Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1915-03-31
LIFE IN TRENCHES
LIKE LIVING HE'LL
German Officers Letter Tells
of Terrible Fighting, Toiling
and Ravages of Disease.

Correspondent of the Associated Press.)
Berlin. Special: The recipe which
o captain of landwehr roops end
home in accounting for success in
storming the French trenches in the
forest of Argonne is:
First bombs and mines, then our
selves"
Writing in detail of these attacks.
winch occurred early in November, he
gives an hitherto unpublished account
of how an 'anlrchist' in his regiment
had won the Iron Cross.
we have n fellow in the battalion
who is AN anarchist and he certainly
understands his handiwork of throwing
bombs.' the captain writes. He has
rendered us services of incalculable.
value. His name it. He is
somewhat of the Catalonian type, but
for such work as this he is simply
magnificent. He has won the iron
cross and is famous throughout the
forest of Argonne; in fact, he is the
general teacher i'm bomb throwing. He
even manufactures bombs. He does
not know what fear is. Every time
when about to throw a bomb he jumps
on the back of the trench, where he
stands full length and casts the missile
with deadly accuracy, like an old
Roman throwing the discus. What a
dare devil the fellow is! After such
work the enemN's trench was actually
dripping with blood-but l prefer to-
Keep silence about that. Anyway, we
are able in this way to break the cour-
age OF the French
Other passages of the captains letter
tell OF a certain attack at twilight on
November 8.
IAN day long we belabored the
enemy with bombs and hand grenades.
and our mine catapult finally sent into
MS trenches a few sugar loaves' OF
dynamite. After the fifth mine the in
Iantry or the - company was to fix
bayonets. dash forward suddenly andS
rush the enemy's first trench: every man
of them that resisted was to be shot or
%bavonetted. Everything passed off as
scheduled. The French. quite stupifiedi
by the frightful explosion of the mines,
sat like frightened rabbits in their
trenches and did not venture to show
the tips of their noses. Down arms!'
we shouted. A few who tried to defend,
themselves We're knocked over; and u
Few succeeded in slipping away in the
darkness along their trenches and es-
Gaping. The rest we made prisoners.
OF course by this time the French in the
adjacent rench and in those further
toward their rear had discovered what
was going on: and IA murderous fire
was opened upon us from all sides.
But that was all one to us: we were
going to keep what we had captured.
Darkness soon put an end to the boot
-o' OHA we HClu VII W OuI IIclCu.
After sending the prisoners to the rear
a night of song-first the
Old Netherlands Prayer OF Thanks
giving then patriotic songs and old
soldiers melodies for three long hours.
1t was Il mild night, with the full moon
shining.
Our victory next day was still great
er. We took three trenches. lying one
behind the other. made 1923 prisoners,
n drove the French at least 900
gulch. Our recipe was again the
same-first bombs n mines, then our
selves. With a few quick tigerbounds
we were in the trench. These bombs.
cast at such short distances have a
frlghtfu effect. We saw Frenc arms
ably 30 feet high. And every bomb
struck home. Even before we sprang
forward for our final storm we saw
tneir raised hands n heard them in
their trenches SO pitiously crying:
quarter. quarter that our men need
ed scarcely to make further use Of their
arms. Only those who tried to run
away were shot down. On the follow
Ing day counted over so dead French-
men between their second and third
trenches.
And so it will proceed till we shall
have squeezed the French completely
out of the Argonne. although they are
now defending themselves with the
~stubbornness OF desperation. But it is
a. frightful tedious job! The trenches
The ground is filled with thick roots
and is very stony. With axes, picks.
and spades our men work their a
toilsomely forward-even under the
fire OF the enemy. ever in danger for
their lives. The weather is often bad.
and it is very difficult to provision the
men properly. as all the roads are ex-
posed to he nemy's artillery fire, and
the transportable Kitchens cannot ap-
proach nearer than three miles behind
e ene front onr q Every wctsr spoonful ssa Il. Of soup;
must be brought into the trenches BY
night and often through the for-a
tramp OF hours. For five weeks our
men have been living here in the
Irencnes. IN open air and always
sickness. severe wounds. or death have
q depressing effect upon them. They
nave not been out OF their clothes in
three months. Their uniforms are tat
. .nrea ma dirty beyond description.
common cleanliness. Add to thi. the
pestilential odors from the many. dead
podies IN front of the trenches. which
cannot be hurled owing to the enemy
men from ! really ally have, ave often to pity our
h do look! Disease is written upon
5neir races; they are all candidates for
death. And yet no relaxation of en-
ergy, no grumbling. no repining.
I nave seen men at work fall down
from sheer exhaustion, and upon re-
covering c~onsciousness their first not
was to reach for their spade. They
work night n day, one SQUAD reliey-
ing the other. Each man has six hours
OF sleep. six hours Of guard duty in the
tlencnes' n ~ hours building
trenches n positions. And they are
mostly landWehr men or eselyists-