Imperial Valley press., 1915-03-20
(By Phil Rader)

! Copyrighted, 1918, by United Press)
My comrades and |, in the French
foreign legion, went to war under its
J lids and as we marched out from
Paris about the middle of October and
started on our l50-mile tramp To the
front, the French cheered the Stars
nd Stripes with huge delight. When
Ouida wrote "Under Two Flags" she
was telling of my regiment, the ia
nous old French Foreign Legion, in
which every man fights under the
French flag and carries in his heart
the thoughts Of his own country's ban
u ner.
Of the 800 men | started out with,
Il only 385 were alive February /. There
Il are strange men in the Foreign I.e-
giOn-men whose lives have been
twisted in one way or another: men
with pasts; men with dark secrets;
Il man who want to die, but who have
stopped at suicide. You never ask
i man in the French Foreign Legio,
who he really is.
i | had joined the forepn lepion be-
4 cause had been told that, if got in
to the French flying corps, which !
1 wished to do, | must first become a
member of the legion. | didn't intend
to go to the trenches, but the first
thing knew we were under way. with
our American flag flying over u,
bound for the front.
My arrangements for entering the
flying corps had gone glimmering, and
here | was, only an ordinary private,
carrying rifle and a pack weighing
96 pounds. We marched for 6 days,
10 hours "A day, for 40 minutes at II
stretch, with 5-minute rests. At last
we reached a little town which, they
told us, was 3 miles from the trenches.
We had been all agloW to get into
the fighting.
It'll be Just our luck to be held in
reserve"
1--WE won't get to the trenches fol
long time"
81 hope they get us into the fighting
right away"
We had made these remarks hun
dreds of times during our long march.
An orderly came up to the position
where we were standing and said:
1--WE are to go directly to the
trenches"
It was like a dash of cold water.
Wasn't this just little bit too sud
den? we thought.
Then terrific chattering broke out
among US. Every man was trying to
prove how ready he was. Men al
ways do that in pinch, | found.
Jokes were made in unnatural tones.
Loud laughter was high-pitched. Men
slapped others on the back bolster
ously. | didn't know that all these
things were unfailing signs that fear
was tugging at our hearts. | had
hundreds of chances in the days to
come to study myself and other mer
in the periods of danger, and I've
learned that fear always comes.
The brave man isn't the man who
has no fear. He is the man who has
it and conquers it or who fears the
jibes of his mates more than the but
lets of the enemy
We marched few miles more that
afternoon and at last found ourselves
in deserted little town. Our path
had been strewn with relics, French
caps, French knapsacks, broken French
rifles, French graves. | found myself
wondering why we saw no German
relics. l began to understand that
evil things could happen to US as we'll
as to the Germans. We were going
to kill the Germans, but in the mean
time what We're they going to do to
us? | was an average man, straight
from the sidewalks of San Francisco,
and what was happening to my mlnd
could have happened to the mind OF
any man | knew. We could hear
shooting now; distant rumbling. Our
nerves were strong, tense.
1--WE are to cross the canal ON the
little bridge and go to the farm
house." said an orderly. "But you
must cross the bridge one at a time
so YOU won't draw the German fire.
There were 80 of us in my party. ]
was the third to cross the bridge. AS
I ran / could hardly believe that |,
from orderly San Francisco, was run
ming from bullets-was running from
being killed-that | was this man who
was entering war.
In the farmyard we found a grave
marked by a wooden cross. 1t was
next to the dung heap, but on the cross
had been marked the name "Joech
Reinemann," and other lettering bore
the praise of French officers for the
bravery of the German lieutenant who
rested there.
AS we stood there we heard ter
rifle whistling in the air; huge shell
hit the earth behind us.
Suddenly all fortitude departed. On
the march no one of us would have
admitted to another that he would
ever run. But now, with one accord,
we were all willing to run somewhere.
"Let's go to the barn" several
shouted.
We started for it when we heard
another whistling, and the old barn
was broken into huge splinters before
our eyes. A.,
"Where do you fellows want to &c? -
The words came from little sergeant
who came up behind us. He didn't
seem the least excited. He was ac-
customed to shell fire.
We told him we were heading for
the barn. ac,u
"You're right" he said. "Shells
mover strike twice in the same place.
Always 60 where the last shell hit
and you'll be safe" 49,. o4,o,