American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1917-11-30

INV @NfF U'Nf
came to the artillery quarters, and
there we gave him over to his com
rades, who rushed him to the nearest
field ambulance. | do not know
whether he recovered or not; l have
often wondered about 1t.
We found our car where we had left
It, and we were back at headquarters
before dark. On the way back the old
colonel made a remark that ! believe
he really meant. He said: I've en-
jOyed these two days immensely, and
it brought back the days of my youth.
Fate has decreed that my body shall
remain in England. but God knows
that my heart lies with you boys out
here in the trenches"
A rather funny thing happened soon
after this which shows what "A man
who doesn't know the ropes will do
when he gets excited. There was a
very strict order to the effect that no
man other than one detailed for the
} work should touch or in any way dis
turb an unexploded enemy's shell. A
heavy penalty was imposed for dis
obeying this order. and no one but a
man who didn't know any better would
think of doing it.
A new regiment came up and went
straight into rest camp before going
into action. A private in this regiment
happened to run across an unexploded
shell one day, and, being the first he
had eve seen, he was greatly excited.
He picked it up and anne dashing into
camp with it. Before showing it to
any one else who knew any better he
went straight to his commanding Off
Ger to exhibit his find.
"Oh. look what | found sir" he said.
ITS a German shell that hasn't ex-
ploded."
as it really?" said the officer. well,
I'll tell you what you can do with it.
You will take it into that field, and you
will dig a hole five feet deep, and you
will bury your find there, providing, Of
course, it doesn't explode in your hands
before you have time to carry out this
order. Corporal, fall in two men and
see that this man obeys the order"
You may be sure that that man never
so much as looked at an unexplOded
shell after that.
During the time l was at the front l
put six automobiles out OF commission.
According to an estimate made after a
year of war, the average life Of an au-
tomobile is eight days and the life of a
horse is about thirty hours.
The first auto / lost was due to en-
CINE trouble. and l had TO abandon it
for the salvage companies to take care
of. The second one was destroyed by
a shell in the city of Ypres while | was
having some dinner. The third one
lost during the scrap for hill 60. | got
stuck in the middle of a field, and as ii
was in doubtful position set fire TO it
and trusted to luck that l had done the
right thing. The other three were used
up by the fearful condition Of the roads
We knew several days before the at
tack came on hill GO that there was
something in the wind. Our mining
and tunneling companies had been
working day and night. and l noticed
that the artillery seemed to be concen'
trating in that vicinity. Re-enforce-
ments were brought up. and everything
seemed to point toward some dOings In
the near future.
Two days before the attack came Oh
was warned to hold myself I'm readi-
ness to take a motorcycle machine gun
into action, but | was not told any
thing about when l was likely TO be
wanted.