Boy's Cinema (1930-31)

Every Tuesday which ran out from the trencli towards their own wire. "Look here," Bruce told them. "This is going to be risky. We shan't get any artillery support at all, although machine-guns and rifles from the trench hero will cover us as we coino back. "We'll crawl over, and bo careful that you don't get on to the snow, because it'll show you up to their sentries. When we are through their wire we'll creep close to their parapet, and I'll give the word to rush. "You two, and you two"—he in- dicated four men—"go to each side of the enemy fire-bay and chuck bombs over the traverse to prevent any of them getting at us. You other two grab a prisoner each—more if you can manage it. 1*11 stay on top of the parapet ready to lend a hand if any- thing goes wrong and to direct opera- tions generally. Now, does ever3-body know what he's got to do?" The men nodded. Because they were volunteers they were about the most courageous in Bruce's company. Each man carried a dozen bombs, in addition to trench knob-kerries and revolvers. "Right-ho, then we may as well start!" Bruce grunted, and led the way out of the sap. No Man's Land. BRUCE crawled forward, his close at his heels. The rimmed wire reared before traced against the gun-lit sky. reached it and went through men frost- him, He by a narrow lane which had been specially cut to allow British patrols and listen- | From the enemx ing parties to go out. At the far side was a stretch of earth, all shell- ripped and shapeless. Broken rifles, steel hel- mets, torn gasmasks—all kinds of battle litter clut- tered it. Amongst this were stretched the scat- tered figures of men who had died in the lighting: it was too dangerouj to try and bring them in. The ground was hard and icily cold. Here and there patches of grass showed grey where the frost had seftled. In and Diit of shell-holes Bruce led the way. Now and again a shell would burst on the. trenche.s ahead or well back on the enemy support area, breaking with a sudden spurt of lurid flame, then dying in an eruption of flying earth. Bruce remembered, as he ci'awled. that it was near to Christmas. He remembered his last Christmas with Cail and Pauli in Vienna— and now he was going out to kill or make prisoner men who might even know hi.s own haunts in Austria'-S capital. A Very light quivered up into the sky, limning every- thing with its staik glare and shining on a coal-scuttle helmet sil- houetted against the enemy barbed-wire en- tanglements ahead I BOY'S CINEMA "Listening-post in front—go steady!" Bruce passed the word back, then whis- pered: "Two men come up level with nie, ready to rush !" Two of his group came at either side of him, and they went on. Now they travelled forward more and more slowly. Bruce knew that he had to knock out the enemy patrol ahead before he could get through to the trench beyond. Nearer he crawled. Then the foot of a man behind him slipped where ice had formed in the bottom of a shallow shell-hole, making a scraping sound. From where he had seeti the helmet Bruce heard a guttural exclamation, and three helmets lifted from the ground. He glimpsed the shrouded faces of Si trio, their rifles levelling. "Rush!" Bruce gasped, and leaped with the words. A rifle spanged almost in his face. He saw one of the three leap to his feet and start to run back. 'Then the two bombers were on the men, their knob-kerries smashing purposefully, dropping them. Bruce raised his revolver, sighted on the third of the group and fired it the moment that the man would have shot. The fellow jerked, his knees bent, then he slammed down to the shell-hole in which he had been sheltering, while a Very light curved up into the air, as the men in the trench behind stared to see what had caused the shots.' "Down!" Bruce called the order. The bombers with him flattened on the ground about the hole and the three still forms now stretched inside it. trench a rifle spanged, 13 machine-guns stammered the gunners traversed No- then two wickedly as Man's-Laiid. The bullets clipped through the wire, showering caked snow. They plugged the frozen ground or skimmed oflf it and ricochetted away on the air. More Very lights went up. British weapons started in reply to the Germans. Rifle- grenades screeched on the air and plugged down. Trench-mortar batteries thudded, hurl- ing massive shells. A field-gim battery got into action, and for half an hour steel screeched across No-Man's-Land iu a solid hail, while Bruce and the others clung to the ground and waited for the midnight battle to die down. The firing eased off at last, and Bruce made an examination of the three dead men. A glance showed him that they were Austrians, not Germans. "It's all right, we shan't have to raid the trench," he said. "G«t all the papers off them, as well as their shoulder straps. Keep your heads now, and work quietly !" Five minutes later they were crawling back, pursued by occasional bullets. Within half an hour Bruce was down in the headquarters' dug-out, making his report. "Very good work!" the colonel commented. "No casualtie.?, eh, except to the three Austrians? Where are the papers ?" "Here, sir." Bruce set the little bundle down on the table and the colonel looked through them, then picked up a pay-book which He sat there, his whole body trembling, his eyes vacant and his lips quivering. •' Shell-shock I " Mr, Behrend gasped. February l.ith, 1930.