Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1917-11-02
Trench Battle Described

french Battle described
The following letter describing the
taking of the Regina trench in Nov.
1916 was recently received by H. A.
Weingartner from Canadian soldier:
We went into the Somme over 1000
strong and only 178 came out. 1t was
rather awful at times. There is no use
trying to describe it. The sights were
awful and l don't want to think about
it. The funny part of it is that was
not bit afraid all the time was there.
It. is only now that | begin to realize
what | have been through.
will try and give you description
of the taking of Regina trench. We
were ordered into the front line in the
night of Nov. 9Th together with the
72nd ana 10th and the 47th, and after
five hours struggling with the fearful
mud, getting in at twelve O'Clock at
night Our artillery kept up fairly
heavy fire in the German line all night
and at about six in the morning while
it was yet dark, they suddenly started
up with terrific fire. Imagine if you
can two thousand guns ranging in size
from the Is FOUNDER field gun to the
tremendous IS" naval gun firing as
fast as they could load for one hour.
The noise was terrific and as the shells
were landing only 500 yards in front Of
us, we heard not only the tremendous
detonations of the guns and the sharp
incessant rattle of the machine guns,
but the terrible detonations of the ire
mendous IL, Is and Is inch shells fall
ing in the German line.
At $40 we were all ready to advance;
at AS we climbed out of the trench In
four waves, and advanced as steadily
as if in parade towards the German
line | was in the second line. Just
as soon as we got out of the trenches
the German machine guns opened up on
us. but at first for some.strange reason
did not have much effect, only an oc-
casional man dropping here and there.
Their artillery which had been firing all
of the time increased greatly IN
strength now firing shrapnel instead OF
high explosive.
When we were about half way across
their fire suddenly began to take effect
and our first line seemed to disappear
and men around me began to drop. Al
though had several narrow escapes,
was not touched myself, and succeeded
in reaching their line in company with
many others. We jumped into their
trench and all the Germans there be-
gan to hold up their hands and cry
"Mercy Comerad." Some got mercy
and some didn't One big brute only
had one hand up and the other behind
his back. One of our fellows bayoneted
him, and when he fell he had bomb IN
the htnd behind his back.
We chased them back to our own
trench and then began the hardest part
of the work-the cleaning up" of the
deep dug outs | had certain sector
to look after and with five men started
in. The first dug out only had dead
Germans in it. The second had about
fourteen men in it who came out at
once on being told. The third was
when the fun started / stuck my
head in the doorway and hollered
"Come Out" and several other things
lust as we'll to forget and bullet from
a revolver whistled through my coat
collar. We then put down five Mills
bombs and it was unnecessary 10 In
vestigate any further. The other two |
dug outs, were empty and then we
started in to get rid of our own and the |
German dead and wounded. 1t was an
awful job and took twenty four hours.
The next morning the Germans deliver
ed very heavy counter attack, but we
were ready for them with machine
guns and artillery and they did not get
within a hundred yards of US. That
night we were relieved and got back to
our billets at Albert. The Germans
were reported to have lost between
seven and eight thousand men in the
counter attack and | can well believe it.
In my next letter will try and give
you description of the taking of Com
cellette.