Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-08-31


| concerning the troops opposite us.
Lieutenant Holmes and Sci geant Muir
| ply received the distinguished serv-
ice cross for this work, and well de-
served it, for they showed the way
and did real y hard job. Holmes tod
me afterwards that they had all
agreed that they would not come back
until they had got their prisoner. They
decided that if they did not find him
in the first front line trenches they
would go back as far as necessary,
but they were going to find him or
not come back.
Playing With Code.
We began here also for the first
time to play that most elusive Of all
military amusements, the code. In
order that the Germans in listening in
on our telephone conversations might
not know what they were about, every
thing was put in code or cipher.
The high command issued to us the
Napoleon code. The Napoleon code is
written entirely in French, with the
result that only a few could send mes
sages. General Hines, then colonel OF
the sixteenth infantry, realized that
this was a poor idea, so he made up a
the name of the Cauliflower code, and
the commanding officer his adjutant,
etc, in every place were given a dis
tinctive name.
Conversation ran something like
this-"Hello, hello, want Hannibal.
Hannibal is not there? Give me
brains. Brains, this is the King of Es-
sex talking. Sunflower No balloons,
an to- 4
no balloons. oh, damn My Kitchens
haven't come. Have them sent up"
When we received rush orders to
leave this sector tried to mobilize my
wagon truck by telephone. The supply
in the code. / would start off Hello,
hello, This is the King of Essex talk
ing. | want little Sarah. Little Sarah
Van Lieutenant Van, my supply Of
ficer would reply from the other side
Hello, hello, is this the King of Essex
talking? Well, Major Roosevelt"
then the connection would be cut. At
ter much labor l got him again. had
just begun, balloons radishes, car
rots'' when we were cut off again. The
next time we got in connection we
said what we had to in plain English.
One evening Just after we had ar
rived in the front line trenches, after
a rest in the support position, the tele-
phone buzzed. The adjutant leaped to
it, Yes. this is Blank. What is it?
Yes, yes. The Napoleon code" And
then for some thirty minutes during
which time the trench telephone
ceased to work, was cut off or simply
went dead, the adiutant took down a
long string of numbers. At the end
of that period he had sheet of paper
in front of him which looked for all
the world like the financial statement
of large bank, He rushed to our
portfolio where the sector papers were
kept, yanked them out. ran over them
in hurry and then turned to me with
blank look of grief Sorry sir, we
have left the code behind" We
thought for a moment, then called
back the sender and said, "Sir, we
have forgotten our code" He re-
marked blithely from the other end,
IF the message had been an import
ant one I would not have sent it in
code. I'll give it to you when see
you tonight"
First Gas Experience.
Our first real experience with gas
came in this sector AS said before
we had been trained in how to put
on and take off our gas masks, how
gas was used by the ancients, what
methods had been used and abandon
ed in the present war; what the
chemical components were. what the
effects were, but not how to detect it
when 1t was present in dangerous
quantities. The result was that every
one was thoroughly apprehensive of
gas and afraid they would not be able
to detect it. We had all sorts of nice
little appliances in the trenches to
give the alarm, They consisted of
bells, gongs, Claxon horns and beauti-
full rockets that burst in a green flare.
A nervous sentry would be pacing to
and fro. 1t would be wet and lonely
and he would think of what unpleas-
ant things he had been told happened
to the men who were gassed. A shell
would burst near him. "By George
that smells queer" he would think.
He would sniff again. mo question
about it, that must be gasl" and blam
would go the gas alarm. Then from
end to end of the line gongs and horns
would sound and green rockets would
streak across the sky and platoon
after platoon would YEARLY encase It.
L
in the reserve position and watched a
celebration of this sort. 1t looked and
sounded like a witches sabbath.
After certain amount of this we
worked into a practical knowledge of
gas. We found that there were only
two methods of attack We had to fear,
one was by cylinders thrown by pro-
jectors and the other by gas Smelling
by the enemy artillery. With the
former, an attack was often detected
before it took place by our intelli-
gence, and it was possible to tell by a
flare that showed UP along the hori-
zon on the discharge of the projectors
when the attack commenced. With
the latter after a little practice, 1t
was perfectly simple to tell gas shell
from H. e. shell. as it made a sound
like a dud. The difficulty with both
types of attack was not so much in
getting the mask on in time, as there
was always plenty of time for that.
but rather in holding heavily gassed
areas. Under these circumstances
burns and trouble of all sorts were |
almost impossible to avoid.
1t was in this Toul sector on March |
II that my brother Archie was severe
ly wounded The Huns were strafing
heavily and an attack by them was
expected. He was redisposlng his men
when he was hit by a shell and badly |
wounded both in the left arm and LETT
leg. Maj. A. w. Kenner, M. c.. and |
Sergeant Hood were shelled by the
Germans while they were carrying out
the wounded, among them my brother,
and because of the stEtchers they had
to walk over the top and not through
soma had bite of trench. To Mai, A |