The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1918-07-25
OVER THE TOP
An American Soldier Who Went
ARTHUR GUY EMPEY
ARTHUR GUY EMPEY
CHAPTER Xxx.
"Chats With Fritz"

the receipts OF our theatrical venture,
and had forgotten all about the war,
when an order came through that our
brigade would again take over their
sector of the line.
The day that these orders were Is
sued, our captain assembled the COM
pany and asked for volunteers to go to
the Machine Gun school at st. Omar.
volunteered and was accepted.
Sixteen men from our brigade left
for the course In machine gunnery.
This course lasted two weeks and we
rejoined our unit and were assigned to
the brigade machine gun company. 1t
almost broke my heart to leave my
company mates.
The gun we used was the Vickers,
Light 1903, water cooled.
was still member of the Suicide
club, having jumped from the frying
pan into the fire. 1 was assigned to
section l. gun No. 2, and the first time
sin took position In the front-line
trench.
During the day our gun would be
dismounted on the fire step ready for
instant use. We shared dugout with
the Lewis gunners. At "stand to" we
would mount our gun on the parapet
and go on watch beside 1t until "stand
down" In the morning. Then the gun
would be dismounted and again placed
In readiness on the fire step.
We did eight days In the front-line
trench without anything unusual hap
pening outside Of the ordinary trench
routine. On the night that we were to
"carry out" bombing raid against the
German lines was pulled off. This raid
Ing party consisted Of sixty company
men, sixteen bombers, and four Lewis
machine guns with their crews.
The raid took the Hoches by surprise
and was complete success, the party
bringing back twenty-one prisoners.
The Germans ma,st have been awful
ly sore. because theg turned loose a
barrage Of shrap0el. with few min
niles" and "whizz bangs" intermixed.
The shells were dropping into our front
line like hailstones.
To get even, we could have left the
prisoners In the fire trench, In charge
Of the men ON guard and let them click
Fritz's strafeing but Tommy does not
treat prisoners that way.
Five Of them were brought into my
dugout and turned over to me so that
they would be safe from the German
fire.
In the candlelight. they looked very
much shaken, nerves gone and chalky
faces, with the exception of one,
great big fellow. He looked very much
at ease. liked him from the start.
l got out the rum jar and gave each
a nip and passed around some flags,
the old reliable Woodblnes. The other
prisoners looked their gratitude, but
the big fellow said in English, "Thank
you, sir, the rum Is excellent and l ap-
preciate 1t, also your kindness"
He told me his name was Carl
Schmidt, Of the Sixty-sixth Bavarian
Light infantry; that he had lived six
years In New York (knew the city bet
ter than l dld), had been to Coney
island and many of our ball games. He
was n regular fan. couldn't make him
believe that Hans Wagner wasn't the
best ball player in the world.
From New York he had gone to Lon
don, where he worked as waiter In
the Hotel Russell. Just before the war
he went home to Germany to see his
parents the war came and he was con-
scripted.
He tsld me he was very sorry to
hear that London was In ruins from
the Zeppelin raids. / could not con-
vince him otherwise. for hadn't he seen
moving pictures In one of the German
cities of st. Paul's cathedral in ruins.
l changed the subject because he
was so stubborn In his belief. 1t was
my intention to try and pump him for
information as to the methods of the
German snipers. who had been caus-
Ing us trouble In the last few days.
preached the subject and he shut
up like clam. After few minutes
he very innocently said:
spent a week trying to teach some
of the Tommies how to play poker, but
because | won thirty-flve francs they
declared that they didn't "fawncy" the
game.
Tommy plays few card games; the
general run never heard of poker, eu-
chre, seven up, or pinochle. They have
game similar to pinochle called
"Royal Bezique," but few know how to
play 1t.
Generally there are two decks Of
cards in a section. and In short time
they are so dog-eared and greasy, you
can hardly tell the ace of spades from
the ace of hearts The owners Of these
decks sometimes condescend to lend
them after much coaxing.
SO you see, MIR. Atkins has his fun
mixed In with his hardships and. con-
trary to popular belief. the rank and
file of the British army In the trenches
Is one big happy family. Now In vlr-
ginia. at school, was fed on old Nc
Gufry's primary reader. which gave me
an opinion OF an Englishman about
equal to a 10 Minute Mans backed up
by a Sim Feiner's. But found Tom
my to be the best of mates and gem
tleman through and through. He never
thinks of knocking his officers. II one
makes a costly mistake and Tommy
DAYS with his blood, there Is no gen.
eral condemnation of the officer. He
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