Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-12-20
GOING over The Top
Soldier Who Has Been Tells How
II Feels
EXPERIENCES ON FIGHTING FRONT

eiate In Close Contact With Death
In the Dark.
THE following letter is from Ser
geant G. f. Henry of the American
ExpeditiOnary Forces, TO his father
Mr.. J. j. Henry OF Bowling Green. Al
though the fact is not mentioned In
this letter, from other letters II Is
known that Sergeant Henry has been
over the top no less than four times in
as many fierce charges. He has seen
dead men by the thousand and has
rendered first aid TO the wounded by
the score. He was slightly gassed
some time ago: but at last accounts
was as sound and well as ever. His let
ter is dated November Is. one week
after the collapse Of the German
armies.
1T Is pretty cold here this morning.
Everything is damp, but We har" a
good fire. so am happy in its security
and in the greater comfort that comes
from the knowledge that the fall Of
the Potsdam gang Of militarists has
been accomplished.
Il know you are all rejoicing there
that it is over and you have, can now
SAY, more CAUSE W w 81 I'IoH bSA'~'N
your Imagination ever conceived of as
to the bitter realities OF the struggle
for supremacy over those sometimes
CD hard fighting square heads we
have been pittcd against.
Il cannot and perhaps am not per-
mittcd. TO picture in any measurable
degree Of actuality to the mind OF one
who has not had the good fortune to
have been here the horror, or what
should have been, and sometimes ludi-
Gritty in the scenes Of resplendent fight
ing.
1T Is only when one gets up front
and things begin to happen that the
stern and long training he had under
gone comes into play. \ soldier there
must be able TO do what is expected
and required of him without thinking.
for / believe that it takes near su-
pcrman to get anything through what
we soldiers are pleased to call our
minds other than the spasmodic and
nighty thought. Will the next one get
me" That is what happens when
FrltZ Is lnTONlHB CNclShiiilb 1t ~ ~
cent the kitchen stove and our bat
tcries and machine guns are sending
over in condensed forms for their very
lives all the products of Liberty bonds
taxes. W. $. s., and everything you
people ut home can get together which
can be converted into missiles, whose
ingredients constitute a good iron ra-
tion' for such an enemy as the Boche
has been.
II think there were very few Of us
who did not get the wind up British
for being scared) during our first pc
RODS OF being strafcd, VIXEN in the
lines, but it soon wore off. 1t is said
by old timers that once man had the
feeling that they would get him. MS
career would end at least four times
out of five. and I know several instan-
ccs which verified this. During all our
operations l never once had this feel
ing except ut those times when the
odds were too strongly against me. II
makes one feel bit like the negro SOL
dicr over here on whom this was told:
be afraid as a man could not die until
his time came. He replied, 'Yassah, 1
knows dat. but dem nine -point-twos".
dey bring de time with them"
THE greatest experience came
when We went "over the top on the
days designated TO remind Fritz that
n war was on. To begin with we
would come up to the front, to the
jumping off place, as it is called. most
IN during the early hours OF morning
. ~ they were the darkest. No lights
were permitted, not cigarette. which
was the hardest. AS always. when you
should like to keep stirring there were
many halts necessary and if Fritz was
not strafing. all was o. X. but he usu-
nlly did strafc at some point. Then
his airmcn with their eggs" would
always come over to make themselves
Il nuisance and the search lights OF
the anti-craft batteries would play on
them while their gunEers tried for
them TO the ACCOMPANIMENT Of the ma
chine guns rat-a-tat. These birds
would occasion discomfort because un-
less the night were dark the contrast
of the column of troops would stand
ont clear against the white road.
After a while we would always get
into position q few yards behind the
front lines and in low road or shall
low trench if there was one. TO wait
the coming Of dawn which would let
Fritz have over new experiences
That time OF waiting could not be
called any too happy hours. and they
seemed like hours too even If only
few minutes. Sometimes | slept but
would always be awakened every few
minutes either by the near whine OF
shell or worse comrades cleatcd. and
generous as TO bulk. feet using my
head as n prop.
At a certain zero time the officers
would say Here It comes and almost
simultaneously every Allied battery
would come TO life sending out crash
aftcr crash so fast that it was con-
tinuous roar and of kind only seen
on this side Of the Atlantic. That
barragc which precedes the attack Is
a grand and perfected thing. as to
war.
All the guns open up. from the one
Founders to the twelve inch or more
which arc miles behind the lines. and
put a red curtain of bursting missiles
out on the enemy which is glorious IN
tcrrificness. At given time after our
barragc. was open the infantry fixed
bayoncts and advanced under Its pro-
lection.
The indispensable tanks crawl out
ahead OF the infantry and ride right
into the thick OF Jcrry's machine gun
ners who left after the barrage had
passed over. Those tanks are one OF
the greatest implements Of war ever
49,