Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-10-26

While Shells Continued Screaming Over
Us, They Were Bursting In the Town..
remember seeing my officer coming.
so | got out and started the engine.
There were two horses standing just
behind the car, and as the officer went
to step in a piece of shell cut n of
these horses In two.
As soon as we were clear of the
town we were all right, for, while the
shells continued screaming over US.
they We're still bursting in the town.
This was the beginning of the first
battle of Ypres, in which the little
Seventh division did the seemingly ina
possible. Day and night the Germans
poured shells into us, and still we held
on. Then their artillery fire would
slacken, and they would hurl their SUI
perior numbers against our contempt
ible little army in a vain endeavor to
crush us by sheer weight, as 1t were.
The enemy seemed to rise out of the
ground and sweep toward us like q
great tidal wave, but our machine
guns poured steel into them at the
rate of GOO shots per minute, and they'd
go down like grass before the scythe.
If they did reach our lines at all they
never went back to tell about 1t.
1t is my honest opinion that a man
in action goes temporarily insane, for
were it not so how could any man con-
tinue to work a gun that was sending
hundreds of his fellow creatures into a
heap of %groaning, squirming death?
That is exactly what was happening.
The Germans were climbing over heaps
Of their own dead only to meet the
same fate themselves. The deeds of
valor which have escaped notice around
the Ypres salient would fill at least one
large book.
With the end of the first battle of
Ypres our division retired to a village
called st. Jean Capelle. While the Bel
gian civilians had been so nice to us on
the way down from Ostend l am sorry
to say that we found them exactly the
opposite here. We had not been In the
town three hours before we had three
Belgian peasants arrested and convict
ed of espionage.
There was q windmill on a hill just
back Of the village, and some n no
ticed that as soon as we entered the
village this windmill started to go, al
though there wasn't a breath of air
stirring. Investigation showed that
two Belgians were signaling to the
Germans in this way.
The other case was ever worse. One
of our police stopped an old Belgian
with a bag under his arm and asked
him what was I'm 1t. He replied that 1t
contained nothing but a few vegetables.
Something aroused our chaps suspi-
cion, and on examination he found that
it contained two pigeons with messages
giving our exact strength attached to
them. These men were taken to the
rear and shot. Things like this make
1t very unpleasant for all concerned.
1t was about this time that a new
driver was found for the generals car,
50 that left me without any definite
work to do. At that time, too, we had
the first armored cars in action on our
part of the line. They were beautiful
machines, sixty horsepower, mounted
with machine guns or three Founders.
While / was waiting to find out what
was to become Of me | made one trip
in the armored car-that Is to say. l
went into action with it once. OF
course the gun was worked by expert
gunners and l was simply acting as a
spare driver In case anything serious
happened. The body of the car was
covered with bullet proof steel, and it
was bullet proof too.
We didn't get up as far as some of
the cars had been, but we got quite far
enough to suit me. What with the
racket our gun was making and the
noise of the bullets bouncing off Il
armor plate, it was no place for a
nervous man. The hard part for me
was the inactivity. simply sitting there
and waiting In case l should be
wanted.
We didn't stay there so very long.
and I was not sorry for 1t. either.
That was my only trip in an armored
car, and I'm not particular about hav-
ing any more, thank you.
l was advised that the only way |