American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1917-10-05
~SoTHING TO REPORT"

{ BY Walter Duranty)

our outlying positions west OF Cerney
and By aid Of flame throwers sue
oeeded Ia occupying a small element
of trench previously leveled By bonn
hardment. The situation was later
re-establiahed by a cOunterattaek -
Extract from a French C~ommunique.
Here is a verbatim description OF
that particular local attack given me
by Corporal r. NJ, who lived through
IA and Il now Ia a Paris hospital.
The Bombardment.
knew we should have trouble when
/ got a look a. our ne~ position the
morning after my company relieved
the BOYS who'd beer holding u. To be-
gin with. ID was IN a salient, more or
less. 10 tho rest Of the line, being bent
uke a horseshoe round the north side
Of little hill. Secondly. that was al
most the only hill ~thereabouts, and,
low as Il was. ! judged Il would be
important for observation purposes
Finally we belonged 10 a shock bat
talon, and whenever we 90 anywhere
n always does mean trouble.
Il began an OF a sudden the next
afternoon. was asleep In an abri
when there came an awful roar that
woke mo on the jump Al hrst ]
Thought II was just a stray torpedo
that had landed right In the trench,
but the row went on worse than ever,
and shells we're bursting all over the
place. There was no mistake pos
slbie the b0chos were treating as TO
atlr de destruction" that generally
nrecedes an attack. Destruction Is
the word all right. or course we
knew too much 20 look out OF the
abri. but IA soon learns 20 gauge the
comparative violence OF shell Gre, es-
pociaily when one Is rs target, n
this was something quite out OF the
common. .
while we we're resting" ia heard
mat they'd reinforced their artillery
a good deal, aud II was certainly true
In our sector. After what I'd seen at
Verdun 1 thought there could be moth
ing worse IN the way OF bombardmeni,
but there at least Il swept the ground
methodically 80 that YOU had an &C
easional chance 10 jump 10 a safer
spot. while now the big ones seemed
90 be falling everywhere at once ike
hail on a field. II was concentrated
IRE in a degree / wouldn't have be-
ueyed possible. The earth quiyered
all the time as Il does when an ex-
press train PUSHES past, and every
now and then We could feel II give a
sort OF heave when a shell burst near
or than usual. The noise was terrific
and absolutely continuous-lnst like
peals OF thunder close overhead with
ont any interval between them. OF
course there was nothing TO do but
hope they didn't get a direct hit on our
abri, and 10 curse our own gunuefs for
lazy swine. as one always does In a
ease like that.
All OF a sudden silence fell on as
With q worse shock than the loudest
explosion That woke The sergeant all
right. believe me he gave one yell
grabbed his mask and a sack OF gren'
AIDES and jumped for tho staircase all
Ia the same movement ! did the
same two other boys hOisted up the
mltrailleuse, and before two seconds
had elapsed we We're all stumbling on
into what had been the trench | tel
you In a moment like that you dom
want 20 lose any time Ia getting oul
OF your rat hole However much you
don't care. you always prefer to die In
the open.
II was close on dawn. and the SKIS
wal beginning 10 get gray, but va
couldn't see anything through the mica
OF our masks. and. the irst thing we
knew. the sergeant and and the mex
man pumped headlong into a shell
erater half fun Of water about TIVE
yards in front OF our abri There
must have been a thunderstorm a.
we'll. as Il had been dry enough betor,
Ne vent down. Anyway. that crater
had prevented the water from trickltnl
into the abri. SO We had no right e
complain OF It.
A we scrambled out cursing. "a
could hear the barrage going behinC
us. and then a flare went up some.
where ON our right and W. saw how
things looked Naturally there was
no more trench-lust q series OF
mounds and hillocks and holes viii
water shining in them. and here ane
there a sort Of miniature cliff whore
a she'll had cut the chalk clean like
a knife.
We weren't alone. Round about
there were other little groups. scramb.
ling about like mites In q cheese, and
20 ms left | could heal a OF our lieu
tenants yelling az some fellows who
we're fixing up 4 miirailleuse. Then
everything went black again. but We
had seen one other thing-out in
front. not thirty yards away. clusters
OF moving black thugs slipping aud
c~iambering over the white ground The
bombardmsut Was over. aud tho
boches we're attacking
The PLANE Attack.
Then everything happened at once.
Right beside ms a mitraillcuse began
hanging ike am uuslgncaH MOTOR
cycie. and almost simultaneously there
rose up forty feet high on the OK
treme left flank OF attack a tall thin
ief OF white and red light from which
sprayed off flashes of green and yell
los as water sprays from the hose jet
az a ire. For what seemed a full sec
ond or more the flame hung ia the air
shove us, showing bright as day the
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