The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1918-03-29

rag,ment who has received diStin-
guished conduct medal. Private ray
lor's own story. as told i'll the LONDON
Express. is as follows:
at was during one of the attacks on
part of the Hindenburg line on June
1G last year" he said. 1--WE had gone
over the top two companies together,
following up Il successful attack mace
In the same direction on the previous
day. This time we were lie' ny
terrific enemy fire, and our leiio"S
were dropping like ninepinS. L was
stretcher bearer. and | WAS trying 10
patch up one of our men VIII" was
down, when | was knocked out mySeli
hy the bullet which fractured my
thigh.
Behind Enemy's Trench.
CATER that | remembered nothing
for some hours. 1t may have been IL
day or il may have been two when
recovered consciousness, with parch-
ing thirst and a great sense of weari-
ness and pain.
81 discovered afterWard that we
must have passed beyond our ONCE
tive, and we were therefore behind the
enemy's trench and support trench at
this point. His front trench had been
taken on the previous day. ana these
he now occupied were not backed up
by others. but had open country be
hind them. | did not know Al the time,
however. that | WAS behind the en-
eny's line at all. | managed to crawl
into large shell hole near at hand.
and lay there another day and night.
Then comrade, a man named Pc
tiers. joined me. He also had been
wounded. but could move more freely.
He had found shelter in another hole
near by.
1--WE could tell the position of our
own trenches fairly accurately by
watching the fire Of the trench NOR
tars. which seemed about 4 thousand
yards away. | was in too much pam
and too weak to move. We lay to-
gether all day in the hole expecting
every minute almost tn be hit, and at
night Peters crept out and fOraged
among the dead for scraps of bully
beef and iron raticns' and water from
their bottles. After few days. nerci-
fully it began to rain. and by Spreac-
Ing our caps and Il sheet we collected
drops of muddy water, which just kept
Us alive.
Lived in Hiding for Five Weeks.
This sort Of existence lasted for
about five weeks. Then one night
Peters went out and did not return. |
have learned since that he was taken
prisoner.
1T WAS the following night that the
Germans. evidently rendered suspicious
by the capture of Peters, came out
three of them--tn the hole where
was lying l lay perfectly still. One
of them lifted my leg, luckily not the
one that was broken, or | should prob
ably have cried out They seemed
satisfied and went away.
81 WAS now left without help in get
ting food or drink. During III" next
fortnight l eked out the small remains
Of bully beef; then for two days | had
nothing. II was then. feeling that
nothing worse could happen to me
that | resolved to crawl toward our
own lines.
at WAS an inky black night when
started. | had gone some distance
man trench. / could have put out my
hand and touched The men The
trench. IL deep, narrow one. was light
II held, and it would have been I'M
possible for me with my broken leg to
have climbed out of it again. even had
I not been seen and seized. / NAH
aged to crawl little distance along
t. a quiet point. and then, summOninG
up all the strength I could. flung my
self across. The Boches neither SAW
nor heard.
Reaches British Advance Position.
"The next thing | knew / was in
their wire. and how l scrambled
through I do not know. l was mass
of cuts and blood and rags when it
was over. | crawled on across No
Mans Land. and presently was against
more wire. 1t did not occur to me Mt
the time that it was British wire. and
/ was dead beat. Just then Il Very
light shot up beside me, and in its
fash ! saw an unmisiakahle British
face the other side of the wire.
shouted Don't shoot: I'm Il Tommy y
4 sergeant called out to know who
was: then three of them lifted me
over the wire.
81 must have been a. sight: no
clothes, starved almost to the bone.
bearded, filthy; but the men were
amazed to see me ut all. They were
On advanced machine gun post, and
had been watching me crawling
toward them. ready to pick me off at
the right moment.
"They told me it was bank Holt
day | should remember. and from that
learnt that it was August. l had lost
all count of the days"
Private Taylor is a single man, about
twenty-five. and before the war worked