The Washington herald., 1918-03-10
COVER THE TOP"
BY ARTHUR GUY EMPEY
Copyrighted By Arthur Guy Empey.

rthur Guy Empey.
sation a. when riding on the subway
you enter the tube under the river go
ing 10 Brooklyn-a sort Of pressure on
the ear drums. and the ground con-
stantly trembling.
The roads behind the trenches were
very dangerous because Boche shrlp-
mel was constantly bursting over them
We avoided these dangerous spots By
crossing through open fields.
The destruction in the German lines
was awful and really felt sorry for
them because realized how they
must be clicking H.
From our front-line trench, every
now and again, we could hear sharp
whistle blasts In the German trenches.
These blasts were the signals for
stretcher bearers, and meant the
wounding or killing Of some German
In the service OF the Fatherland.
Atwell and had q tough time Of Il,
patroling the different trenches at
night, but after awhile got used 10 Il.
Ny old outft. the machine gun com
pany, was stationed in huge elephant
dugouts about 200 yards behind the
front-line trench-they were in reserve.
Occasionally would stop in their dug
out and have q confsb with my form
er mates. Although We tried TO be
jolly, still, there was a lurking feeling
Of impending disaster. over the toD
with the best OF luck" had been
sounded, would he still be alive or
would he be lying somewhere in
France" In an old dilapIdated house,
the walls OF which were SCARED with
mAchine-gun bullets, No. 3 section Of
the machine gun company had its
quarters. The company's cooks pre-
pared the meals in this billet. On
the fifth evening OF the bombardment
a German s-inch shell registered q d.
rect hit on the billet and wiped out
ten men who were asleep In the sup
posedly bomb-proof cellar. They were
buried the next day and I attended
the funeral
CHAPTER XVI
All Quiet CD On the Western Front.
At brigade headquarters happened
to overhear q conversation between
our G. o. c. general of5cer command
inO and the divisional commander.
From this conversation ! learned that
we were to lombard the German lines
for eight days. and on the nrst Of
July the Big Push was TO com
mence
In a few days orders were issued 10
that effect, and Il was common prop
erty all along the line
On the afternoon Of the eighth day
OF our stating. Atwell and I were
, sitting in the front-line trench smol-
ing fags and making out our reports
Of the previous nights tour OF the
trenches, which we had to turn IN TO
headquarters the following day, when
an order was passed down the trench
that Old Pepper requested twenty
volunteers TO so over on q trench
raid that night TO try and Eet q few
German prisoners for Information pur-
poses / Immediately volunteered for
this Job. and shook hands with AtwelL
and went TO the rear to give my name
to the ofneers In charge Of the raid
4 ing party.
/ was accepted, worse luck.
At go that night We reported to
the brigade headQuarters' duEout TO
receive instructions from Old Pepper.
After reaching this dugout we lined
up in q semicircie around him, and be
, addressed Us as follows:
"An I want you boys TO do IL to
| 90 over TO the German lines tonight
surprise them, secure q couple Of pri-
soners, and return Immediately. Our
! artillery has bombarded that section
! Of the line for two days and person
ally I believe that that part Of the
German trench Is UnoccupSed, % Just
get a couple OF prisoners and return
ss quickly as possible"
The sergeant on my right, in an
undertone. whispered to me:
| Say. Yank, how are We going to
get a couple Of prisoners II the old fool
thinks personally that that part Of
the trench is unoccupied'-sounds kind
OF fishy, doesn't II mater
had a funny sinking sensation In
my stomach, and my tin hat felt as
II il weighed about q ton and my
enthusiasm was melting away Old
Pepper must have heard the sergeant
speak because he turned in his direc-
tion and in a laundering voice asked
What did you say?"
The sergeant with a scared look on
his face and his knees trembling,
smartly saluted and answered:
NOlnlDEs sly.
Old Pepper said:
| Wei, don't say II so loudly the
next time"
Then Old Pepper continued:
'In this section Of the German n
trenches there are two or three ma
chine guns which our artillery. in the
last two or three days, has been un-
| able TO tape. These guns command
the sector where two OF our commun-
ication trenches Join the front line
and as the brigade is TO 70 over the
top tomorrow morning want 70 cap
ture two or three men from these
| guns crews and from them I NAV
be able to obtain valuable information
| as TO the exact location Of the runs.
and our artillery will therefore be able
to demolish them before the attack
and thus prevent our losing q lot OF
men while using these communication
trenches to bring up refnforcements
These were the Instructions be gave
| US:
Take of your Identification disks,
strip your uniforms OF all numerals.
insignia, etc, leave your papers with
your captains. because ! don't want
the Boches to know what regiments
are against them as this would be
valuable information to them IN our
attack tomorrow and don't want any
Of you to be taken alive. What I want
Is two prisoners and II I get them I
have a way which viii make them
divulge all necessary information a.
to their guns. You have your choice
OF two weapons-you may carry your
persuaders' or your knuckle knives.
| and each man will arm himself with