The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-08-07
One Of Feared "DevII Dogs"

One Of Feared "DevII Dogs"
Seeman is one of the devil dogs,
as the Germans call them because OF
the terrible trimming" the American
marines gave them on the Marine.
He is the first Keokuk marine to
be wounded. There are half dozen
Of the service.
Seeman's entire letter, which
shows few marks by the censor, is
appended:
well, I got through one more big
battle, but l was not SO lucky this
time as / was before. We were sent
to a certain sector to stop big Ger
man drive, which / suppose you have
heard of by now.
1--WE stopped this drive the Boche
were attempting and drove them
back some We also got great
number of prisoners.
'.They put on counter attacks night
after night. but they only lost men.
as we had the fields in front OF us,
SO we could just sweep across them
with machine guns and there was no
possible chance to get anywhere.
''You know we are fighting open
warfare.
Trenches Abandoned.
mo more trenches. We all carry
our little entrenching tool, and as
soon as we take UP a position we
dig in We dig a hole the length
OF our body, and the width is about
two feet across. and we go about two
feet deep. That is mostly to protect
one from shrapnel, as you know the
closer you get to the ground the
safer you are.
- oh Va orIc
on a skirmish line.
He Was Lucky.
"One morning one of my bunkies
wanted a match to light his cigarette,
and SO he crawled out of his hole
into the one next to him and got
light, and while he was there a big
shell came and lit right in his hole.
He claimed he was the luckiest man
around, but later on he had leg
blown off and he may lose the other.
1--WE got relieved from the front
after ten hard days and nights and
were put back in reserve. We were
back about four kilometers and stay
ed there twenty-three hours and were
called up to the front again because
the Boche were going to try another
attack.
Advance Under Fire.
well, we started up for the front
at 1870 a. M. and we had to go
through heavy artillery fire, and also
some gas, but not much gas. Well,
we got to our position and stayed
there until daylight and then we
changed our position to a woods, and
it was a very thick woods.
1--WE dug in there, and that night
about 1880 we got orders to move at
1:30 a. m.
Left Behind.
about lis a. IL. the Boche start
ed a gas bombardment, and it lasted
until about $50 a. M, and there was
SO much noise in the woods that
when the company left ten of us
were left behind. We didn't know
what to do when we found out we
were there. so we finally decided to
wait until it got a little bit light, so
we could see where we We're. A fell
low can get lost SO easy over here.
1--WE got together on the edge OF
the woods and followed a small
road until we came to a main road,
and / had remembered it from the
day before, and we finally hit the
dressing station, and during all that
time we had our gas masks on. l
had mine on for about three hours
and forty-five minutes.
1.-THE Boche shot over about $4,000
shells during the bombardment, and
the size of the shells ranged from
one inch to ten inches. They shot
over mustard gas and phosgene gas,
and then high explosive and shrap-
mel to camouflage the gas shells.
Confined to Hospital.
81 am in base hospital No. 81 and