OCR Text |
Show I "Over the Top" k By An American Soldier Who Went ARTHUR GUY EMPEY Machine Gunner Serving In France (5P7Hlt'- ll. T Arthur Uor Hmpey) 8YNOPSIS. CHAPTER I Fired )y the news of ths ' sinking nf the I.usltnnla by a Herman , submarine, Arthur tlu Kiruiv, n An.erl- i i ran. leaves Ms nfll. . In ML v M( and W no '" England where tionllt In ilie Hrltlsh army. CHATTER II After a period of training, train-ing, Empey volunteer for immediate serv-Ire serv-Ire and soon flnils himself In rest hllh-ls "somewhere In France." whore ho first makes the acquaintance of tho evor-proa-ent "cootlea." CHAPTEH III-Empey attends his first church services at the front while a Or-man Or-man Eokker circles over the congreKutliin. CHAPTER IV Empoy'a command koob Into the front -line trenches and Is under tiro for tho first time. CHAPTER V-Empoy loams to adopt the motto of the finish Tommy, "If JTOU are going to gel It, you'll Ret It. so never worry." CHAPTER VI-Back In rest billets. Empey Em-pey sets his first experience as a mesa orderly CHAPTER VIl-Empey learns how ths British soldiers are fed. 1 CHAPTER VIU Hack In tho front-line trench, Empey sees his first friend of the trenches "go West." CHATTER IX Empey makes his first visit to a dugout In "Suicide Ditch." CHAPTER X Empey learns what constitutes con-stitutes ii "day's work" In the frontline CHAPTER XI Empey kops "over tne top" for the first time In a charge on the German trenches and is wounded by a bayonet thrust. CHAPTER XII Empey Joins tho "suicide "sui-cide club" as the bombing aquad Is called. CHATTER XIIl-Each Tommy gets an official bath. CHAPTER XIV-Empoy helps dig an advanced trench under Herman fire. CHAPTER XV On "listening post" In No Man's I.antl. CHAPTER XVI TWO artillerymen "put one over" on Old Pepper, their regimental - '' -. CHAPTER XV 1 1- Empey nns narrow escape es-cape while on patrol duty In No Man's CHAPTER XVIII Hack In rest billet! Empey writes and stages a farce CM dy. CHAPTER XlX-Soldlers have many ways to amuse themselves while "on their "TlTlATTEIl 'X'X-T.mpey voiumrers i.i machine gun servh o and goes back Into the front-line trenches. CHAPTER XXI Empey again goes "over tho top" In a charge which cost his company 17 killed and 31 wounded. CHAPTER XXII- Trick with a machine gun silences one bothersome Fritz. CHAPTER XXIII German attack, preceded pre-ceded by gas wave. Is repulsed. CHAPTER XXIV-Empey Is forced to take part In an execution as a member of the firing squud. CHAPTER XXV British prepare for the Big Push -the buttle of the Homme. CHAPTER XXVI-In a trench raid, preceding the Hlg Push. Empey Is desperately des-perately wounded ami lies unconscious in No Man's Hand for 36 hours. ouU'TEtt XXVII After four months 16 i Briiitb hospital, Empey is discharged na "2ib.loliy ""At for further v .-- At our part of the lint' the lnllnx of supplies never ended. It looked like i huge snuke slowly crawling forward, never u hitch or hreiik, u wonderful tribute to the system and elllciency of 1 Great Britain' "contemptible little, army" of five millions of men. Huge lifteen-lnch (tuns snaked alone;, foot by foot, by powerful steam tract-tors. tract-tors. Then a hint; line of "four point five" batteries, each nun drawn by six horses, then a couple of "nine point two" howitzers pulled by immense caterpillar engines. When one of these caterpillars would pass tne with its mighty monster in low, a Hush of pride would mount to i my face, because I could plainly reail J on tho name plate, "Made In U. S. A" I and I would remember that If I WON a i tiuine plate it would also r I, "From 1 the U. S. A." Then I would slop to I think how thin ami Straggly that 3 mighty stream WOttld be H all Hie I "Made In U. S. A." parts of It were I withdrawn. I Then would come hundreds of llm- 1 .hers and "(1. S." wagons drawn by (deck, well-fed mules, ridden by sleek. ! well-fed men, ever smiling, although 1 grimy with sweat and covered with the I tine, Whlto dust of the miirvclously B Well-made French mads. I What a discouraging report tho Her- 1 man airmen must have taken back to I their division cot anders, anil this 1 stream Is slowly but surely gelling blg- ger and bigger every day. and the pace 9 Is always (he same. No slower, DO I faster, but ever onward, ever forward. Three weeks before the big push of f July 1 as the battle of the Sotaine lias rf been called started, exact duplicate! of the German trenchea were dug about thirty kilos behind our lines. The layout Of the trencher was taken from airplane photograph! submitted by the Royal Hying corps. The trenches trench-es were correct to