The Harrison times., 1914-11-21

1 q TVTTN
papers, the battle as the private sees IT,
Manifestly the picture is composite one,
but the incidents are authentic, every
oneO
London. $500 Yesterday morning
marched with my regiment from the
village of Roye in northeasterly di-
rection, not being exactly aware of my
destination. We knew, however, that
we we're going to the front to relieve
regiment which for week had been
facing the shrapnel fire from the Ger
man howit2ers, 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
of what they used to call musketry.
This roaring and rattling grew in vol
ume so steadily and at last became so
terrific (though it was little more than
dawn that we realized we were op-
preaching the big muss
Furnished With Days Ration.
| should say, of course, that we were
in reality part Of great detachment
Of whose numbers | have no definite
knowledge, At guess, there must
have been $4,000 of us marching for
ward on this morning We were fur
hlshed, each OF us, with days ration
in addition to the emergency ration,
with which we were 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 cayerns made by exploding
shells, some OF which were wide
enough and deep enough to hold q
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 scared peasant,
but whether woman or man, they
showed little animation, The horror
Of the Germans was too fresh In their
minds, II was funny now and then to
see n tiny little house surrounded by
trees with autumn flowers blooming In
the garden all about II, 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
az the passing troops and defy their
invasion; only now and then cat
summed herself In the embrasure Of
the desoate window,
Wounded Men Gay
We passed for a while heavily laden
ammunition trains and chuggIng mo.
tordrawn field guns, big ones, even II
they are not the l6inchors they say
the Germans are using, They looked
quite big enough to US az 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 peokcd
under the cover A young follow lying
inside raised his hand to Nv, Go, got
'om boys, bin, bin" he said "BiH,
bin," by the way, IL ~ much Of Blo'
gan ~ we have yet conceived II
doesn't sound like much IN telling, but
it means u whole lot when wounded
soldier says II,
Funny enough, the sight Of that fell
low did not frlghten me or my pal In
the alighteat degree We just waQted
to 60 out there and "biff biff as he
said II wasn't long after this that we
felt we we're very nearly In the midst
Of the engagement Dusty fellows who
had been In the trenches all night
passed ua going toward the rear,
Bleafyseyod some of them were but
others we're 30 eocly aud WbIant you
would have thought them drunk All
this time, remomber that same rattle
and roar was In progress and now n.
nNlly We could smell the powder and
once a shell that must have contained
shrapHel burst IN u little clump Of
trees 10 our right and the shot Nckcd
up q dust IN the roOd not far Nheod Of
ua,
Hlll 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
ua ON II horse, an odlulonl he must
have been, for almost Immediately
thereafter We were ordered to deploy,
We left the road, aud our company
scattered over front probably nifty
yards wide There was hill right IN
front Of us-not steep hill but gen.
tie rise. lts whole surface was torn
up with trenches and great cayorns
that must have been made by oyplods
ing shalia in the fighting of tho day