The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-11-03

After 1 had been hit I remember feel
ins; relieved that L hadn't been hurt
enough to keep me from going on with
the men. I'm not trying to make my
selr out hero. I'm just trying to tell
you how an ordinary mans mind
works under the stress Of fighting and
the danger Of sudden death. There
are sone queer things in the psycholo-
~ OF battle. For instance, when we
had got into the German trench and
were holding 1t against the most
vigorous counterattacks the thought
which was persistently uppermost in
my mind was that / had lost the ad-
dress of girl In London along with
some papers which I had thrown away
Just before we started over and which
l should certainly never be able to find
again.
Hold Regina Trench at Last.
The Regina trench had been taken
una lost three times by the British.
we took 1t that day and held 1t. We
went into action with 1900 men of all
ranks and came out with GOO.
1 have said that because we were on
he extreme right of the line we had
the hottest little spot in France to
hold for awhile. You zee, We had to
Institute double defensive, as we
had the Germans on our front and on
our flank, the whole length Of the
trench to the right Of us being still
held by the Germans. There we had
to form block" massing our bomb
ers behind barricade which was only
fifteen yards fram the barricade be-
hind which the Germans were fighting.
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
out and stopped that with the bayonet.
Behind our block barr.cade there was
the nearest approach to an actual 1ght-
ing hell that had seen.
And yet man who was In the midst
OF 1t from beginning to end came out
without scratch. He was a tall chap
named Hunter. For twenty-four hours,
without interruption, he threw German
"eggshelr' bombs from q position at
the center Of our barricade. He never
stopped except to light cigarette or
yell for some one to bring him more
bombs from Fritz's captured store
house. He projected a regular curtain
OF fire Of his own. I've no doubt the
Germans reported he was couple of
platoons, working In alternate reliefs.
He was awarded the d. G. 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 to England.
The Big Blunder and What It Cost
One of the great tragedies Of the war
resulted from a bit of carelessness
when a couple Of days later the effort
was made to 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-
tablished the "block" on our flank The
hour for the attack had been fixed
Then headquarters sent out a counter
mandlng 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 10 metal spike I'm the ground
to ''plck up" every telephone message
within radius OF three miles. When
telephones are used for anything i'm
portat messages are sent In code
But for any vitality important cOmmu-
nlcation which might cost serious
losses, IL misunderstood, old style run
ilers are used. just as they were In the
uays when the field telephone was un-
heard OF. 1t is the rule to dispatch two
or three runners 10y different routes so
ihat 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-
''oh ON our flank some officer at head
quarters thought that one messenger
10 the lieutenant colonel commanding
the Forty fourth would be sufficient
i"s messenger was killed by chance
shot, and his mes sage was undeliyered
The Forty-fourth in ignorance of the
change OF plan. event over" There
was no barrage fire 10 protect them
ana their valiant effort was simply a
wholesale sulcide. Six hundred out OF
Sco men were ON the ground I'm two
ana n half minutes. The battalion was
SIMPLY wiped out. Several officers