the foot ; they showed dugouts, saps, barbed wire defenses de-fenses and danger spots. Battalions that were to go over In the tlrsl waves were sent back for j three days to study these trenches, en- I gage in practice attacks ami have night : maneuvers. Kach man was required to t i make a map of the trenches and fa- I mlllartM himself with the names anil location of the parts his bitttaliou wiih j ' to attack. In the American army noncoinmls- ' slotted officers are put through a course of map making or road sketching, and during my six years' seiwlee In the ' United Slates cavalry I had plenty of I If practice In this work, therefore map- i ping these trenches was a compara- ', tlvely easy (ask for me. Kach man m had to submit his map to the company I commander to be pawed upon, and I k was lucky enough to have mine select- W ed as being stilliclently authentic to use In the attack. 'o photographs or maps are allowed lo leave France, hut in tills case it appealed ap-pealed to me as a valuable souvenir of the great war and I mating' d to smuggle smug-gle It through. At this time It carries j no military Importance as the British lines, am happj I" 'T. have since j been advanced beyond tills point, so In having It In my possession I am not breaking any regulation or cautions of the British nrmy. The whole attack was rchonrsod ami reheated until we heartily cursed the Otte Who bad HMKUlVtd the Idea. The trenches were named according to a system which made It very simple for Tommy to find, even In the dark, any point In the Herman lines. These Imitation trenches, or trench models, were well guarded from observation obser-vation by numerous allied planes which constantly circled above them. No German airplane could approach within observation distance. A restricted re-stricted ana was maintained and no civilian was allowed within three utiles, so we felt stfre that we had a great surprise In store lor Fritz. Winn We took over th front line we n Ived an awful shock. The Genua ns displayed signboards over ' the top of their trench showing the names that we bad called their trenches. The signs read "Fair," , "Fact," "Fate." and "Fancy," and sol shrapnel lire, thinking we were com-lUg com-lUg over. After three or four of these dummy al lacks his nerves must have been .near the breaking point. on June '-'4, 1910, at fl:4 In the morning our guns opened up, and hell was let loose. The din was territle. a constant boomhoom-boom in your ear. At night the sky was a red glare. Our bomhurdmenl had lasted about two hours when Fritz started replying. reply-ing. Although we were sending over tea shells to his one, our casualties were heavy. There was a constant .stream Of stretchers coming out of the communication trenches and burial panics were a common sight. In the dugouts the noise of the guns almost hurl. You hail the same sensation sensa-tion as when riding on the subway you enter the tube under the river going to Brooklyn a sort i pressure nn the ear drums, and the ground constantly trembling. The roads behind the trenches were very dangerous because Roche shrapnel shrap-nel was constantly bursting over them. We avoided these dangerous spots by (Tossing through open fields. The destruction in the Gorman lines was awful and I really felt sorry for (hem because 1 realized how they must be clicking It. From our front-line trench, every now and again, we could bear sharp wbisiie blasts In the German trenchea, These blasts were the signals for stretcher bearers, and meant the ! wounding or killing of some German In j (he service ol Ids fatherland. Atwell and 1 bad a tough time of it. patrolling the different trenches at1 niuht. bul after awhile got used to it. Mi old outfit the machine gun com I pany. was itatloned In huge elephant ' dugouta about lour hundred yards behind be-hind the front-line trench they were I in reserve. Occasionally 1 would stop In their dugout and have a confab with in v former males. Although we tried I to he Jolly, still, there was, a lurking fei ling of Impending disaster. Kach , man was wondering, if, after the slogan, "Over the lop with the best of luck." had been sounded, would he still be alive or would he be lying "soiin, wherein France." In an old dilapidated bouse, the walls of which were scarred with machine gun bullets, No. 3 section sec-tion of the machine gun company had its quarters. The company's cooks prepared pre-pared the meals in tin- billet. n the fifth evening of the bombardment a German eight-Inch shell registered a direct hit on the billet and wiped out ten men who were asleep in the sup poaedly bomb-proof