28. Am I doing all I can to prevent my men from getting trench feet? Have my men greased their feet before entering the trenches, and have they a pair of spare dry socks to change? Do my men wear gum boots when it is not necessary? Have I made all possible arrangements for drying socks? 29. Are the orders as to wearing equipment carried out? 30. Are my men using as firewood notice boards or wood from the defense or from the engineer or trench stores? 31. Are my men drinking water from any but authorized sources? 32. Do I know the name of every N. C. O. and man in my platoon, and do they know mine? 33. Do I insure that my men get sufficient sleep? 34. Have I sufficient periscopes and are they in good order? 35. Almost always remember that I am here for two purposes. Do as much damage to the enemy with the minimum amount of casualties resulting from retaliation, and to hold my part of the line at all costs. [Illustration: _PLAN_] [Illustration: MACHINE GUN EMPLACEMENT A type of front line emplacement with which an infantry officer should be familiar, but which are constructed by and are entirely under the control of Machine Gun Companies.] HOW TO FIRE A MACHINE GUN IN CASE OF EMERGENCY As a machine gun textbook is very dry, and it is difficult for a man who is not of a mechanical turn of mind to obtain the most elementary knowledge of the action from a book, officers should lose no time in getting in touch with a machine gun officer and learn from actual experience, how to load, fire and rectify simple stoppage. LEWIS GUN. To load, put a full magazine on the magazine post with the cocking handle forward. Pull back cocking handle to its fullest extent, and raise tangent sight unless the target is within 200 yards. To fire, press the trigger and the gun will continue to fire as long as pressure on the trigger is maintained. It will only stop when (a) the magazine is emptied; (b) stoppage is set up. To remedy this (1) take off empty magazine and put on full one, reload relay and fire; (2) cocking handle stops in one of three positions. To remedy this one must have a thorough knowledge of remedying of stoppages. VICKER’S AUTOMATIC. To load, pass the brass tack of belt through feed plug (right to left), pull back crank handle and pull belt to the left; release handle and belt; repeat this process and the gun is loaded. Vertical adjustment for sighting is obtained by moving elevating wheel on quadrant of tripod, horizontal adjustment by tapping the rear cross-piece. The clamping handle is in front of the cross-band of the tripod. To fire, raise safety catch with first or second finger (the safety catch is a strip of steel which is under the thumb-piece or double button) and press the thumb-piece. The gun will now fire until pressure is released or until a stoppage occurs.