Show ga 0 VT r T H by ij an Ameri nc caira an arthur gw guy empey y want machine gunner serving in france copyright 1917 by arthur guy gay empty empey EMPEY GIVES A description OF THE WORK ON observation POST DUTY synopsis fired by the sinking of the lusitania with the loss of american lives arthur guy empey nn an american living in jersey ca city ty goes to england and enlists as a private in the british army anny after a short experience as a recruiting officer in london he be to Is sent to training quarters in france where he far first st hears the sound of big guns and makes the acquaintance of booties cooties co oties ottes 11 after a brief period of training empens company Is sent into the front line trenches where he takes lits 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 unde r hot fire with pick and shovel empey has experience exper lence as a trench digger in no mans land exciting experience on listening post detail CHAPTER XVI continued 1111 11 I came out with the first expeditionary force and like all the rest thought we would have the enemy licked in jig time lime and be able to cat christmas christinas dinner at home well so far I 1 have eaten two christmas dinners in the trenches and am liable to eat two more the way things are pointing that Is if fritz dont drop a chizz bang on me and send me to blighty sometimes I 1 wish I 1 would get hit because its no great picnic out here and twenty two months of it makes you fed up its fairly cushy now compared to what it used to be although I 1 admit this trench Is a trifle rough now we send over five shells to their one we are getting our own back but in tire the early days it was different then you had bad 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 we were the tuf ebers just one casualty after another sometimes whole platoons would disappear especially when a jack johnson plunked flunked into their middle it got so bad that a fellow when writing home ask for any cigarettes to be sent out because he be was afraid he be be there to receive them after the drive to parts 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 ten tea and tommy armed himself with gitlia a pick and shovel and started digging lies iles been digging ever since of course we dug those trenches it 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 1 call them were nightmares they were only about five feet deep and you used to get the backache from bending down it exactly safe to stand upright either because as soon as your napper showed over the bip ip a bullet would bounce off it or else come so BO close it would make your hair stand we used to fill sandbars sandbags sand bags and stick them on top of the parapet to make it higher but no use they would be there about an hour and then feliz 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 come out on stretchers they grabbed all the bets beta in sight like a lot of bally idiots several 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 when the bat battalion rallon was relieved the gamblers lined up several jocks jot got their money for emerging safely but the ones who clicked it there to pay the artillery men had never thought it out that way those scuttles Scott les were bound to be sure winners no matter how the wind blew so take a tip from me never bet with a scottie Sc ottle cause lose money at one part of our trench where a communication trench joined the front line a tommy had stuck u up P a wooden signpost with three hands or arms on it one of the hands pointing to the germin german germ in lines rend read to berlin the one pointing down the C corn 0 M trench rend read to mighty blighty while the other said sule suicide ide ditch change here for strete stretchers hers farther down from this guide post the trench r ran an through an old orchard on the edge of this orchard our battery had constructed an advanced observation post the trees screened it from the enemy airmen and the roof was it cushy like ours no timber or concrete re just walls of sandbars sandbags sand bags from it a splendid view of the german lines could be obtained this post 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 at the phone I 1 had to crawl craw on my belly like a worm to keep from being hit it was an observation post sure enough all the use it was just observe all day but never a message back for out oui 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 brigade headquarters blime me if anyone disobeyed that command our general yes it was old pe pepper would have court marti aled the whole expeditionary force nobody went out of their way to disobey old pepper in those days because he 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 pepper would get the first call facing the germans halt half bad compared with an interview with that old firebrand if a company or battalion should give way a few yards against a superior force of boches old rep pepper per would send for the commanding officer in about halt half an nour the officer would come back with lus his face the color of a brick and in a few hours what was left of his bis command would be holding their original position 1 I have seen an officer who 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 blush for shame PINA F I 1 k tit t t e 17 4 V one of the gig guns barking nilian aliat at I 1 nin going to tell you Is how two w 0 ous of us put it over on th flip old scamp find got away with it it was it a risky tiling thing too because old pepper have boon been exactly mild with us it if he lud had sot got next to tile the game me and my mate a lad ind named darry cassell cassall a bombardier in D battery or lance corporal as you sou call it in the infantry used to relieve tile the we would woula do two hours houra on and four off I 1 would be on bouty in the observation post while lie he would be at the other end of the wire in the battery dugout signaling station we w were ere supposed to send Ill rough orders tor for the battery to fire when cn ordered to do so by the observation officer in the advanced post but very few messages were sent it was only in case of an actual attack that we would jet get a chance to earn our two and six a day you see old pepper had issued orders not to ore fire except 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 e 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 but unable to tn send over a shell we heartily cussed old pepper his orders the government the people at home and everything in general but the bodies mind cussing bussing cus sing and got very careless blime me they were bally insulting sul ting used to when using a certain road throw their caps into the air a a taunt at our helplessness CaN cassell sell had been a telegrapher in civil life and joined up when war was declared As for me I 1 knew learned it at the signalers school back in 1910 with an officer in the observation post we could not carry on the kind of conversation usual between two mates so we used the morse code 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 pashing 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 lie he would scan the ground behind the german trenches looking for targets and finding many this officer captain A by name had a habit of talking out loud to himself sometimes lie he would vent his opinion some as a common private does when hes bes wrought up once upon a time the captain had bad been on old peppers staff so he could cuss and blind in the mort moet 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 arltz had brought companies of troops down this road in broad daylight they were never shelled whenever this happened tile the captain would froth at the mouth and let out a volume of old peppers 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 are called targets and are numbered on our batt erys chart that road was called target 17 range 3 degrees 30 minutes left I 1 D battery consisted of four 45 howit and fired a 35 pound IT E shell As you know H B E means high explosive 1 I 1 dont like bumming up my own battery but we had 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 1 were at our posts as usual fritz was strafe ing us pretty rough just like hes doing now the shells were playing leapfrog all through that orchard 1 I was carrying on a conver conversation in our tap code with cassell at the other end it ran something like this 11 say cassell how would you like to be in the saloon bar of the kings arms down rye lane with a bottle of bass in front of you and that blonde barmaid waiting to fill ern em up again the next installment r relates e lates how two artillerymen artilleryman artillery men put one over on old pepper TO BE CONTINUED |