cellar. Thay were buried the nuxi day and 1 attended the funeral. CHAPTER XXV. All Quiet (?) on the Western Front At brigade headquarters I happened to overhear a conversation between our fl. o. OL (general ofheef commanding) and the divisional commander. From this conversation I learned that we were to bombard the Herman lines for eight days, and on the first of July the "big pushnjvai to commence. In a few days orders were Issued to that effect, and it was common prop arty all along the line. n the afternoon of the eighth day of our "strafelng," Atwell and t were slt-tlflg slt-tlflg In the front-line trench smoking tats and making out our reports of the preVrOUS night's tour of the trenches, which we had to turn In to hoiiiiuuar-ters hoiiiiuuar-ters the following day. when an order was paaaed down the trench that Old Pepper requested twenty volunteers to go over on a trench raid that night to try and get a few German prisoners for Information purposes. 1 Immediately volunteered for this fob, and shook Over the Top !n a Charge. on. according to the code names on our map. Then to rub It In, they, hoisted some more signs which read, "Home on, we are ready, stupid F.ng-llsh." F.ng-llsh." It Is still ;i mystery to me bow they obtained this knowledge. There had been no raids or prisoners taken, so It must have been the work of spies In our own lines. Three or four days before the big push we tried to shatter Fritz's nerves by feint attacks, and partially succeeded suc-ceeded as the OfflcUU reports of July 1 show. Although we were constantly bombarding bom-barding their lines day and night, still we fooled the Germans several times. This was accomplished by throwing an intense barrage into his lines then Using smoke shells we would put a curtain of white smoke across No Man's Land, completely obstructing his view of our trenches, and would raise our curtain of tirn as If in an actual attack. All down our trenches the men would .shout and cheer, and Fritz would turn loose with machine-gun, ritie, and hnnds with Atwell, and went to the rear to give my name to the officers In charge of the raiding party. I was accepted, worse luck. At i:l."i thai Ulght we reported to the brigade headquarters dugout to receive Instructions from Old Pepper. After reaching this dugout we lined up In n semicircle around him, nnd he addressed us as follows: "All I want you boys to do Is to go over to the Herman lines tonight, sur- prise them, secure a couple of prisoners, prison-ers, and return Immediately. Our artillery ar-tillery has bombarded that section of the line for two days and personally I I believe that that part of the Herman trench Is unoccupied, so just get a couple cou-ple of prisoners and return as quickly i as possible." The sergeant on my right, In an un-' un-' dertone. whispered to me: "Say, Yank, how are we going to gel a couple of prisoners If the old fool ! thinks 'personally that that part of the I trench Is unoccupied,' sounds kind of fishy, doesn't It male?" I had a funny sinking sensation In my stomach, and my tin hat felt as if It weighed about a ton and my enthusi-jism enthusi-jism was melting away. Old Pepper must have beard the sergeant speak because lie turned in his direction and In a thundering voice asked : "What did you say?" The sergeant with a scarlet look on his face und his knees trembling, smartly saluted and answereil : "Nothing, sir." Old Pepper said : "Well, don't say It so loudly the next time." Then Old Pepper continued: "In this section of the Herman trenches there are two or three machine ma-chine guns which our artillery. In the last two or three days, has been unable un-able to tape. These guns command the sector where two of our communication communica-tion trenches join the front line, and as the brigade Is to go over the top to morrow morning I want to capture two or three men from these guns' crews, and from them I may be able to obtain valuable Information as to the exact location of the guns, am) our artiller) Will therefore be able to demolish them before the attack, ami thus prevent our losing a lot of men while ualna these communication trenches to bring up re-enforcements." These were the Instructions he gave us: "Take off your Identification disks. strip your uniforms of nil numerals, insignia, etc.. leave your papers with your captains, because I don't want the Roches to know what regiments are against them as this would be valuable information to them in our attack to morrow and I don't want any of you to be taken alive. What I want is two prisoners and If I get them I have a way which will make them dhulge ail necessary Information as to their guns. You have your choice of two weapons--you may carry your 'persuaders' 'per-suaders' or your knuckle knives, and each man will . rm himself with four Mills bombs, these to be used only in case of emergency." A persuader is Tommy's nickname for a club carried by the bombers. It Is about two feet long, thin at one end and rery thick at the other. The thick end Is studded with sharp steel spikes, whll" tie i Ugh the center of the club there .