The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1917-10-11
HALF HOUR UNDER FIRE
MISSED 0NT " ann FEET

William Alien WhCe TO MS TAM
lily will be read with interest by
the public. 1t puts some side
lights on the war which come
from other sources.
Somewhere in FraIfe! l can't
spell it. Wednesday afternoon
Here is where you gatfer the family
around you to listen I'd the story Of
fathers first half houk under fire,
which later developed il TO half day
of it.
When we left in the } arly morning
we inspected two Red Ctbss posts and
then came to little place badly
bombed-almost ruin-where there
was section Of the Ambulance
Corps. The railroad ran in front of
the town and the highway for man
and munitions, a great white wagon
road always black with trucks, lay
back of the town. The little bombed
town lay on a hillside slipping down
to brook where big stone bridge
spanned the stream. AS we got out
of the car and stood talking with the
boys Of the corps, she'll came whiz-
zing overhead and struck with ire
mendous bang. / tried't@look casual
and went on talking. In moment
asked some menwho came around the
corner, "Where did it striker"
"About 300 feet awayp explained
one Of the men and got into his am
bulance.
"Anyone hurt?" I asked as an
after-thought. "Whangp came an
other, this time right over our heads
and kicked up dust abo9t 400 feet
away. Everyone ducked when they
heard it coming. l duckeg, too.
eyes," answered the ypung man
starting up his machine. Finn going
s after him +" now to take I'm to the
Badly hurt?" l asked this time.
not trying to conceal my anxiety.
Z-z-z-z-Bang! The old thing broke
again this time back of uss Someone
said: "They're after that big naval
gun" "No, it's the roadp' someone
else insisted. One shot had hit near
the gun; another hit near Sthe road
and third hit between them. We
were between them z-z-z- zim Bang!
she went again and one of the boys
grabbed me by the hand and said:
"Come on; let's go to the ahi." Abri
was new word to me, but ~ vas glad
to go anywhere. | found the abri was
cave back of the house nearby. 1t
was covered with railroad IRON and
great thick logs and dirt. But it
would only resist the glazing slow of
a shell. In it we found score of
Frenchmen. Henry came In later,
wearing sheet iron helmet. We
stood there until the Smelling seemed
to stop, Then we came out for lunch
AS we were waiting for lunch to be
served, they dropped in three more
Henry was writing a letter. Someone
said, "Are you writing letter." and
he answered, "No, Pm writing the
American peace termsW
When the three bombs were plant
ed, the Germans stopped and. turned
the gun off the town. They probably
went to another village. After lunch,
which was unusually delicious, we
went in car up the hill into the
woods to inspect the First Aid Hos
pital there, near the firing line,
AS we drew further up the hill and
into the wood we could hear the
French firing from the artillery.
Field guns and naval guns are mask
ed in these woods. Not over a score
of them were firing, but as we got
farther up it was evident the Ger
mans were trying to locate these guns.
Shell after shell came bursting in,
and as our road passed directly thru
the thick of the, batteries it was
marked for trouble. Road members
were at work under the fire, patch
ing the great shell holes in the road.
We got to the hospital finally and
got into the abri, which was a COM
fort The passage of shells going
and coming was continuous.
In little while we went out to the
edge of the woods where we could see
the French trenches. For some rea-
son three shells plunked in right be-
fore us, and as we ducked near a
dead mule, a piece of shell hit Major
Norton's helmet and denied it. Ex-
cept for his helmet he would have
been killed. We all wore helmets
and each man had his gas mask in his
hand, ready to slip on. 1t had been
raining, was muddy and slippery and
we were ages-it seemed to me-get-
ting back to the car.
We ratified back toward town; but
at cross-road, which the Germans
have marked and which is called
"dead mans corner" a big army
truck had stalled. My heart GER
tainly was humping when z-z-z-zim-
bang-came great big shell and
shattered tree into kindling about
S5 feet from us-about as far as
from the Gazette office to Sixth ave-
nue.! The boys piled out of the car,
gave the truck lift and soon we
were speeding down the hill. By that
time it was o'clock and folks in the
village said the Germans were done
for the day.
had no conscious sense of fear,
but know that in spit of the gay
persiflage that Henry and l kept go
ing, we were badly frightened. / was,
An hour later when / started to climb
few stairs, my heart-with the ten
sion all gone-thumped as tho l had
been running mile.
That night we went little farther
from the line to the railroad! There
we slept in one of the hospital shacks
in great field hospital, with 1000
beds, which evacuates the wounded
e ~ = L Al 4 L Ii