The evening world. Newspaper, May 25, 1918, Page 11

A open box cars travel he ort of debarkation to a training SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1918 Four Months in France With the 165th Infantry (The Old “Sixty-Ninth’’) Personal Story of Fighting and Dying on the Rattlefields and in the Trenches, Told by Former First Lieut. GY WES WN ' MR. George H. Benz, Who Was in Active Service at * The Evening World to-day publishes the first instalment of this warrative, which every New Yorker will want to read. iH instalments will be published daily, By George H. Benz Former Firat Lieutenant, C (Formerly 69th, Written Exclusively for The Evening World 8, by The Press Publishing Co’ Copyright, 1 ‘ 4 § hell, Lieutenant, but tell ‘em is cleaned up. bally attached to Company Richard Ryan. talion, the Third. The 69th had arrived in France| the last week in November, and in the I, at travelled from area within twelve miles of the Mines, near Toul. I picked them up at the little Village of Brussay. They had reached there in a combined sleet, rain and snow storm and were Dilleted in barns and stables. The snow and slush was six inches deep and at night the temp une dropped around the zero mark. * Capt. Ryan, with Lieuts, Smith and Burns, had been ordered to at tend an officers’ school for six weeks’ instruction in the new meth ods of trench warfare, and that left Ythe company under the command of Lieut. Crawford, with Licuts. George Metcalfe, Courtland Johnson, Will fam Finn and myself assisting. De spite the rank weather, the company was taken out every day to a high plateau and there drilled from morning until night. Then, wet and tired, the men returned for supper and had to crawl into their herd beds with their wet stockings and clothing on, as firewood was scarce, and body heat was the only method they had for drying their clothing. The other, companies, commanded by Capt. Merle Smith, William Meaney and Hurley, were in the game fix, The organization was shy! on olothing, particularly socks and shoes Few men had the necessary changes, 90 it meant they had to keep the old on or else go partially | Jaked, Here, on clear nights, when the wind was in the right direction, heard pur first roarof battle, Hea artillery loomed all night punctuated now and again by sharp clatter of rune. saw our first alr battle here too, I believe it Sergt. Quin) who spotted th ench and German machines going tovit up in the heavens one da The fit did “ey above” without com mand. We watched the tail and the {lip flops, until through m glasses 1 on the Ger pimw downward in a machine was three two entire ou spins man hurtling trail 1 We were sere for more than two dors came start venmnile hike us on a to a new. traint The plan to nareh f¢ rest than a ville, then pro Baist One Capt, was in charge, -a had population of the age Langres, ja at Alllain- or twe more was on tae As the YOU tell ‘em what we girls, and they won't want us back until the Kaisor ha And tako a good drink on me, Lieutenant, T crawled out of a communication trench in the Lorraine sector held that Major Timothy Moynahan was at the bead of our bat- the Front. The remain | ' j ompany 1, 166th Infantry N.Y. N. G) (The New York Evening World.) back home we stick until this mess saw, what the Boche does to veen lickad. when you hit Browdway again.” y¥ the Old Fighting Irish 69 ment, now the 165th, erying baby, Through my tears I back at the boys I had lived with, trained with, suffered with and had my first crack at the Germans with, for four months. And thelr eyes Were dim with tears. too. I was under orders to return to the United States and be discharged on ao count of neuritis in my right arr This is a story, or shall I say a history, what the 69th suffered and what the 69th did. I joined it in December and left {t in the Ia r part of March, after some companies had been occupying the front for seven days, In August, 19 stoned a First Ls camp at Fort Lo With the initial th Regi like a looked of line 1 was commis itenant from the H, Roota, Ark 00 reserve officers sent to France I was “among those present.” We received two months’, *, training under French instructors, and then 108 of us were ed to the Rainbow Division, I 1, 1917, I was sent to 165th