v
THE OMAHA SUNDAY .BEE: MAY 5, 1918.
11 A
SHELLPROOF MACK"
0 m MatMt
FO'OD
'. Will Win the War
mmr 1. 11 till
A Common Soldier's
Recital of Thrilling
Adventures in the
Terrific Struggle for
' World Democracy
Couldn't never be no buildin' fifty-
one stories "igh."
You couldn't beat them. Tell 'em
the plain unvarnished God's truth and
they'd swear it was swank. At that
they were good lads and true, and
honest comrades, brave and kind.
Americans, as I have said, were a
curiosity in out batt. And that was
odd, as there were said to be so many
in the army. I remember running
across one that proves the truth of
the often repeated statement that
"it's a small world."
Vhen we were marching back to
the front after our first rehearsal, we
had halted by the roadside for the
regular 10-minutes-in-the-hour rest.
Another batt passed us going the
other way,
He Knew McKay.
A young lieutenant eyed me as he
passed at the rear of his men and
then came back.
"Isn't your name MacKay?" he
asked. .
"Yes, sir," I said, saluting and
standing at attention. "It used to
be."
"Didn't you," he went on, "used
to live in Northampton, Mass?"
"I did, sir." said I. "And who,
may I ask, are you?" . ;
He laughed and said: "I am Clyde
?axteft"
You could have knocked me down
wifh a 'feather. When Baxter was a
'J-ycan-old baby I had lived on the
sanve street with him. I was 10 and
they used to give me a dime to wheel
Clyde: out for the afternoon. Later,
whenil was IS or 16, I remember
him as 'a youngster of about 8, and
that -was the last I ever saw of him
until h hailed me by the roadside in
Flahdcrs.
For. old times' sake Baxter tried to
om which hd i undergone the Mwibardm.nt rget me transferred to his regiment
Ui.k nJ hla turn AnmrflllPI CI lA til I w
- By ARTHUR JAMES M'KAY.
- (Copyright. i91. by email. Maynaid & Co.,
. : v ' Ino
' Arthur JamM McKay, "SheUproof Hack,'
wan destined by parents for the priesthood.
Being of an trd venture us hplrlt, he enlisted
n one of 'the Enlih bantam regiments
after the sinking of the Lwtltanla and the
, failure of this country to Immediately de
clare war upoti Germany.
On hie first trip over the top he was
wounded and applied for discharge on ac
count of being an American citizen. Ilia re
quest was granted but Mack tore up hU
application and went back te the front when
.BO OlllCOff MJUWCU MM HWU " ' .v.v.
After elng wounded ..three more times
Mack was still on the Wring line and on
Christmas Etc, 191", told a story to his
. mates of his eiiVrle.ices the previous Christ
mas on. which occasion he received the title
"Old Shellproo." from officers and men.
' The Prussians were opposite when the
men went In t the front for their 10-day
spell and a nnry time was leokad forward
to. Things quieted down for a. few days and
the men spent the time in telling of 4heir
wonderful Christmas dinner In' letter, to
I the borne folks. The dinner 'waa composed
of bully beef, hardtack and tea. ;, Mack, said
the Prussians are not the beat fighters, of
the German army, being quitters in the face
f a hopeless fight.
The expecttd bombardment : started at 4
'clock the day before Christmas and Mack
ii'M burled by tie ozploslon of bne shell and
'uncovered with the force of a- second ex
plosion. His. failure to suffer shell sliock
was the cause of his being christened "Old
SheUproof. Be .wast one of three men left
out of 42 In tils section when the bombard
ment was over. Another section relieved the
Christmas . dlnr.er provided for the entire
section.. '.
Mack explalus the preparations for the bat
tle of Messtnej Bldge and the undermining
of Hill 60, whl!h wfts blown up with 1,000,000
j..Annila' nf "hlvh.' STnlniilvpl. 7rlnr tn the
nnenlar of the battle the section of which
Mack was a member was taken to n training
field SO. miles. in the rear and the attack
was enacted in an exact replica of tu
German trencr.es. . ,
i CHAPTER X-Continued.
On the,. whole we had it cushy on
V . .r . . A l T7 1.
