Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-11-12

These are the questions that hundreds OF
persons ask themselves every day. These
are The questions which the censor rarely
sees fit 10 answer. It is only from ths
pTfvate's letters to his wife or MS sweet
heart that we can get an insight INTO the
heart of the man whose sole duty II Is 10
obey orders. The following article IS an
attempt to reconstruct, out Of the ma
terial furnished by hundreds OF letters
printed in the English and French news
papers, the battle as the private sees II
Manifestly the picture is composite one.
but the incidents are authentic, every
oneD
London. - Yesterday morning l
marched with my regiment from the
village of Roye in a northeasterly d1-
rection, not being exactly aware Of my
destination. We knew, however, that
we were going to the front to relieve
a regiment which for week had been
facing the shrapnel fire from the Ger
man hoTitZers. The march was not a
long one, which pleased us nightly,
for when there is fighting to be done
we like to get it over with as quickly
as possible. All the way we could
hear the booming Of great guns, and
the lesser but no less ominous rattle
VI "AAt tllCS uGCd " AdiA 4AOSIAOIAS
This roaring and rafting grew in vol
ume so steadily and at last became so
terrific Though it was little mere than
dawn that we realized We were ap-
preaching the big muss
Furnished With Days Ration.
l should say, of course, that We were
in reality part of a great detachment
of whose numbers | have no definite
knowledge. At a guess, there must
have been $4,000 Of US marching for
ward on this morning. We were fur
nished each of us, with a days ration
in addition to the emergency ration,
with which we we're each provided on
leaving Paris, and upon which we
have had as yet no occasion to make
demand.
All the ground over which we
marched had been fought over in the
past week and there were many burned
and ruined houses. Great trees had
been cut down by shells and now and
then in the open fields we could see
immense caverns made by exploding
shells, some of which were wide
enough and deep enough to hold a
horse and wagon. In other places we
saw the beginnings of trenches which
had probably been evacuated before
they were half completed. Now and
then we would pass a scared peasant,
but whether woman or man, they
showed little animation. The horror
of the Germans was too fresh in their
| minds. 1t was funny now and then to
see tiny little house surrounded by
trees with autumn flowers blooming in
the garden all about it, and no sign OF
war about the place, except the utter
absence of life. The fields were bare
of cattle. No dog rushed out to bark
at the passing troops and defy their
invasion; only now and then a cat
summed herself in the embrasure of
the desolate window.
Wounded Men Gay.
We passed for a while heavily laden
ammunition trains and chugging mo-
tor-drawn field guns, big ones, even if
they are not the 16-inchers they say
the Germans are using. They looked
quite big enough to US as we passed
them.
Then we passed ambulance trains
going in the other direction with poor
wounded fellows, and some dead ones
too, probably, stretched out inside
We were ordered to halt while passing
one of these trains, and the fellow sta.
toned next to me and myself peeked
| under the cover. A young fellow lying
inside raised his hand to us. go, get
EN-, boys, biff, biff,' he said. "Biff
biff, by the way, is as much of a slo-
gan as We have yet conceived. 1t
doesn't sound like much in telling, but
| it means a whole lot when a wounded
| soldier says it.
Funny enough, the sight of that fell
low did not brighten me or my pal in
the slightest degree. We just wanted
to go out there and "biff, bif," as he
said. 1t wasn't long after this that we
| felt We were very nearly in the midst
of the engagement. Dusty fellows who
| had been in the trenches all night
passed US going toward the rear.
Bleary-eyed some of them were, but
| others were so cocky and jubilant you
would have thought them drunk. All
| this time, remember, that same rattle
and roar was in progress, and now fl
/ nally We could smell the powder. and
once a shell that must have contained
shrapnel burst in a little clump of
trees to our right and the shot kicked
up dust in the road not far ahead of
us.
Hill Torn by Exploding Shells.
Damn poor shooting, that" said
my pal, but he was wrong, because.
without knowing it, we were almost at
the battle front. A fellow dashed by
rs on a horse, an adjutant he must
have been, for almost Immediately
thereafter we were ordered to deploy.
We left the road. and our company
scattered over front probably fifty
! yards wide. There was a hill right in
| front of us-not a steep hill. but a gen.
/ tie rise. Its whole surface was torn
/ up with trenches and great caverns
| that must have been made by explod-
/ ing shells in the fighting of the day
! before.
At this moment it began to rain.
We had been expecting it all the morn
ing, but had hoped that the storm
would blow over, but there was no