The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1916-12-05
EXCITING TRIP TO
NO MANS Land
Irish Officer Tells Of His ES-
p0TlGnCoS There.
TRIES TO FIND BODIES

Heavily sheIled by Enemy and, With
Men, Several Times Narrowly Es.
capes estruetion-Machine Guns Hit
Two Of Party-"5lish+y" Weleoms TO
Tommies.
A trip into mo Mans Land" the
strip Of grou0d between the battle
lines-on the Somme front in France
Is described in the following letter
written by second lieutenant in an
irish regiment to the London Times;
All day long the wounded were
streaming down the road, but they
were all pretty cheerful met one
man who had been buried and shot
through the right wrist, but he was
wearing a German helmet, had been
recommended for the d. O. NJ, knew
he had a "bllghty" 1eave to go home).
and did not care snap for any one.
The first of our boys to come through
was riding on an ambulance with q
bandaged arm. He waved 1t to us and
shouted "Blighty" as he went by.
Then there were the German pris-
oners. The officers very superior"
but the men looked badly shaken. AS
one party went by Tommy shouted,
"It's fine day, Fritz" and Fritz
laughed and said, you're right"
To Search For Bodies.
On Tuesday l had to go up to No
Mans Land with a n. C. o. and ten
men to try to find the bodies of two
Of our officers and get Identification
disks Of any Of the men. One Of the
men collapsed en- route from the ef-
fects of a gas attack of the previous
week, and then we plowed through the
awful mud looking for the dead-a hor-
rible task.
When we got near our ground the
enemy commenced shelling, so l left
my men in a trench and went up
alone. They planted one on each side
Of me, and there wasn't fifteen yards
between the two. 1t was only the soft
ground that saved me. Altogether I
had to dodge about fifteen of the beau
ties, and when l got up in front all
the bodies had been either buried by
shells or the special pioneer parties,
so the journey was in vain To add to
the festivities it rained quite hard. and
they turned two machine guns on me.
On the return journey we had a mile
and half of open country TO negoti-
ate. and it was pitted with shell holes,
so progress was slow. We had been
crawlin along a trench. and before
leavinr shelter | ordered the men
to wall II single file with six PAGES
interval between them, I, of course.
bringing up the rear. This formation
saved us from being wiped out
Struck BY Shell Fragments,
The Germans shelled US all across
the open ground, and when halfway
across a shell burst quite near us, and
the man next but one In front of me
was hit. We got him into a shell hole
and found he had been shot clean
through the neck, and also hit in the
light anu hNC pldSCo al LAC
right arm. The n O. o. and BAN
daged him up, but we were covered
with blood, and another shell burst
three yards away and covered us with
dirt. We carried that boy ON a stretch
er on our shoulders for over two miles,
and he never complained or grumbled,
although the ground was rough and we
had to jolt him sometimes.
There was also another man hit
in the shoulder, but he could walk
and smoked his pipe and talked of
"Blighty.' These men are wonderful,
and we should think of them and what
they suffer when we grumble when
our little fingers ache. The doctor told
me that our bandaging was successful
and that the boy would live, but new
er thought that he or any Of us would
ever get through alive.