Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1917-11-30

shell fire and taking what shelter we
could in shell holes while our leaders
picked the way to start across. The
extra heavy bombardment had warned
the Germans that something was about
to happen. They sent up star shells
and rs o S" signals until there was
glare over the torn earth like that
which you see at the grand finish of a
Paine's fireworks display, and mean
while they sprayed No Mans Land
with streams of machine gun fire. In
the face of that we started.
1t would be absurd to shy that we
were not frightened. Thinking men
could not help but be afraid. If we
were pallid, which undoubtedly we
were, the black upon our faces hid 1t,
but our fear struck voices were not
disguised. They trembled and our
teeth chartered.
We sneaked out single file, making
our way from shell hole 20 shell hole,
nearly all the time on all fours, crawl
ing quickly over the fiat places between
this small shelter. The Germans had
not sighted us, but they were squirting
machine gun bullets all over the place
promiscuously, like man watering q
lawn with a garden hose, and they
were bound to get some of us. Behind
me I heard cries of pain and groans,
but II made little impression on my
benumbed intelligence from the mere
fact that whatever had happened had
happened to one Of the other sections
Of ten and not to my own. 1t seemed,
some way or other, no affair to con-
Germ me. Then q man in front of me
doubled up suddenly and rolled into a
shell hole. That simply made me re-
member very clearly that was not
to stop on account of 1t. It was some
one else's business to pick that man
up. Next. according to the queer, psy-
chology Of battle, began to lose my
sensation of fear and nervousness.
After l saw second man. go down /
gave my attention principally to a con-
sideration Of the Irregularities of the
German parapet ahead of us, picking
out the spot where we were to enter
the trench. 1t seems silly to say It.
but l seemed to get some sort of salts
faction out Of the realization that we
had lost the percentage which we
might be expected to lose going over.
Now, 1t seemed, the rest of us were
safe until we could reach the next
phase Of our undertaking. I heard d.
rections given, and gave some my
self. My voice was firm. 1t surprised
me, and I felt almost calm. Our ar
tillery had so torn up the German barb
wire that 1t gave us no trouble at all.
We walked through 1t with only few
scratches. When we reached the low.
sandbag parapet of the enemy trench
we tossed in few bombs and follow
ed them right over as soon as they had
exploded. There wasn't a German In
sight. They were all in their dugouts.
But we knew pretty well where every
dugout was located, and we rushed for
the entrances with our bombs. Every
thing seemed to be going just as we
had expected it to go. Two Germans
ran plump into me as I was rounding
ditch angle with bomb In my hand.
They had their hands up, and each of
them yelled:
"Mercy, kameradt"
I passed them back, to be sent to the
rear, and the man who received them
from me chuckled and told them to
move lively. The German trenches
were practically just as we had ex-
pected to find them, according to our
sample. They were so nearly similar
to the duplicate section in which we
had practiced that we had no trouble
finding our way in them. I was Just
thinking that really the only tough
part of the job remaining would be
getting back across No Mans Land
when 1t seemed that the whole earth
behind me rose in the air. For mo-
ment I was stunned and half blinded
by dirt blown into my face. When
was able to see I discovered that all
which lay behind me was a mass Of
upturned earth and rock, with here
and there man shaking himself or
scrambling out of it or lying still.
Just two minutes after we went into
their trench the Germans had explod-
ed mine under their parapet. l have
always believed that in some way or
another they had learned what spot
we were to raid and had prepared for
us. Whether that's true or not. one
thing is certain-that mine blew our
organization. as we would say In Ken
lucky, plumb to hi" And 1t killed
or disabled more than half of our
party.
Great Confusion.
There was much confusion among
those Of us who remained on our feet
Some one gave an order to retire. unf
some one countermanded 1t. Morj
Germans came out of their dugoutd
but instead of surrendering as per OF
original schedule they threw bo9s
among us. 1t became apparent ,at /