Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1918-11-08
LETTtRssfROM FRANCE.

What I've been doing. You know
hat my greatest ambition is tolv
70 over the top just once before
come back. I'd give ANYTHING a
n the world if the Lord would
give me strength enough to pin
one of those devils to the ground
with a bayonet. The fact of the L
ma tier is that I'd be aslia med tol
come back until had at least a
chance. Not long ago l thought
| was going to have that chance,
Without any warning the order
to break Camp was given.N No
one from the Major down knew
what it meaut but we all had
fair idea what was coming. AS
soon as it was dark we Slung
packs and started on what prov
ed to be quite an interesting and
eventiul trip. incidentally we
marched all night i'll the rain and |
mud with nothing to eat but wei
have had so much of that i'll the
past two weeks that its plain
common now. Leaving other de-
tails, III tell you the most excit-
ing game that it has been my
good fortune to witness. Off in
the distance behind a protecting
hill men were forming for an at
tack. AS they got out Of the
dead space and neared the top Of
the hill they took up the skirm;sh
nation. Near the brow OF
the hill or at the military crest,
as we call 1t, the long line of
Khaki first met resistance. The
resistance was the artillery bar
rage-tlere is nothing worse.
There was great whirl of dust
The line. staggered and bent. |
held my breath it seemed for ten
minutes for fear the line would
break, but it takes more than a
Boche barrage to stop our boys.
They recovered and l imagine
it was with a cheer that they
) took the top of the ridge. Then,
they disappeared over the crest
OF course my outfit wasn't oc-
,cupying reserve seats or bleach
: ers either. We had a very def.
mite mission-in tact several OF
them. So it was a few moments
after the disappearance of the
doughboys over the top that we
experienced our real heart pa ngs
The questions that arose were
Would the infantry be strong
enough to take their objective
If they took it, would they be
strong enough to withstand de-
termined counter attack ? We
knew what a negative answer to
either of the above queries would
mean to us. In GREATNESS ex.
citement we were waiting for the
next signs. 1t came in COM
Iparatively short time, but il SEEM
ed to be hours. 1t came straight
back over the top of the ridge
where not long before we Ii d
seen the infantry disappear. 1t
was a long liue of prisoners.
splendid the troops took their OBJ
Elective and i cidentally we &C
lcomplished our mission. 1t was
mot necessary to call upon the re-
serves.
| The remainder of our mission
was of All entirely different ma
Iture. l wish | had copy of the
New York Herald of Sept 9TH 10
send you, for we were compli-
memted for jealous work. We
worked hard. Every man went
Ito his limit and not murmur
There was plenty of gas, plenty
Of H. E., and plenty of thrilling
experiences. Several aeroplane
bombs hit qnite close and the
force of the explosions literally
jolted one off the earth. There
is no use to attempt to describe
the feeling of helplessness wler
there is a bomber over your head, |
for it can't be expressed. Per-
sonally, / selected my fayorite
flower on three different occa-
sions, but the Lord was kind to
US. My company is all present
or accounted for, and as far as
my platoon is concerned I'm as
proud as a Captain of a football
team when they have won the
biggest fight of the season. ;,
Here is the story of one of my
men who reported late on the
morning after the night before.
He was very tired and the work
was over. Near by he saw
shell hole with five meu in l..
Thinking that they were our
men he crawled in and went 10
sleep. In the morning he awoke