Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-03-29

nerS, and so forth. He conSidered
this necessary information for the
draft of first-timers' which had
Joined us about aiweek before. The
| men who had been with the COM
pany for some time knew it already
After the captains lecture some
of the rockies began to get the
! breeze up'-in other words, became
rather nervous in the lower extremi-
ties. All realized the seriousness of
what was facing us, but most of the
men who had been over before
I had developed a fatalistie outlook
f, on the future, and turned away to
write a few words to those at home.
| To the rockies this meant some
/ thing more. 1t was the supreme
!, test of all their training-'the great
adventure If they came through
it safely they would stand on an
equal footing with the old-timers
and have something to speak of and
| remember with pride. Something
that would make them real soldiers
instead of the 'ragtime' or tin
variety.
There was no talk of heroics-
dying for ones country and so on.
! There was work to be done, and a
risk that~had to be run. Take a
chance became the sub-conscious
i motto of nearly all, Such cold
blooded planning will break the best
Il mans nerve if the mind is allowed
to linger on it too long, so that the
old-timers turned their thoughts to
other things. The rockies tried to,
but some had not much success
I had been over in much bigger
attack than this was to be, but ]
knew that smaller engagements
were often hotter than the big ones.
/ Tho lynnrrladoa 10 m o1
! vance behind a creeping barrage
was comforting though, for it would
not be like the mad rush of several
companies at dawn, with no artil-
lery support in which l had not
long before taken part.
To a New Trench
"That night we moved up to q
newly dug trench behind our front
: line.' 1t was called an assembly
} trench and had been especially dug
: to act as our starting point. The
troops holding our front line would
be moved to the rear a short time
before the barrage was to open, and
we would then be the front line
The next day dawned bright ans
clear, and we had nothing to dc
but keep low, get what sleep We
NOdiN, anu SeS IlltI OuI dIIllS WSIS
in good order. The suspense be.
gan to tell and as the day wore on
when many were the 'fags' con-
sumed. Shaking We're the knees
and white were the faces beneath
the coatings of tan and dirt. Home
was a long way off and only to be
thought of as a dream, or some
thing that had never really existed
1 had charge of a Lewis gun, and
kept myself occupied in seeing thai
every part was in good working
condition.
The afternoon wore away, and
finally word came down from man
to man that the troops were evacu-
ating the front line. The time was
slowly dragging nearer. Every man
began looking to his arms, bayonets
were fixed, and hearts began pound
ing against the ribs. 1t was still
daylight and darkness would, not
come until nearly eight o'clock, by
which time, with luck, we would be
in our newly-won position. A short
lull seem to come, packs were settled
in more comfortable positions on the
back, belts were tightened, and toe
holds for climbing out of the trench
seen to. Every man was ready
and every sound seemed to possess
startling carrying power. Would the
time never come? And then like
one gun the barrage opened with
| n deafening inferno of bursting
| shells. 1 started to climb out but
| slipped back twice with my load
and the third time succeeded by
throwing the gun up first. Already
/ could not see more than twenty
yards ahead for the smoke of the
shells. Three yards between each
man was the order in which we
| were to advance and I glanced to
left and right of me to see If had
my distance. No. 2 of my gun team
known to me as 'Bushy,' was on
my left and shouted something as
1 looked his way, but the continuous
roar of the barrage drowned out
everything. Then he motioned me
to close in to the left a little, which
I did, as the slow forward move
ment began. Twenty-Five yards a
minute we were to advance, with
a glance to each side now and then
to keep in line. From shell hole ia
shell hole 1 slowly moved forward
dirt and stones rafting on my he'll
met, shrapnel from 'prematures'
kicking up the mud around me.
Gross Front Line
| VIC SiOSoOo Jul Sllply lIO1L llnS
trench and on my next glance to
the right 1 saw that Dave Green
who had been next to me on that
side, was down. The heat became
intense and the sweat rolled off me-
The sharp 'e-e-e' of machine gun
bullets became distinguishable in
the roar of the shells. The, thought
came, Thank God they can't see
us After what seemed like hours
we reached the German front line
trench. No living Germans in
slight. The supporting troops and
'mopping up parties would see to
bombing the dug-out. We jumped
across, and moved slowly on
'Bushy' was still on my left.
| 'Knobby' Clark, ammo carrier on
the gun team had closed in to fill
Green's place on the right. That
machine gun was still playing al
random, probably stationed in some
position behind our objective and
as yet not found by our guns. The
line on my left seemed thinning out
or as much of it as could see. The
smoke grew thicker and the ruins
of the chemical works loomed out
of it to my right. officers and N
G. O.'s were lost to my view in it,,
Something hit the puttee on my
! left Iep and 7 felt a sharn fin al n