Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-12-18
ny Lieut.. .. HARVEY DOUGLAS
A True and THRILLING Tale Of the Expert
enres 81 2 Wounded Csnsdion 3mcsr Wh'


moving along to the left when suddenly
u large she'll or Minnie" don't know
which, landed right In the middle OF my
little party and wiped them All out
with the exception of four others ana
myself in the front. and perhaps one or
two In the rear whom l never saw aga"'
We five moved along n short distance
till We found a short angle IN the tenc.
which had somehow or other escapeu
che attention Of the German artiners'
Here | collected a few men from, 9 '"'n'
pany, which was on our left. unfil even
tually we numbered about ten. liad We
been spared urtll the attack came on
the ten of us would probably nave SUI
ceeded In pumping q considerable amour"
Of lead into the advancing Huns
FEIGNED DEATH
BY this time we had begun to reallze
that this was No casual "S''ate' nut
the preparation fer an attack. \ Ger.
man aitplare dying very low r"tcen
this little bit of undestroyed trench, we
fegned death. Any man who MADE a
move was properly cursed, as our ohlN
hope OF being unmolestcd was that thus
airman should thiDk we were alreauy
dead However, he decided to take no
chances and directed the fire OF what
seemed 20 us like about forty batteries,
as well as several Minnewerfers. on to
our one little hit of trench. AZ one
moment looked UP and saw three
"Minnies" coming down directly on top
of us We ali kiseod ouTGclves Cood-by
and hoped Cor the best None OF them
made direct hi, one of the three
landed In the Interior angle ana the
other two on tho exterior faces OF the
angle made ny the hcrl IN the trench
and all exploded simultaneously.
Every one who had TO: already heen
wounded with the exception OF
stretchcr bearer named Barclay and my
self got Il then We were all half
buried. but we managed tc crawl out
Barclay and | put field dressings on
the wounded men, and | gave mornhia
tablets which all the officers carried
to those who were in great pain. There
were only three besides myself who
could move and I decided to act as
| Mr. Cocisnutt would have wished under
/ the circumstances aud TAX" these men
To a sheli-proof trench IN Mount Sorrei
| which was commonly known as the
Tunnel We had been given orders that
! in ease Of heavy bunbardment this was
where We were to take our men. In
/ order 10 get there we had to go down
/ a short communication trench known
| as Canada street but we had not gone
| moro than a few yards before we dis
/ covered that CanHda street existed m
longer. We crawled overland. following
/ the line Of the trench by the hits OF
! "a" frame and riveting material which
were protriIdiug from the earth. We
| soon came to the German hdrraEe. which
| extended all the way along our frontage
| lust in the wear 1T the trenches dnd
prevented any possibility 81 re-enforce'
ments reaching us | saw mat il was
| hopeless to get through this at the time
| and we decided to lie there until tie
! harrage might lessen sufficiently to en-
| able ns to make "A dash tor IL.
| particularly wanted 10 reach the
Tunnel, as it was here that battalion
headquarters were located. and IT was
necessary to report that our trenches
were destroyed and that there were NO
men left to defend the position when
the attack should come As we lay
there we were soon located by n Ger
man machine gunner, who ripped of
two or three belts at us. We were In
full view with virtually no cover: the
bullets cracked all around us and the
dlrt few in our faces. We had beer
under first many a time before and had
often felt afraid. According 10 the old
saying, any man who says he Is MOI
afraid under fire Is either fool or a
liar. But none OF us had ever expert
enced anything SO terrific rs this. We
knew we were going to be killed and we
had got to the stage where II did moi
seem to matter whether we got it thcr
or few minutes later I believe It wal
this feeling that had rendered all tn,
men SO cool and collected. and I wa.
surprised TO see during that morning
that some of the new men who were
under first for the first time were Just
as cool as those who were old hands al
the game. OF course, they had the
advantage OF not knowing how danger
Gus o shell might he. whereas the other.
had seen so many of their friends "gc
west" that they could appreciate tht
danger more fully.
CONTINUED TOMORROW