'.. ; mat lu days training, tacn iiiurn-
;ing reveille was at 6:30, breakfast at
" 7, and at 8 parade in full fighting
A . Ae-rl as- - Via Tfninitl rr A .turn m ll P C
V U1UL1 VVJ HIV 11 mil tu K- vi v is ..!.'-
" away, . Here they put us over the
t . . t mi . 1 i t
. jumps oy oattauons. ine nupncaie oi
.the German trenches was laid out on a
Irhiile-square field,.with every detail ex-
imHv,uy a nvuiu mu ... . . 1 1 .
, went over. A platform surrounded the
a field; and here and there were wooden
iStowers,' from which every derail could
J be seen. We would spend the entire
: fn 1 VlnfL' crnna
SthYoiigh extended formations and the
.study of objectives of each company.
J, Getting through at 1 o'clock made
" t a short, cushy day, but we made
up for that by the care with which
iwe learned every move. Thee first
thing in the morning we would line
"Up and study the terrain. An officer
.vould point out each- strong point,
JJiach'spot where machine guns would
k likely to be tmplaced, each sepa-
; fate traverse and every extra dan
fr jerous . bit of ground.
S; i nert the companies wouia De pui
iver the grpujid examining every inch
I Ztt it. After that we went over again
jtn exactly the order we would go 4n
fthe attack. On certain days we had
T. f A nl,nn-r-n1o ' Ins miL'cti1
and promised to get it cushy for me;
but it; never came off. Baxter was
afterwards reported missing and so
far. as I know is either, dead or per
haps a prisoner in Germany. I don't
knowwhich is worse.
I have given -this man's name as Bax
ter, .,. which Isn't it at all. for this reason:
An American who fought with the allied
forces was regarded as a frano-tlreurthat
Is. as an unauthorized fighter, and to be re
garded as a spy and executed as such. This
would not be the case now. But at the
time Baxter enlisted he was a neutral, and
if he were a prisoner now In Germany and
It became known' that he was with the
Britlh before the TJnltsd States entered the
war he probably would be shot!
. - The Second Rehearsal. .
In May the batljhad 20 days in the
trenches and in support, before com
iifg out for the second rehearsal. The
greater part of that 20 days was spent
in trench raids and patrol work, as
there was need of all the information
that could be had as the time came on
for the' big attack. '
I did hot take part in any of the
raids. As a matter of i fact I never
took part in but one trench raid in
all my1 17 mbnths of service in the
trenches. Right here I want to say
something about trench raids and.
such stunts and volunteers for them.
Every now and then I read something
about SQme'.felfijw who volunteers
for . special and dangerous duty as .a
habit. J nevef saw one of those men
myself. m -The '.njan who 'says he vol
unteers more than onef for trench
raids and that sort of thing either,
misses the truth or is.a most ex
traordinary ' person. think that
nearly, everybody does volunteer
once; and then he finds, that once is
enough. After that he does his duty
as it comes to him, and unless he is a
tool lor fighting he doesn t go about
I know that this is
4f studvinsr photographs, We would
father bv olatoons in a;big.barn. and huntim? trouble
.-the officers vvho understood the air- contrary to the accepted ideas of pal
5,plane picture would-go over them .Jantry .and heroism; but it is thel
ror us. These photograpli were about truth.' ' "
two feet square. They would hold i All the trench raids that I have ever
gthem up against the wall and point re?d about have, been large successes.
out this, that and the other point and The only one that 1 was ever in was
cross-examine the men. Shortly wt a flat failure. I am going back and
tiad that terrain down so fine that , tell you about it. It wiil only take a
tvery man could go to his'own place j minute and it does illustrate a point
ui ouusii uitipmie mat-snows very
clearly, what makes the British army
.! Everymau knew-his objective, how
hie wasto, reach it, how fast he was
!to go;swbiit he had to througn tu
et.thers'!' what he was to;-' do at each
Atstage of the advance. He knew just
Jlow thing were going to look jvheir
Ije went' oyer. , Almost, it. is no exag
geration to say,, he knew just where
This feet were to be set down on
"each step from the beginning to the fThe Fritzies had three lines of wire
Send of the show. The onjy thing that
. rcouia not oe recKonco wun was suut
" Like rehearsing anything else, most
eof the men got letter perfect in a few
, J3ays; but there were some, as there
" frtlways are, who were stupid and who
Speeded an awful lot of work to get
phe things into their heads. Two or
:' Sthree such men in a platoon may
niteer h. whrlfc cram atiH arft Han.
gerous. lhe blockheads in a rehear
. "sal of this sort nearly drove the of-
' m-. r.. . iL. 1 i - i ' At. -
- . WIS ' V 1 VVUUlVi I1UVYV1 VI, 111 v a V
- Aearsls went smoothly enough. And
IJtst, and the afternoons on our own,
.-".conditioned the men to a point of(
r pceenness . tnat proved valuable when
?lhj time came for the birr attack.
