THE JACK-KNIFE IN WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 282, 17 August 1918, Page 10

THE JACK-KNIFE IN WAR

BRITISH SOLDIER'S HANDY COMPANION (By Lieut. E, S. M. Sturgee.) Before proceeding on active service every soldier in the British Army is ;given, as part of his overseas kit, a jack-knife. Ho mny at first bo somewhat surprised at this gratuitous generosity oi!'-the part of the Government, A clasp-knife is a useful article at any timei, but he may wonder -why it should bo considered any more necessary to life at the front than to life in barracks at homo. His curiosity will soon be satisfied. A. singlo day of active service is enough to show him that without his jack-knife ho would be in l 'a bad way indeed.

The military clasp-knife is a serviceable weapon. It is not one of those intricate but genorally useless contrivances which profess to supply everything from a miniature saw to a liianicirre sot. There are only three paits to the soldier's knife—a tin openor, a blade, and a niarlinspike.

It ie the tin opener which at once make!; tb.o knife indispensable to the fighting man. Certain important items of his menu are supplied to him in sealed tins. There is bully beef, for instance, It is true that the tins of a certain make of "bully" aro provided with a key wherewith one is supposed' to wind off a thin strip of metal round the top of the tin, but the strip of motal in question lias a habit of breaking oif short during the operation, and 66 even in this case one must fall back upon the tin opener in the jack-knife. - Jam line, at any rate, are never fitted with a key, and for them a tin opener is indispensable. Apart altogether from the Army ration, a soldier on activo sorvico sees'a good deal of tin in various forms The little delicacies which he buys for himself in times of affluence are generally tinned—aalmon, sardines, apricote, peactics, and so on. There is no doubt that the tin opener alone justifies the existence of the soldier's jack-knife.

It is unnecessary to say much about the blade; its uses are too obvious to any one who has ever , used a knife. The soldier will .generally use it for purposes of eating in preference to tho "table knife" in his kit. It,is always so ready to.hand. After opening a tin of jam with the tin opener it is natural to use the blado of the knife as a vehicle to convey the contents of tho tin to a pieco of bread, in spite of .a certain stickiness imparted thereby to its hinges and working parts.

There are two other uses for the taifo blade which would not perhaps occur to anyone who has had no experience of active service. The <first is, as a woodcutter. In_ the trenches the lighting of a brazier is a most difficult operation. A part from various. hindrances, such as scarcity and dampness of fuel, there is the vital necessity of avoiding smoke. The Germans have a strong objection to smoke, and the sight of a column of blue vapour arising from the British trenches arouses in them disturbing evidences of envy, hatred, malice, and all unchnritableness. Tt is well to avoid smoke. To this end the wood for the brazier must be split up 6iuall into thin, stick o and shavings, and for this the jack-knife is once more an ideal instrument. „• The second use of the blade of the knife is even more original. Trench life is a somewhat muddy form of existence— a fact of which most people are already aware. The mud spreads itself indiscriminately over everyone and everything that comes into contact with it. When ho is withdrawn from the trenches it is the first duty of a British soldier to mako himself and his belongings as clean and'preeentflblo as possible. There aro inspections of great coats and uniforms, and it is prior to theso inspections that the jack-knife, is in great demand. It is used as a scraper. You hang your coat on a peg and shave it heavily. The effect on the keenness of the blade is perhaps a little dulling; in fact, I have seen blades which more resembled saws after _ the operation, but it is a most effective method of getting dried mud out of cloth. Besides, after all. tho blade can always be rcsharpened. Last comes the marlinspike. This I would call a weapon of opportunity; it is impossible to tabulate its uses, they are so many, and the list grows every day. It is used,, to put it briefly, for making holes. It is useful for prising open wooden cases, for punching holes in milk tins, for countless other purposes as they arise. I'or example, I have memories of a very effective brazier constructed out of a biscuit tin with the help of the marlinspike in a soldier's jack-knife. With a number of holes punched by this weapon in it sides and bottom to admit a draught, tho tin adapted itself with great success to its now vocation.

Mounted units liavo a special use for the marlinspike, and that isi ae an instrument wherewith to extract the stonos which so often wedge themselves into the frog- of n horse's hoof.

While dealing with the morlinspike it may bo as well to call attention to n story, ridiculous in every way, except for the effect its circulation had upon the treatment of British prisoners, which was at the beginning of the war deliberately circulated by the senior officers of the German Army among their men. This story wne to the effect that the marlinspike was constructed and fitted to the jack-knife for the purpose of gouging out the eyea of German wounded. In the report on the transport of British prisoners of war to Germany, recently published by the Government, there aro several mentions of this story in the statomente of British officers. Captain Beaman, for example, states that a German colonel said "that it was ecandnlous that we, who had gouged out the eyes of German wounded with tho marlinspikes of our clnsp-knives, should travel in a second-class carriage. . . Several of the mob had these English clasp-knives and were threatening to practise upon us."

Captain Browne tells a similar story of a Uhlan major who.lectured his men on the subject, showing them a marlinspike and inciting thorn against the British prisoners. The story appears to have, been cooked by the German military authorities for the consumption of their troops; it is an idea so hideous, so unthinkable, that it throws a significant light on tho nature of the minds which conceived it.