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Show I "OVER THE TOP" II By An American Arthur Guy Empey Soldier Who Went Machine Gunner, Serving in France CopyrlR-ht 1917, by Arthur Guy Empey EMPEY GIVES A DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK ON OBSERVATION OBSER-VATION POST DUTY. Synopsis. Fired by the sinking of the Lusitania, with the loss of American lives, Arthur Guy Empey, an American living in Jersey City, goes to England and enlists as a private in the British army. After a short experience as a recruiting oflicer In London, he Is sent to training train-ing quarters in France, where he first hears the sound of big guns and makes the acquaintance of "cooties." After a brief period of training Empoy's company Is sent into the front-line trenches, where he takes his first turn on the fire step while the bullets whiz overhead. Empey learns, 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 Man's Land. Exciting experience on listening post detail. CHAPTER XVI Continued. 11 . "I came out with the first expeditionary expedi-tionary force, and, like all the rest, thought we would have the enemy licked in jig time, and be able to eat Christmas dinner at home. Well, so far, I have eaten two Christmas dinners din-ners in the trenches, and am liable to eat two more, tha way things are pointing. That Is, if Fritz don-t drop a 'whizz-bang' on me, and send me to Blighty. Sometimes I wish I would get hit. because It's no great picnic out here, and twenty-two months of it makes you fed up. "It's fairly cushy now compared to what It used to be, although I admit this trench Is a trifle rough. Now. we send over five shells to their one. We are getting our own back, but in the early days it was different. Then you had to take everything without reply. In fact, we would get twenty shells in return for every one we sent over. Fritz seemed to enjoy It, but we British didn't; we were the sufferers. suf-ferers. Just one casualty after another. an-other. Sometimes whole platoons would disnnnear. especially when a 'Jack Johnson' plunked into their middle. It got so bad that a fellow, when writing home, wouldn't ask for any cigarettes to be sent out, because he was afraid he wouldn't be there to receive them. "After the drive to Paris was turned back, trench warfare started. Our general grabbed a map, drew a pencil across it. and said, 'Dig here.' Then he went back to his tea, and Tommy armed himself with a pick and shovel and started digging. He's been digging dig-ging ever since. "Of course we dug those trenches at night, but it was hot work, what with the rifle and machine-gun fire. The stretcher bearers worked harder than the diggers. "Those trenches, bloomin' ditches, I call them, were nightmares. They were only about five icet deep, and you used tO' get the backache from bending down. It wasn't exactly safe to stand upright, either, because as soon as your napper showed over the top a bullet would bounce off It, or else come so close it would make your hair stand. "We used to fill sandbags and stick them on top of the parapet to make it higher, but no, use; they would be there about an hour and then Fritz would turn loose and blow them to bits. My neck used to be sore from ducking shells and bullets. "Where my battery was stationed a hasty trench had been dug, which the boys nicknamed 'Suicide ditch,' and. believe me, Yank, this was the original 'Suicide ditch.' All the others are imitations. "When a fellow went into that trench it was an even gamble that he would come out on a stretcher. At one time a Scotch battalion held it, and when they heard the betting was even money that they'd come out on stretchers, they grabbed all the bets in sight. Like a lot of bally idiots, several sev-eral of the battery men fell for their game, and put up real money. The 'Jocks' suffered a lot of casualties, and the prospects looked bright for the battery men to collect some easy money. So whei the battalion was relieved re-lieved the gamblers lined up. Several 'Jocks' got their money for emerging safely, but the ones who clicked it weren't there to pay. The-artillerymen had never thought it out that way. Those Scotties were bound to be sure winners, no matter how the wind blew. So take a tip from me. never bet with a Scottle, 'cause you'll lose money. "At one part of our trench where a communication trench joined the front line a Tommy' had stuck up a wooden signpost with three hands or arms on it. One of the hands, pointing point-ing to the German lines, read, 'To Berlin Ber-lin ;' the one pointing down the com-municntion com-municntion trench read, 'To Blighty,' while the other said, 'Suicide Ditch, Change Here for Stretchers.' "Farther down from this guide post the trench ran through an old orchard. On the edge of this orchard our battery bat-tery had constructed an advanced observation ob-servation post. The trees screened it from the enemy airmen and the roof was turfed. It wasn't cushy like ours, no timber or concrete re-enforcements, just walls of sandbags. From It a splendid view of the German lines could be obtained. This post wasn't exactly safe. It was a hot corner, shells plunking all around, and the bullets cutting leaves off the trees. Many a time when relieving the signaler sig-naler at the 'phone, I had to crawl on my belly like a worm to keep from being hit. "It was an observation post sure enough. That's all the use it was. Just observe all day, but never a message buck for our battery to open up. You see, at this point of the line there were strict orders not to fire a