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Show him In the trenches, because our out fits were nowhere near ench other, but whenever we were in billets at the same time, we were together as much as possible. Brown was a funny card and I never saw anyone else much like him. A big, tall, red-headed, dopey-looking fellow, fel-low, never saying much and slow in everything he did or snid you would never think he amounted to much or was worth his salt. The boys used to I call him "Ginger" Brown, both on account ac-count of his red hair and his slow movements. But he would pull a surprise sur-prise on you every once In a while, like this one that he fooled me with. One morning -about dawn we started out for a walk through what used to be Dlxmude piles of stone and brick and mortar. There were no civvies to be 6een ; only mules and horses bringing bring-ing up casks of water, bags of beans, chloride of lime, barbed wire, ammunition, ammu-nition, etc. It was a good thing we were not superstitious. At that, th shadows along the walls made me feel shaky sometimes. Finally Brown said : "Come on down ; let's see the '75's.' " At this time I had not seen a "75," except on a train going to the front, so I took him up right away, but was surprised that he should know where they were. After going half way around Dix-mude Dix-mude Brown said, "Here we are," and started right into what was left of a big house. I kept wondering how ha would know so much about It, but fol- Albert KDepe EX-GUNNER AND CHIEF PETiTOFFicEJr&AJ ,' member of the foreign legion of france js? ! captain gun turret, French battleship CassaPsD 7 - winner of the croix de guerre Copyrisll. I18. by Roily nd Bnnon Co.. Through Speciil fvnngcnrat Wh ihe Georse Manhew Adum Scvice DEPEW GETS HIS FIRST EXPERIENCE IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES AT DIXMUDE. Synopsis. Albert N. Depew, author of the story, tells of his service in the United States navy, during which he attained the rank of chief petty officer, first-class gunner. The world war starts soon after he receives his honorable discharge from the navy, and he leaves for France with a determination to enlist. He joins the Foreign Legion and is assigned to the dreadnaught Cassard, where his marksmanship wins him high honors. Later he is transferred to the land forces and sent to the Flanders front. two snipers to each company and because be-cause they took more chances with their lives than the ordinary privates they were allowed more privileges. When It was at all possible our snipers were allowed dry quarters, the best of food, and they did not have to follow the usual routine, but came and went as they pleased. Our snipers, as a rule, went over the parapet about dusk, Just before Fritz got his star shells going. They would crawl out to shell craters or tree stumps or holes that they had spotted during the day in other words, places where they could see the enemy parapets but could not be seen themselves. Once in position, they would make themselves comfortable, comfort-able, smear their tin hats with dirt, get a good rest for their rifles and snipe every German they saw. They wore extra bandoleers of cartridges, since there was no telling how many rounds they might fire during the night. Sometimes they had direct and visible targets and other times they potted Huns by guesswork. Usually they crawled back just before daylight, day-light, but sometimes they were out 24 hours at a stretch. They took great pride in the number of Germans they knocked over, and if our men did not get eight or ten they thought they had not done a good night's work. Of course it was not wholesale killing, like machine gunning, but it was very useful, because our snipers were always al-ways laying for the German snipers, and when they got Sniper Fritz they saved just so many of our lives. The Limeys have a great little expression ex-pression that means a lot : "Carry on." They say it is a cockney expression. When a captain falls In action, his words are not a message to the girl he left behind him or any dope about his gray-haired mother, but "Carry on, Lieutenant Whosis." If the lieutenant gets his it Is "Carry on, Sergeant Jacks," and so on as far as it goes. So the words used to mean, "Take over the command and do the Job right." But now they mean not only that but "Keep up your courage, and go to it." One man will say It to another sometimes when he thinks the first man is getting downhearted, but more often. If he is a Limey, he will start kidding him. our men, of course, did not say "Carry on," and In fact they did not have any expression In French that meant exactly the same thing. But they used to chepr each other along, all right, and they passed along the command when it was necessary, too. I wonder what expression the Amerl- nn n trnunc wilt fYnn nntlrp T CHAPTER IV Continued. In the communication trench you have to keep your distance from the man ahead of you. This is done so that you will have plenty of room to fall down in, and because If a shell should find the trench, there would be fewer casualties in an open formation than in a closed. The German artillery artil-lery Is keen on communication trenches, and whenever they spot one they stay with it a long time. Most , of them are camouflaged along the top and sides, so that enemy aviators cannot can-not see anything but the earth or bushes, when they throw an eye down on our lines. We took over our section of the front line trenches from a French line regiment that had been on the job for 24 days. That was the longest time I have heard of any troops remaining on the firing line. 1 Conditions at the front and wavs of our noses worse than the cooties. They certainly were game little devils, and came right back at us. So most of the pollus