-4 We played' foot, ball or cricket al
, 52nost everv afternoon. At least the
, wother men did. Personally I never
ffet im an annetit fnr riVWft
'British Joot ball I never could get
' Mtised to. 1 Thev alwavs nnt me- in as
loal tender.' When I saw the ball
, coming' T would grab it and, start on
; n end' ruiu. Then there would be a
ow. I used to try to get the gang
po play base ball, but they couldn't
vl oiijr muic mail tuuiu sec
pricket."
Tommieg Were Curious.
v I was the only-American in my
'iatt and I continued to be a good
',. eal of a curiosity to the Tommies
. solidly grounded in the British
tminr1 if Csma (a tvi 4-Vint A rvt Afitn e
- i.u, v w vvnij in v., mail 4 uivi ivauj
re all swank. They 'think thatwe
" re bluffers, braggers and hot-air
emerchants.
' "They used to delight to get me
started on the size of things , over
S&ere. . ' - : '
. "Sye. SheUproof," somebody would
call out, "'ow.big is the Blooming
tytes?" . .. - - '
' Then I would start in to tell them
Jiow you could drop England down
yln the middle of Texas and losev it,
and they ; would look at each other
31? I grin.
-Then somebody would say, "'Oow
3.ht'- 'igh 'ouses, Mackier -
V!-"reupon I would tell all about
Jlie Woolworth building.
j This always brought the same frank
JJomment. - '
"SheUproof, yer a blinjrin liar.;
great.
This raid took place away back in
the early days of 1916. The lines
were about 500 yards apart. The cus
tomary orders were given out to cross
over into the German trenches and
take prisoners- and do all the damage
possible. We sneaked across with 12
men and one officer, a lieutenant.
outside of their trench, narrow lines
not more than six feet wide and per
haps 10 yards apart. There had been
no .artillery preparation and it was
up to us to get through the wire with
out making any noise and to get back
if we could. We managed to get
beyond the first two lines of wire
and would have got through the other
bumhrough some miscarriage of or
ders bur own machine guns and light
artillery opened fire on lis. V
! Three Men CEcked.
We hugged the ground, but not
quick enough, and three of our men
clicked. - Worse than that the lieu
tenant, who wai just getting through
the, wire, gftt tangled up with one leg
caught in a loop or something; any
how he couldn't get loose and we
couldn't pry him out, try as we
would. The Germans had got
"windy" by this time and were send
ing up lights. So it was plain enough
that the raid was all off. The officer
ordered us to go it on our own and to
back as bes.t we could. He was ta be
left behind. After the custom the
non-com detailed a man to stop with
the officer on . the chance that he
might do some good nd.get tlte lieu
tenant loose before daylight. - This is
always- dpne when an officer gets in
a position where he cannot move. He
mustn't be left atone. A man has to
stay, no matter how hopeless th sit
uation. It fa- rough on the man, but
it is part of; the game.
Well, 'we quit the lieutenant and
the man, and worked back across No
Man's land,- and made it into our
trenches without any further casual
ties. About an hour later, just be
fore dawn, the man who had been left
came crawling in. He had deserted
the officer.- The lieutenant never was
heard from, and was probably either
killed or taken prisoner. The man
who deserted him was promptly ex
ecuted. . $
But to get back to the trenches.
j ia days spcnt at thc' frnt t'ne
and 10 more in supports, we were
moved back again to the little town 30
miles to the rear, where the rehearsal
field was. They, gave it to,us good
on this dose of getting ready. It
was hard work all the time, morning,
noon and night. "It got so we could
do every move in" our sleep. Besides
which they gave us the regular "phy
sical jerks." that is. the settins-uo ex-
ercises without rifles, in extra ses
sions. Big Attack Coming.
The word went around that the big
attack was to come June 10. There
was the regular mount of gossip and
a thousand different rumors as to
what was to happen and on how wide
a frott the offensive was to be made.
It was always the same. The rank
and file knew as much as old Haig
when anything was to come off. The
only difference between headquarters
and the men was that the men knew
so many things that weren't so. In
general, though, pretty nearly every
thing of consequence seeped down to
the men in one form or another. The
trouble was to sort out the true from
the false.
