The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1918-08-02
his rife % the aim. his challenge WI

I HIS rife % the aim. His challenge wa
answered In German. A captain In TIN
next traverse climbed upon the sand
bagged parapet to investigate brave
but foolhardy ed-"Crack" went
bullet and he tumbled back into the
trench with hole through his stomach
and died few minutes later. A lance
corporal In the next platoon was so en-
ragged at the captains death that he
chucked Mills bomb in the direction
Of the noise with the shouted warning
to us: "Duck your nappers. my lucky
lads" A sharp dynamite report, flare
in front Of u.s. and then silence.
We Immediately sent up two star
shells, and in their light could see two
dark forms lying on the ground close
to our wire. A sergeant and four
| stretcher-bearers went out in front and
soon returned, carrying two limp
bodies. Down in the dugout, in the
| Pickering light of three candles, we
| saw that they were two German Off
GERS, one captain and the other an
''unteroffizier," rank one grade higher
than sergeant general, but below the
| grade of lieutenant.
The captains face had been almost
completely torn away by the bombs
explosion. The unteroffizier was alive,
breathing with difficulty. In few min
utes he opened his eyes and blinked in
the glare of the candles.
The pair had evidently been drink.
ing heavily, for the alcohol fumes were
sickening and completely pervaded the
dugout. turned away in disgust,
hating to see man cross the Great Dr.
vide full Of booze.
One Of our officers could speak Ger
man and he questioned the dying man.
+! In faint voice, interrupted by fire.
quent hiccoughs, the unteroffizier told
| his story.
There had been a drinking bout
among the officers in one Of the Ger
man dugouts, the main beverage being
| champagne. With a drunken leer he
Informed us that champagne was plen-
tiful on their side and that 1t did not
! cost them anything either. About seven
that night the conversation had turned
to the contemplate" English, and the
captain had made wager that he
would hang his cap on the English
barbed wire to show his contempt for
the English sentries. The wager was
| accepted. AT eight o'clock the captain
and he had crept out into No Mans
Land to carry out this wager.
They had gotten about halfway
across when the drink took effect and
the captain fell asleep. After about
two hours Of vain attempts the inter
offizier had at last succeeded in wax
| ing the captain, reminded him of his
bet, and warned him that he would be
the laughing stock Of the officers mess
If he did not accomplish his object, but
the captain was trembling all over and
insisted on returning to the German
lines. In the darkness they lost their
bearings and crawled toward the Eng
| lish trenches. They reached the barbed
wire and were suddenly challenged by
| our sentry. Being too drunk to realize
that the challenge was in English, the
captain refused to crawl back. Finally
| the unterofiizier convinced his superior
| that they were in front of the English
| wire. Realizing this too late, the cap.
| tain drew his revolver and with a NUT
tered curse fired blindly toward our
| trench His bullet no doubt killed our
| captain.
Then the bomb came over and there
T. lxy;n iOh fro
thought. The captain dead? Well, his
men wouldn't weep at the news.
Without giving us any further infor-
nation the unteroffizier died.
We searched the bodies for identif-
cation disks but they had left every
| thing behind before starting on their
foolhardy errand.
Next afternoon we buried them in
our little cemetery apart from the
graves of the Tommies. If you ever
go into that cemetery you will see two
little wooden crosses in the corner Of
the cemetery set away from the rest.
They read:
Captain
German Army
Died - 1916
Unknown
Il. /. p.
Unteroffizier
German Army
Died - 1916
Unknown
r. I. P.
Empey and his machine-gun
company 60 "over the top" in a
successful but costly attack on
| the German trenches. The story
of this thrilling charge is told
| in the next instailment.