rehearsal. This was the first raid that "Batt" had ever tried, and the staff was anxious to have it a success. There wer

alth if possible, kill as many as possible, take prisoners if p

big as a stovepipe and four feet long, painted brown. They were the gas containers. They were arranged about four or five to a travers

on the Western Front, and, in fact, all fronts, is to indicate the time fixed f

r meal with plenty of everything, and all good. It looked rather like givin

the whiteness of the skin from showing under the flare lights. A

cation discs and were served with persuader st

ith it. Very handy at close quarters. The knuckle knife is a short dagger with a heavy brass hil

r artillery opened up. It was the first bombardment I had ever been under, and it seemed as though all the guns

ke escaping steam. Jerry leaned over and shouted in my

he orders. We got into them quick. But as it turned out there was no need. There was a fifteen-mile wind blowing, which carr

atch and the din was at its height. At exactly eleven it stopped short. Fritz was still sending some ove

ilence over t

nearly one hundred to go. We dropped and started to crawl. I skinned both my knees on something, probably old wire, and both hands. I could fe

eviews his past. I didn't. I spent those few minut

you drop fast in an elevator. The skin on my face felt tight, and I remembe

r entanglements had been flattened by our barrage fire, bu

ne guns on us, or at us, but their aim evidently was high, for they only "clicked" two out of our immediate pa

were ahead as bayonet men, with the rest of the party

I jumped on the parapet, there was a whaling big Boche looking up at me with

e flashed through my mind the instructions of the manual for such a

s an instructor, would have told a rookie to act, working on a dumm

tation didn't last

Why that Boche did not fire I don't know. Perhaps he did and missed. A

an in and all hands

s, and the bombers sent a few Millses after them. Then we came to a dug-out door-in fact, several, as Fritz, like a woodchuck, always has more than one entrance to his burrow. We broke these i

two or three Millse

toward our lines. Blofeld went in it a little way and flashed his light. He thought it w

ust rounded the corner of the "bay." He made a good job of it, getting him in the face, and must have simply caved him in

as the only thing to do. I choked my bat and poked at the bomb instinctively, and

hat's cool work. You saved us

the recall signal. A good gunner gets so he can play a tune on a Lewis, and the device is frequently use

come any

second trenches. They were out of the communication trenches and were coming acr

mine had no "ammo." Blofeld fired the last shot from

trenches just three

also the two men that had been clicked on the first fire. Jerry got Blighty on his wound, but was back in two

pieces and complimented us all. We were sent out of the lines that night and in billets go

d. The German loss was estimated at about one hundred casualties, six machine guns and several dug-outs destroyed, and

r the night's work, and several o

essful raid. The best pa