The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-04-18
| @I9r7 by
lARIhus GUY EriPNI

~ hH1 VI - 1oS@
applauding the work of the batteries.
Our 1~S-pounders were destroying the
German barbed wire, while the heavier
stuff was demolishing their trenches
and bashing In dugouts or funk holes.
Then Fritz got busy.
Their shells went screaming over
head, aimed in the direction of the
flares from our batteries. Trench NOR
tars started dropping "Minnies" in
our front line. We clicked several cas-
ualties. Then they suddenly ceased.
Our artillery had tapped or silenced
them.
During the bombardment you could
almost read a newspaper in our trench.
Sometimes in the flare of a shell-burst
a mans body would be ~silhouetted
against the parados of the trench and
1t appeared like a huge monster. You
could hardly heal yourself think. When
an order was to be passed down the
trench you had to yell 1t, using your
hands as a funnel into the ear of the
mar sitting next to you on the fire step.
In about twenty minutes a generous
rum issue was doled out. After drink
ing the rum, which tasted like varnish
and sent a shudder through your
frame, you wondered why they made
you wait until the lifting Of the bar
rage before going over. At ten min
utes to four word was passed down,
Ten minutes to gol", Ten minutes
to livel We were shivering all over.
My legs felt as If they were asleep.
Then word was passed down: First
wave get on and near the scaling lad
ders."
These were small wooden ladders
which we had placed against the para
pet to enable US to go over the top on
the lifting of the barrage. Ladders of
death" we called them, and vertically
they were.
Before a charge Tommy is the pO-
litest of men. There is never any push
ing or crowding to be first up these
ladders. We crouched around the base
of the ladders waiting for the word
to go over. l was sick and faint, anG
was putting away at an urlighted flag.
Then came the word, 'Three minutes
TO go; upon the lifting of the barrage
and on the blast of the whistles, Over
the top with the best o. luck and give
them HE'LL" The famous phrase o.
the western front. The Jonah phrase
of the western front. To Tommy ii
means if you are lucky enough TO comes
back you wilh be minus an arm or n
leg. Tommy hates to be wished the
best of luck; so, when peace is de
4 ul,VAE 4f - Ax-n- 10 an1 -, nnnaf an
Tommy or the street, just wish him the
best of luck and duck the brick that
follows.
/ glanced again at my wrist watch.
We all wore them and you could hardly
call us "sissies'' for doing so. 1t was n
minute to four. l could see the hand
mov to the twelve, then a dead ST
lence. 1t hurt. Everyone looked uT
to see what had happened, but not for
long. Sharp whistle blasts rang our
along the trench, and with a cheer the
men scrambled up the ladders. The
bullets were cracking overhead, anG
occasionally a machine gun would ri9
and e a the top of the %sandbag para
pet. How / got up that ladder | viii
know. The first ten feet out H.
front was agony Then we passed
through lanes in our barbed wire. ]
knew l was running, but could feel Ne
motion below the waist. Patches on
the ground seemed to float TO the real
as If | were or a treadmill and seen
cry was rushing past me. The Ger
mans had put a barrage of shrapne'
across No Mans Land, and you could
hear the pieces slap the ground about
you.
After l had passed our barbed wire
and gotten into No Mans Land a
Tommy about fifteen feet to my right
front turned around and looking in my
direction. put his hand to his mouth
and yelled something which | could not
make out on account of the noise from
the bursting shells. Then he c%oughed.
stumbled, pitched forward and lay still.
His body seemed to float to the rear
IF me. l could hear sharp cracks in
the air about me. These were caused
by passing rifle bullets. Frequently
o my right and left. little spurts of
dirt would rise into the air and a rico
chet bullet would whine on its way.
If a Tommy should see one of these
little spurts in front of him, he would
tell the nurse about 1T later. The
crossing of No Mans Land remains a
blank to me.
Men on my right and left would
stumble and fall. Some would try TO
get up, while others remained huddled
md m~0tionless. Then smashed-up
harbed wire came into view and
seemed carried on a tide to the rear.
Suddenly, in front of me doomed a
bashed-in trench about four feet wide.
Queer-looking forms like mud turtles
were s~uambling up its wall. One of
these forms seemed to slip and then
rolled to the bottom of the trench. l
leaped across this intervening space