The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1918-10-04
CHAPTER xxv--Continued.

a.
When we took over the from. line
we received an awful shock. The
Germans displayed signboards over
the top of their trench showing the
names that we had called their
trenches. The signs read Fair"
"Fact," Fate" and Fancy" and so
on, according to the code names on
our map. Then to rub it in, they
hoisted some more signs which read,
Come on, we are ready, stupid Eng
liSh."
1t is still 4 mystery to me how they
obtained this knowledge. There had
been no raids or prisoners taken, SO
1t must have been the work of spies
in our own lines.
Three or four days before the big
push w tried to shatter Fritz's nerves
by feint attacks, and partially sue
ceeded as the official reports of July
! show.
Although we were constantly bonn
harding their lines day and night, still
we fooled the Germans several times.
This was accomplished by throwing
an intense barrage into his lines
then using smoke shells we would put
a curtain of white smoke across No
Mans Land, completely ~obstructing
his view Of u trenches, and
would raise curtain Of fire
as If In an actual attack. All
down our trenches the men would
shout and cheer, and Fritz would turn
loose with m~achine-gun, rifle, and
shrapnel fire, thinking we We're COM
ing over.
After three or four of these dummy
attacks his nerves must have been
near the breaking point.
On June "a, 1916, at 9:4O In the
morning u guns opened up, and hell
was let loose. The din was terrific, a
constant boom-boom-boom in your ear.
At night the sky was a red glare.
Our bombardment had lasted about
two hours when Fritz started reply
ing. Although we were sending owe
ten shells to his one, our casualties
were heavy. There was a constant
stream of stretcherS coming out of the
communication trenches and burial
parties were a common sight.
In the dugouts the noise Of the guns
almost hurt. You had the same sensa-
ton as when riding on the subway you
enter the tube under the river going
TO Brooklyn-a sort Of pressure on the
ear drums, and the ground constantly
trembling.
The roads behind the trenches were
very dangerous because Boche shrap-
mel was constantly bursting over them.
We avoided these dangerous spots by
crossing through open fields.
The destruction in the German lines
was awful and l really felt sorry for
them because / realized how they must
be clicking II.
From our front-line trench, every
now and again, we could hear sharp
whistle blasts in the German trenches.
These blasts We're the signals for
stretcher bearers, and meant the
wounding or killing of some German in
the service of his fatherland.
Atwell and l had a tough time of it,
patroliing the different trenches at
night, but after awhile got used to 1t.
My old outfit, the machine gun COM
pany, was stationed In huge elephan.
dugouts about four hundred yards be-
hind the front-line trench-they were
IN reserve. Occasionally 1 would stop
In their dugout and have a confab with
nv former mates. Although we tried
to be jolly, still, there was a lurking
feeling Of impending disaster. Each
man was wondering, if, after the
slogan, "Over the top with the best Of
luck" had been sounded, would he still
be alive or would he be lying "sOme-
where In France" In an old dilapidated
house, the walls of which were SCARED
with machine-gun bullets, No. 3 Sec
ton Of the machine gun company had
it's quarters. Thetcompany's cooks pre-
pared the meals in this billet. On the
nth evening of the bombardment a
German eight-inch shell registered a
direct hit on the billet and wiped out
ten men who were asleep in the sup
posedly bomb-proof cellar. They were
buried the next day and l attended the
funeral.