The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1918-02-08

old building, and they didn't live in
the underground cellars, either
though the place was shened daily.
But these officers used to take their
meals on the first floor of the abbey
and nothing seemed able to rout
them.
We used to eat with them when
we happened to drop in around eat
ing time. One day I was having
lunch there when the Boches started
Smelling the building. There were
three officers, an army chaplain and
myself at the table. One of the Off
GERS, a young lieutenant, was relating
an amusing incident of his last fur
Tough in Paris, when the first scream
and crash of shell and sound of fall
ing walls interrupted his story.
Story Told Amid Fire.
The lieutenant glanced nevously
over his shoulder, but continued his
| tale through the slamming and bang
! ing of arriving shells.
Neither did the others display any
more interest or show any sign of
desiring to desert their lunchroom, for
| a safer refuse; only once the chap
lain started as, with a great ripping
sound, a big shell tumbled down the
walls of house across the road.
There I sat, with all my appetite
gone, and I hope I didn't display as
much interest as I felt.
Even after the bombardment died
down nobody mentioned the subject
at all, but all went their ways with a
cherry $50 long-see you later
Some men, I call them.
! The French exploded big mine one
morning and the mine crater was
ninety yards by one hundred and fifty
yards. Our share in the blowup was
forty-two wounded Boches and sixty
! three dead, and a bunch of wounded
French soldiers who were cut dowr
by Boche machine gun fire in trying
to capture the hole made by the ex-
plosion.
The other two front line dressing
stations were on the far side of some
| hills, in a bend of the trench sector
but their relation to each other ant
to the trenches was about the same
as the first two posts.
Trips in Darkness.
These stations were set in deep for
ests; the darkness was so intense a
night that each trip was POSITIVELY
heartbreaking. Even the light o
trench rockets and the gun pashe
rarely penetrated the thick darkness
When the deep snow set in the road
EEL
The whole stretch of country wa
under a heavy blanket of snow, AM
because of little traffic it became al
most impossible to follow the lines o
the road.
A slip meant ditching-then pull
ing and pushing until the car was Sc
up again on the road. Lots of time
at night we travelled the whole dis
lance successfully by rarely looking
at the road; we used to follow tn
turns and twists of the tops of tn
trees bordering the road, as thei
black tops showed up clearly agains
the pashes in the sky. And we go
by with this system quite often! An
the rotten part of it all was that thi
road crossed the trenches, and it wa
up to US to stop in time. We finall
) helped the situation by stringin
; barbed wire across the road at tn
worst danger-points-
Dead Body Found
One of the chaps up there came i
from a trip during the rotten wealth
err. He was quite wet and muddy, Sc
taking off his overcoat walked up tn
road bit and placed the coat on tn
wires to dry. He never should hav
: gene there in daylight of course, BIT
l nobody fired at him. Two hours Ia
I ter he went back to get the five ma
chine gun bullets across his chest.
D We had to pass four sentries on tht
[ road and at night they always ask
E ed in French for the password. On
q night one of the boys was called upo
{ to give the password, and he gave
few words in English that could neve
n by any stretch of the Imagination /
used as passwords. The sentry, n
doubt, didn't "get him" and he cal
ed out in his own tongue. "Pass, m
7 friend" One of the other boys O
e bearing this thought it was frightfu
d ly funny, so the next night he trie
k it himself. Unfortunately for h
r sense of humor, the sentry was froI
a New York and spoke English as we
o as the American did!
Aviation is the only branch of sci
II vice in which the Hun is general
:. rather a sport. but he so often sir
a up on fair play, even in aviation. tn;
= one is tempted to believe that goo
q sport is, unknown in Bocheland. A
the French and English planes hav
a big bullseye circle on the wing
while the Boches have an iron Gro.
K as their distinguishing mark. Ofte
g the Boches used to place a tiny Gro.
It on the wings of the plane and the
e encircle the emblem with two lare
n circles modelled after the French CO
e oring. In this way flying at norm.
: height, they were able to fool IL
e allied planes and CONFIRMATION ba
e teries-and they always took adval
tage of their mean trick.
b (To Be Continued)