Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1918-08-14
.u.pTER XXV-continued.

f.
took over the front line
'.s ,ooived an awful shock. The
os displayed signboards over
". of their trench showing the
. w that we had called their
a1Ss The signs read "Fair,"
r'l. .s aFote." and Fancy" and so
-, BOARDING to the code names on
.n Then to rub it in, they
1.,J some more signs which read
.a m we are ready, stupid Eng
~ r,s .tiII z mystery to me how they
.,i,od this knowledge. There had
n M raids or prisoners taken, so
F'- u-+ have been the work of spies
h our own lines.
Ts,ap or four days before the big
.,,b We tried to shatter Fritz's nerves
= faint attacks, and partially sue
..Js5 as the official reports of July
show.
Although we were constantly bonn
] ,.,5inr their lines day and night, still
20 fooled the Germans several times.
This was accomplished by throwing
:, intense barrage into his lines
no, rsfng smoke shells we would put
nr-aiD of white smoke across No
Mans Land, completely obstructing
n, view Of our trenches, and
rori raise our curtain of fire
&c if in an actual attack. All
sovn or trenches the men would
.1mt and cheer, and Fritz you'd turn
hose with machine-gun, rifle, and
,b-aDDe fire, thinking we were COM
hs over.
After three or four of these dummy
attacks his nerves must have been
near the breaking point.
On June a, 1916, at $40 in the
morning our guns opened up, and hell
vas let loose. The din was terrific, a
constant boom-boom-bOOm in your ear.
At night the sky was a red glare,
Our bombardment had lasted about
two hours when Fritz started reply
me- Although we were sending over
len shells to his one, our casualties
we're heavy. There was a constant
stream Of Stretchers coming out of the
communication trenches and burial
parties were a common sight.
In the dugOutS the noise Of the guns
almost hurt You had the same Sensaz
tOn as when riding On the subway you
enter the tube under the river going
70 BrooHyn-a sort of pressure on the
ear drums, and the ground constantly
trembling.
The roads behind the trenches were
very dangerous because Boche shrap-
neI was constantly bursting over them.
We avoided these dangerous spots by
crossing through open fields.
The destruction in the German lines
vas awful and I really felt sorry for
them because 1 realized how they must
be clicking it.
From our frOnt-Iine trench, every
HoT and again, we could hear sharp
whistle blasts in the German trenches.
These blasts We're the signals for
SFetcher bearers, and meant the
Sounding or killing of some German in
The service Of his fatherland.
AtwelI and l had a tough time of it,
paroLling the different trenches at
asht, but after awhileI got used to it.
My old outfit, the machine gun COM
pany was stationed ih huge elephant
augouts about four hundred yards be-
a,na the front-line trench-they were
reserve. Occasionally l would stop
Ihelr dugOut and have a confab with
ny former mates. Although we tried
70 be Jolly, still, there was a lurking
IeelnS Of impending disaster. Each
man was wondering, if, after the
slogan, Over the top with the best of
,ucA' mad been sounded, would he still,
Oe awe or would he be lying some
SAerei France In an old dilapidated
Muse the walls Of which were Scared
s'n machine-gun bullets, No. 8 sec
aOn OF the machine gun company had
- quarters. The conpany's cooks pre-
s ss the meals in this billet. On the
T r',I evening Of the bombardment a
s s.'Ian eight-inch she'll registered a
Irect hit on the billet and wiped ont
nos. tusu VINO were asleep In the sup
S SDs51.y oomb-prOof cellar. They were
tr r,'su The next day and attended the