The Mena weekly star., 1918-04-18
l @I97 nY
 lARIhuR GUY EnpEY|

helmets, sounded like hailstones.
 Upon arrival in the fire trench an officer of the Royal Engineers gave us [ our instructions and acted as guide. We were to dig an advanced trench two hundred yards from the Germans (the trenches at this point were six hundred yards apart).
 Two winding lanes, five feet wide. had been cut through our barbed wire, for the passage of the diggers. From these lines white tape had been laid on the ground to the point where we were to commence work. This in or 1 der that we would not get lost In the darkness. The proposed trench was also laid out with tape.
 The covering party went out first. After a short walt, two scouts came back with information that the work i Ing party was to follow and ''carry onH with their work.
 In extended order. two yards apart, we noiselessly crept across No Mans Land. It was nervous work; every minute we expected machine gun to open fire on us. Stray bullets cracked" l around us, or ricoehet sang over- head
 Arriving at the taped diagram of the trench, rifles slung around our shoulders, we lost no time in getting to work. We dug as quietly as pos sible but every now and then the noise of a pick CT shovel striking a stone would send lae cold = CTS down our kaskS. Under osr breaths we heartily cursed the offending Tommy.
 At intervals a star shell would go up i from the German lines and we would remain n,n-.c-lo-s mn.il the glare of it's white light died out.
 When the trench had reached depth of two feet we felt safer, be- cause 1t would affoid us cover in case we were discovered and fired on.
 The digging had been in progress pbout two hours, when suddenly hell seemed to break loose in the form of machine-gun and rife fire. We dropped down on our bellies in the shallow trench, bullets knocking 1 up the ground and Snapping in the air. Then shrapneI butted in The music was hot and Tommy danced.
 The covering party was having rough time of it; they had no cover; just had to take their medicine Word was passed down the line to bent it for our trenches. We needed no urging: grabbing our fools and stoop ing low, we legged it across No Mans Land. The covering party got away to a poor start but beat us in. They must have had wings because we low cred the record.
 Painting and out of breath, we tum. hled into our front-line trench. I tore my hands getting through our wire, but. at the time, didn't notice 1t; my journey was too urgent.
 When the roll was called we found that we had gotten 1t in the nose for 83 casualties.
 Our artillery put barrage on Fritz front-line and communication trenches and their machine-gun and rife fire suddenly ceased
 Upon the cessation of this fire, stretcher bearers went out to look for killed and wounded. Next day we learned that 21 of our men had been killed and 37 wounded Five men were missing; lost in the darkness, they must have wandered over into the Ger man lines. where they were either killed or captured.
 Speaking of stretcher bearers and wounded, it is very hard for the aver age civilian to comprehend the enor- nous cost of taking care of wounded and the war in general. He or she gets so accustomed to seeing billions of dol lars in print that the significance of the amount is passed over without thought
 From an official statement published in one of tine London papers. it is stated that it costs between six and seven thousand pounds ($30,000 to $35,- 000) to kill or wound a soldier. This result was attained by taking the cost of the war to date and dividing 1t by the killed and wounded.
 It may sound heartless and inhuman, but it is fact. nevertheless. that from a military standpoint 1t is better for man to be killed than wounded.
 If man is killed he is buried, and the responsibility of the government ceases excepting for the fact that his people receive pension But if man is wounded it takes three men from the firing line, the wounded man and two men to carry him to the rear to the advanced first-aid post. Here he is attended by a doctor perhaps assist ed by two R. A. M. c. men. Then he is put Into motor ambulance, manned by a crew of two or three. At the field hospital. where he generally goes un- der an anesthetic. either to have his wounds cleaned or to be operated on, he requires the services of about three to five persons. From this point an- other ambulance ride impresses more men in his service, and then at the am buIance train, another corps of doc tors, R. A. M. 0. men. Red Cross nurses and the trains crew. From the train he enters the base hospital or casualty clearing station, where good-sized corps of doctors, nurses, etc, are kept busy. Another ambulance journey Is next in orier-this time to the hospital ship. He crosses the channel. arrives in BlIghty-more ambulances and per haps n ride for five hours on an Eng fish Red Cross train with it's crew of