The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-24

account of the dust the shells made.
The doctor now went up to the front
line because he heard man had had
his leg blown off. Later he came
back wounded.
I'm the meantime an officer from
our right company came into the bat
talon headquarters shot in the head.
He was so dazed We could get very
little news out of him. but we gathered
that all the officers in his company
were done in So the Colonel sent
one of our officers to take command.
He soon came back badly wounded.
Well, the shells were getting such di-
rect hit on our dugout and the place
was cracking up so dreadfully that
the Colonel decided 10 change his
quarters to tunnel a hundred yards
to our left during the next lull At
three another lull came, and one of
the officers and myself simply tore
over to the other tunnel and estab
lished headquarters. l carried the
four remaining pigeons. our only
means of communication. The doctor
remained in the dressing station with
the wounded officers. We got settled
in the new tunnel when the firing be-
gan again, descending like an ava
1anche of steel and lead. We all felt
that an attack would follow either that
night or the next day.
Upon arriving in the tunnel we
discovered about 40 Australians, who
had been digging and stopped on ac-
count of the bombardment They
were without leader, so the Colonel
put me in charge of them. Some had
left their rifles on the other side of
the river to come over and dig and
those who had rifles had only about
40 rounds of ammunition instead of
$50. 1 divided them into four Sec
TONS and then took six men and
waited at the mouth of the tunnel for
a chance to rush out after ammuni-
ton. The lull came at six, and we
seven men rushed out past our old
headquarters, over the remains of the
trench, in and out of huge shell holes
and over debris of all kinds. We fin
ally reached the store and found it
had been blown in badly, but 1 broke
/ in and dragged out four boxes, each
with a thousand rounds in it. Back
again we heaved and tugged with
these terrible weights, and the barrage
descended again when we still had so
yards to go. But there was nothing
for it but to run the gauntlet and we
succeeded in bringing it in without
any casualties, giving each man 200
rounds. 1 now distributed to the men
some rations we were lucky enough to
find in the tunnel. At this time the
conclusion of the shells was more
terrible than ever We had received
no news from the companies except
that two of them We're without Off
GERS. None of the orderlies had re-
turned. 1 was going to eat a crust
of bread-the first bite 1 had had for
II hours-when the sentry guarding
an entrance to the tunnel suddenly
called out. Good Lord Sir, the Ger
mans are coming down the trench
/ 1t was an awful moment. We all
! clutched our revolVers. The tunnel
was not more than three feet wide
and pitch black, and I leave it to your
/ imagination what it is to be in such a
/ position with panicky men and under
such circumstances. 1t was simply
/ AWFUL. The boche had reached the
/ exit we were making for, fixed q ma
chine gun and worked it for all they
were worth. They now began throw
ing bombs and pouring liquid fire
down the tunnel. after having hauled
out some Australians as prisoners
We saw that that exit was no good
and the Colonel redoubled his foot
steps passed on and rushed on up the
tunnel shouting for us to follow. We
| got absolutely stuck in this awful
| crowd of stampeding men. and from
that time we never saw nor heard Of
the colonel again. All this time bomb:
were coming down every entrance
and the conclusion blew UP the tun-
! mel in a frightful manner. There we
| were caught like rats. and nothing we
could do. We encouraged the mel
by telling them that the counter at
lacks would come, but as the bridge!
were gone we really entertained ne
nope that such thing would happen
Luckily the Germans did not come
down, as they thought it was a serie!
of small dugouts instead of a tunnel
We decided to try to Escape and swim
the river. as a further fight was ne
use. They could have killed every
one of us as we came out one by one
from the tunnel. We waited a little
while, and then the captains crept gu
quietly and secuted to see what wa.
happening outside.
They discovered that the German.
! were digging in as hard as they coulC
between US and the river. We de-
I cided to wait till 1880 and then es
caperin small parties of four and si1
| at two minute intervals. AS we were
starting I was summoned to the Other
| end where one of our sentries wa: