American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1918-08-09

%persuader Is demonstrated, and Tom
my looks for another prisoner.
The knuckle knife is a dagger affair, /
the blade of which is about eight
inches long with a heavy steel guard
over the grip. This guard Is studded
with steel projections. At night In a
trench, which is only about three to
four feet wide, It makes a very handy
weapon. One punch In the face gen.
orally skaters a mans jaw and you
can get him with the knife as he goes
down.
Then we had what we called our
"come-alongs." These are strands of
barbed wire about three feet long,
made into a moose at one end at the
other end, the barbs are cut off and
Tommy slips his wrist through a loop
to get a good grip on the wire. If the
prisoner wants to argue the point, why
just place the large loop around his
neck and nc matter If Tommy wishes
to return to his trenches at the walk,
trot, or gallop, Fritz is perfectly agree
able to maintain Tommy's rate Of
speed.
We were ordered to black our faces
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 a range Of from
fifty to seventy-1ve yards. When they
hit the ground they explode, throwing
out a strong calcium light which lights
up the ground in q circle Of a radius of
between ten to fifteen yards. They
also have a 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 overweight" 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,' her the fun begins; you have
to lie fiat on your stomach and remain
absolutely mOtiOnless until the light Of
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 1t is advis-
able not to breathe. as Fritz has an
Y 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 a
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 b%lackenlng
, your face and hands is that, after you
have entered the German trench al
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" oil
: knuckle knife.
A little later we arrived at the com
+ munication trench named Whisky
street, which led to the fire trench a
: the point we were to go over the tot
q and out in front.
J. In our rear were four stretcher bear
o ers and a corporal of the r. A. NJ. c
carrying a pouch containing medicine
n and irst-aid appliances. Kind Of
grim reminder to us that our expedi
Y ton was not going to be exactly Il pic
n nic. The order of things was reversed
It In civilian life the doctors general,
g come first, with the undertakers tag
g ging in the rear and then the insuT
ance man, but in our case, the under
takers were leading. with the doctor
trailing behind, minus the %insuranc
$, adjuster.
5, The presence of the r. A. NJ. c. me
n did not seem to disturb the raiders, be
le cause many a joke made in an under
e tone, was passed along the windin
lie column, as to who would be first {
o. take a ride on one of the stretcher'
u This was generally followed by a wis
70 that, If you were to be the one, tn
a wound would be a "cushy Blight
one"
ir The stretcher' bearers, no dOub
70 hoping that. if they did have to carr
r anyone TO the rear, he would be sma
Id and light. Perhaps they looked at n
1r when wishing, because I could feel a
In uncomfortable, boring sensation b
tween m shoulder blades. They g
their wish all right.
1t Going up this trench, about ever
sixty yards or so we would pass a on