Connecticut western news., 1918-07-04

and hands. For this reason; At night. the English and Germans use what they call star shells, a sort of rocket affair. They are fired from a large pistol about twenty inches long, which is held over the sandbag parapet of the trench, and discharged into the air. These star shells attain a height of about sixty feet, and range of from fifty to seventy-five yards. When they hit the ground they explode, throwing out a strong calcium light which lights up the ground in circle of q radius of between ten to fifteen yards. They also have parachute star shell which, after reaching a height of about sixty feet, explodes. A parachute unfolds and slowly floats to the ground, light ing up a large circle in No Mans Land. The official name of the star shell is a "Fery-light." Very-lights are used to prevent night surprise attacks on the trenches. If a star shell falls in front of you, or between you and the German lines, you are safe from detec- ton, as the enemy cannot see you through the bright curtain of light. But If it falls behind you and, as Tom my says, "you get in the star shell zone," then the fun begins; you have to lie fiat on your stomach and remain absolutely. motionless until the lightsof the shell dies out. This takes any, where from forty to seventy seconds. If you haven't time to fall to the ground you must remain absolutely still in whatever position you were in when the light exploded; it fs advis- able not to breathe, as Fritz has an eye like an eagle when he thinks you are knocking at his door. When a star shell Is burning in Tommy's rear he can hold his breath for a'week.
 You blacken your face and hands so that the light from the star shells will not reflect on your pale face. In trench raid there is quite sufficient reason for your face to be pale. If you don't believe me, try 1t just once.
 Then another reason for blackening your face and hands is that, after you have entered the German trench at night, "white face" means Germans, "black face" English. Coming around a traverse you see a white face in front of you. With a prayer and wish ing Fritz "the best O luck" you intro ,duce him to your .'.persuader" or knuckle knife.
 A ittls later VI .ss szs.ss6 at the com manicafton trench named whisky street, which fef to ths4 ne trench tt the peint we. wsrs t8 - over the top and out In front. 2"
 In our rear were four stretcher bear CTS and a corporal of the R. A. n. c. carrying a pouch containing medicines and first-aid appliances. Kind of grim reminder to us. that our expedi- ton was not going to be exactly a pie nic. The order of things was reversed. Tn civilian life the doctors generally come first, with the undertakers tag ging in the rear and then the insur- ance man, but in our case, the under takers were leading, with the doctors trailing behind, minus the insurance afjuster.
 The presence of the R. A. M. c. men did not seem to disturb the raiders, be- cause many a joke made in an under tone, was passed along the winding column, as to who would be j., first to This was EensraIfy followed by wish thats il. you were to be the .one,4 the wound veuid be . 'tcushy Blighp one."
 The stretcher bearers, no doubt, hoping that, If they 6fd have to carry anyone to the rear, he would be small and light. Perhaps they looked at me when wishing, because could feel an uncomfortable, boring sensation be- tween my shoulder blades. They got their wish all right. %.@ .t"' 7 E Going up this trench, about every sixty yards or so we would pass lone Iy sentry, who in whisper would wish us "the best O luck, mates" We would blind at him under our breaths; that Jonah phrase to us sounded very 0minous.
 Without any casualties the minstrel troop arrived at Suicide ditch, the front-Tine trench. Previously, wiring party of the Royal Engineers had cut Il lane through our barbed wire to en- able us to get out into No Mans Land.
 Crawling through this lane, our party of twenty took up an extended order formation about one yard apart. We had a tap code arranged for our movements while in No Mans Land, because for various reasons 1t is not safe to carry on a heated conversation a few yards in front of Fritz lines. The officer was on the right of the line, while was on the extreme left. Two taps from the right would be passed down the line until received them, then would send back one tap. The officer, in receiving this one tap, would know that his order had gone down the whole line, had been under stood, and that the party was ready so obey the two-tap signal. Two taps