Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1917-09-07

Hold Regina Trench at Last.
The Regina trench had been taken
and lost three times by the British.
we took 1t that day and held It. we
went into action with 1900 men of nil
ranks and came out with 600.
I have said that because wo were on
the extreme right of the line we had
the hottest little spot In France to
hold for awhile. You see, We had to
Institute a double defensive, as we
had the Germans on our front and on
our flank, the whole length of tho
trench to the right of us being still
hold by the Germans. There wo had
to form q BLOCK" massing our bomb
ers behind a barricade which was only
fifteen yards from the barrlcado be-
hind which the Germans were fighting.
Our flank and the German funk were
In contact as fiery as TINT of two live
wire ends. And meanwhile tho Fritzcs
tried to- rush us OH our front with nino
separate counterattucks. Only one of
them got up close to us, and we went
out and stopped TINT with the bayonet.
the nearest approach to IN actual fight
Ing holl that had seen.
And yet man who was In the midst
OF 1t from beginning to end came out
without a scratch. He was toll chap
named Hunter For twenty-four hours.
without Interruption, he threw German
"eggshell' bombs from position at
the center of our burrlcade He mover
stopped except to light n cigarette or
yell for some one TO bring him more
bombs from Fritz's captured store
house. He projected n regular curtain
OF fire of his own. I've no doubt the
Germans reported he was couple of
platoOns. working In alternate rcliefs.
He wns awarded the ID. G. NJ. for his
services IN that fight. and. though, as
I said, lie was unwounded, hnlf tho
men around him were killed, and his
nerves finished I'm such condition that
he Ind to lie sent bnck to England.
The Big Blunder and What 1t Cost.
One of the great tragedies Of tho war
resulted from II hit OF cnrelessness
when couple OF days later the effort
was mnde to extend our grip beyond
the spot which we took in that first
fight. Plnns had been made for tho
Fortyfpurth battalion of tho Tenth
Canadian brigade to take by assault
the trench section extending to tho
right from the point where we had es-
tablishcd tho "bloclt" ON our flank The
hour for the attack had been fixed.
Then headquarters sent out n 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
IN apparatus which needs only to be
attached 10 n metal spike in the ground
to "pick up" every telephone message
within n rndlus of three miles. When
telephones are used for anything i'm,
portant messages are sent In code.
But for any vitully important commu-
nication which might cost serious
losses, II misunderstood, old style run
ners nre used, just as they were In the
days when the field telephone was un.
heard OF. 1t is the rule to dispatch two
or three runners by different routes SO
that one Mt 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-
tion on our flank some officer at head
quarters thought that one messenger
to the lieutenant colonel commanding
the Forty-fOurth would be sufficient
The messenger was killed by chance
shot. and his message was undelivcrcd
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 n
wholesale suicide. Six hundred out OF
800 men were oil the ground in two
and half minutes. The battalion was
simply wiped out. Several officers
were court martialed MS a result of
this terrible blunder.
We had gone into the German
trenches Mt little after noon on Sat
urday. On Sunday night ut about 10
o'clock We were relieved. The relief
force had 10 come I'm overland. aud
they Ind a good many casualties en-
route. They found us as comfortable
as bugs In rug except for the infer
nal and continuous bombing ut our
flank borricade. The Germans had
concluded that 1t was useless to try to
drive us out About one-fourth of the
COO of us who were still on their feet
were holding the sentry posts, and the
remainder Of tho 900 were having
banquets In the German dugouts, which
were stocked up like delicatessen shops
with snusages, fine canned foods, cham
payne and beer. If we had only had
q few ladies with lis we could have
had real party.
l got 80 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 dressing station and get
an anti-tetanus Injection. The Tom
mics like to take German trench, be.
cause IL the Fritzes have to move
as they usually do, we always
n