The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-09-15

| fifteen yards from the barricade be-
hind which the Germans were fighting.
I Our flank and the German flank were
In contact as fiery as that of two live
wire ends. And meanwhile the Fritzes
tried to rush us on our front with nine
separate counterattacks. Only one OF
them got UP close TO us, and we went
ont and stopped that with the bayonet.
Behind our block harricade there Was
the nearest approach to an actual light
ing hell that / had seen.
And yet man who was In the midst
of 1t from beginning TO end came out
without q scratch. He was stall chap
named Hunter. For twenty-four hours.
without interruption. he threw German
"eggshell" bombs from a position at
the center of our barrieade. He never
STOPPED except to light q cigarette or
yell for some one to bring him more
bombs from Fritz's captured store
house. He projected regular curtain
Of fire of his own. I've no doubt the
Germans reported he WAS q couple of
platoons, working In alternate reliefs.
He was awarded the .. c. NJ. for his
services in that fight, and, though, as
/ said. he was unwounded, half the
men around him were killed, and his
nerves finished in such condition that
he had to be sent back 10 England.
The Big Blunder and What It Cost,
One Of the great tragedies of the war
Of rnIoeSr11z0
when a couple Of days later the effort
was made 10 extend our grip beyond
the spot which we took In that first
fight, Plans had been made for the
Forty fourth battalion Of the Tenth
Canadian brigade TO take by assault
the trench section extending to the
right from the point where we had es-
tabIished the block on our flank. The
hour for the attack had been fixed
Then headquarters sent ont a counter
handing order. Something wasn't
quite ready.
The orders were sent by runners, as
all confidential orders must be- Tele-
phones are OF no avail any more. as
both our people and the Germans have
an apparatus which needs only to be
attached to a metal spike in the ground
to pick up" every telephone message
within a radius OF three miles When
telephones are used for anything i'm
portant messages are sent In code
But for any vitality important commu.
nication which might cost serious
losses, II misunderstood, old style run
ners are used. just as they were In the
days when the field telephone was un.
heard of. 1t Ia the rule to dispatch two
or three runners by different routes go
that one at least will be certain to ar
rive. In the case of the countermand-
ing of the order for the Fourty fourth
battalion to assault the German posi-
ton on our fiank some officer at head
quarters thought that one messenger
to the lieutenant colonel commanding
the Fortyfourth would be sufficient
The messenger was killed by chance
shot, and his message was undelivered
The Forty fourth, in ignorance Of the
change OF plan, went over" There
was no barrage FIRE TO protect them,
and their valiant effort was simply
wholesale suicide. Six hundred out of
500 men were on the ground In two
and half minutes The battalion was
simply wiped out. Several officers
were court martialed as a result of
this terrible blunder.
We had gone into the German
trenches at little after noon on Sat
srday. On Sunday night at about 10
o'clock we were relieved The relief
force had to come In overland. and
they had good many casualties en-
route. They found us as comfortable
as bugs in rug except for the infer
nal and continuous bombing at our
flank haTicade. The Germans had
concluded that 1t was useless to try TO
drive us out. About ore-fourth Of the
600 of us who were stfll on their feet
were holding the sentry posts. and the
remainder of the 600 were having
banquets In the German dugouts, which
WIRE stocked up like delicatessen shops
with sausages. fine canned foods, cham
payne and beer IL We had only had
few ladies with US we could have
had real party,
got SO happily interested In the
spread In our particular dugout that |
forgot about my wound until some one
reminded me that orders required me
to hunt up a dressing station and get
an anh-tetanus Injection. The Tom
mics iiike 10 tahs Il German trench, be.
cause IL the Fritzas have TO move
quickly, as they usually do we always
find sausage, beer and champagne, a
welcome change from bully beef
could never learn to like their bread.
however.
After this fight I was sent, with
other slightly wounded men, for a
weeks rest at the casualty station at
Contay / rejoined my battalion at
the end of the week. From Oct. 81 TO
Nov. Is We were in and out OF the
front trenches several times for duty
tours OF forty-eight hours each, but
were In no important action. At $40
on tho morning Of Nov. Is, a bit
ter cold day. we went over to take
the Desire and also the Desire support
trenches, These were the names given