threw the dope at Fritz and fought the cooties hand to hand. There was plenty of food In the trenches most of the time, though once In a while, during a heavy bombardment, bombard-ment, the fatigue usually a corporal's guard would get killed In the communication com-munication trenches and we would not have time to get out to the fatigue and rescue the grub they were bringing. Sometimes you could not find either the fatigue or the grub when you got to the point where they had been hit-But, hit-But, as I say, we were well fed most of the time, and got second and third helpings until we had to open our belts. But as the Limeys say : "Gaw blimey, the chuck was rough." They served a thick soup of meat and vegetables vege-tables in bowls the size of wash basins, ba-sins, black coffee with or without sugar mostly without '. and plenty of bread. Also, we had preserves In tins, just like the Limeys. If you send any parcels par-cels over, do not put any apple and plum Jam In them or the man who gets It will let Fritz shoot him. Ask any Limey soldier and he will tell you the same. I never thought there was so much Jam In the world. No Man's Land looked like a city dump. Most of us took it, after a while. Just to get the bread. Early In the war they used the tins to make bombs of, but that was before Mills came along with his hand grenade. Later on they flattened flat-tened out the tins and lined the dugouts dug-outs with them. Each man carried an emergency ration ra-tion In his bag. This consisted of bully beef, biscuits, etc. This ration was never used except in a real emergency, because no one could tell when It might mean the difference between life and death to him. When daylight catches a man In n shell hole or at a listening post out In No Mini's Land he does not dare to crawl back to his trench before nightfall, and then Is the time that his emergency ration conies In handy. Also, the stores failed to reach us sometimes, as I have said, and we had to use the emergency-rations. emergency-rations. Sometimes we received raw meat and fried It In our dugouts. We built We Started Right Into What Was Left of a Big House. lowed him. Inside the house was a passageway under the ruins. It was about seven feet wide and fifty feet long, I should Judge. At the other end was the great old "75," poking Its nose out of a hole In the wall. The gun captain and the crew were sitting around waiting the word for action, and they seemed to know Brown well. I was surprised at that, but still more so when he told me I could examine the gun If 1 wanted to, Just as If he owned It. So I sat In the seat and trained the cross vlres on nn object, opened and closed the breech and examined the recoil. Then Brown said: "Well. Chink, you'll see some real gunnery now," nnd they passed the word and took stations. sta-tions. My eyes bulged out when I saw Brown take his station with them! "Silence!" Is about the first command com-mand a gun crew gets when It Is going Into action, but I forgot all about it, and shouted out and asked Brown how he got to be a gunner. But he only grinned and looked dopey, as usual. Then I came to and expected to get a call down from the otllcer, but he only grinned and so did the crew. It seems they had It all framed to spring on me, and they expected I would be surprised. So wo put cotton In our ears and the captain railed the observation tower a short distance away and they gave him the range. Then the captain "called 41-S meters" to Brown. They placed the nose of a shell in a fuse adjuster nnd turned the handle until It reached scale 412S. This set the fuse to explode at the range given. Then they slammed the shell Into the breech, locked It ehut nnd Brown sent his best to Fritz. Tim barrel slipped back, threw out the shell case at our feet and returned over a cushion of grease. Then wo received the results by telephone from the observation tower. After he had fired twelve shots the captain said to Brown, "You should never waste yourself your-self In infantry, son." And old dopey Brown Just stood there and grinned. That was Brown every time, lie knew about more things than you could think of. Ho had read about gunnery and fooled around at IMxmndo until they let him play with the ".r's." and finally here be was, giving bis kindest lo old Fritz with the rest of them. Members of the Foreign Legion, Le-gion, all soldiers of fortune, swear vengeance when thoy see the Germans place Belgian women wom-en and children In front of them as shields against the enemy's fire. Gunner Depew tells about this In tho next Innt.illmcnt. (TO HI'l CONTINUKl).) fighting are changing all the time, as each side Invents new methods of butchering, so when I try to describe the DIxmude trenches, you must realize real-ize that it is probably just history by now. If they are still using trenches there they probably look entirely different. dif-ferent. ; But when I was at Dirmude they were something like this: Behind the series of front-line trenches are the reserve trenches ; In this case five to seven miles away, and still farther back are the billets. These may be houses or barns or ruined churches any place that can possibly be used for quartering troops when off duty. Troops were usually In the frontline front-line trenches six to eight days, and fourteen to sixteen days in the reserve trenches. Then back to the billets for six or eight days. We were not allowed to change our clothing in the front-line trenches not even to remove socks, unless for Inspection. Nor would they let you as much as unbutton your shirt, unless there was an inspection of identification identifica-tion disks. We wore a disk at the wrist and another around the neck. You know the gag about the disks, of course: If your arm Is blown off they can tell who you are by the