Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 232, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1915 — EARS OF THE ARMY [ARTICLE]

EARS OF THE ARMY

tf*'j M ; • ■■- Signal Corps Get Little Credit r ! for Most Heroio Work. , 'i>»«* ■»» wi'( Hl:.' With Shot and Shell fifing Around Him Signaler Coolly Splice* Broken Telegraph Wire* - I , ways at Danger Point. By CHRIS HEALY. (International News Service.) Liverpool—When the full story of the war is written we shall know the exact part olayed by the skilled craftsmen of '.Britain. Appreciative hints are given here and there of the worki of,the collier In detecting- the enemy’s mines, and boring counter-mines, and of this! wyrk. and •that of the navy, in building trenches, biit none Of the official war correspondents have told us of the bravery ahd skill of the telegraph section of the Royal engineers, whose work is to organize victory by making it possible for one line of the men to communicate with the other by erecting -and repairing wires; in a phrase, by acting as,- the- ears' of the British army. The signaler is seldom the hero of one of those great stories of aggressiveness which makes the name of Michael O’Leary the subject of a thousand stories and legends, yet hie work, nevertheless, is heroic to a degree.

An officer who has recently re * turned from the region round Ypres, Festubert, and La Bassee tells me that the bravest feat he witnessed during his stay at - the front was that of a telegraph signaler in the midst of a battle whose fortunes were turning now on the side of the Germans, and then on out's. * A shell came from the Prussian side, which blew in a trench and cut a telegraph line to pieces, The next moment a signaler dashed through with a of wire in his hand, hi# pincers between his teeth, and quite an armory of other tools in. hi* pockets. Then with shot and shell playing round him he began to relay the broken telegraph line,' fixed it ttp, walked calmly hack to hi* original spot, wiped from his face the mud and dust with which itjru* covered, relit hto pipe, and awiflteil hfis next Job. “It was the coolest piece of work I have ever seen,” said the officer. Ho was a Judge, too, for he had seen six Victoria crosses earned, although the signaler in this case did not get one. ■ Here is a sketch of the daily routine of the signaler* He irises while all the other soldiers are asleep, and quietly makCs his way to the plaoe where the new trenches are to be made, estimates the amount of material .necessary, thinks of ths men he can spare from the work of repairing, and then, goes back to make all the preparations needed, .which must be before the shell signal is given that the artillery attack has opened. i «<Hi waits with strained nerves, so as to be at the heels of the,rush of infantry which is to capture the enetrenches; then, ad the last German is bayoneted or taken prisoner, even before the work of the Red Ci-oss' section has begutn, he starts laying the telephones and telegraph wires which are to keep the field commariders in touch with one anoth£r - j jiJL , L Night work 1b not only difficult but dangerous. Apart from the discomfort of trudging through plowed fields, Often after heavy rain has mads them into huge quagmires, fail-, ing into deep ponds made by a big sheik and running the risk of being drowned where ; a cry for help may mean (.wholesale death for your own sector; dodging th* star shells which the enemy send up to take a view of .tilings.the slguatorJ&m jOarajm-bear a means for that end. aftk»> done, then he can die hippy knowing that he has saved the lives of mfn. If his work is unfinished tberi 'death terror,* newAyw- Tjis braces him U W the sky. He promptly face* his own trench with his back to the enemy. The pink patch on his face ’would dot oafr make him $M? snl *f*’ but would also give away the petition of his regiment. SUJTC risk of gating honorable wounds, fin the back. By the time' he has meksjglven. JL-look for. the other lines in use. and made a test or two, it to crawl to so» an hour or two’s ftost, a d. m awakened By tne news that the ese tnytoM'wmwYtr nwrof eurTrunchgs. t Under np t circupajptances whate er ufiAf * betwi sn *• ’‘f ■* .. * t