Show asun 1 12 03 rai N ja 3 aft awty 7 1 J daring Darina american linemen fresh f from rom civil life maintain communications icat ions under fire ne HE two great means mean of comillia nt ni catlon cation on the modern battlefield the means hy by which ge general 11 headquarters keeps beeps in touch with every evar sector of the line and by whick the perfect ordination coordination co of till nil branches of the service Is possible are tile the airplane and electricity tile the roman romantic tc appeal of the aviation service the stirring stories of high adventure aden turc that have come com e out of the war ar have made the work vork of the bird birdeen birdmen men the supersedeas super seders of cavalry as the eyes of the commander coinman dei familiar to the people at home on the lie ground charging infantrymen and roaring cannon cap ture the imagination but the heroic labors of men who keep open the telegraph and telephone lines which make operation cooperation co of infantry and artillery possible are almost unknown outside the service save tor for instance when one reads of a medal bestowed on a line repa repairman irman for magnificent disregard of danger for their losses and their honors are alike great they go over the top w with ith the troops smoking their pipes coolly stringing lines behind the advancing first line so that the gun crews may be kept informed of the advance or told to concentrate their fire on a particularly ticul arly obnoxious machine chine gun says a writer in tile the new york sun tv j U 4 FT W 4 mcf A 0 X el V k 11 4 tn X 44 4 aa 6 r clamber out of dugouts into the slush and the freezing wind of a winter night to feet feel their ay along a broken wire sometimes over the lie shell pit ted open ground behind the trenches until they find the break then sitting in ice water under fire they repair it as carefully and skillfully as aa if they were at work la in the shop at home it often takes three or four men to repair one of these breaks the first ap pp men sent out may never come back repaired at aai all costs the wire must be and danger g ee does not ex cuse a slipshod bit of work for tho the slin ai system of ofalie lice army Is what the nervous system Is to the human body 0 t o fl ma atit it the the modern wo iazzo army vering covering miles of front cannot see feel or move the army commander wishing to move a portion of ills his line 50 miles away or to change the rapidity of his artillery fire or to receive information of enemy movements Is as helpless without the slender threads of copper as he would be it if he wished to move his right arra arm and found the nerves paralyzed there are still people of intelligence who think that the transmission of military thought Is summed up in the use of the notebook the orderly and his horse writes brig gen george ap P scriven but these are passing and the trained soldier and the educated volunteer understand the vital ital imbor tance of information hence the necessity for a signal corps or its equivalent for without its ltd aid modern armies can no more be controlled than can great railway systems the commander in the field remains blind and deaf to the events occurring around him I 1 incapable of maintaining touch with conditions and out of reach of his superiors or those under his authority upon whom he depends for the execution of his plans the brain lacks the power potter to control because the nerves are larking lacking time Is the main factor in war to arrive first with the greatest number of men and with the clearest understanding of the situation Is to succeed the last and often the first of these conditions depends upon the lines of information of the army and ana these thee lines in turn depend upon the obscure but daring work of the repairman the grimy mucky hard fisted mechanic who crawls on his belly through shell fire calculated to appau the stoutest heart and connects the break between the commander and the point lie wishes to reach somehow the lines are kept open all the time or are broken tor for only short intervals and the constant tending of them has made possible in france it a system of wire communication that ii Is a marvel of efficiency indeed so perfect Is it that london and paris are in direct connection headquarters on the british front chiel in turn Is in touch with every division and brigade staff on the line A wire could be put straight through so that lloyd george it if he wished visited could hear the bursting of high explosives and shrapnel on the allens amiens front this tremendous use of the telephone and telegraph in warfare Is partly the result of tile the impetus arising from the american application of electrical communication on n large scale in the t lie spanish war the signal corps as it now exists Is it comparatively recent evolution in the american army the idea first arose in the mind ofa of n young army surgeon albert james myer the office of signal officer of the army was created in june IW the first of its kind and slyer myer was was appointed lie he was at 0 once rice sent rent with w I 1 tit an expedition against navajo indians in new mexico and his crude apparatus at once demonstrated its worth when the civil war began lie was ordered east and opened a school for signalers and in that was the definite beginning of the present signal corps wires were carried on horse or then alien the instruments were imperfect and telegraphic communication muni cation ailon was a rare and precious thing the service took on tremendous importance in the spanish war and followed the troops through cuba and the philippines PhIlIp and aad in china was the only S r y in Z IN 0 Z A W I 1 f N i A A f 00 means of communication for it week between peking and the rest of 0 the world but the tasks that confronted our signal men in these wars were play compared to the work that is being done every day on oil the western front our signal men there have an am area to cover about the size of pennsylvania and they have gone at it with a vigor and efficiency that spell volumes for the superiority of americans la in this particular line of work tile the hardy linemen who have strung lines and repaired breaks on the western plains or battled with great floods and storms in the rocky mountains have taken to this new work with a zest which is inspiring on the foundation of the french system they are building a signal system that will be a model of its kind up to within four miles of f the front construction Is not different from what it Is here at home the wires ore are strung on oil poles and most of the poles have been planted by the french but when one gets inside the shell torn section that stretches at least four miles from the front wires have to be protected by being burled buried from six to