On the Messines Ridge attack the
powers at the head of things fooled
us purposely. They drilled the idea
into us that the attack was to come
off June 10 and every man had that
notion firmly imbedded in his mind.
Ther was a good reason for this. The
German secret service was very
active. They, no doubt, had spies be
hind our lines and perhaps in the very
army.
Now tle mining situation was, as I
ha2 said, peculiar. Both sides were
playing awfully close. Hill 60 was
full of high explosive placed by our
sappers. And lower down in the hill
the Germans had mined and had no
doubt placed more or less dynamite.
Also, as I have said, they had come
across under our support tunnel.
These mining operations cannot be
kept secret by either side for long.
The royal engineer officers are listen
ing all the time. They have an in
strument of the nature of a micro
phone, a jigger that is stuck down in
the ground and a kind of stethoscope
affair to put to the ears. With this
they can hear the slightest tap or
scrape. After a good deal of practice
they get so they can tell whether
digging is going on and how far ad
vanced the mining processes are.
When the enemy begins bringing in
boxes of explosive that is betrayed,
too, by the changed sound. If the
enemy is nearly ready to set off his
mines and the R. E. officers detect it.
why, of course, our men are ordered
from the vicinity. The trick is to wait
until the last possibk moment. It is
shivery business trying, to outguess
Heinies on this sort of thing.
Germans Dig Under.
Well, on this Hill 60 business we
were going close to the limit. The en
gineers had been listening to the dig
ging under our support tunnel and
they knew that the Germans had
nearly finished bringing in the boxes
of hfgli explosive that they were al
most ready . to touch ;it. off. Which
would have tieen a disaster. .
(Continued Tomorrow.)
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- .... ,
:WWsaWsMMssslMeTeMsssssTe
0 y'-.'
MEEDS YOU,
Read What Baker Says
On New Blanket
Draft
There Is No Limit.
'Let us avoid specific fig
ures," Secretary Baker again
said today. "They simply limit.
There is no limit. We will call
out enough men to make vic
tory certain. We will call them
as rapidly as they can be
trained and sent forward."
Are Yon
oiiff to
Necessary
ML
MAVY
" ' " nunuiaiiWJif vj.)min)iinastri-" " "mp1" ""
Volunteer Now .
In a ServiceWhere You can See the World
Where you always have your own bed. Where you have
the best of food. Where there is healthy life in the open.
Where war will teach you a trade. ,
IT'S UP TO YOU
7L :r .iV 4
kf.MkzJt til
Days are Numbered for
Men in the Draft v
to Volunteer
Select your own service, work at your trade or learn one.
Pay is $35.50 a month while in training, with board and
clothing free. Service is for the war. s :
l '". ' ' v.- " i" 9 !
' Fifty ratings are now open to" men ambitious to serve their country in the Navy. -he pay is the highest of any military service
' in the world and opportunity is offered for rapid promotion. All enlistments are for the duration of the war. In addition to their
pay, men receive a clothing allowance,"' quarters and subsistence and the benefit of War Risk Insurance. Separation allowances for
wives, children and dependents are given.. Registered men may enlist or enroll by obtaining permission from their local boards .'
and proving by sworn statements or age certificates that they are full United States citizens J V'-"-
Captain's Mate (A), Machinist's Mate, 2d class,. Blacksmiths and Carpenters' (aviation duty); Electrician (general), Elec
trician (radio), Fireman, Hospital Corps, Yeoman, Seaman, Musician, Ship's Cook, Baker, or thirty-six other special places open
if you qualify. ' " . .
; By enrolling in the Naval Reserves you are exempt from the army draft. You must
bring a release signed by your draft board and a sworn statement from a relative or .
an age certificate proving your are a full United States citizen.
v Applicants for enrollment should apply to the
Navy Recruiting - Station'-'
5th Floor, Paxton Blk., OMAHA, NEBRASKA
or at substations in the following cities, where transportation will be furnished: Lincoln,
Grand island, Norfolk, Beatrice, Fremont, Hastings, Neb.; Rapid City, Watertown,.
Aberdeen, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Sioux City, Iowa. , .
... . . , ,
This n f1v rflCoiViorvf orrofnfnnohr ArriaA hr TYta NeVira1r Pnwfr Co.. who is heloinf? Nebraska eo "Over the Top" in the
number of enlistments in the Navy, as they did in the Liberty Loan and Red Cross and W. S. S. drives.