Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1917-11-23


remember seeing my officer coming,
so I got out and started the engine.
There were two horses standing just
behind the car, and as the officer went
to step in a piece OF shell cut one Of
these horses in two.
AS soon as we were clear Of the
town we were all right, for. while the
shells continued screaming over us,
they were still bursting in the town.
This was the beginning of the first
battle Of Ypres, in which the little
Seventh division did the seemingly Inn
possible. Day and night the Germans
poured shells into us, and still we held
on. Then their artillery fire would
slacken, and they would hurl their SUI
perior numbers against our "contempt-
ibe little army" in vain endeavor to
crush us by sheer weight, as 1t were.
The enemy seemed to rise out Of the
ground and sweep toward us like n
guns poured steel into them at the
rate of COO shots per minute, and they'd
go down like grass before the scythe.
II they did reach our lines at all they
never went back to tell about 1t.
1t Is my honest opinion that a man
In action goes temporarily insane, for
were 1t not SO how could any man con-
iinue to work a gun that was sending
hundreds of his fellow creatures into a
heap OF groaning, squirmlng death
That Is exactly what was happening.
The Germans were climbing over heaps
Of their own dead only to meet the
same fate themselves. The deeds OF
valor which have escaped notice around
the Ypres salient would ill at least one
large book.
With the end OF the first battle OF
Ypres our division retired to village
called st. Jean Capele. While the Bel.
gian civilians had been SO nice to us on
the way down from Ostend am sorry
to say that we found them exactly the
opposite here. We had not been In the
town three hours before we had three
Belgian peasants arrested and convict
ed Of espionage.
There was windmill on n hill Just
back OF the village. ana some one no
ticed that as soon as we entered the
village this windmill started to go, al
though there wasn't breath of air
stirring. Investigation showed that
two Belgians were signaling to the
Germans In this way.
The other case was even worse. One
of our police stopped an old Belgian
with bag under his arm and asked
him what was in il. He replied that IL
contained nothing but few vegetables
Something aroused our chaps suspi-
cion, and on examination he found that
II contained two pigeons with messages
giving our exact strength attached TO
them. These men were taken to tho
rear and shot Things like this make
1t very unpleasant for all concerned
1t was about this time that new
driver was found for the generals car,
so that left me without any definite
work TO do. At that time, too. we had
the first armOred cars In action on our
part of the line. They were beautiful
machines, sixty horsepower, mounted
with machine guns or three Founders
While ! was waiting TO ind out what
was to become of me | made one trip
In the armored car-that is to say,
went into action with il once. OF
course the gun was worked by expert
gunners and | was simply acting as a
spare driver in case anything serious
happened. The body OF the car was
covered with bullet proof steel, and 1t
was bullet proof too
We didn't get up as far as some of
the cars had been. but we got quite far
enough to suit me. What with the
racket our gun was making and the
noise of the bullets bouncing off our
armor plate, II was no place for a
nervous man. The hard part for me
was the inactivity, simply sitting there
and waiting in case 7 should be
wanted
We didn't stay there so very long.
and | was not sorry for 1t, either
That was my only trip In an armored
car, and I'm not particular about hav.
Ing any more. thank you.
| was advised that the only way