eight feet deep so BO that only a direct hit by a large shell will disturb them within half a mile of the front not even this protection is sufficient as the shells churn and the ground therefore all wires in this zone tire are duplicated and are strung along both sides of the trenches tren dies sometimes a trench wall Is covered with wires in the battalion headquarters signal office where the hundreds of wires from the trenches and observation posts cent center r and where the receivers huni hum with the constant tremors of a world under fire plain bill smith lounges in a corner rolling a cigarette and occupied in his own particular thoughts it is it a dugout this headquarters und and the air is vile bat bill got used to that long ago tile the wire to A battery Is down don smiths superior officer says turning to him all right sir is the answer and bill climbs out of the dugout repair kit hit over his arm and tin hat on his head in the trench lie he finds the wire that Is broken and begins to follow it along it Is hot work in the tre trench shells are dropping thickly but smith mind much he follows the wire down a communication trench and then after a long time out into the open where lib he has to crawl along I 1 looking for the hole that will mark the place where the fine alln has been broken he gets nearly there when a shell lands near him and bill smith his face toward the break goes west after a time back in the dugout another repairman is sent out and perhaps he Is luckier than billand finds the break then lie has to sit down in the shell crater the smash of bursting shells so close cloae that sometimes lie Is half burled in dirt calmly making the connection that will enable the observation officer up front to get in touch with his battery again if he gets back to the dugout cewill he will be sentous sen sent tout out again and yet again it if the bombardment Is heavy I 1 and often for days and nights at a t time line tit these es e men are under fire bre snatching n R nip nap now and th then on in the dugout between breaks but they keep the lines I 1 open I 1 in an attack athnel the signal men go ov over erthe the top with the infantry generally with the second way wave e in charge of the observing officer they make for a point where they can establish an observation post and as they pass on and through the barrage barrag ethey they unroll their line and one of them carries a ii field telephone th through rough which they somehow manage in tho the din of battle to make themselves yes heard that thai telephone wilke a battle flag and many manyet n man goes down with it only to have it picked up and carried forward by another of these noncombatant troops droops their business Is only to serve not to fight and they do it a cool daring which Is not nol surpassed irl in any branch of the service they are in the forefront of every advance and la in the retreat are sometimes the lantto last to leave the 04 aws front line eliere rt nere they stick to the eoa end of ct their wires under ter terrific rifle shell fire until ordered to rejoin their commands it if they can get through alive an experience of this kind happened to me a short time ago in a lonely chateau of the cypres ypres ro road ad on an english officer wrote home the chateau chate iu was the center of ft a perfect hell bell of german shrapnel tor for nearly a week until it became a almost most untenable and was abandoned by the headquarters staff the general gave instructions that a telegram pit was to remain behind to transmit important messages from the brigades and I 1 was left in charge of the instruments in this shell swept chateau for a day and a night un on the second day the germans broke through our trenches tren dies and the wires were cut by the shell eliell fire I 1 was given orders to evacuate the building and smash up my instruments these I 1 saved by burying in a shellproof tr trench elich and then ihen I 1 had to escape between our own fire and eliat of the across a field under a terrible torna tornado doot ot shrapnel on the early morning of the samp day one of our cable detachments was cut up and another captured ca by the germans only to be retaken rett iken hy h our slippers sappers and drivers after a desperate and glor glorious lous fight the liner linemen tien also have regular patrols stretches of line which have to be constantly examined examine not only for breaks but also to make sure that they have not been tapped by enemy spies ja in such p v way that every bit of information sent over then finds its way to the germans in the ainne aisne once where the hill country offered good cover to spies the wires were vere constantly being tapped one day a lin emarl passing along the road noticed a lot of cable lying at one side ile he started to coll it up and found that a piece of wire harl hail been tied to the main line when lie he traced it lie he found that it ran to at a haystack lie ile went on tapped the line and sent in word to headquarters and an armed escort found a spy hidden in the hay bay with several days supply of food they are autocrats in their way these wire repairmen pa irmen and no one Is permitted to interfere with the swift execution of their work word coming over the line that the wire to a battery was repaired Is often the sweetest sound in the world to an in observation officer up front even if it if co comes in a rough brogue which french weather has not hot am in proved so when anybody else breaks in on the line and interferes with th the e repairman he gots gets rolled especially s pec ally lally if lie has been sitting for sever several al hours in a shell hole with an ley icy rift rain dripping down his back an english officer told of happened to a general who brolie broke in once 1 A general came in ill the hut and told me 1 rang up the telephone just now und and said sald giveins Gi give veine me the brigade please but bu t some one with a loud lou d voice replied deliberately and distinctly get off the blinking line I 1 got off remarking that thai ns as soon as convenient I 1 should like to speak I 1 apologized nna and explained that the 11 line tie lind been was being ein repaired ile he went off with a merry twinkle in ills his eye As the number of men in the american army abroad grews with the weeks the num berot berof linemen those who make possible all that the artillery and infantry together accomplish will stead lly fly In increase creaso until they are a small army in n themselves and probably it will not be long be before forean announcement nou no will be made that some plain bill smith wire nire repairman has been bee q g alven iven a medal for bra b raver fire which attrA attracted eted attention even among hundreds of brave acts which these men berf m every day |