Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-09-09
No Wonder Germany Quit
BY MAJOR FRANK G. MAHIN
or the Army Recruiting Station

Our American patrols that made
life unhappy for the Boche used to
have some highly exciting times in
No Mans Land. One trouble they
had which the French and Germans
never had, was getting shelled by
our own artillery. When the French
sent a patrol out into No Mans
Land they started their preparations
several days in advance and before
the patrol went out all units nearby
were notified the exact time the pa
troll was going out, just where it
was going, and the exact time it was
coming back. Also they would be
careful to send out only one patrol
in the same general area for fear
that if they had two out, they might
meet and fight each other. Further
more, the artillery were given all the
| data about the patrol and they
would carefully abstain from firing
into the area in which the patrol
was working. Now that works
beautifully where patroling isn't
very active and in such sectors the
Boche dominated No Mans Land. In
| our sectors we couldn't tolerate any
Boche domination of No Mans
Land, so instead of occasionally hav-
ing one patrol out in a whole bat
talon area the way the French did
we would have from ten to twenty
| patrols out every night. Now you
would think those patrols, who
often met in the dark, would get to
| fighting each other, but if such a
thing ever happened it wasn't in our
part of the front and 1 never heard
| of it. The reason was that we had
/ prearranged signals for use when
one patrol met another. For in-
stance one patrol would hear some
was perfectly still while the patrol
] leader would tap twice with his
| knuckles on the stock of his rifle.
You would be surprised how far that
is audible when every sense is highly
strung. At once would come two
answering taps, a pause and the
more taps, and the patrols would
approach and confer. Every two or
three days we changed our signals
and the method worked to perfec-
ton. But once in while something
would go wrong and the patrols
would have a sweet and lovely time.
l shall never forget one wild night
| up in the Nosges. That day we had
| received n new schedule of rocket
signals for the coming week and it
| seems the Boche had changed theirs
the same day. Extraordinary as it
might seem the Boche rocket signal
calling for an artillery barrage was
the same as our signal for artillery
Incorporation fire-red rocket
of one red star-and their signal
for artillery counter-preparation was
! the same as our artillery barrage-
a green caterpillar rocket. We were
pulling off small raid without ar
| tillery when the Boche shot up a
| red rocket At once q heavy Boche
| barrage came down and a few sec
onds later our own counter-prepara-
! tion fire came down with oTc raiding
party between the two zones of fire.
| By the way, counter er-preparation is
a zone of fire laid down say 500
yards back in the enemy trenches;
| at the end of few seconds it jumps
| 25 yards towards our own trenches,
then it jumps again and again until
| it reaches the enemy front line
trench when it starts back again in
the same way. AS our fire APP
preached the Yank patrol they beat
1t towards our own trenches, and of
course ran into the Boche barrage.
About that time the Boche got good
and scared and sent up a green
caterpillar rocket bringing down
our barrage and their own counter
preparation. Maybe you think all
hell didn't bust loose then! Every
machine gun, trench mortar, auto
matte rifle and everything else that
would shoot cut loose on both sides.
And there was that raiding party
running wildly towards our trenches
| followed by our counter-preparation
until they ran into the Boche fire
which chased them back again as
our fire receded. Now mind you, the
ground was well sprinkled with
trenches and barb wire entangle-
ments but our men never realized
the obstacles were there till things
finally quieted down. Their whole
object in life at that time was max
ing the utmost speed first one way
and then the other in order to avoid
the mass of bursting shells. They
never even realized that scores of
machine guns were splitting six hun
dred bullets each per minute in
their direction. When they finally
.yot back in our trenches the cloth
ing of most of the men consisted
of the waist bands of their trousers
and the collars of their coats; the
rest of their clothing was left on
the birb wire, but except for an
awful mess of scratches not man
was hurt. incidentally both sides
changed their rocket signals again