shell, unless specially ordered to do so from y Si 4 w, , , ' , -- t, . - - - - 'aw-yw1 ". One of the Big Cuns Barking. brigade headquarters. Blime me, if anyone disobeyed that command, our general yes, it was Old Pepper would have court-martialed the whole expeditionary force. Nobody went out of their way to disobey Old Pepper in those days, because he couldn't be called a parson; he was more like a pirate. If at any time the devil should feel lonely and sigh for a proper mate, Old I'epper would get the first call. Facing the Germans wasn't half bad compared with an interview with that old firebrand. "If a company or battalion should give way a few yards against a superior su-perior force of Boches, Old Pepper would send for the commanding officer. offi-cer. In about half an hour the officer would come back with his face the color of a brick, and in a few hours what was left of his command would be holding their original position. "I have seen an oflicer who wouldn't say d n for a thousand quid spend five minutes with the old boy, and when he returned the flow of language from his lips would make a navvy blush for shame. "What I am going to tell you is how two of us put it over on the old scamp, and got away with it. It was a risky thing, too, because Old Pepper wouldn't have been exactly mild with us if he had got next to the game. "Me and my mate, a lad named Harry Har-ry Cassell, a bombardier in D 23S battery, bat-tery, or lance corporal, as you call It in the infantry, used to relieve the telephonists. We would do two hours on and four off. I would be on outy In the advanced observation post, while he would be at the other end of the wire in the battery dugout signaling signal-ing station. We -were supposed to send 'hrough orders for the battery to fire when ordered to do so by the observation observa-tion oflicer in the advanced post. But very few messages were sent. It was only in case of an actual attack that we would get a chance to earn our 'two and six' a day. You see, Old Pepper Pep-per had issued orders not to fire except ex-cept when the orders came from him. And with Old Pepper orders is orders, and made to obey. "The Germans must have known about these orders, for even in the day their transports and troops used to expose themselves as if they were on parade. This sure got up our nose, sitting there day after day, with fine targets in front of us hut unable to send over a shell. We heartily cussed Old Pepper, his orders, the government, govern-ment, the people at home, and everything every-thing In general. But the Boches didn't mind cussing, and got very careless. care-less. Blime me, they were bally Insulting. In-sulting. Used to, when using a certain road, throw their caps into the air a a taunt at our helplessness. "Cassell had been a telegrapher in civil life and joined up when war was declared. As for me, I knew Morse, learned it at the signalers' school back in 1910. WTith an officer in the observation obser-vation post, we could not carry on the kind of conversation that's usual between be-tween two mates,- so we used the Morse cade. To send, one of us would tap the " transmitter with his finger nails, and the one on the other end would get it through the receiver. Many an hour was whiled away in this manner passing compliments back and forth. "In the observation post the officer used to sit for hours with a powerful pair of field glasses to his eyes. Through a cleverly concealed loophole he- would scan the ground behind the German trenches, looking for targets and finding many. This officer, Captain Cap-tain A by name, had a habit of talking out loud to himself. Sometimes Some-times he would vent his opinion, 6ame as a common private does when he's wrought up. Once upon a time the captain had been on Old Pepper's staff, so he could cuss and blind in the most approved style. Got to be sort of a habit with him. "About six thousand yards from us, behind the German lines, was a road in plain view of our post. For the last three days Fritz had brought companies compa-nies of troops down this road in broad daylight. They were never shelled. Whenever this happened the captain would froth at the mouth and let out a volume of Old Pepper's religion which used to make me love him. "Every battery has a range chart on which distinctive landmarks are noted, with the range for each. These landmarks land-marks are called targets, and are numbered. num-bered. On our battery's chart, that road was called 'Target 17, Range C000, 3 degrees 30 minutes left.' D 238 battery consisted of four '4.5' howitzers, howit-zers, and fired a 35-pound H. E. shell. As you know, H. B. means 'high explosive.' ex-plosive.' I don't like bumming up my own battery, but we cad a record in the division for direct hits, and our boys were just pining away for a chance to exhibit their skill In the eyes of Fritz. "On the afternoon of the fourth day of Fritz' contemptuous use of the road mentioned the captain and I were at our posts as usual. Fritz was strafe-ing strafe-ing us pretty rough, just like he's doing now. The shells were playing leapfrog leap-frog all through that orchard. "I was carrying on a conversation in our 'tap' code with Cassell at the other end. It ran something like this: " 'Sny, Cassell, how would you like to be in the saloon bar of the King's Arms down Rye lane with a bottle of Bass in front of you, and that blonde barmaid waiting to fill 'em up again?' The next installment relates how two artillerymen "put one over" on Old Pepper. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |