Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1918-05-07


and personal belongings. such as
small mirror, a decent razor and
sheaf of unanswered letters, and fags.
In your haversack you carry your iron
rations, meaning a tin Of bully beef.
four biscuits and a can containing tea,
sugar and Oxo cubes; q couple Of
pipes and a pack Of shag, tin Of rifle
oil, and a pull-through. Tommy gen.
orally carries the oil with his fatiOns
1t gives the cheese sort Of sardine
taste.
Add to this first-aid pouch and q
long, ungailly rifle patterned after the
Daniel Boone period, and you have an
Idea of q British soldier In Blighty.
Before leaving for France, this rifle
Is taken from him and he Is issued
with q Lee-Enf1eld short trench rifle
and a ration bag.
In France he receives two gas hel.
NETS, sheepskin coat, rubber mack
lntosh, steel helmet, two blankets, tear
shell goggles, balaclava helmet
gloves and tin of antifrostbite grease
which is excellent for greasing the
boots. Add to this the weight Of his
rations, and can you blame Tommy for
growing at q twenty-kilo route march
Having served as sergeant major In
the United States cavalry. I tried to
fell the English drill sergeants their
business, but 1t did not work. They
Immediately put me as batman In their
mess. Many greasy dish Of stew was
accidentally spilled over them.
Iwould sooner fight than be waiter
SO when the order came through from
headquarters calling for draft OF
25O re.enforcements for France, vol.
unteered.
Then we went befores the NJ. o.
(medical officer) for another physical
examination. This was very brief. 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
we went up the gangplank Of little
steamer lying alongside the dock.
At the head of the gangplank there
was an old sergeant, who directed that
we line ourselves along both rails OF
the ship. Then he ordered us to take
life belts from the racks overhead and
put them on. have crossed the ocean
several times and knew was not sea-
sick, but when I buckled on that life
belt had q sensation Of sickness.
After we got out into the stream all
I could think of was that there were q
million German submarines with tor
pedo on each, across the warhead OF
which was inscribed my name and ad'
dress.
After five hours we came alongside
q pier and disembarked. I had at
tanned another one Of my ambitions
I was somewhere in France" W.
slept In the open that night on the sidt
Of the road. About six the next morn
ing we were ordered to entrain.
looked around for the passenger
coaches, but all I could see on the sid
ing were cattle cars. We climbed int
these. On the side of each car wa.
a sign reading "Hommes 40, Cheveau1
g." When we got inside Of the cars
we thought that perhaps the sigr
painter had reversed the order o,
things. After 48 hours In these trucks
we detrained at Rouen. At this place
we went through an intensive training
for ten days.
The training consisted Of the rudi
ments Of trench warfare. Trenche!
had been dug, with barbed wire en-
tanglements, bombing saps, dugouts
observation posts and machine gun EN-
placements. We were given q smat
tering of trench cooking, sanitation
bomb throwing, reconnoitering, listen
Ing posts, constructing and repairing
barbed wire, carrying In" parties