| Show MACHINE 1 1517 BY EMPEY AND HIS COMPANY GO OVER THE TOP IN COSTLY BUT successful ATTACK synopsis fired by the sinking of the lusitania with the loss of american alv cs arthur guy empey an american living in jersey city gos to england and enlists as a private in the british army after a short experience a recruiting officer in london he Is sent to train ing quarters in france where he first hears the sound of big guns and makes the acquaintance of booties cooties co oties after a brief period of training empens company Is sent into the front line trenches where he takes his first turn on the fire step while the bullets whiz overhead empey learnt as comrade falls that death lurks always in the trenches chaplain distinguishes himself by rescuing wounded men under hot fire with pick and shovel empey has experience as a trench digger in no mans land exciting experience on listening post detail exciting work on observation post duty back in rest billets writes and stage a successful play CHAPTER 17 about turn the next evening we were relieved by the th brigade and once again returned to rest billets upon arriving at these billets we were given twenty four hours in which to clean up I 1 had just finished getting the mud from nay uniform when the orderly sergeant in 1 formed me that my name was in orders v to leave and that I 1 was to report to the orderly room in the morning for orders transportation and rations I 1 nearly had a fit hustled about packing up filling my pack with souvenirs such as shell lieada dud bombs nose caps balls and a pros atan guardsman s helmet in fact before I 1 turned in that night I 1 had every thing ready to report at the orderly f room at nine the next morning I 1 was the envy of the whole section swanking around telling of the good time I 1 was going to have the places I 1 would visit and the real old english beer I 1 intended to guzzle sort of rubbed it into them because they all alfi it and now that it was my turn I 1 f took pains to get my own back at nine I 1 reported to the captain rec belving my travel order and pass ha asked me how much money I 1 wanted to draw I 1 glibly answered three hundred francs sir be just as glibly handed me one hundred F reporting at brigade headquarters with my pack weighing a ton I 1 waited ath forty others for the adjutant to inspect us after an hours wait be came out must have been sore because be gasn wasn t going with us the quartermaster sergeant issued us two days rations in a little white canvas ration bag which we tied to t our belts then two motor lorries came along and we plied in laughing joking and in the best of spirits we even loved t the germans we were feeling so happy L our journey to seven days bliss in p blighty had commenced alie ride in the lorry lasted about two hours by this time we were cov ered with fine white dust from the a a road but dian didn t mind even it we were nearly choking at the railroad station act F we r reported to an officer who had a white band around bis arm which read R a transportation officer to us this officer was santa claus the sergeant in charge showed him f our orders he glanced through them and said make yourselves comfort br able on the platform and don t leave the train Is liable to be along in five minutes or five hours it came in five hours a string of eleven match boxes on big high i wheels drawn by a dinky little engine with the con these match boxes i were cattle cars on the sides of which was painted the old familiar sign V 40 chevaux 8 the R T 0 stuck us all into one car we care it was as good as a pullman to us two days we spent on that train bumping stopping derung ahead and f sometimes sliding back at three sta alons we stopped long enough to make some tea but were unable to wash so F when we arrived at where we were to embark tor blighty we were as black as burcos turcos and with our shaven faces we looked like a lot of tramps though tired out we were happy e had packed up preparatory to de training when held up his band for us to stop where we were and came over this Is what he said BO s I 1 m sorry but orders have just been received cancelling all leave if you had been three hours earlier you w would have gotten away just stay in that train as it Is going back rations hlll be issued to you for you return journey to your respective stations heaitly rotten I 1 know then he left A dead silence resulted then men darted to curse threw their rifles on i the floor of the car others said noth y ing to be stupefied while some bad ane tears running down their cheeks it n as a bitter disappointment to all how we blinded at the engineer of that train it was all his fault so we reasoned why he speeded up a little or been on time then we would have gotten off before the order arrived now it was no blighty for us that return journey was misery to us I 1 just cant describe it hen we got back to rest billets we found that our brigade was in the trenches another agreeable surprise and that an attack was contemplated seventeen of the forty one will never get another chance to go on leave they were billed in the attack just think it that train had been on time those seventeen would still be alive I 1 hale to tell you how I 1 was kidded by the boys when I 1 got back but it was good and plenty our machine sun company took over their part of the line at seven the night after I 1 returned from my near leave at 3 30 the following morning three waves went over and captured the first and second german trenches the machine gunners went over with the fourth wae to consolidate the captured line or dig in as tommy calls it crossing no mans land without clicking any casualties we came to the german trench and mounted our guns on the of same I 1 never saw such a mess in my life bunches of twisted barbed wire lying about shell holes everywhere trench all bashed in parapets gone and dead bodies why that ditch was full of them theirs and ours it was a regular