Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-09-10

same. i never thought there was so
much jam In the world. No Mans
Land looked like city dump. Most
of us took Ii, after while, lust to
get the bread. Early in the war they
used the tins to make bombs of, but
that was before Mills came along with
his hand grenade. Later on they fiat
tened out the tins and lined the dug
outs with them.
Each man carried an emergency ra-
ton in his bag. This consisted of bully
beef, biscuits, etc. This ration was
never used except in real emergency,
because no one could tell when It
might mean the difference between
life and death to him. When daylight
catches man in a shell hole OF at
listening post out In No Mans Land
he does not dare to crawl back to his
trench before nightfall, and then Is the
time that his emergency ration comes
in handy. Also, the stores failed to
reach us sometimes, as l have said,
and we had to use the emergency
rations.
Sometimes we received raw meat
and fried it In our dugouts. We built
regular clay ovens In the dugouts, with
iron tops for broiling. This, of course,
was In the Hront-line trenches only.
We worked two hours on the fire
step and knocked off for four hours,
In which time we cooked and ate and
slept. This routine was kept up night
and day, seven days week. Some.
times the program was changed; for
instance, when there was TO he an at
tack or when Fritz tried to come over
and visit, but otherwise nothing dis
turbed our routine unless 1t was a gas
attack.
The ambition of most privates Is to
become sniper, as the official sharp
shooters are called. After a private
has been in the trenches for six
months or a year and has shown his
craftsmanship, he becomes the great
man he has dreamed about. We had
two snipers to each company and be-
cause they took more chances with
their lives than the ordinary privates
they were allowed more privileges.
When it was at all possible our snipers
We're allowed dry quarters. the best of
food, and they did not have to follow
the usual routine, but came and went
as they pleased.
Our snipers, as a rule, went over
the parapet about dusk, Just before
Fritz got his star shells going. They
I
tree stumps or holes that they had
spotted during the day-in other
words, places where they could see
the enemy parapets but could not be
seen themselves. Once In position,
they would make themselves comfort
able, smear their tin hats with dirt,
get a good rest for their rifles and
snipe every German they saw. They
wore extra bandoleers of cartridges,
since there was no telling how many
rounds they might fire during the
night Sometimes they had direct and
visible targets and other times they
potted Huns by guesswork. Usually
they crawled back just before day
light, but sometimes they were out "a
hours at stretch. They took great
pride In the number of Germans they
knocked over, and If our men did not
get eight or ten they thought they had
not done good nights work. OF
course it was not wholesale killing,
like machine cunning, but 1t was very
useful, because our snipers we're al
ways laying for the German snipers,
and when they got SHIPPER Fritz they
saved just so many of our lives.
The Limeys have great little ex-
preston that means . lot: Garry on"
They say it is a cockney expression.