Trench and camp. ([Admiral, Md.) 1917-1919, 1917-12-05
AMERICANS AT THE FRONT
Red Triangle Man Who Accompanied KhakCd Fighters the
Trenches Writes Intimately Of What He Saw and Heard
Somevhere In France.

Somewhere In France.
When our American troops started
for the front, We fed them every four
hours for f0rty-eight hours. They
came In cold and tired and thirsty.
We had six hundred lOaves OF bread
for them, twelve cases OF jam with
| twenty-f0ur cans In case, and three
hundred pounds OF coffee. We had
two cheeses, weighing one hundred
and eighty pounds each. We took Q
location on the quay, set mp stoves, q
boiler and served real American cof-
fee. We gave the coffee away. For
sandwiches We charged twenty-five
centimes. They cost US thirty-ilve
centimes. ] went thirty-six hours on
four slices OF bread and coffee.
Then I started on with the men
artillery, they were. We left at 8
D. m. on a Friday. Twenty-nine OF
us were In a box-car with a bale OF
hay. When the wire came of the hay
we needed q gas mask for the dust
that shook out. There wasn't room
for all to sleep. We were saddlers,
shoers, mechanics, the ninth section
of battery.
We woke to a foggy morning. The
men thought they were on the way
to Paris. But we had come to the
city of -, In q corner Of France.
We took the guns on the wagon, and
: marched seventeen kilometers to the
town Of -. We slept that night
in the loft Of q barn. Men had been
biileted there before us. and by morn
ing / had . ring of white welts
around my ankle from vermin. We
lived there for three days with those
visitors that didn't appear ON the roll
call, and for nine days we never took
our clothes on.
/ Horses Eat Anything
The boys were advised to slip OF
their revolvers. We rented q kitchen
as store-room for the guns. In
renting that kitchen, / wore out my
twenty-words Of French, but we got
the kitchen and We slept there In the
room with the guns. We stayed five
days in the place with the main horse
line Of the battery. The horses had
large appetitee and ate up caisSona
and any amount Of leather stun. One
man came in and reported with his
Overc0at tn rags. He said he was
sorry, but his horse had got hungry
in the night.
! thought I would go further up.
SO got horse. He was thin, / give
you that for background, 50 you will
be sympathetic 70 my next. The or
ders were to ride bareback, and l had
to ride him bareback raxorback. For
the next two days, / ate my meals
standing mp.
Then went to the brigade COM
mander and he let me 80 to the front.
We came to the first village this side
of the border. 1t was full MP OF men
billeted. ! said / was tired enough
to give seven francs for a bed. An
old woman gave me q room in house
with the end blown OF. She was
caretaker. The family had fed. She
seemed to feel this way about it
I'm about at the end of the line
anyhow, and I'll stay by the STUFF"
Two colonies walked me up to the
dugouts, and that was where parted
friendship with my long oyercoat. It
slapped mud every step.
Thirty men were in the dugout In
fetid air. The Germans were one
hundred yards away. In between
looked like lot of country any
where. Shells were coming in cas-
ually, landing in a field about one
hundred yards away. When we came
back along the Communication trench
we found the ceiling of 1t shot
through with q shell.
All Retire Early
Then I went to find our battery.
Ont along an old Roman road we
came to q farmhouse located where
wise farmer would place it. The
house was In ruins. All through this
section men had been buried where
they fell, batteries were dug in on the
hillside, and soldiers were bilIeted in
the ruins of villages, The fields
around the farmhouse were shell-pit-
ted. The Germans threw in one more
shell ct the house and killed two
cooks and an assistant. Somewhere
along the road battery was dug in
on the roadside. We saw gun-p1ts
and then nfne-foot dugouts and then
more gun-pits. There was chicken
wire with grass tied In for camou-
hagO, @ wooded hill and maze Of
barbed wire. / went into the mess
kitchen for American soldiers, got the
loan Of q mess-kit, and had prunes,
DnkakneR. NEAT and bread. I SILENT ON