The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-11-04
STORY OF Fighting
Fight IN Mud FILLED Trenches
TOLD BY FREKCHhAN

/ -
|GRApHIC STORY OF WAR
Writer Describes Keenlr his Feelings
tnder Terrific Fh'e-How Steady
wall of Germans Overwhelmed His
| Position-Described Journey on
Foot to Hospital.
How French and Germans fought
and tore at each other like maddened
beasts in the mud filed trenches
| along the Aisne with only a wan
moon and the glare Of bursting shells
to give them light is told in another
remarkable description OF the war
by Sergeant Louws, Of the 18th regi-
ment of French infantry reserves, re;
serves, received by his fancee.
Writing from his cot in the general
hospital at Havre, the soldier con-
eludes this grim epic of modern war
| with picture of the Sisters of Chari-
ty, who creep behind the battle lines,
| aiding the wounded and sick. Paint
ing them as gentle angels with the
courage of stoics, the sergeant cries:
''Here is the spirit of France; France
still lives, thank God. Vive Trance"
With his company. the Nineteenth,
the sergeant, on September IA, in a
trench near Fontenoy, where the con-
flict ragged most fercely, day and
night On Friday, September 1e, af-
ter FIVE days of continuous fighting,
his company was sent back for a
short rest, while fresh troops piled
into the mud filled trenches into
which dull. leaden rain was drip
ping.
WAS Too Tired to Feel.
Like caricatures fashioned of
mud. suddenly called to life, we hob
bled wearily out of the holes where
we had lived under hell of burst
ing shells, soaring flame and nause-
Gus gases for days." he writes I'VE
! were relieved by other troops, who
saluted us as they passed. Did we
salute back? I do not remember.
I only know my WEAKNESS was past
a physical sensation. I was a dead
man who somehow had the power OF
moving. We were marched to the
castle farm of Goudrecourt, near Fon-
tenoy, north of Aisne; in sort, back
of the table land, where we were
since Sunday, the fourteenth. Here
we slept, despite the shells which
screamed over us and tore at the
walls, biting in them great, livid
holes,
Il thought 81 YOU. and then I
thought OF my first day OF war on the
crest above Flachslanden, in Alsace.
I saw there my first dead-Bavarian
dragons. My God. How big they
looked, sleeping on the gentle slopes.
Since then 1 have seen so many dead
my eyes are scared. Our French
look so small and quiet, after they
cease crying out in pain and die.
Their knapsacks are little: their blue
overcoats twist about them in such a
ludicrous way have gotten so
when l see dead men I let my eyes
fall on their hands-the hands that
are always stretched so wide, as il
they sought something. And on them
I see so many little gold bands that
are wedding rings.
Back to Trenches Again.
"All of Saturday, while we rest and
eat and eat, great warm meals, and
seek water that We may wash, the
shells come. We watch the great
walls about this castle farm crumble
in jets of white smoke and We shud-
der at the explosions that seem to
come moment after. All Of US
clean our arms, so rusted by the rain
the eternal rain that Will never
stop. Our officers put in order the
wavering and. mixed units, and that
night we are told We are to go back
to our posts. But our officers agree
to let US rest.
at two or three o'clock Sunday
morning we fell in again and went
back to aid our comrades in the
trenches and redoubts.
In the trenches We crouch while
the shells and bullets from the Ger
| man infantry play over us-and, alas
| on US. Overhead the moon struggles
about in the clouds, for the rain has
! ceased a little, while mad stceaks OF
white light whisper their way from
the German trenches and touch some
where along our line. In moment
| there is a screaming shell where the
light was, and we know that some OF
! our comrades have answered Frances
| last call.
Germans Come in Blocks.
I've were not paying much atten
| tion to anything after two hours ot
this. We just fired when told. Their
suddenly at daybreak the Germans
came Fifty yards away we saw
| them, in the streaky light that beck
ons the sun in these table lands
They came like solid blocks which
were machines. We 6red-my God
We fired into their faces. and the!
stretched dead. But they came on
| sometimes shouting, sometimes puff
\ fng. We beat them with the but
ends of our muskets and we stabbed
/ them with our bayonets. 1t was hor
rible They did not hurt US so much
4 for we were in our trenches, into
!! which they tried again and again tt
come. Our grape shot tore chunk:
out Of that machine, which were fill
ed up. Our bayonets ripped erea
holes in it. The holes disappeared
I'VE were exhausted. Would there
never be an end to them? Some
times one came into the trench. HI
died, with many aiding him. Th'