Bisbee daily review., 1919-01-19


 talion. Canadian expeditiOnary forces, has resigned his commission and ar rived in Bisbee to re-enter civil life. Lieutenant Blinman. who was a ser geant at the time. spent several months in Bisbee on recruiting duty and liked the city and it's people so we'll he has decided to make this hi9 home
 "I enlisted in Vancouver, B. C., August %. 1914. in the infantry" said Lieutenant Blinman My battalion was in training from that time until February of the following year, when l was moved into the front line trenches and began to see action. l went through the second and third battles of Ypres, St ElOi and Messines Ridge. and also fought on the SOmme. was wounded October 20, 1916, shrap- mel entering my lungs. l was a long time recovering but even at that con slider the tightest corner ever was in to have been during the second battle of Ypres. in April, 1915.
 The Germans used gas in that fight for the first time was in the second
 
 talion. We got warning of the ap- proach of the gas cloud and had time to tie something over our noses and mouths. That saved us. After about an hour, we went into the first line trench. Its, defenders lay about us dead. killed by this fiendish German invention. The Germans were slow about following up their advantage. Finally one of our boys who had been peeping over the top of the trench called out. I looked over and there came the Germans marching along with a confident air as though expect ing the gas cloud to have opened a way for them to reach the sea. They were in full dress, marched in parade formation and were doing the goose step. The Cannucks sure let 'em have it and we got a little even for what they had done to our comrades.
 Tn 1915 we had no cannon. All we could do until the French made them and got them to us was to put pure nerve up against the heavy German artillery, use hand grenades where possible and charge frequently with the bayOnet. We had few aeroplanes and the Germans used to fly over our trenches and drop bombs on us at will. All We could do was fire our rifles at them.
 After l was wounded, was sent to a hospital in England to recover. Aft CT I had gotten sufficiently well, was sent out on recruiting duty. l spent four months in Bisbee at that time. While here I enlisted 5S men for the Canadian army. l was all over the front but I never saw any of these men afterwards. From here l went to New York and from there to Boston, spending three weeks in the first place and a month in the latter. l had good luck getting recruits, sending them in at the rate of about 50 a day.
 Next I was transferred to England where l spent a month. training and incidentally getting promoted from sergeant to lieutenant. l then re- joined my old unit. in July, 1918. They were stationed on Paschandale Ridge. The colonel and one battalion ser geant major were the only ones left out of the original bunch. Our casu- alties had been heavy and the others had been discharged or were on de- tached duty. 1 was with them about six weeks. There wasn't a great deal of fighting. l took part in number of trench raids but it was astonishing how different the Germans of 1918 were from those of 1915. The morale of the German army was broken and the men up against us last year were poor fighters compared with their pre- decessors of three years before. They were not a fourth as good. l got this insigna from the collar of Prussian staff officer and had it made over into a tie pin It is the imperial German eagle.
 T was taken out of the trenches and put on duty escorting recruits from the French seapOrts to the front line. This duty brought me into Paris on November 10, Il and 12. Believe me, it was some night on the 11th in Paris Everybody was happy, even the widows in their black yeils join ing us in celebrating and making mer- ". For one thing, I never saw so many American flags on a Fourth of July in this country as were displayed in Paris.
 T went from France to England, ar irving there on the 14th. The celebra- ton still was on there. The French can celebrate but it takes the English to get drunk and it seemed to me that the whole nation was tipsy, even as long after the day of the signing of the armistice as the date of my ar rival
 Then I was sent home. I decided that it was time for me to get back to work, so resigned my commission and came here to Bisbee.
 'I did not get to realize my dearest wish. That was to march into Ger many. My old battalion is there now as a part of the army of occupation. but circumstances dictated that l could not be with them.
 "We went into the war a green lot in many ways. At first we had only four machine guns to a battalion and didn't put any great reliance on these, but when we saw what they did to the