Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-07-01
TELLS HOW It FEELS
TO FACE BATTLE FOE
Capt. Charles Sweeny Writes Of His
First Turn of Duty in
the Trenches.
By CAPT. CHARLES SWEENY
OF the Foreign Legion.

l
forward to the trenches. There is
something definite about it-decisive.
| The things of peace have finally been
i put aside and he has entered into the
| war. Once / lay with green battalion
near iry-les-Chandardes. on the
| Aisne. We waited to be sent to the
trenches near Craonne. in front of the
plateau OF Craonne and just below the
Chemin -des-Dames which figured In the
last assault. These were bad days for
us. The buildings of the abandoned
farm where we were billeted had been
torn to pieces by a bombardment. Three
| times in three days the German air.
planes circled overhead and dropped
bombs on us. We ran to cover, cir
cling. confused. like frightened chick
ems. Reason told US we had little
chance to dodge an air bomb. but we
lodged anyhow. At night we slept
their blankets. rolling cigarettes. talk
ing In low tones. We were being har-
| dened for what was to come. At last
| the word was passed to us:
| Tonight we go to the trenches"
As orderly I was told to accompany
the captain and the lieutenant to the
| front in order to acquaint ourselves
with the route and the location. 1t was
miserable. rainy, dark day. Our
march was long walIow through the
mire. The Germans were Smelling the
| roads. so that we were forced to take
to the fields. This is a sugar beet
country and the farmers had not had
| any opportunity to harvest their crops
| We sQuashed through the mud midleg
deep. slipping on the beet roots. splash
ing each other with the half-f1uid mud,
| soaked through by the falling rain.
| perspiring at every pore. After seven
miles of this going we came to a little
| wood which ran up a gentle hill. A
sentry halted us:
| our positions are at the other edge
| Of the wood"
Into the Trenches.
We crept up the hill through the
| slender trees. The rain dripped end
lessly through the branches. At the
top Of the hill we saw the French
| trenches in the open, perhaps fifty
yards from the grove. The Germans
were 200 yards away, across a shallow
! valley. We were standing there, ex-
aiming the position through our
| glasses. arranging for the nights dis
position of the troops
"One platoon there" said the cap
There was a nasty. venomous scream
| in the air. A shell burst-almost under
our feet, 1t seemed at the time. You
| should have seen the three Of US dive
into shell hole. We laughed nervously
| and glanced at each other. Then we
sneaked through the wood again down
| hill. our tails between our legs. We
felt cheap, Inundated. 1t was as though
h, we were doing an unsoldierly thing.
later we learned taking cover is good
| common sense. Back to the village
| another seven miles of glue and pud-
die and splash-arriving well after
| dark Of an October night. 1t took us
three hours to do the seven miles An
! hour or so for rest and then the COM
pany was formed up.
| Forward march,"
| 1t was impossibly dark One could
not see ones hand before ones eyes,
| nd Ijyv,
The columns lost each other and dou-
bled up and struggled and the sous
officers kept thrusting the men back in
| line by that extra sense which an old
handling green troops. The sense of
humor deserted us. so that we did not
laugh or joke. We were only conscious
of the frightful discomfort of that
progress through the sucking mud of
| the battlefields. At last my company
| got up to the wood, and I told the
platoon commanders which path to
| take.
First Sight of Blood.
The moon had come out-a watery
faint. pallid moon-across which rain
ward into the black wood and passed
| through. Just at the far edge of the
wood five freshly killed men were lying
The Germans had bombarded the
| trenches after seeing us that afternoon
and these were the victims 1t was the
first that most of our men had seen OF
mon killed in war. Some of them had
hardly seen dead men before in all
their lives. They went by in hushed
silence in Indian file. glancing out OF
the corners of their eyes at the five dead
covered by their overcoats. They had
not known before how quiet the dead lie
1t was their introduction to the life OF
| the trench.
|
into the soaked and muddy trenches
Yourselves soaked and muddy. The moon
disappeared. We sent out the listening
posts and settled down to our first night
in the trenches. Nothing happened, but
| few slept, for all knew the Germans
We're just little distance away Our
men whispered to each other and shuffled
uneaSily in the slime and were very
cold. The dugouts were only pools OF
mud under the dripping arch Of the earth
| roof. Next morning the faces of the men
had changed. They had begun to realize
They were sober and drawn and a little
pale.
That morning We buried the five dead
men who had kept silent watch behind
US. Over their graves we erected little
crosses and hung their kepis on them
| In the crossbars of the crosses we wrote
the soldiers epitaph
ITO Our Comrades Of the Forty-ninth
of the Line, From the Soldiers of the
Legion"
Monotony and vermin and mud and
cold and thrills and dullins work and
| hunger and that gamblers happiness
| which only the soldier knows in its
fullest perfection-all these things
enter into life in the trenches
During the day a front trench is
somnolent. grouchy, dull. Only the SEN
tinels are awake. They do their two
hour guards. watching against possi-
BILE surprise by the enemy The other
men of the company lie in their dug
outs. While they can they sleep. They
eat at the ordained intervals They
grease their boots and patch their
clothes. and sometimes try to make
| themselves clean. If they are very
lucky there is water enough so they
can wash their faces.
| 1t matters very little. In the front
trench one rarely is able to shave. any-
how. The morning toilet is merely the
rubbing of red eyes with grubby fin
gers and stretching muscles kinked by
the cold and growing at the comrade
1t is at night that one is alive. Then
the trench is lined with active figures
The night is noisy and furious. But lei
us consider trench routine as the sol.
der knows it.
Six Days In and Six Out.
Sometimes the company spends six
days in and six days out. Sometime II
does six days in the front trench. SLY
in the intermediate and six in what tbe
army ironists call "repose" in the rear
There is little danger of surprise by
day in the front trench. An enemy
must be mad to try to penetrate then