The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1918-11-21

INV. IL tIiey are SUN using trenches
there they probably look entirely diff
ferent.
But when ! was at Dixmude they
were something like this:
Behind the series of front-Iine
trenches are the reserve trenches; in
this case five to seven miles away, and
still farther back are the billets. These
may be houses or barns or ruined
churches-any place that can possibly
be used for quartering troops when
off duty.
Troops were usually in the front
line trenches six to eight days, and
fourteen to sixteen days in the reserve
trenches. Then back to the billets for
six or eight days.
We were not allowed to change our
clothing in the front-line trenches
not even to remove socks, unless for
inspection. Nor would they let you
as much as unbutton your shirt, unless
there was an inspection of identified
ton disks. We wore a disk at the
wrist and another around the neck.
You know the gag about the disks, of
course: If your arm is blown off they
can tell who you are by the neck disk;
IL your head is blown off, they do not
care who you are.
In the reserve trenches you can
make yourself more comfortable, but
you cannot go to such extreme lengths
of luxury as changing your clothes en-
tirely. That is for billets, where you
spend most of your time bathing,
changing clothes, sleeping and eating.
Believe ME, billet is great stuff; it
is like sort of temporary heaven.
Of course you know what the word
"cooties" means. Let us hope you
will never know what the coolies
themselves mean. When you get in
or near the trenches, you take course
in the natural history of bugs, lice,
rats and every kind of pest that has
ever been invented.
It is funny to see some of the new
corners when they first discover a
cootie on them. Some of them cry.
If they really knew what it was going
to be like they would do worse than
that, maybe.
Then they start hunting all over each
other. just like monkeys. They team
up for this purpose, and many times it
is in this way that couple of men get
to be trench partners and come to be
pals for life-which may not be a long
tim at that.
In the front-line trenches it is more
comfortable to fall asleep on the para
pet fire-step than in the dugouts, be-
cause the coolies are thicker down
below, and they simply will not give
you a minutes rest. They certainly
are active little pests. We used to
make back scratchers out of certain
weapons that had flexible handles, but
never had time to use them when we
needed them most.
We were given bottles of liquid
which smelled like lysol and were sup
posed to soak our clothes in it. 1t was
thought that the coolies would object
to the smell and quit work. Well,
cootie that could stand our clothes
without the dope on them would not
be bothered by little thing like this
stuff. Also, our clothes got so sour
and horrible smelling that they hurt
our noses worse than the coolies. They
certainly were game little devils, and
came right back at US.
So most Of the poilus threw the
dope at Fritz and fought the coolies
hand to hand.
There was plenty of food in the
trenches most Of the time, though once
in a while, during heavy bernhard
ment. the fatigue-usually corporal's
guard-would get killed in the COM
munication trenches and we would not
have time to get out to the fatigue and
rescue the grub they were bringing.
Sometimes you could not find either
the fatigue or the grub when you got
to the point where they had been hit.
But, as I say, we were well fed most
of the time, and got second and third
helpings until we had to open our
belts. But as the Limeys say: "Gaw
blimey, the chuck was rough" They
served thick soup of meat and vege-
tables in bowls the size of wash ba-
sins, black coffee with or without
sugar-mostly without land plenty
of bread.
Also, we had preserves in tins, just
lils the Limeys. If you send any par
ce.s over, do not put any apple and
plan jam in them or the man who gets
it will let Fritz shoot him. Ask any
LiIuey soldier and he will tell you the
same. I never thought there was SO
much jam in the world. No Mans
Land looked like city dump. Most
of US took it, after a while, just to
get the bread. Early in the war they
used the tins to make bombs of, but
that was before Mills came along with
his hand grenade. Later on they fiat
tened out the tins and lined the dug
outs with them.
Each man carried an emergency ra-
ton in his bag. This consisted of bully
beef, biscuits, etc. This ration was
never used except in real emergency,
because no <one could tell when it
might mean the difference between
life and death to him. When daylight
catches a man in shell hole or at
listening post out in No Mans Land
he does not dare to crawl back to his
trench before nightfall, and then is the
time that his emergency ration comes
in handy. Also, the stores failed to
reach us sometimes, as I have said.
and we had to use the emergency
ratiOnS.
Sometimes we received raw meat
and fried it in our dugouts. We built