- a nine Inch lead bar, to gle It weight and balance. When you get a prisoner Kll you have to do Is Just stick this club up In front of him, and believe me, the prisoner's patriotism for "Deutsrhland oeber .Mies" fades away and ha very willingly obeys the orderi of Is captor. If however, the prisoner get- hlgb-tOIISd and refuses lo follow you, -imply "pet - v: dc" h!m by tirst removing hli tin ha, am', then well, he use of lbs Uud dght In tlu? persuader l ('cnonsl'iited, and Tom-in Tom-in looks for another prisoner. The knuckle knife la a dagger affair, the blade of which Is about eight Inches long With ti heavy steel guard oxer the grip. This guard H studded with steel projections. At night In a trench, which Is only about three to four feet wide. It makes a very handy weapon. One punch In the face generally gen-erally shatters I man's Jaw and you can e.et him with the knife as in gOM down. Then we had what we called our "coine-alongs." TfeCSSJ are strands of barbed wire about three feel long, made Into a noose al one end: at tho other t tut. the barbs are cut olT and Tommy slips hi! wrist through a loop to get a good grip on the wire. If the prisoner wants to argue the point, why just place the large loop around bis neck and no mutter If Tommy wishes to return lo his trenches at the walk, trot, or gallop, Fritz Is perfectly agreeable agree-able to maintain Tommy's rate of speed. We were ordered to black our faces and bands. For this reason; At night, the English and Hermans use what they call star shells, a sort of rocket affair. They are tired from a large pistol about twenty Inches long, which Is held over the sandbag parapet of the trench, and discharged Into the air. These star shells attain a bright of about sixty feet, and a range of from I fifty to Beventy-flve yards. When they hit the ground they explode, throw Inu' out a strong calcium light which lights up the ground In a circle of a radius of between ten tO fifteen yards. They also have a parachute star shell which, lifter reaching a height of about sll. feel, explodes. A parachute unfolds and slowly finals to the ground, lighting light-ing up a large circle In No Man's Land. The official name of the star shell Is a "Very light." Very-lights are used to prevent night surprise attacks nn the trenches. If a star shell falls In front of you. or between you and the German lines, you are safe from detection, detec-tion, as the enemy cannot se.e you through the bright curtain of light. Bttt If It falls behind you and, as Tommy Tom-my says, "you get In the star shell zone," then the fun begins; you have to lie flat on your stomach and remain absolutely motionless until the light of the shell dies nut. ThU takes anywhere any-where from forty to seventy seconds. If you haven't time to fall to the ground you must remain absolutely still In whatever position you were In when the light exploded; It Is advisable advis-able not to breathe, as I'tllz has an eye like an eagle when lie thinks JTOU are knocking al his door. When a star shell Is burning in Tommy's rear be can bold his breath for a week. You blacken your face and hands so that the light from the star shells will not reflect on your pale face. In a trench raid there Is quite sufficient reason for your face to be pale. If you don't believe me. try It Just once. Then another reason for blackening your face and hands Is Unit, after you have entered the Herniaii trench at night, "white face" means Hermans, "black face" English. Coming around a traverse you see a while face In front of you. With a prayer and wishing wish-ing Fritz "the best o' luck." you introduce intro-duce him to your "persuader" or knuckle knife. A little later we arrived at the com munlCatlon trench named Whisky street, which led to the fire trench at the point we were to go over the top and out In front. In our rear were four stretcher bearers bear-ers and I corporal of the It. A. M 0. carrying a pouch containing medicines and first-aid appliances. Kind of a grim reminder to us that our expedition expedi-tion was not going to be exactly a picnic. pic-nic. The order of tilings was