The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1917-12-06
HOW OUR BOYS FACE TT

Kenneth Payne, one of the CORE
pondents on the front, sends a story
of how the American engineers are
behaving under some of the fercest
shell fire of the war. This is his
story:
How did they face ito" was the
question put to the commanding OF
ficer of the first battalion of Amer
lean troops to come under shell fire.
How would Americans face it," he
snapped back wrathfully.
Yet the question was a fair Il
Seasoned British officers say they still
feel eryou under shell fire.
Young troops just out. when they
get their first taste of it. sometime
feel pretty sick for a while, and SHOW
it. It's quite natural" So spoke an
English officer who himself has lived
under German shell fire 81 terrific
that it was heard clear across the
channel.
The fact, then. that these youna
American engineers endured thejr
first ordeal of high explosives with all
the cool nerve of experienced regular
is worthy of mention.
y personal experience will indicat-
in a very mild way the kind Of sur
prise and strain which successive
patches OF Sammies are now under
going.
You are walking along a road cheer
fully joking about the weight Of your
tin hat, or about the uncanny feeling
which comes from knowing that in
some observation post behind the
twisting white lines on the ridge OPP
posite, a German officer is Watching
you with his telescope. Back of you
hidden Bidden British guns are
cracking methodically.
1t is a quiet day" along the front.
Your attitude is that Of an idle spec
tator watching some vast, slow-mov-
ing natural phenomena. That human
lives are involved in the spectacle
hardly occurs TO you, much less that
your own is concerned in the drama.
Suddenly, with nerve-shattering un-
expectedness, the menacing wall of
approaching shell stops the whole
party dead in it's tracks.
Every fiber in your body yibrates
harshly in the metallic key set by the
shell.
You feel like a trapped animal.
There is a violent jar in the air and
earth, a roar, she'll fragments whistle
about our ears, and the road behind
you is wrapped in a heavy pail OF
black smoke and dust.
Before you are conscious of safety
from that shell, another is shriekina
in the air toward you. and still a
third Is on It's way.
Dam 1t, they're after us says the
officer In charge Of the party. Scat
ter out in the field each side of tn,
road, And If the shell is coming very
close, throw yourself fiat on the
ground quick. Take to a shell hole
only If there's n near. You only
have a second or two!"
Every shell seems shrieking a
you. The sky seems hard, the atmos
phere tense. the fields crudely shelter
less, and every shell hole a mockin,
omen of what's going to happen Il
you next To the tune of the frs
shell or two your inwardly make
last will and testament. Then yo,
manage to adjust yourself mental,
to the situation. and move on agar
noting where the shells explode ane
Analysing your W feelings.
You do all that mentally. Blu
%nervously you are high strung to tn,
breaking point.
The nerve strain comes out whe-
the party finally reaches the veritabl,
heaven-a trench. Knees are univers
ally weak. Everybody sits down awk
wardly In the mud. Faces are flush
ed. foreheads perspiring. and you us.
two or three matches to light on.