The Arizona copper camp., 1918-07-27

guns. You have your choice Of two
weapons-you may carry your per-
suaders' or your 4znuckle knives, and
each man will arm himself with four
Mills bombs, these to be used only in
case of emergency"
A persuader is Tommys nickname
for club carried by the bombers. 1t
is about two feet long, thin at one end
and very thick at the other. The thick
end is studded with sharp steel spikes,
while through the center of the club
there is nine-inch lead bar, to give
it weight and balance. When you get
a prisoner all you have to do is just
stick this club up in front of him, and
believe me, the prisoners patriotism
for Deutschland ueber Allies" fades
away and he very willingly obeys the
orders of his captor. If, however, the
prisoner gets high-toned and refuses to
follow you, simply persuade" him by
first removing his tin hat, and then
well, the use of the lead weight in the
HCIOOCOC1 10 uCA1O1SLlolOO, anu AOAA
my looks for another prisoner.
The knuckle knife is a dagger affair,
the blade of which is about eight
inches long with 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 q 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 moose at one end; at the
other end the barbs are cut off and
Tommy slips his wrist through LOOP
to get good grip on the wire. If the
prisoner wants to argue the point, why
just place the large loop around his
neck and no matter if Tommy wishes
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,
/ che English and Germans use what
they call star shells, 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 height OF
about sixty feet and range of from
fifty to seventy-five yards. When they
hit the ground they explode, throwing
out strong calcium light which lights
up the ground in a circle of radius OF
between ten to fifteen yards. They
also have parachute star shell which,
after reaching q height of about sixty
feet explodes. A parachute unfolds
and slowly floats to the ground, light
ing up large circle in No Mans Land
The official name Of the star she'll is
"Very=light" VeryAights are useC
to prevent night surprise attacks or
the trenches. If a star shell falls ir
front of you, or between you and the
German lines, you are safe from detec
tion, as the enemy cannot see yor
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 flat on your stomach and remai1
absolutely motionless until the light o.
the shell dies out. This takes any
where from forty to seventy seconds
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ground you must remain absolutely
still in whatever position you were ii
when the light exploded; it is advis
able not to breathe, as Fritz has al
eye like an eagle when he thinks yol
are knocking at his door. When stal
shell is burning in Tonnny's rear HI
can hold his breath for week.
i You blacken your face and hands 81
that the light from the star shells will
not reflect on your pale face. In {
trench raid there is quite suficien
reason for your face to be pale. If yol
!, don't believe me, try it just once.
Then another reason for blackenins
your face and hands is that, after yol
have entered the German trench a
night, "white face" means Germans
"black face" English. Coming arOunt
a traverse you see white face il
front of you. With prayer and wish
ing Fritz "the best O. luck you intro
duce him to your "persuader" O.
knuckle knife.
A little later we arrived at the com
municatiOn trench named Whisk,
street, which led to the fire trench a.
the point we were to go over the tol
and out in front.
In our rear were four stretcher bear
ers and a corporal of the r. A. M. G
carrying a pouch containing medicine
and first-aid appliances. Kind of
grim reminder to us that our expedi
ton was not going to be exactly pic
mic. The order of things was reversed
In civilian life the doctors generall
come first, with the undertakers tag
ging in the rear and then the insu1
ance man, but in our case, the under
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