Infantry Regiment, e old 69th, and time under command of as th he ver: Capt. head of the column moved, and women, litt! boy in their woot old men and ¢ came | ing down the stone streets to bid us godspeed. And many of them cr No wonder—we had bought eggs und chickens and apples for unheard-of prices. The firat night we Dbilleted in a town of some 10,000 population, A the head of the column entered, the French came running down t road with cries t les Amer! calnes” (it 18 the Ame They shouted greeting la dus, ran out and kissed us. And Tommy O'Brien, late of Amsterdam Avenue, New York City, shouted back in rich brogue the only word ho knew in French_-“Oul.” That night all of the ficers were billeted in house, and the men found a resting place elther with the ctvil popula tion or in the well ventilated barns his attalion of. an old ool WOODPECKER FoR WoeP woRK ROP OAT BotTbapedeTa OATH Ct ONG again. We left there the next morn psi apatite ing early, followed by cheers, and! arrived at the town of Aillainville) the following afternoon without Spe-| cial incident, In this town we found the first portable barracks we had seen since coming in France. They were of dirt floors and wooden cots had been built for the men, A snow storm and colder weather greeted us here, For more than a| week we tramped over all the hills} and valleys in the vicinity, going through sham attacks and then try-| ing some of the new tactics of the trenches. vave form” The ng it ghty upation for lan to “attention” roads were covered more With fee snow fell, 1 ; ; ckoos up an a mi ‘ dangerous o an he ¢ t . a going M WING But we marched at “a ” The march hi down | on This town had a few stores, and They car one day the word went around that a one man in another company hadjand Sergt. I MeLaughiin had purchased a pair Thi ‘ At and down news of the first Intportance, A rush | cedar tree, a horrible of- was made jo every dinky little stc ense if sor vchman had caught and th here, enti four-|them at {t. This they buried in the teen pairs of socks bough ». No| mud at the foot heir bunk and one knew the word for socks in/trimmed with colored paper clipped French, and the Irishman who could|from a “Fa mW A few make the old lady or man behind} cand i i kitchen the co understand what D are bur around it. Bits wanted signs and { card oard 1 to it and at ering be found your size by 1 4 “For the Kaiser, damn hia Wrapy ole of the sock around hide.” your ust came tog r | walked tn there Christmas Eve that wa » o'clc Green firewood was This { nur boy, if he Is used tn stoves and you in th his ¢ tmas, I | r t h th ke i r fur. d ‘ bo to old Chr 4s customs, wer going “visiting” from one bunk to te ee AK KK \\ HIMALAYA LANDSCAPE MADE is SAMOUES AGED the Slacker Hath Cold in Hi: } orrieth not about the appetite if thee hath no a WN NW WSN WITH PHEASANT FEATHERS Ae i a aaa SAVAGE Bisd aap)’ \ BUTTERFLY. CAMOUFLAGE MARKINGS CAMOUFLAGE ©") if WN The Camouflage That Nature Invented STUDIES FROM MR. THAYER’S INTERESTING EXHIBITION AT THE FIFTH AVENUE HOME OF AND MRS. CORNELIUS VANDERBILT FOR THE RED CROSS. us ie wt. fy fic ak we ade t nee ENVIRONMENT OF MATCH “THE THE Poor Richard Jr. i the situa ir hath not changed The Kaiser is a fathead by either the new or old time easing price of food the other, A y few, had received Christmas packages and boxes. If there was something to eat in them, they were muchly vis {ted that night Almost 4,000 miles from home they talked only of home Sergt. Paddy Rogan, who fo did duty as a doorman at the B more, in New York City, waa m¢ manager for the Xmas dinner, H had hired a wagon and gone over t a French commissary in an adjoin ing town and there bought ra{sing, wee oranges, figs and a tew more goodies, The Government sent lay was a wonder wished them , (Continued on This Page Monday BAER. Publishing Co. (The New York Evening World.) . ant rele * AMMERET, “PHEASANT pecomeenesnureanes SCENERY ‘at a The Kaiser Hath Fat in His Head; the heinaniia Hath Nothing in His Stomach; Feet; the Affable Stranger Hath a Gold Brick in His Pocket; a Cold Storage Egg Hath Mystery in Its Shell; Knowing All of Which Proveth That Poor Richard, Who Had Zeros in His Purse, May- hap, yet Was Possessed of Riches in His Experience. Lapse. for This Day