The evening leader., 1918-12-07
Perils Of Battle
Told by Those
Participating

(The following letter from the front
line trenches was handed The Leader
by Mrs. Alice Woodrow Chapman.
The writer was in some tight places
which he.,lucidly describes):
Before going ahead with this young
volume want to state that contents,
apparently startling though they may
seem, are hardly as bad as what we
really went through. Please don't con-
slider it a "good time" either. To date,
our big adventures have generally oc-
Cured around an American holiday,
most every time reaching their climax
on the very date of the fete. Such
precedents have been events of the
Fourth of July, Decoration Day and
Labor Day. The last named has been
Enthusiastically the climax. ofaoI5kaa 5SeS
and around which ! hope to IA
interesting epistie, that II, II ! cslIi, III
for being in the army one can hardly
be expected to write and talk as Of
yore for environment hardly permits
of tiff you follow me!
To begin with my peradventure
started a day or two after my last few
lines to you. After succeeding in get
ting out of what ] thought was about
the worst hole possible, l was usher
ed into another worse and yet another
still worse. The last, I hope, is, or
better was, the climax, and bad holes
though there may be in store for US,
it is consoling to know that they won't
be any worse than what we have
been in.
The place we were in could be reach
ed (safely) only at night and then, as
a rule, under a hail of bullets and
shells. When the order came to take
up another position we thought we
were in for 'couchy" few days and
it was fairly ''couchy." The place
was in the cellar of what once seemed
to have been house but was actually
but a heap of brick This
place was pretty good, though the inn
neighborhood was shelled be-
yond recognition. A nearby church
was but so much brick and the Huns
seemed to take great delight in churn-
ing up what was left of it, also the
cemetery with it's grave
stones and graves. During the several
days Spent there the nearest shell was
about thirty feet away. We did get
a fine few shifts of sneezing gas,
particularly mean sort of stuff, but
harmless. There was no action to be
had there and, being on the. receiving
end, there was no great interest, in
fact the contrary was rather the case.
When the opportunity came to return
some bouquets we certainly jumped at
the chance and we actually saw the
results of our work. This was some
thing rare, especially when firing at
bling target or series of targets.
Well, at dusk one evening, we were
called out with our ordnance equip
ment to do little execution. At dark
we took 1p position in a rather haz-
ardous place, hazardous because much
shelled and gassed. The night was
particularly dark because there was
no moon and heavy clouds hung about.
1t was so dark that one could hardly
see his hand before him, but we strag-
gled along to our position and after
much stumbling, slipping and what
not reached our places. Were under
fairly heavy fire when we reached the
place and what was to come, am
about to relate. Because the night |
was so dark we had much trouble aim
ing and setting up gun, the more so
because the particular instruments