The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1918-05-08

The Greenevllle Daily Sun,
Everywhere was artillery, winch main
talned a fire on the villages behind the
enemy's positions.
One of the many batteries which we
constantly had to pass on our march
from the camp to the front, was In &C.
ton when we reached It.
asked one Of the gunners what his
objective was and he replied that It
was any village within range.
A substitute first lieutenant, In
charge Of the battery, stood nearby.
One Of my comrades asked him If he
did not think there might be women
and children in those villages.
''That would make no difference"
the first lieutenant replied. Women
and children are French, so what does
II matter? This breed has to be ex-
terminated In order that this nation
shall not think Of war again for a cen.
tury."
This day was designated for
storming attack and we were obliged
to be in our positions at seven o'clock
In the morning Promptly at $50 regl-
ment No. 81 was ordered to attack
Pioneers led the way. They were sup
piled with hand grenades. These week
ly attacks were opened half an hour
before the infantry went over by
storm of artillery fire. The artillery
action required very careful calcula
ton because the distance which sepa-
rated our position from the enemys
was very slight. 1t varied from three
to one hundred meters; never any
more. At the point where we attacked
the distance was 20 meters.
Promptly at eight o'clock the artll-
lery started. The first three shells
struck a ditch but the following ones
hit fairly, that is, right in the French
trenches. Once the artillery had the
proper range whole salvos of batteries
descended upon them with admirable
exactness. The cries Of the wounded
were heard once more, a sign that
many had been hit
An artillery officer acted as observer
in the foremost sense and directed the
fire by phone, Promptly at $3.50 o'clock
the artillery fires stopped and we at
tackled. The eleventh company of the
Slxty-seventh regiment, of which /
spoke before, came under the fire Of
the enemy's machine guns and Is of Its
men were killed after they had only
proceeded a few steps outside the
trench.
Dead and wounded men lay among
the branches and the trees everywhere
on the ground Every man who was
able to run sped forward to reach the
enemy trench as quickly as possible. A
part of the enemy defended itself des-
perately In trench filled with water
and mud. A terrible hand-to-hand fight
resulted. We stood in water up to our
knees.
Men, severely wounded, lay in the
mud holding their mouths and noses
above the water. During the fighting
they were trampled more deeply into
the dirt under our feet for we could
not see where we were going; we could
only troll up" the entire trench.
The section won was fortified with
all possible haste. Once more we had
acquired at a heavy cost In human life
few meters of the Argonne forest.
This trench, which we took, had
changed hands many times and even
now we were preparing for the usual
cOunter-attacks.
Presently the "jackasses" went into
action. The "jackasses" are the guns
Of the French mountain artillery They
were so named because they were
drawn by mules. They are guns Of fiat
trajectory, kept from 80 to 100 meters
behind the enemy lines. The shells
from these cannon flew directly over
our heads and cut their way through
the branches at high rate Of speed.
Because of the high velocity of the
shell and the short distance 1t travels
the defamation when the shot Is fired
and the noise of the explosion, sound
almost at the same instant. These
"jackasses" are greatly feared by the
German soldiers because they are kept
working day and night.
1t was winter and very cold. The
trenches had been filed with water
and were now nothing except deep
bitches Of mud. Under these condi-
tons, through the ice-cold nights, our
routine consisted Of 48 hours duty
and II hours rest Every week a storm
ing attack was made, the success Of
which was entirely out Of proportion
to the enormous losses. In all Of the
four months was in the Argonne for
ests we gained 400 meters. The fol-
lowing data will indicate how heavy .
price was paid In lives for this little
piece Of France.
Each regiment had It's own Gene
terry. There was the One Hundred and
FOrty-fifth infantry regulars, the Sixty
seventh, and One Hundred and Seven
ty-third infantry regulars and the
One Hundred and Fifth Hlrsch-
berg battalion. On the day we were re
lieved from duty in the Argonne for
ests there were more dead in these
cemeteries than there were survivors
! of the several regiments. The Sixty
seventh regiment had more than 1000