The Emma Gees | Page 2

his eyes steadily fixed upon the sender, probably using binoculars or telescope, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, for him to write down each letter as it comes, and as this is absolutely required in military work, where nearly everything is in code or cipher, the services of a second man are needed to write down the letters as the first calls them off.
As many letters of the alphabet have sounds more or less similar, such as "S" and "F," "M" and "N" and "D" and "T," many mistakes have occurred. Therefore, the ingenuity of the signaler was called upon to invent names for certain of the letters most commonly confused. Below is a list of the ones which are now officially recognized:
A pronounced ack B " beer D " don M " emma P " pip S " esses T " tock V " vick Z " zed
The last is, of course, the usual pronunciation of this letter in England and Canada, but, as it may be unfamiliar to some readers, I have included it.
After a short time all soldiers get the habit of using these designations in ordinary conversation. For instance, one will say: "I am going over to 'esses-pip seven,'" meaning "Supporting Point No. 7," or, in stating the time for any event, "ack-emma" is A.M. and "pip-emma" P.M.
As the first ten letters of the alphabet are also used to represent numerals in certain methods of signaling, some peculiar combinations occur, as, for instance: "N-ack-beer" meaning trench "N-12," or "O-don" for "O-4."
"Ack-pip-emma" is the Assistant Provost Marshal, whom everybody hates, while just "pip-emma" is the Paymaster, who is always welcome.
Thus, the Machine Gunner is an "Emma Gee" throughout the army.

CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I Headed for the Kaiser 1
II Straight to the Front 12
III In the Midst of a Battle-Field 31
IV Eight Days In 47
V At Captain's Post 60
VI Our Own Cheerful Fashion 74
VII Sniper's Barn 83
VIII Getting the Flag 99
IX Hunting Huns 111
X A Fine Day for Murder 126
XI Without Hope of Reward 133
XII The War in the Air 143
XIII The Battle of St. Eloi 150
XIV Fourteen Days' Fighting 166
XV Blighty and Back 179
XVI Out in Front Fighting 187
XVII Down and Out--For a While 209

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Facing page
Bouchard Frontispiece
French Hotchkiss Gun Firing at Aeroplane 11
Hotel Du Fau?on 29
Light Vickers Gun in Action Against Aircraft 34
French Using an Ordinary Wine Barrel on Which a Wagon Wheel Is Mounted to Facilitate the Revolving Movement to any Desired Direction 45
French Paper War-Money, Issued by the Various Municipalities. Every Town Has its Bank of Issue. There are Practically no Coins in Circulation 56
Canadians with Machine Gun Taking Up New Positions 65
Wytschaete Map 85
Highlanders with a Maxim Gun 97
A Light Vickers Gun in Action 108
Canadian Machine Gun Section Getting Their Guns into Action 118
Canadian Soldiers in Action with Colt Machine Guns 128
British Machine Gun Squad Using Gas Masks 137
German Aeroplane Trophy--Jules Vedrine Examining the Machine Gun 145
St. Eloi Map 153
Lewis Gun in Action in Front-Line Trench 166
Canadian Machine Gunners Digging Themselves into Shell-Holes 177
A Shell Exploding in Front of a Dug-in Machine Gun 189
Hollebeke Map 195
Lewis Machine Gun Squad Observing with Periscope at Hill 60 203
Removing the German Wounded from Mont St. Eloi 212

THE EMMA GEES
CHAPTER I
HEADED FOR THE KAISER
The following somewhat disjointed narrative, written at the solicitation of numerous friends, follows the general course of my experience as a member of the Machine Gun Section of the Twenty-first Canadian Infantry Battalion. Compiled from letters written from the front, supplemented by notes and maps and an occasional short dissertation covering some phase of present-day warfare and its weapons and methods, it is offered in the hope that, despite its utter lack of literary merit, it may prove of interest to those who are about to engage in the "great adventure" or who have relatives and friends "over there." The only virtue claimed for the story is that it is all literally true: every place, name and date being authentic. The maps shown are exact reproductions of front-line trench maps made from airplane photographs. They have never before been published in this country.
I am sorry I can not truthfully say that the early reports of German atrocities, or the news of Belgium's wanton invasion impelled me to fly to Canada to enlist and offer my life in the cause of humanity.
No, it was simply that I wanted to find out what a "regular war" was like. It looked as though there was going to be a good scrap on and I didn't want to miss it. I had been a conscientious student of the "war-game" for a good many years and was anxious to get some real first-hand information. I got what I was looking for, all right.
The preliminaries can be briefly summarized. The battalion mobilized at Kingston, Ontario, October 19th, 1914, and spent