Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1919-01-07

'front.' OF MIN, ana DelleNt me, lut
prisoners patriotism for Deutschland
ueber Allies" fades away and he will
ingly obeys the orders of his captor.
If, however. the prisoner gets high
toned and refuses to follow you,
simply persuade" him by first re-
moving his tin hat, and then-well,
the use of the lead weight in the
persuader is demonstrated, and Tom
my looks for another prisoner.
The knuckle knife is a dagger af-
fair, the blade of which is about eight
inches long with a heavy steel guard
over the grip. This guard is stud
ded with steel projections. At night
in trench. which is only about three
tofour feet wide, it makes a very
handy weapon. One punch in the
face generally skaters a 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 a moose at one end; at
the other end, the barbs are cut off
and Tommy slips his wrist through
a loop to get good grip on the wire.
II the prisoner wants to argue the
point, why just place the large loop
around his neck and no matter of
Tommy wishes to return to his
trenches at the walk, trot, or gallop.
Fritz is perfectly agreeable to main
tain Tommy's rate of speed.
We were ordered to black our faces
and hands. For this reason At
night, the English and Germans use
what they call star shells, a sort of
rocket affair. They are fired from
large pistol about twenty inches
long, which is help over the sand
bag parapet of the trench. and dis
charged into the air. These star
shells attain a height of about sixty
feet, and a range of from fifty to
seventy-five yards. When they hit
the ground they explode, throwing
out a strong calcium light which
lights up the ground in a circle of a
radius OF between ten to fifteen Yards
Ihey also have a parachute star
shell which, after reaching height
OF about sixty feet explodes. A nara
chute unfolds and slowly floats to
the ground, lighting up a large circle
Ill NO Mans Land The official name
OF the star shell is a "Very-light."
a star she'll falls in front of Won
Very-lights are used to prevent night
surprise attacks on the trenches. If
or between you and the German
lines, you are safe from detection. as
the enemy cannot see YOU through
the bright curtain of light. But If il
falls behind you and, as Tommy
says, You get in the star shell
zone,' then the fun begins: YOU have
to lie flat on your stomach and re-
main absolutely motionless until the
hight of the shell dies out This
takes anywhere from forty to seventy
seconds. If you havn't time to fall to
the ground you must remain absolute
~ still in whatever position YOU were
IN when the light exploded; it is adj
Vlsable not to breathe, as Fritz has
aneye like an eagle when he thinks
you are knocking at his door. When
star shell is burning in Tommy's
rear he can hold his breath for
week.
You blacken your face and hands
so that the light from the star shells
VIII not reflect on your pale face In
trench raid there is quite sniff |
cient reason for your face to be pale
II you don't believe me, try is Just
once.
Then another reason for blacken-
ing your face and hands is that. after
you have entered the German trench
at night, white face" means Ger
mans, black face" Enblish. Coming
around a traverse you see a white
face in front Of you. With a PRAYER
and wishing Fritz the best O. luck"
you introduce him to your "persua-
der or knuckle knife.
A little later we arrived at the
communication trench named Whisky
street, which led to the fire trench
at the point we were to 90 over the
top and out in front
In our rear were four stretcbar
bearers and a corporal of the r. A
W -, carrying pouch containing
medicines and first-aid appliances.
Kind OF a grim reminder to us that
our expedition was not going to be
exactly a picnic. The order of things
was reversed. In civilian life the
doctors generally come first, with the
undertakers tagging in the rear and
tnen the insurance man, but in our
case the undertakers were leading.
Win the doctors trailing behind.
minus the insurance adjuster.
(To be continued.)