One single shot would be the
signal for artillery fire and would mean
the almost instant annihllation Of the
men on both sides OF the fight. Under
the necessities OF this war many of
our men have been killed by our own
shell fire.
The Daylight Hour.
At little before daybreak came
"stand-to," when everybody got but
toned up and ready for business be-
cause at that hour most attacks begin.
and also that was the regular time for
a dose OF "morning and evening hate"
otherwise good, lively Is minutes of
shell fire. We had some casualties
every morning and evening. and the
stretcher bearers used to get ready
for them as "A regular matter of course.
For Is minutes at dawn and dusk the
Germans used to send over "whiz-
bangs" "coal boxes" and "minenwer-
fer" (shells from trench mortars) In
such generous way that II looked as
II they liked TO shoot 'em of. whether
they hit anything or not. You could
always hear the "heavy stufr' coming,
and we paid little attention to II, as II
was used In efforts to reach the bat
teries back of our lines. The poor old
town Of Dinkiebusch got the full ben
eft of II. When IA shell would shrek
Its way over. some one would say.
sarhara uaao tho axprasS for nInkia-