reversed. In Civilian life the doctors generally vome first, with the undertakers tagging tag-ging In the rear and then the Insurance Insur-ance man, but In our case, the undertakers under-takers were leading, with the doctors trailing behind, minus the Insurance adjuster. The presence of the R. A. M. C. men did not seem to disturb the raiders, because be-cause many a Joke made in an undertone, under-tone, wns passed along the winding column, as to who would be first to take a ride on one of the stretchers. This was generally followed by a wlah that, If you were to be the one, the wound would be a "cushy Blighty one." The stretcher bearers, no doubt, bolting that, If they did have to carr.v anyone to the rear, he WOUld be small and light. Perhaps they looked at me U'lien Wishing, because I could feel al, uncomfortable, boring sensation in tweeti my shoulder blades. They gol their wish all right. doing up this trench, about every sixty yard! or so we would pass a lone ly sentry, who In i whisper would c sh us "the best o' luck, males." We v ould blind al him under our breaths ; thill Jonah phrase to us sounded vr omlnoua, Without any casualties the niltistrel Hoop arrived at Suicide ditch, the i M line trench. Previously, a v. I ring party of the Royal Kngltieet's had cut a lane through "iir barbed wile to en-. en-. Me n i to gel oiit into No Man's I I. Crawling through ibis lane, sur party of twenty took up an extended-u extended-u dtr forum -1 n about one yard apart. We had a lap cod.- arranged for oui movements while in No .Man's Land. 1 rUUSe for various rca-oli-- il is not -.it'i to carrj on o heated conversath n n f..w yard! In front of Frlia' llpea. 'i he officer was on the right of the hoe. while I WBI "ti (he extreme left. Two tap- from the right would le passed down tne line until I received them, then I would send back one tap I be officer, in receiving Ibis one tup, ould know that bis order bad gone down the whole line, had been under mod, and tuat the party was ready i . be) lie I WO-tap signal. Two taps meant thnf we were to crawl forward slowly and believe me, very slowly for five yards, ami then halt to await further Instructions. Three taps meant, when you arrived within striking distance dis-tance of the German trench, tush It and Inflict as many casualties ns pos slide, secure a couple of prisoners, and then back to your own lines with the speed clutch open. Four taps meant. "I have gotten you into a posit Ion from which It Is Impossible fOt me to extricate extri-cate ou, BO JTOU are on jmir own." After getting Tommy ItttO a mess on the western front he Is generally told that lie Is "on his own." This means. "Save your skin In any way possible," Tommy loves to be "on his own" behind the lines, but not during a trench raid. The. star shells from the German lines were falling In front of us, therefore there-fore we were safe. After about twenty twen-ty mlnutea we entered the star shell zone. A star shell from the German lines fell about live yards In the rear and lo the right of me; we hugged the ground and held our breath tint it it burned out. The smoke from Hie star shell traveled along the ground and crossed over the middle of our line. Some Tommy sneezed. The smoke bad gotten up his nose. We crouched on the ground, cursing the offender under our breath, and walled the volley that generally ensues when the Germans have beard a noise In No Man's Land. Nothing iiapiietieii. We received two laps and crawled forward Btowl) for Ave yards; no doubt the officer believed be-lieved what Old Pepper bad said, "Personally "Per-sonally I believe that that part of the German trench is unoccupied.'1 By being be-ing careful and remaining motionless when the star shells fell behind us. we reached the Herman barbed wire without with-out mishap. Then the fun began. 1 .was scared stiff as It Is ticklish work cutting your way through wire when about thirty feet In front of you there Is a line of Hoches looking out Into No Man's Land with their rifles lying across the parapet, straining every sense to see or hear what Is going on In No Man's Land; because at night. Fritz never knows when a nomn wim his name and number on It will come hurtling through the air aimed In the direction of Herlln. The man on tli' right, one man In the center and myself my-self on the extreme left were equipped with wire cutters. These are Insulated with soft rubber not because the Herniaii Her-niaii wires are charged With electricity, but to prevent the cutlers rubbing Bgalnsl the barbed wire slakes, which are of Iron, and making a noise which may warn tin- Inmates