The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-05-02
CHAPTER VI.

At - o'clock, midnight, we were
ALARMED and half an hour later were
lon the march. The cool night air 1elt
lgood, and despite our wearlness' we
made rapid progress. Toward TOUR
O'Clock in the morning we arrived at
Cheppy. 1t had been completely piuh.'
dered. We halted here for Drlel
rest and watched preparations being
.made for the execution OF two 1rac-
ltireurs. They were two little farmers
who had supposedly concealed
French machine gun with its ere"
from the Germans. The sentence was
iexecuted in such a way that the peO-
srIe were shown who their real rulers
lnow were.
! The little town of Pogny. located
midway between Chalons-sur-M Marine
land Vitry-Ie- Francois, Jared no bet
ter than Cheppy. fact which we as
gcoyered when we entered there at nine
f0clock.
| We were now considerably nearer
1.-THE spot where the guns We're roar
ling. and retiring OF wounded ana the
nunition columns showed us that west
OF Vitry-le-Francois. a terrible battle
ragged. At four O'Clock in the after
noon. we arrived at Vitry-le-FrancOis
after a forced march. The city was
filed with wounded, but the town it.
self was not damaged. The battle must
have been going badly for the Germans
because we were ordered into action
without being given any rest. We were
within three kilOmeterS of the battle
line, when we came within reach Of
hostile fire, a terrific hail of shells tore
up every foot Of ground. Thousands
of corpses of German soldiers fndi-
Gated at what enormous cost the Ger
mans had brought up all available re-
serves. The French did everything
they could to prevent the Germans
from getting the reserves into action
and increased the artillery fire to un-
heard-Of violence. It seemed impOs-
eible for US to be able to break through
this barrage. We saw hundreds Of
shells exploding every minute. We
were ordered to run the gauntlet Of
this hell In single file.
Lying prone upon the ground. We
saw how the first Of our men at
tempted to pass. They ran, unmindful
Of the shells bursting around them, like
madmen; others were buried under
ground thrown up by the high-power
explosives, or torn by shrapnel or gren-
AIDES. Two men had scarcely reached
the line when a well-directed shot from
"a gun of large caliber burst directly
lat their feet. When the smoke cleared.
There was no trace of the men.
[ You can imagine the feelings Of
sthose who lay on the ground not 100
fleet away witnessing this spectacle.
land waiting their turn.
/ An officer cried: "Next!" 1t was
Inv turn. AS If aroused from a night
lmare, I sprang up, my gun in my right
Inland, sidearm in my left, and ran
tahead. l lodged two shells just as
lthey burst and ran close to several
!others, bursting the same instant. A
number Of times l sprang back, then
ahead ar. running to and fro like q
= tmadms1 king loophole. But every
where was iron and fire. ran
like q Eydfed animal seeking way ia
pass to save myself, with hell in
front Of me, and an officers revolver
always ready behind.
Throwing caution to the winds
prepared to meet death and the devil
himself. l at last ran blindly ahead
ran. ran. ran. until someone seized my
coat tail and shouted in my ear:
Here we are. Are you wounded
You had better look. Perhaps you arr
wounded and don't know it."
was among those Of my comrades
who had gotten through. Tremblin,
all over. stopped and looked around
"Sit down and you will feel better,
said one of the men. I'VE also hav'
trembled."
Presently some wounded wer
brought up. There were about 4S mel
and q sergeant took command. Moth
ing more was seen Of our officers
We continued to advance and passe'
several German batteries. Many ha
suffered heavily In dead and wounded
which lay around their guns destroye
by enemy fire. Other batteries Still
manned were useless because no NOR
ammunition could be gotten through.
We paused to rest. Several arti
lerymen approached US. and a noncon
missioned officer asked them why the
did not fire.
Because we have used up all GU
ammunition" was the answer of one q
the battery men.
us 1t impossible to bring ammun
tiOn through this barrage?"
/. NO." replied the artilleryman, "bu
there IL no more ammunition. That
why we cannot get an At Neufch,
teau we started like wild men after til
el,-,ly Man and beast died from til
heat, railroads and other mediums {
80 - AA~e~ II, ~