Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-10-01
CHAPTER VII-Continued.


I surely wished | was the gunner
officer. l would have enjoyed 1t more
If could have got back at Fritz
somehow. But l was not the gunner
officer and l told him so. l had to
shout at him quite a while before he
would believe me. Then he wanted
me- to find the gunner officer, but
did not know where to find him. Ii
could have got to our guns l guess
would have had another medal for
working overtime, but l missed the
chance there.
About this time another bomb came
over and clouted out the best friend
had in my company. Before the
war he had been one of the finest sing
ers in the Paris opera houses. When
he was with us he used to say that
the only difference between him and
Caruso was $500 a night.
A poilu and l dragged him into
dugout, but it was too late. One side
of his face was blown off; the whole
right side of him was stripped off
and four fingers of the right hand
were gone.
stuck my head out of the dugout
and there was the captain discussing
the matter with himself, cursing the
Germans from here to Helgoland and
putting in a word for the bombs every
once in while. All up and down the
trenches you could hear our men
cursing the Germans in all kinds of
languages. Believe me, l did my bit
end / could hear somebody else using
good old United States cuss words,
TOO. 1t certainly did not make me feel
any better, but 1t gave me something
to do. l think that was why all OF
% cursed so much then, though we
were pretty handy with language at
any time But when you are under
heavy fire like that and cannot give
1t back as good as you get, you 90
crazy unless you have something to do.
Cpssing is the best thing we could
think of.
Up the trench the third bay was
sitnply smashed in and the Germans
were placing bomb after bomb right
In it and in ours. The captain yelled
out that he was going up to the next
bay to examine it, but no more had
he got there than he had his head
taken clean off his shoulders.
At daybreak our trenches were all
bounded in and most of our dug0utS
were filed up Then Fritz opened up
with his artillery fire right on us. We
thought they were going to charge and
we figured their barrage would lift
land we could see them come over.
We received orders to stand to with
fixed bayonets. Then the man at the
periscope shouted, "They Gomez
A battery directly behind us went
into action first and then they all
Joined in and inside of five minutes
about eight hundred guns were raising
Cain with Fritz. The Boches were
caught square In No Mans Land and
our rifles and machine guns simply
moved them down. Many of them
came half way across, then dropped
their guns and ran for our trenches
to give themselves up. They could not
have got back to their own trenches.
1t was shame to waste a shell on
these poor fish. If they had been civ
vies the law would prevent you from
hitting them-you know the kind.
They could hardly drag themselves
along.
That is the way they look when you
have got them. But when they have
got you-kicks, cuffs, bayonet jabs-
there is nothing they will not do to
add to your misery. They seem to
think that 1t boosts their own courage.
An artillery fire like ours was great
fun for the gunners. but II was not
much fun for Fritz or for us in the
trenches. We got under cover almost
as much as Fritz and held thumbs for
the gunners to get through in hurry.
Then the fire died down and 1t was
so quiet it made you jump.
We thought our parapet was busted
up good deal, but when we looked
through the periscope we saw what
had happened to Fritz trenches and,
believe me, they were practically
ruined.
Out IN No Mans Land il looked like
Woolworth's five-and-ten; everywhere
were gray uniforms. with tincups and
accouterments that belonged TO the
Germans before our artillery and ma
chine guns got to them.
Our stretcher bearers were busy.
carrying the wounded back to first-aid
dressing station, for. of course, we had
suffered too. From there the blesses
were shipped to the clearing station.
The dead lay in the trenches all day
and at night they were carried out
by working parties to "Stiff park" as
/ called Ii.
A man with anything on his mind
ought not to go TO the front-line
trenches. He will be crazy inside Of
a month. The best way is not TO
care whether it rains or SHOWS: there
are plenty of important things to
worry about.