Hath He Forgotten That a Bundle Should Not Be | Carried by the String! BY ARTHUR (“BUGS’’) Ccpyright, 1948, by the Yet Doth His Memory The patriotic slacker getteth up in the morning Trust not the affable stranger with the store clothes and cit veth thee honey is the same bee that Phee There rily good The bee that g , his tongue white and his feelings blue, are nine brands of cold storage eggs. to partly bad. 3ut before calling thy neig WAY r throwing thy tin cans back across the fence, remember t than the partly bad egg. rtly good egg is no be The s apple The Kalser thinketh h hit He i. immer time y plexy. VERY si soon be here when the The irritable person spo! Heth more afternoon: a second Napoleon n, the Kaiser i than A {the K from yor a fathead at the SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1918 Camouflage First Studied | From Nature Herself By American Painter | Over Twenty Years Ago Abbott H. Thayer Investigated ; Nature’s Method of Protecting Her Wild Creatures—Hie ' Theory of White Sea Camouflage, Once Tried by i U.S. Navy, Now Again Coming Into Favon By Will B. Johnstone HW art of camouflage Is as old as nature! The Trojan Horse was & trick of ancient warfare and doesn't come under the science of con: \ cealed coloration. Nature invented camouflage for the protection of beast bird, fish and reptile, She gave the cow her mottled hide, 20 doubt, im anticipation of the amateur hunter; abe gave the birds thet haunt the tree Lop «pot of sunlight and the birde that seek the ground the | Color of grasses they haunt. | To the flazaingo that feeds at dawn and sunset it gives the protective ‘scarlets of the akies at that time. The Polar bear ts white against hie icy background. In counter shading, nature ts supreme The pelts of many animals testify to this, Black on top and light underneath. The dark colored black counter shades the light from the sky and the light parte below IHghten the shadow cast by the animal against the ground, thus neu- | cralizing light and shade into tnvistbility, Camouflage ts naturel with all wild things in the world, even to the savages who paint thelr bodies. It 1s the most celebrated word coined tn the great war, will undoubt- edly live In the dictionaries, and the name and the art which {t Jabele will be accredited to the French, who first applied the science of “concealiag | coloration” as a means of military disguise; but credit for the original l{dea and {ta development should rightfully go ta an American, Abbott H. ‘Thayer. Abbott H. Thayer {s one of Amer- |fea’s most distinguished painters. Two of his pictures decorate the | Metropolitan Art Museum here, but | his most celebrated canvas, “Cart- tas,” is one that ts always sought Jout by visitors at the Boston Mu- seum. Over twenty years ago Mr. Thayer, as a huntsman and student of bird jand animal life, made an exhaustive study of nature's method in protect- ing its wild things and embodied his researches in a large volume, illus trating his text with handsomely colored pictures. This book, written by his son, Gerald H. Thayer, w: published by Macmillans in 1909, under the title of “The Law Which Underlies Protective Coloration.” Developing bis discoveries tn na- ture’s counter shading, he conceived the idea of applying tho principle of “low visibility” in a practical way for the protection of ships of war. Mr. Thayer made experiments tn | this direction and arrived at the con- \clusion that a ship at sea is ren- | dered least visible when painted white. He brought the matter to the attention of our Government, but re- ceived the usual encouragement. It will be remembered that before the Spanish-American War our navy Jactually conformed to Mr, Thayer's and Americans often boasted | concealed or camouflaged by nature. In vain you try to discover the bird or butterfly, as the case may be. But when a plece of white cardboard in which the outline of the camouflaged object has been cut out is placed over the painting, the ohjeat ts in- stantly revealed. The purpose of this ts to show nature's scheme of protection tn be- stowing colors that harmontze with the surrounding environment. This ie strikingly illustrated in the pic- ture of the Amberst pheasant, in which not only the colors blend with the