ot the trench that someone Is gelling fresh In their front yard. There Is only one way to cut a barbed wire without noise and through costly experience Tommy has become an export in doing this. You must grasp the wire about two inches from the stake in your right band and cut between the stake and your hand. If you cut a wire Improperly, a loud twang will ring out on the night air like the snapping of a banjo string. Perhaps this noise can be heard only for fifty or seventy-live yards, but In Tommy's mind It makes a loud noise in Berlin. We had cut a lane about halfway through the wire when, down (lie center cen-ter of our line, twang: went an Improperly Im-properly cut wire. We crouched down, J&ffir. idpk Xdirga "saBSjr J gM9Pv"4MM Receiving First Aid. cursing limb i our breath, trembling all over, our knees lacerated from the strands of the cut barbed wire on the ground, waiting for a challenge and the Inevitable volley of rifle fire. .Nothing .Noth-ing happened. I suppose the fellow who cut the barbed wire Improperly was the one who had annexed about half an hour previously. What we Wished him would never muke his new year a happy one. The officer, in my opinion, at the noise of the wire should bare given tho four-tap .signal, which meant, "On your own. et back to your trenches as quickly as possible," but again he must have relied on the spiel thjil Old Pepper Pep-per bad given us in the dugout, "Personally "Per-sonally I believe that thai part of the German trench Is unoccupied." Anyway, Any-way, We got careless but (lot so carc- les- that we tang patrioUl songs or nude any unnecessary kdan. inning the intervals of tailing stur sin iii we carried on with our wire cutting cut-ting until at last we KUCej ded In getting get-ting through the German arhed wire. Al Ibis Dllll We W( re i ,lj ten feet from the German tranche, if we wen discovered, we were like rats In a trap. H Our way was cut off unless we ran J along the to the narrow lane w H had cut through. With our hearts lit J our mouths we waited for the three- H I tap signal lo rush the Herman trench. H Three taps hail gotten about halfway H down the line when suddenly about ten H to twenty Herman shells went H Bred all along Hie trench and landed H In tlie barbed wire In rear of us. turn- H Ing night Into day and silhouetting us jl against the wall of light made by the H flares. In Hie glaring light we were H confronted by the following unpleasant B All along the Herman trench, at H about three-foot Interval, stood a big Prussian guardsman with his rifle at the aim. and then we found out why H we bad not been Challenge! when Iho 1 man sneezed and the barbed wire bad H been Improperly cut. About three feet In front of the trench they had eon- J BtrUCted a single fence of barbed wire and we knew chances were one W I thousand to one of returning alive. 1 We could not rush their trench on ac- count of this second defense. Then 1 In front of me the challenge, "Halt." H given In English rang out, and one of H tlie finest things I have ever heard on H the western front took place. H From the middle of our line some H Tommy answered the challenge with. "Aw. go to hi." It must have been H the man who had sneezed or who had H Improperly cut the barbed wire; he wanted to show Fritz that he could V die game. Then came the volley. Ma- K chine guns were turned loose and sev- eral bombs were thrown 111 our rear. H The Bochs In front of me was looking H down his sight. This fellow might H have, under ordinary circumstances. H been handsome, but when I viewed blni H from the front of his rifle lie had tho M goblins of childhood Imagination rele- M gated to the shade. H Then came a flash In front of me, the M flare of his rlflt and my head seemed M to burst. A bullet had hit me on the M lift side of my face about half an M Inch from mv eye. smashing the cheek H bones. 1 put my baud to my face ami H fell forward, biting the ground and 1 kicking my feet. 1 thought I was dy- H Ing, but. do you know, my past life did H not untold before me the way It does H In H The blood was streaming down my 1 tunic, and the pain was awful. When M 1 came to I said to myself. "Flap, old 1 hoy, you belong In Jersey City, and H you'd better get buck there as quickly; M as possible." H The bullets were cracking overhead., M I crawled u few feet lank lo the tier M man barbed wire, and in a stooping DO) J sltlon, guiding myself by the wire, I, H went down tlie line looking for the 1 lane we had cut through. Before, H reaching this lane I came to a limp H orm which acouifd like a bag of oats gflM .'i.. be aentinaed.) fl |