The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-30
Infantry ON Patrols
Thru NO-Man'S-Land.
ARTILLERY KEEPS BUSY, TOO
Men Haul Gun to Position To
Fire First Shot.
Red Headed Gunner Still ON the
Job With His '75.
BY j. w. PEGLER-

where in France, Oct. 3O.-Under ter
rible weather conditions, the Ameri-
can army is exchanging blow for blow
with the boches, learning war by con-
tact
France today is a vast stretch of icy
rivulets and mud bogs. Rain and
snow are beating down day after day.
Thru it all the Sammies are manning
their guns, perfecting their marks
manship by shelling enemy empIace
ments while the infantry in some
places actually stands knee-deep in
almost freezing water.
The American infantry stand their
watches on the front lines and take
their regular turns at patrols into the
bleak, deadly waste that is No Mans
Land. 1t is a desolate section where
the billiards. swirl of snowflakes or
sheets of rain make it often impossible
to see more than a few yards.
Engineers on the Alert.
Nearby American engineers, con-
stantly alert, clustered around a fee
BILE fire on a half demolished farm
house, await hourly summons from
across an almost impossible terrain.
to repair trenches. Returning wet
thru and exhausted, they throw them
cts and snatch a wink-mostly with
out an opportunity to change their
clothing.
Accredited American correspondents
on Sunday had their first opportunity
to visit the Sammies at the front
their gun pits dugouts and trenches
We staggered single file across
valley to see the gun that fired the
first shot of the war. A young lieu
tenant from Indiana told with boyish
enthusiasm how that first shot came
to be fired. He interspersed his run
ming narrative with cryptic commands
to his gunners, working underground.
THE French officers told us it was
impossible to procure horses to haul
that particular gun here until day
break" the lieutenant explained.
Drag Gun Up Themselves.
"He said if we wanted to drag it
up-by manpower-we might beat the
others and thus have the opportunity
of firing the first shot.
Our men knew it would be a tough
job-but they were anxious to shoot
that first shell. So they worked thru
all that night in the rain and mud.
And they got the gun in position just
before daybreak-' With hardly a
perceptible pause, the lieutenant lift
ed his voice abruptly here to shout:
Ready to fire."
1t must have been a command to
gunners in the subterranean cham
ber, for almost instantly gun
crashed, followed by a swishing shell
aimed at the enemys entanglem ents.
The lieutenant did not stop for the
noise. He resumed
80 DaVhreak and myself
watched from an observation post
when the gun was fired. 1 saw the
shell-the first fired by an American
gun-burst near a party of Germans.
They Topped down like prairie dogs
into their holes. By George! 1t was
great
Gunner From South Bend.
Down below at this particular juno
ture there was another trembling
earth roar and another American shell
went swishing along. The same
American artillery sergeant who had
pulled the lanyard for the first Amer
lean shell was yanking away busy t
his job today and firing the same
gun.
wanted to know something about this
gun sergeant.
Are you Irish ?" the lieutenant
yelled down the hole.
No" came voice from the depths.
81 come from South Bend. Ind
met a Keokuk Ia boy peeling
potatoes for supper at the entrance
to a dugout near the front line; a
South side Chicagoan grinding hash
near by.
Then we went forward to a ira
verse. There was a silent. shivering
pSGDlnR
downward from below their ponchos.
They were stopped in the trench, wait
ing their turn in No Mans Land as
patrol Their shoes oozed ice water and
melting snow dripped from the brims
of their tin helmet as the shrapnel
helmets are known in trench nomen-
clature.
Weather Worse Than War.
The sergeant commanding the pa
( trol-a native of st. Louis-spoke
This war isn't so damned bad.
The weather's my chief complaint"
Boche shells were bursting on a hill
half a mile away. Sammies' ewes
peered over the top of the parapet,
trying to see the effects-but the
snow blocked their vision
Il guess the enemy is sheIIing our
battery" said the St Louisan
In his trenches. Sammy acts as tho
he had done nothing else his whole
. life long. The morale of the Ameri-
can forces is excellent Feeding is
I difficult-but the food is of the best.
Just like the Canadians. the Sammies
require restraint to prevent them
I from attacking 1t looks SO easy and
] the waiting is so monotonous that
! they want to be UP and at 'em.
COnOrPSSuaaU f6 Wears Taad