The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1918-08-23
CHAPTER VII-continued.

I surely wished | was the gunner
officer. 1 would have enjoyed it more
if l could have got back at Fritz
somehow. But 1 was not the gunner
officer and 1 told him so. / 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. If i
could have got to our guns 1 guess l
would have had another medal for
working overtime, but 1 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 I 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.
I 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, did my bit
and l could hear somebody else using
good old United States cuss words,
too. 1t certainly did not make me feel
any better, but it gave me something
to do. / think that was why all of |
us 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
it back as good as you get, you go
crazy unless you have something to do.
Cussing is the best thing we could
think of.
Up the trench the third bay was
simply 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
pounded in and most of our dugouts
were filled 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 |
and we could see them come over. I,
We received orders to stand to with {
fixed bayonets. Then the man at the {
periscope shouted, '"They come"
A battery directly behind US went t
into action first and then they all t
Joined in and inside of five minutes {
about eight hundred guns were raising J
Cain with Fritz. The Boches were
caught square In No Mans Land and 8
our rifles and machine guns simply e
moved them down. Many of them t
came half way across, then dropped t
their guns and ran for our trenches t
10 give themselves up. They could not b
have got back to their own trenches. j
.hese poor fish. If they had been civ a
yies the law would prevent you from C
hitting them-you know the kind.
They could hardly drag themselves b
llong. ii
That is the way they look when you II
nave got them. But when they have a
got you-kicks, cuffs, bayonet jabs- c.
here is nothing they will not do to B
i'd to your misery. They seem to p
hink that it boosts their own courage. b
An artillery fire like ours was great in
un for the gunners, but it was not HI
much fun for Fritz or for us in the tt
reaches. We got under cover almost in
s much as Fritz and held thumbs for
be gunners to get through In hurry. st
Then the fire died down and it was W
0 quiet 1t made you jump. W
We thought our parapet was busted q
p good deal, but when we looked b.
1rougR the periscOpe we saw what m
ad happened to Fritz trenches and, B
elieve me, they were practically nj
tined. Nv
Out in No Mans Land it looked like th
1oolworth's nve-and-ten: everywhersl