American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1918-07-12

"For killing or wounding an English
private, the snlper gets one mark. Fol-
killing or w%ounding an English officer
he gets FIVE marks, but II he kills a Red
Cap or English general. the snlper gets
twenty-one days tied to the wheel Of a
timber as punishment for his careless
ness"
Then he paused, waiting for me to
bite, / suppose.
l bit all right and asked him why the
sniper was punished for killing an
English general. With a smile he re-
piled:
"Well. you see, If all the English gen
erals were killed, there would be no
one left to make costly mistakes"
I shut him up, he was getting too
fresh for u prisoner. After a while he
winked at me and / winked back, then
the escort came to take the prisoners
TO the rear. / shook hands and wished
him 1.-THE best Of luck and a safe jour
ney to Blighty."
| liked that prisoner, he was a fine
fellow, had an Iron Cross, too. / adj
vised him to keep 1t out of sight, or
some Tommy would be sending 1t home
to his girl In Blighty as a souvenir.
One dark and rainy night while on
guard we were looking over the top.
from the fire step of our front-llne
trench, when we heard a noise imme-
diately In front of our barbed wire.
The sentry next to me challenged,
NIIaIf ruhn nap.oo thn-o ~ unI I~,..wIt
his rifle to the aim. His challenge was
answered in German. A captain In the
next traverse climbed upon the sand
bagged parapet to investigates brave
but %foolhardy deed-"Crack' went a
bullet and he tumbled back into the
trench with a hole through his stomach
and died a few minutes later. A lance
corporal in the next platoon was so en-
ragged at the captains death that he
chucked a Mills bomb in the direction
of the noise with the shouted warning
to us: duck your nappers, my lucky
lads" A sharp dynamite report, a flare
In front of us, and then silence.
We Immediately sent up two star
shells, and in their light could see two.
dark forms lying on the ground close
to u wire. A sergeant and four
stre~tcher-bearers went out In front and
soon returned, carrying . two limp
bodies. Down In the dugout, in the
pickering light of three candles, we
saw that they were two German Off
GERS, one captain and the other an
"unteroffizier," a rank one grade higher
than a sergeant general, but below the
grade Of lieutenant.
The captains face had been almost.
completely torn away by the bombs
explosion. The unterofizier was alive,
breathing with difficulty. In a few min
utes he opened his eyes and blinked in
the glare of the candles.
The pair had evidently been drink
ing heavily. for the alcohol fumes were
sickening and completely ~pervaded the
dugout. l turned away In disgust,
hating to see a man cross the Great Di-
vide full of booze.
One of our officers could speak Ger
man and he questioned the dying man.
In a faint voice, interrupted by fire.
quent %hiccoughs, the unteroffizier told
his story.
There had been a drinking bout
among the officers in one of the Ger
man dugouts, the main beverage being
champagne. With a drunken leer he
Informed us that champagne was plen-
tiful on their side and that 1t did not
cost them anything either. About seven
that night the conversation had turned
fA tho ManpNnn,DffH1,sf Er~If~h ,.,I tA0
captain had made u wager hat he
would hang his cap on the English
barbed wire to show his contempt for
the English sentries. The wager was
accepted. At eight o'clock the captain
and he had crept out into No Mans
Land to carry out this wager.
They had gotten about halfway
cross when the drink took effect and
the captain fell asleep. After about
two hours of vain attempts the inter-
otlizier had at last succeeded in wax
ing the captain, reminded him of his
bet, and warned him hat he would be
the laughing stock OF the officers mess
If he did not accomplish his object. but
the captain was trembling all over and
ANARANA VI AAAAAH " nv 0NA AliAlA
lines. In the darkness they lost their
bearings and crawled toward the Eng
fish trenches. They reached the barbed
wire and We're suddenly challenged by
Il sentry. Being too drunk to realize
that the challenge was in English. the
captain refused TO crawl back. Finally
the ~unterOtiizier convinced his superior
that they were in front Of the English
wire. Realizing this too late, the cap
tain drew his revolver and with a NUT
tered curse fired bllndly toward our
trench. His bullet no doubt killed our
captain.
Then the bomb came over and there
he was, dying-and a good job too, we
thought. The captain dead2 Wen, his
men wouldn't weep at the news.
Without giving us any further infor-