The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1918-12-26

was slipping to the ground and digging |
bis fists info his ears, and the rest OF !,
them sat on the parapet fire step Win
their heads between their knees ana
their arms wrapped around their
heads.
Orr sergeant came to me after a
while and began acting just like
people do at a show, only he shouted
instead of whispered in my ear. When
people are looking at one show they
always want to tell you how good some
other show is, and that was the way
with the sergeant.
seYou should see what they ola TO
us at st. .Eloi," he said. They just
bantized us with the big fellows. Ihey
did not know when to stop. When you
see Smelling that is Smelling, you will
know it, my son."
eWeu. if this is not Smelling, what
the devil is it? Are they trying 10
kid us or are you, mon vieux!'' Wnlcn
is a French expression that means
something like ''o1d timer"
"My son, when you see dugouts
caved in, roads pushed all over the
map, guns wrecked, bodies twisted up
in knots and forty men killed by one
shel1-then you will know you are
seeing shelling."
| Then one of our men sat up straight
against the parapet and stared at us
and began to shake all over, but we
could not get him to say anything or
move. So we knew he had shell shock.
And another man watched him for
while. and then he began to snake
too. The sergeant said that II we
STAYED there much longer we would
not be fit to repel an attack, so ne
ordered us into the two dugouts we
had made in the hole, and only hlmselI
and another man stayed outside on
watch.
The men in the dugout kept asking
each other when the bombardment
would end, and why we were not rem
forced, and what was happening, ana
whether the Turks would attack US. IL
was easy to see why we were not rem
forced-no body of men could nave
got to us from the reserve trenches.
The communication trenches were
quite a distance from us and were
battered I'D at that. Some Of the men
, | $1,000
the rest of our troops had either re-
tired or advanced and that we and
the men in the trench who had tried
to signal us were the only detachments
; left there.
Pretty soon another man and j
relieved the two men who were out
side on watch, and as he went down
; into the dugOOt the sergeant shouted
to us that he thought the Turks were
, afraid to attack. He also ordered one
of us to keep q live eye toward Oul
. rear in case any of our troops shOulC
; try to signal us. When / looked
through a little gully at the top OF
+ the hole, toward the other trench, al
I I could see waS barbed wire ant
7 smoke and two or three cOrpseS.
- began to SILVER a little, and 1 wa
: afraid I would get shell shock, too
So I began to think about Murray ant
9 how he looked when they took hin
p off the wall. But that did not stop tn
shivering, so I thought about my grand
= mother and how she looked the las
d time I saw her. was thinking abou
O her, I guess, and not keeping a yer
e good lookout, when man rolled owe
q the edge and almost fell on me. III
d was from the other trenches. carrie
q him into the dugout and then went GU
T again and stood my watch until tn
relief came. We were doing half-hou
n shifts.
II When I got into the dugout agai
# the man was coming. to. He was JUS
Ia about as near shell shock as 1 ha
20 been-by this time I was shiverin
20 only once in a while, when l did NJ
10 watch myself. He said four men ha
W been sliced up trying to get to us b
u fore he came; that they had To-
20 II men out of their 80, including tt
nc sergeant-major in command and tW
H. corporals; that they were almost OF
od of ammunition; that the trenches {
both sides of them had been blown
o and that they were likely to go
pieces at any moment. He said tht
- all thought the Turks would attat
behind their barrage, for he said tt
curtain of fire did not extend mo
n than a hundred yards in front of the
trench. What they wanted us to
was to relay man back with t
news and either get the word to
vance or retire or await reinfor6
ments, they did not care which-on
to be ordered to do something. The
81 was not a commissioned officer Il
81 with either of the detachments, y
Il see, and you might say we were
n in the air-only we were really as
Nj in the ground as we could get.
The man thought there were 9th
kS of our lines not far behind us, but
knew better; so then he said he {
not see how any one could get ba
~ from there to our nearest lines.
81 did not see either. Then we all
y ured we were forgotten and would I
8 come out of there alive, and you c
Il believe me or not. but I did not mu