The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-02-07
InNO Mans
Trapped by Huns

Lieutenant Conigsby Lawson tells
the following personal experience in
mo Mans Land" in the current Good
Housekeeping:
My major teld me that | was to be
ready at $3.50 next morning to accom-
pany him up front to register the guns.
In registering guns you take a tele-
phonist and linesmen with you. They
lay in line from the battery to any
point you may select as the best from
which to observe the enemy's coun-
try. This point may be two miles
or more in advance of your battery.
Your battery is always hidden and out
OF sight. for fear the enemy should see
the flash of the firing; consequently
the officer in charge of the battery lays
the guns Tnathematically, vut can not
observe the effect of his shots. The
officer who goes forward can see the
target; by telephoning back his cor
rections. he makes himself the eyes of
the Offices at the guns.
1T hah dbeen raining when we crept
out of orr kennels to go forward.
y,
spectral. At the hour of dawn one
isn't at his bravest.
We entered a trench. Holes were
scooped out in the side of it just large
enough to shelter man crouching
Each hole contained a sleeping soldier
who 10 oked as dead as the occupant OF
p cata romb. Some Of the holes had
been blown in: all you saw of the late
occupant was a protruding arm or leg.
At best there was a horrid similarity
betwet' the dead and the living II
seemed that the walls of the trenches
had + cen built out Of corpses, for on.
and Huns. They were built out OF
then. though whether by design or &C
cident it was Impossible, to tell. We
catr.e to group of men doing some
that part OF the trench had
CYL IDENTIFY been strafed last right Trey
dStnt know where they we've, or how
fasr it was to the front line. We wan
dsred on, still laying in our wire. The
colonel of our brigade Joined us, and
'se waded on together.
The enemy Smelling was growing
more intense, as was always the way
on the Somme when we were bringing
out our wounded. A good many of
our trenches were directly enfiaded;
shells burst just behind the parapet
when they didn't burt on it. 1t was
at about this point in my breaking-i in
that received blow on on the head
and thanked God for the man who in
vented the steel helmet
"All of sudden We halted, making
ourselves as small as could be. In
the rapidly thinning mist ahead of us
men We're moving. They We're stretch
er-hearers. The odd thing was that
they were carrying their wounded
away from. instead of toward us. Then
it flashed on us that they were Huns.
We had wandered into No Mans Land.
Almost at that momen We must have
been spotted, for shell commenced
falling at the end of the trench by
which We had entered. Spreading
out, so as not to attract attention, we
to crawl toward the other
end. Instantly that also was closed |
to us. and curtain of shells started |
dropping behind us. We were trapped |
With perfect coolness-a GOODNESS |
wich. whatever l looked, did not |
share--we went down on our hands |
md knees. wriggling our way through |
the corpses and shell-holes in the di- |
reotion of where our front line ought |
70 be. After what seemed an age, we |
got back. Later we registered the |
guns, and one of our officers. who had