Williston graphic., 1918-03-14
NORTH DAKOTA Boy
TELLS OF LIFE IN FRANCE
(By E. H. TOSTEV1N.)
Somewhere in France, February
1913

(By f. H. TOsTEVIN.)
Somewhere in France, February
l, 1918
| 1t is some canny experience to be
standing on top of hill watching
maneuvers, see aeroplane drop
couple of rockets and then like
flash hear crash after crash, big
shells whining over your head, fifty
| feet above you and then a moment
later see an explosion and hear re-
port mile away. -,
You hear the whine of the big
shells, and involuntarily you duck
your head. If the United States ar
tillery men have their range too
short on a barrage fire you may be
picked up in small pieces and your
identification tag turned in to the
statistical department, but the gun
ners are too sure and the gun mechan-
isms too accurate to brook such accl-
dents.
Today we saw large force of men
march down the slope Of hill under
cover of terrific barrage fire from
artillery pieces Of various sizes, and
machine gun rattlery, march to with
in a couple of hundred feet of an op-
posing trench and then whoop it ur
and capture many thousand Ger
mans, imaginary Of course.
1t was a field maneuver of the men
at the school here and was witness
ed by some of the highest military
heads of the United States army in
France. There was counterattack
which was repulsed. 1t was make
believe, but there was no make-be-
lieve about the weapons used. Un-
less you have heard machine gun
tearing loose at SO many hundred
shells a minute you cannot imagine
the racket it makes.
"Don't you wish you could pound
typewriter that fast?" calculated
one of the boys with whom ! was
standing while watching the affairs.
He was lumber manager back IN
North Dakota. That is what it
sounds like. A typewriter being
speeded to the limit by an expert,
but with the noise magnified thou
sand times
And there was no make-believe
about the way the big shells struck
in and around the trenches to be
'taken.' Great crater holes were
torn in the muddy turf of the maneu-
yer field, and there were enough shells
thrown to give nearly all of the new
er comers to "near- -to-the-batt line"
plenty of souvenirs.
For the officers and non-coms are
attending school here. They are be-
ing given a gruelling, calling, back
breaking, man-testing grind. The bus
mess of war and modern warfare Is
something that needs study There
are so many quirks and new devices
constantly being brought into use
that men must be trained to know
how to act in an emergency. The
gas tests, use of the bayonet and all
of the infantry side-lines are given
the men. The enormity of the task
thev have before them has them put
ting in every spare moment stud y
ing, making up notes, or hitting the
hay" in preparation for another hard
DAYS work tomorrow.
What would l give if I could only
turn loose on this Typewriter and
let the folks back in North Dakota
know what their boys are doing.
what they are up against and what
they will face in the weeks and
months to come. I am quite sure the
folks back home would appreciate it,
and perhaps some of these days th"~a
NAV be a let down in the censorship
regulations so that it will be pos
sible to write, not of war operations,
but of the little personal things that