Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-12-17
THE morning of June l broke bright
Il and clear, For those of us who were off


l. and clear. For those of us who were Off
d"ty peat our lilnG 49, "a tao, ,ols 'n-
spection of the new trenches. These
were excellently built. They were very
dry and had more head cover than the
old trenches up in Sanctuary Woods.
The fire step was square and solid and
not crumbling away as In many of the
other trenches we had taken over. The
general system consisted of two lines
about twenty-five yards apart-the
front line contained the fire bays sepa.
rated by heavy traverses TO localizc the
effect of u direct hit. The second line
contained all the dugouts. and It was
here that the men remained when not
actively on duty in the front line. Three
communication trenches joined these two
lines on our company frontage. The
second line was Il More or less straight
trench without any bays or fire steps
and 1t was really used as commune
cation trench TO move the men from
one part of the front line 10 another
without the necessity of their passing
along the front line. The brigade ma
chine gun company had itg guns mount
ed In excellent emplacements command
ing our front and also the gap on our
right which separated u3 from the Sec
ond division, and which was patroled
/ only at night.
While investigating these machine
gun emplacements ] discovered Lieu
| tenant A. w. Slime, of the Eighth Bri-
| gade Machine Gun Company, who had
! formerly been with me in the Thirty.
\ fifth Battalion. This was the first time
we had met since leaving England and
we had many things to talk about We
! sat down In i sunny spot of the trench
propped our backs against the parados
3 11a1 ,.t. L f.F
| half hour. The day was very quiet
! Nothing disturbed us except an occasion.
al salvo of whiz-bangs, which are az
! harmless as a bottle of milk IL YOU stand
! fiat against the front face of the trench
/ They are very annoying. however. IL you
/ are trying to snatch little sleep i'll youi
| dugout.
| Talking OF sleep reminds me Of an In.
cident which happened one time when
we were in the old trenches at the APP
pendlx. The officers dugout consisted
Of fire bay rooted over with a piece OF
corrugated galvanized iron sprinkled
with about two inches of dirt. The
/ parapet which was our only protection
/ from frontal fire. was hardly bullet
| proof. The roof leaked like sieve and
one of Fritz's hand grenade8 thrown into
No Mans Land shook so much dirt down
on your fac, that you imagined YOU
had swallowed a potato patch.
one Of our officers had just entered
this palatial residence one day and
stretched himself out for a short sesta
/ on "A downy couch consisting of few
empty sandbagS laid on the hard earth
| fire step, which was about one and n
| half feet wide, when Fritz decided to
! throw over Il few beer kegs" (Minnen-
werfers) We got forty Of them In
about twenty minutes. The last one
landed plumb in the center Of the trench
& Just beside the officers dugout. 1t made
: Il hole about twenty feet across, twelve
rect deep and buried three of our men
alive. We eventually managed to dig
! them out, however, unwoundod but
! shell-shocked. 1t was at this moment
that the officer who had gone blissfully
I to sleep emerged from the so-callcd dug
/ out rubbed his eyes and muttercd: Say.
boys. what's going on? | thought
! hoard .cncthing.' lie was the sounC-
! est sleeper | ever knew.
About sunset one OF our observation
/ balloons broke loose and started to DRIFT
over the German lines. The occupants
had descended in their parachute and
our "Archics" Canti-alrcraft Euns) were
/ doing their best 70 destroy il before il
landed in Germany territory. The Ger
MANS thinking it might still be occu.
pied aleo shelled il
There must have been thousands Of
rounds of ammunition expended on this
one balloon. The sky was white with
puffs of smoke Just as it disappeared
1 from view we saw a German airplane
60 up and finish it off.
After supper / was sitting in the dug
/ out writing home by the light of a
fickering candle when ] was informed
! that there was corporal outside who
| wanted to see me. lie turned out to
De Bomburdicr CHUCK GibrO~ WHO
/ was with the siXty-pound "Tock" En-
ma (Trench Mortar) battery located on
! our frontage. We had a long talk
. over the games Of bowls he and I,
Kco Douglas Howard Brown AVID pouC
| Addison used to have in Toronto. All
, these boys were either in England or
! France. Chuck promised to bring
Howard Brown, who happened also to
be in the front lire with the Took
! Emmas," over tO see me the next day.