morgue some were mangled horribly from our shell alre while others were wholly or partly buried in the mud the result of shell explosions caa ing in the walls of the trench one dead german was lying on his back with a rifle sticking straight up in the air the bayonet of which was burled to the hilt in his chest across his feet lay a dead english soldier with a bul let hole in his forehead this tommy must have been killed just as he ran his bayonet through the german and equipment were scattered about and occasionally a steel helmet could be seen sticking out of the mud at one point just in the entrance to a communication trench was a stretch er on this stretcher a german was lying with a white bandage around his ance near to him lay one of the stretcher bearers the red cross on his arm covered with mud and his helmet filled with blood and brains close by sitting up against the wall of the trench with head resting on his chest was the other stretcher bearer seemed to be alive the posture was so natural and easy but when I 1 got closer I 1 could see a large jagged bole in his temple the three must have been killed by the same shell burst the dugouts were all smashed in and knocked about big square cut timbers splintered into bits walls caved in and entrances choked tommy after taking a trench learns to his sorrow that the hardest part of the work la to hold it in our caad tills proved to be so the german artillery and machine guns bad us taped ranged tor fair it was worth your life to expose yourself an instant dont think for a minute that the germans were the only sufferers we were casualties so fast that you needed u adding machine to keep track of them did yoa ever see one of the steam shovels at work on the panama canal well it would look like a hen scratching alongside of a tommy digging in under ore you see day through the clouds ot dirt from bis shovel after losing three out of six men of our crew we managed to set up our machine gun one of the legs of the tripod was resting on the chest of a half buried body alen the gun waa firing it gave the impression that the body was breathing this was caused by the excessive vibration three or four feet down three feet from the ground a foot w arava the earth abi we knew it was a german by the black leather boot one of our crew ased that foot to bang extra landours ban doUrs of ammunition on this man was a handy fellow made use of little points that the ordinary person would overlook the germans made three counter attacks which we reposed but not without heavy loss on our side they also suffered severely from our shell and machine gun fire the ground was spotted with their dead and dying the next day things were somewhat quieter but not quiet enough to bury the dead we lived ate and slept in that trench with the un dead for six days it was awful to watch their faces become sw ollen and discolored towards the last the stench w as fierce what got on my nerves the most was that foot sticking out of the dirt it seemed to me at night in the moonlight to be trying to twist around several times this impression was so strong that I 1 went to it and grasped it in both hands to see if I 1 could feel a movement I 1 told this to the man who had used it for a hatrack just before I 1 lay down for a little nap as things were quiet and I 1 needed a rest pretty badly when I 1 woke up the foot was gone he had cut it off with our chain saw out of the spare parts box and had plastered the stump over with mud during the next two or three days before we were relies ed I 1 missed that foot dreadfully seemed as it I 1 had suddenly lost a chum I 1 think the worst thing of all was to watch the rats at night and sometimes in the day run over and play about among the dead near our gun right across the parapet could be seen the body of a german lieutenant the head and arms 0 which were hanging into our trench the man who had cut off the foot used to sit and carry on a one sided conver with this officer used to argue and point out why germany was in the wrong during all of this monologue I 1 never heard him say anything out of the way anything that would have hurt the officer s feelings had he been alive he was square all right even take advantage of a dead man in an argument to civilians this must seem dreadful ant out here one gets so used to awful eights that it makes no impression in passing a butcher shop you are not shocked by seeing a dead turkey hanging from a hook well in france a dead body Is looked upon from the same angle but nevertheless when our six days were up we were tickled to death to be relieved our machine gun company lost seventeen killed and thirty one wound cd in that little local affair of straightening the line while the other companies clicked it worse than we did after the attack we went into reserve billets for six days and on the seventh once again we were in rest billets CHAPTER punishments and machine gun stunts soon after my arrival in france in fact from my enlistment I 1 had found that in the british army discipline Is very strict one has to be very careful in order to stay on the narrow path of government virtue there are about seven million waya of breaking the kings regulations to keep one you have to break another the worst punishment is death by a firing squad or up against the wall as tommy calls it this Is tor desertion cowardice tiny giving information to the enemy looting rape robbing the dead forcing a safeguard striking a superior etc then comes the punishment of sixty tour days in the front line trench without relief during this time you have to engage in all raids working parties in iso man land and every hazardous undertaking that comes along it you live through the sixty tour days you are indeed lucky Empe yand hie comrades make the deadly machine guns pep form all kinds of tricks to the discomfiture of pritz the next installment tells how the german gunners are fooled TO BE CONTINUED |
