ith the artistry we had derived from our
instruction, covering them securely with grass and brushwood.

It was at this time that I lost not only my increased chest expansion,
but also a trifle more, because I was ordered to take my gun to a
position known as the sacrifice gun position, three hundred yards back
of the front line trench. It derives its name, "sacrifice gun," from the
fact that rarely, if ever, in case of a heavy enemy raid, does the gun
or any of its crew escape. This "honor" I was destined to receive many
times throughout my career in the Great Adventure.

I was in charge of the gun and I installed it in a hedge. The only time
we were to fire was when the enemy broke through and when our men in
retreating were on a line even with us; and we could not fire until we
got orders from the officer commanding or from headquarters.

The idea of a sacrifice gun is this: if the enemy broke through on
either or both flanks, pushing our men back, we had to wait for orders
from the commanding officer or from headquarters before firing; All the
ammunition carried was fifty shells; it was all we could get in those
days. In daytime the gun was covered with brush and other means of
concealment to keep it from the ever watchful eye of the Hun. At night
the crew consisted of two men, one on each side of the gun, and three
more in a ruined building a hundred yards in the rear of the gun. Our
shifts were two hours on and four off. The purpose pursued by the
sacrifice gun is to surprise the enemy when in full view and exposed,
killing as many of them as possible, blasting gaps through their line
and enabling our men to dig in in the position to which they have
retired, we knowing all the while that there is not one chance in a
thousand that the men connected with the sacrifice gun will escape
either death or capture. Our orders were under no circumstances to leave
the gun as long as a shell remained and a man lived. Deuced pleasant!
The ground in front of us was well drilled with concealed holes all the
way from four to six feet deep, in each of which strands of barbed wire
had been placed and the opening carefully concealed with clumps of
grass, brush and the like.

Blaisdell and I volunteered to take first shift on the gun on the first
night, about 10 o'clock. We had to take a narrow path on the way, with
Fritz sniping us every step; he had registered the path and it was a
constant target for his machine guns and snipers