The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-03-31
A Boston Soldier
With BombingPa rty
Is Buried IS Hours

+ BY CORPORAL II. DERBY HOLMES,
or Boston. Formerly of Twenty Sec
ond London Battalion OF the Queens
Royal West Surrey Regiment, III. NJ.
Imperial Army.
copyright 1917. The Boston Post)
when ] found my bait the battle
of High Wood had pretty well quoted
down, We had taken the position We
vent after and the lighting was going
on to the north ana beyond the Wood,
The big push progressed very rapidly
as the summer drew to close. Our
tat was holding one OF the captured
positions in the Hcichhorhooa of the
Wood
It must have been Two days after
we went over the ton with the tanks
that Captain Green had me Up ana
totd ME that was promoted At
least that was what he called ii, !
altered with him. but didn't say so.
The captain said he Thought that as
had had q course in bombing. he
though, he would put me III tho bat
iatien hof.hers.
/ protested that the hoaof vas toe
great ara tha 4 rcai|y didu't think !
ASS good enough
Afto5 shat me captain said that he
a4sla't shiak was eaige in the bomb
Sc He ) -ew H. ~as elected.
ssEr.r, Eg.t... .+..- .,,4.s.sa,.e.. {,a
a tgfe appointment, but orders are
esstieYs. and they have to ee ohsyed.
Ilsa bonbeaE are called the suicide
club, and are wen named. The
mortality i15 this branch OF the ser
Niee Is AS kreSt u not greater than
ia auy ether
eAlLEn uPoN TO CHARGE
TRENCH.
tn aEite Of me feelings IN the mat
ter ! aeccp,es} the decision cheerfu!ls
i4l.e "a nam being sentenced to be
rlee-rocuted-tlna managed 10 convey
tAe Impression TO Captain Green that
! SsSts greatly el&tcd and that | looked
Forward Ia future performances with
iafse relish. Af,er that / went back
~ my shelter ana made a new viii.
Tia very niGht / Was called upon
II take charge al a bombing party.
AIR Mag. one Of the brayext men !
syer kasN. Ras 10 be Of the party and
IN aaStf com man1 / was 10 have the
selection OF the men.
tsaetala Green rad me up along
vi th Atr- May earIv IN the evening,
ami as np4Fty as ] can remem Der these
we're his distinctions
JuHt beyond High Wood and TO the
left there Is "a sap or small trench
beading To The suuken road that lies
between the Towns OF Albert and
RaupauEae That position commands
II military point that we find neces~
eary to hold before we can mako an
other attacf. rho Germans are in the
t~ench. ThaH have two machine guns
aid viii raise the devil with us un-
less we get them out ii viii cost a
guod nlany lives Il We attempt TO take
the position by attack but we are
uader the impression that q bombing
rarty IN the night on a surprise at
tack viii be able to take IL with lttia
toss of life Take your twelve men
out there at 10 o'clock and take that
trench. You viii take only bombs
with you. YOU and MIR May will have
rnsolvcrs. After taking the trench
consolidate it. ana before morning
there will b. relief sent out to you.
The best OF luck
The whole thing sounded as simple
nj A-B-C, All We had to do Was go
over there and take The place The
CAPTAIN didn't say how many Germans
there would be nor what they would
be doing while we We're taking their
essinfertab4e little position. Indeed he
seemed 10 quite carelesslv leave the
Iloche Out OF the reckoning | didn'.
knew that some of ms and quite.
probably most of usswouid never come
back.
PICKS ONT IL BRAVE MEN.
selected my men carefully, taxi
Ing only the coolest and steadiest and
the best bombers. Most OF them
were men who had been at Dover,
With me. I felt like cheerful exc
eufioner when ] notified them of their
selection. So
At a.20 we were ready stripped to
the highest of necessary equipment
Each of the men was armed with
bucket OF bombs. Some carried an eN-
ira supply In satcheis, so we knew
there would be no shortage OF Miilses
Mr.. May took us out over the top
on schedule time and we started for
the position TO be taken. We walked
erect, but In the strictest silence We
went forward In this way for about
1000 yards. At that time the dis
tances were great on the Somme. as
the big push was In full swing and
the advance had been fast Trench
systems had been demolished and In
many places there were only shell
holes and Isolated pieces of trench
defended hs machine guns. The
whole movement had progressed so
tar that the lines were far apart and
broken, so much so that IN many
cases the Fighting had come back to
the open work of early In the war
Pcking along out there I had the
feeling that we were an awfully long
way from the comparative safety OF
cur main body--4too far away for
uonafort We were. Any doubts on
the matter disappeared before morn
ing.
At the end OF the 1000 yards Mr. |
May gave the signal to lie down. We
lay still half an hour or 30 and then
SerAwled forward. Fortunately there
WINS no barbed wire. as all entangle- |
rserts had been DESTROYED by the ter |
finc hombardment that had been GO
Ing on for weeks. The Germans made |,
ma t.stemnt to renair II nar did we. |
HURT, RoMPS At DOCHES.
ia We crawled along tor about. ten |
minutes and Mr.. May passed the word !
II whispers to get ready. as we were