The Hayti herald. (Hayti, Mo.) 1908-1922, 1916-03-23
time, until February 2s. Then We
made our FIRST charge.

for two days while we lay in the
trenches waiting for the word. They
answered back, Of course. and once in
Q while one of our fellows would 20,
With an arm of or head smashed in.
At four o'clock in the morning the
word came to charge. We scrambled
over the trench and ran toward the
Germans, so yards away. They swept
US with machine guns and bored US
with hand grenades. Big Jack John.
sons" screamed from behind the lines
at US, and over our heads went back
our own artillerys answer. The Ger.
mans came up over the trenches to
meet US, and we used the bayonet.
We slipped and fell; rose and fell
again, stabbing and cutting; there
was no chance to shoot.
Cold Steel Routs Germans.
Then the Germans gave way. They
can't eat cold steel. They were piled
UP in the trenches, dead and dying,
SO thick that it was untenable, and
after q while we had to abandon the
place we'd won, and 60 back to our
own trench.
I'VE left seven or eight men behind
in the little strip Of twisted mud be-
tween the trenches. And from c 10
for days afterward we watched those
fellows lie there and change from
dead men into things. wake up these
nights and see one Of 'em.
well, we charged the Germans
again on March 4. We lost more men,
and again had to abandon the trench
we won. The dead were too thick and
the stencil was too terrible. That's
what is meant when they say the
trenches are 'untenable.' In this
charge Colonel Farquhar Of our regi.
ment was killed.
I'VE had to stay in c 10 for six
days after this. We were shelled,
shelled, shelled. Day and night they
rained about us and behind US, cut.
ting off relief. We lost 65 men killed
and q number wounded. Then we got
out and the Kings Royal Rifles re.
lieved US. From then on until May 8
we went back and forth, in and out Of
trenches. We mined 'em and blew
'em up: we sniped little and threw
hand grenades.
And then we were ordered to
Ypres. We marched into the trenches
there without delay.
I'VE went in in a rain of artillery
fire and got caught in a vortex from
our own artillery and the Germans {.
An observer gave the range wrong to
orti11nrNy oY1 oorChf ~ nna
hundred and twenty Of our men went
down before the range was righted,
but we kept on and occupied the
trench. The Germans were right
across from us, about 200 yards away.
We held crescent-shaped trench, and
on May we routed the Germans, but
we had to duck back. for the fire was
too heavy and their trench was use.
less for protection.
From then until May the Ger.
mans shelled US. They poured tons of
lead about US. No one could leave
the trench; no one could stick his
head out. Our nerves went dead from
the conclusions, and our eyes were
glazed from the sights about us. The
dead lay under our feet and the
wounded crept back as best they could
to where they could get first aid.
First Attack by Poison Gas.
EARLY on the morning of May the
Germans charged. We knew they
were coming, and we were waiting.
They came over their trenches in
quarter columns, a solid, swaying mass
of blue gray. They shouted and ran
forward as we moved them down like
grass. Our machine guns, four to the
section, Just waved in a semicircle
and waved back again. We fired our
Lee-Enfields as fast as we could pump
them, and no bullet was wasted.
"They lay In piles in front Of the
trenches, and the piles were always
wriggling around as some of the in
jured underneath tried to creep out.
A whole battalion Of them were put
out of the way before they drew back
and formed for another charge, be-
hind cover of their trenches.
And this time we saw poison gas
for the first time. It was the second
assault. about eight o'clock in the
morning. We could see that some
thing was coming of, and then sud
denly there spouted up thick green
cloud, that hid everything in front of
US. The fellows under the German
piles wriggled harder than ever and
everybody in our trench asked: Well,
what's comm off anyhow? The wind
was wrong for 'em. and the Germans
went back, and there was quiet until
ten O'Clock.
.'Thbs time their gas came in. 1t
rolled along the ground like a moving
wall bout eight feet high. Behind 1t
we knew the Germans were coming,
but we couldn't see them. SO we let
fire through the cloud. The gas had
holei, blown in 1t and the force of the
bullets swayed 1t bit. but before we
knesw 1t the gas was rolling in the