background but their arrange- ment synchronizes with the char- acter of the shrubbery the bird ine habits, One picture of @ reedy pool con- tains only scenery, but on superim- posing the cut-out of a snipe on the painting, the mud and reeds framed by the opening are the exact mark ings of a enipa. The most unusual picture in the collection is a large landscape scene in the Himalaya Mountains com- posed entirely with the plumage of = Monal pheasant ‘The feathers per- fectly reproduce his habitat, The purple mountains against a tur. quolse sky show through a dark frame of foreground foliage with a golden green tree in the sunlight yond, around the base of whicb tawny grass and chestnut theory 208 of the “White Squadron.” At the ; outbreak of the war with Spain,| Patches. No paluter ever possessed however, the immaculate “White | Such @ palette, and Mr. Thayer with all his genius could never achieve such an effect {n ofls, The head of the bird even ia included, Besides the paintings are prints showing savages in “warpalnt,” camouflaged with crude markings of color on their bodies, which, con- sclously or unconsciously, they have made to conform to the backgrounds in which they struggle for existence. It is Mr. Thayer's idea that our In- dians painted their faces and bodies for the purpose of camouflage. In 1916 Mr. Thayer went to Eng land to confer with the British Gov- ernment and give them the benefit of his discoveries, and worked with Prof. J. Graham Kerr of Cambridge and the University of Glasgow and other eminent English naturalists, who proposed to found a school Fleet” sacrificed its beauty for what was considered a safer shade of slate gray, and that tone has been) maintained ever since, The deadly submarine started our allies investigating the science of camouflage and they are slowly coming around to Mr. Thayer's point of view, and we are following suit. White 1s beginning to appear on the sides of our ships, together with black markings, to decelve the eye as to the course of the ship when it | is caught at close range. | Mr. Thayer belleves that a ship painted entirely white has a better chance under the peculiar ight con- ditions prevailing at sea, because the sun, high and at an angle, casts more reflection against white than any other color, and when the sun based upon his book and other is broadside, too low for reflections, | writings his plan ts to break the white glare Mr. Thayer believes in applying by dropping a black net over the ship's side to counter shade the white into a gray , exhibition of Mr. Thaver'’a in- nature's system of counter shading the soldiers’ uniforms in the trenches, particularly {n disgutstng the snipers who are dangerously ex- to teresting studies {8 on view this| posed. He has studied camouflage week at the home of Mr. and Mrs.| of every living thing, from fish to Cornelius Vanderbilt, No, 677 Fifth] birds, and as the trenches extend Avenue, under the auspices of the} French Hospital Auxiliary 133, for | the benefit of the Red Cross, and has attracted wide attention through its from Flanders swamps to the Vosges Mountains, he would be an expert of for the Allies a native of Boston, eo America can now add to its long Met “de Mr vonstrated ability” Thayer is novelty and educational value | Three walla are covered with! o paintings, and portrayed in each|t picture In some living thing artfully war inventions (the aeroplane, torpedo, tron- camouflage, ephone, submarine, clad, &c.) that of First Dirigible Balloon Jr first stecrable balloon, the| b onths later, in ole forerunner of the once dreaded | tt » year, two bmen made was tried in Berlin ‘ i nacent in & drogen balloon thirty ago, but, like many of | °* Pt ciecoecea an it suffered an acct- | A DIFFICULT TASK. isabled in the second | | “Wombat, the banker, looks wor mholtz was the first) i.4 Anything the matter at his that balloons might "i The } to suggest, in 16 red, if moving slowly. a thing. But his wife ts principle on which balloons are based | wppeq4.) a woman's club, They a first formulated by Alt f treasury and Wombat an Augus r n the vat to her satisfao. » century, In Joseph nore trouble than and Stephen Montgolfler of France bank."~Kansas Clay successful ascent in a fire Journal, made @ ee remtnn re