neck disk; If your head is blown off, they do not care who you are. In the reserve trenches you can make yourself more comfortable, but you cannot go to such extreme lengths of luxury as changing your clothes entirely. en-tirely. That is for billets, where you spend most of your time bathing, changing clothes, sleeping and eating. Believe me, a billet is great stuff; It Is like a sort of temporary heaven. Of course you know what the word "cooties" means. Let us hope you Mil never know what the cooties themselves mean. When you get In or near the trenches, you take a course In the natural history of bugs, lice, rats and every kind of pest that has fver been Invented. It Is funny to see some of the new-corners new-corners when they first discover a cootie on them. Some of them cry. If they really knew what It was going to be like they would do worse than that, maybe. Then they start hunting all over each other, Just like monkeys. They team up for tills purpose, and many times It Is In this way that a couple of men get to be treri'-h partners and come to be pals for life which may not bo a long time nt that. In the front-line trenches It Is more comfortable to fall asleep on the parapet para-pet fire-step thnn In the dugouts, because be-cause the cooties are thicker down below, and they simply will not give you a minute's rest. They certainly lire netjve little pests. We used to iiuike back Hcrntchcrs out of certain weapons Hint had flexible handles, but tn-ver hud time to in'.e them when we nccdcil tiieiri most. We were given bottles of n lUpild which mricllcd lllte lysol and were fuip-po'ied fuip-po'ied to souk our clothes In It. It wmh thought that the cooties would object lr, tic xiio'll nnd ipilt. work. Well, ii t fin t could stiiri'l our clothes v.: 'hunt the ddpc on them would not I . . .-i "'I by ii little thing lll:o thin '"''. l . "Mr ''lot lo" got I'O I'Olir t ml i,:;i , it, I" . !i cllin:: t 1 "1 1 Hiey hill t do not call them Sammies!) I took my turn at listening post with the rest of them, of course. A listening listen-ing post Is any good position out In No Man's Land, and Is always held by two men. Their Job is to keep a live ear on Fritz nnd In case they hear anything any-thing that sounds very much like an attack one man runs back to his lines and the other stays to hold back the Bodies as long as he can. You can figure for yourself which Is the most healthful Job. As many times as I went on llsten-lng-post duty I never did get to feeling feel-ing homelike there exactly. You have to lie very still, of course, as Fritz Is listening, too. and a move may mean a bullet In the ribs. So, lying on the ground with hardly a change of position, posi-tion, the whole lower part of my body would go to sleep before I had been at the post very long. I used to brag a lot about how fust I could run, so I hud my turn as the runner, which suited me all right. But every time I got to a listening post and started to think about what I would do lr Fritz should come over and wondered how good a runner he was, I took a long breath nnd said, "Feet, do your duty." And I was strong on duty. After I had done my stunt in the front-line and reserve trenches I went back with my company to billets, but hnd only been there for a day or two before I was detached and detailed to the artillery position to (lie right of us, where both the British and French had mounted naal guns. There were guns of all calibers there, both naval and field pieces, and I got a good look at the famous "7.r's," which are the best guns in the world, In my estimation, estima-tion, and the one thing that saved Verdun. Tin; "7.ri's" fired HO shots n minute, where the best the German guns could do was six. The American three-Inch field piece lets go six times a minute, too. The French government owns the secret of the mechanism that made this rapid fire possible. When the first "75's" began to roar, the Germans knew the French had found a new weapon, so they were very anxious to get one of tho guns and learn tho secret. Shortly afterward they captured eight guns by a mass attack In which, tho allies claim, there were 4,000 German Ger-man troops killed. The Bodies studied tin; guns and tried to turn out pieces like them at the Krupp factory. But somehow they could not get It. Their Imitation "75'h" would only fire five shots very rapidly and then "cough" puff, i u fT. puff, with nothing coining out. Tin; destructive power of the "75's" Is enormous. These guns have saved the lives of thousands of pollus and Tommies and II Is largely duo to them that, the French are now able to beat Fritz at bis own game anil give back sliel'- for shell and then Home. CHAPTER V. With tho "75'8." My pal Brown, of whom I spoke before, be-fore, had been put In the Infantry when he enlisted In the Legion, because be-cause lie had served In Hie United Slnles Infantry. lie noon became a Mergciinl, which hnd been Ids ruling In the American service, I never :a' They Potted Huns by Gueos Work. regular clay ovens In the dugouts, wllh Iron tops for bridling. This, of course, was In the front-line trenches only. We worked two hours on the fire-step fire-step and knocked oh" for four hours, In which tlmo we cooked and ale and slept. This routine was kept, up night and day, seven days a week. Sometimes Some-times the program was chang"d; for Instance, when there was l,( be an attack at-tack or when Fritz tried to come over und visit, but otherwise nothing disturbed dis-turbed our routine unless It. was a gaH attack. The niiil.lt Ion of most privates Is to become a nnlper, ns the olllclal sharp-Wioolers sharp-Wioolers are culled. After a private has been In the trenches for six months or n year and has aboun Ids mm lisniaiif'.hlp, lie becomes the great man ho bus di oiiiiicij uhout. Wc hnd |