The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1918-12-14

| their heads between their knees and
their arms wrapped around their
heads.
Our sergeant came to me after a
while and began acting just like
people do at show, only he shouted
instead of whispered in my ear. When
people are looking at one show they
always want to tell you how good some
other show is, and that was the way
with the sergeant.
"You should see what they did to
us at st. Eloi," he said. "They just
baptized us with the big fellows. They
did not know when to stop. When you
see Smelling that is shelling, you will
know it, my son."
"Well, if this is not Smelling, what
the devil is it? Are they trying to
kid us or are you, mon vieux?" which
is a French expression that means
something like "old timer"
"My son, when you see dugouts
caved in, roads pushed all over the
map, guns wrecked, bodies twisted up
in knots and forty men killed by one
shell-then you will know you are
seeing shelling."
Then one of our men sat up straight
against the parapet and stared at us
and began to shake all over, but we
could not get him to say anything or
move. So we knew he had shell shock.
And another man watched him for a
WHILE and then he began to shake,
too. The sergeant said that If we
stayed there much longer we would
not be fit to repel an attack, so he
ordered us into the two dugouts we
had made in the hole, and only himself
and another man stayed outside on
watch.
The men in the dugout kept asking
each other when the bombardment
would end, and why we were not rein
forced, and what was happening, and
whether the Turks would attack us. 1t
was easy to see why we were not rein
| forced-no body of men could have
got to us from the reserve trenches.
| The communication trenches were
quite a distance from us and were
battered up at that. Some of the men
said we had been forgotten and that
the rest of our troops had either re-
tired or advanced and that we and
the men in the trench who had tried
to signal US were the only detachments
left there.
Pretty soon another man and I
relieved the two men who were out
side on watch, and as he went down
into the dugout the sergeant shouted
to us that he thought the Turks were
afraid to attack. He also ordered one
Of us to keep live eye toward our
rear in case any of our troops should
try to signal us. When looked
through a little gully at the top Iof
the hole, toward the other trench, all
could see was barbed wire and
smoke ana two or three corpses. Il
began to shiver a little. and I was
afraid I would get shell shock, too.
So I began to think about Murray and
how he looked when they took him
off the wall. But that did not stop the
shivering, so I thought about my grand
mother and how she looked the last
time I saw her. was thinking about
her, I guess, and not keeping very
good lookout, when man rolled over
the edge and almost fell on me. He
was from the other trenches. I carried
him into the dugout and then went out
again and stood my watch until the
relief came. We were doing half-hour
shifts. .
When I got into the dugout again
the man was coming to. He was just
about as near shell shock as / had
been-by this time ! was shivering
only once in a while, when / did not
watch myself. He said four men had
been sliced up trying to get to us be
fore he came; that they had lost
IL men out of their 80, including the
Sergeant-major in command and tive
corporals; that they were almost out
of ammunition; that the trenches or
both sides of them had been blown IL
and that they were likely to go tt
pieces at any moment. He said they
all thought the Turks would attach
behind their barrage, for he said the
curtain of fire did not extend more
than a hundred yards in front of theil
trench. What they wanted us to d.
was to relay man back with th'
news and either get the word to ad
vance or retire or await reinforce
ments, they did not care which-onl,
to be ordered to do something. Their
was not commissioned officer lief
with either of the detachments, yol
see, and you might say we were VI
in the air-only we were really as fla
in the ground as we could get.
The man thought there We're othe
of our lines not far behind us, but w
knew better; SO then he said he di'
not see how any one could get bacl
from there to our nearest lines.
did not see either. Then we all fig
ured we were forgotten and would no
come out Of there alive, and you cal
believe me or not, but I did not mucl
care. Anything would be better thai
inst stavino there in that awful noiS