The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-10-13

(The desperate nature of the I'll
tern Front is wildly revealed in tn
a column of German die-hards.)
(By Corporal James McAffee)
What do you think of dinner in
German dug-out. with champagne,
cigars, dress shirts and all the rest
Of tit
Mind you, this is not soldiers
yarn. It's gospel truth.
I'll tell you how it all happened.
It was at the taking of V. A
great business that. You've heard of
the perfection of the British barrage?
WeX they'd had some practice.
had OUR gunners. before this one was
let down, and can tell you, whatever.
their work has been like since, there'd
@een nothing like it. for terror be-
fore.
Talk about a shell curtain! This
wasn't curtain. 1t was a steel sheet.
solid yet movable. 1t seemed to be
rolled out from the heavens above,
and shaken forward in sweeps by
some Invisible and mighty hand.
What pigmies we must have looked
behind that awful, roaring cascade,
and yet how big we actually felt.
Why2 Because we sensed safety with
IL I'M front of us, and knew that,
when cur objective was reached. the
Eoche would be ready to cave in.
All the same, the safety was
more apparent than real. The Ger
man gunners were not idle while ours
were pounding away Bits of their
rshrap soon began to fall around us,
hnd the farther we advanced the more
plentiful the shrap Became. u All at
once. just like a, thunderclaps shell
burst right in front of me-
A. - - 81, T :, AZ
wa9 hearing the rush <of feet, and
someone saying: They're out of it,
anyway" opened my eyes, and
what do You think / saw? Just
fnudl was lying, face downwards,
nA 4 had fallen After a moment
looked around-and nearly tainted.
BESIDE me lay some of my chums- But
their eyes would never open again.
~ understood then what was meant
INV the remark which was dropped
an the other boys raced past.
Wen 20 far as was concerned, the
speaker was wrong. I got up, to find
myself badly bruised and very dizzy.
When started to walk, I staggered
however. and luckily I came across
some Observation-Disclosures. g They gave
n1e something to steady me, and after
a. little. I was able to 60 forward
again and to join my platoon. They
had txeeu. me wiped OUT as they
thought, when that shell burst, but
there / Wast
Disaster number two came as
quickly as the first AS we raced
forward again I suddenly felt sharp
sting In the leg, and willy -nilly, sat
down. knew what had happened.
ripped my trousers. and there. sure
enough, was tell-tale mark A bull
let had eo<snie. Fortunately it was q
CHANGING one, and had not entered
the xlesh, but 7 Il had completely
knocked me out, SO Mar as further
fighting was concerned. could moi
move.
Once again got the attentions Of
the Observation-Disclosures, and after they
had raised me up and set me going
an Az were, was able to get ahead
again
Parties Of the boys were still racing
ahead towards the enemy. and soon
found myself eDcitedly following
them Within half an hour or SO.
was In a captured German trench
and there the great adventure Of tn,
dhy befell me.
we were up and down that plac,
like terriers after rats, and might,
quickly we came upon the fnevitabl,
huge dug-out. 1t was a wonderful
place that
Sixty steps down it lay and per
Aect mansion almost for size and ele
gance OF appointment Oh. I'm no
Joking Officers quarters they turn
Cd out to be with beds and picture
and furniture, looted suppose, from
some French or Belgian house. Amy
way. It seemed gorgeous to us, an,
certainly there was luxury enough 70
anyone ~
FIRST thing I did when I entere
and had a good look around, wa
70 80 over to a telephone. wa
Just about to lift the receiver-it look
ed DISQUALIFICATION a smack on tn
arm nearly knocked me down.
turned round--to find the sergean
Rlaring at me ais IL 7 were Hun.
want to get on to their artiller1
chr he yelled you leave thing
alone did, sure The sergear
had rartime of it after that. Every
body wanted to touch the nice thing
ndxood Lord. they were tempting al
ter the weeks and months of billie
and trench 1ifel
Sea here bows 9aid fI1a aarCoa =,