Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1918-01-04
KIRBY'S LETTER

For fourteen years Kirby had been
faithful worker in t. pottery factory
in England In 1915 he was drafted
to the colors. In 1916 he was sent to
the trenches in France. For three
months he lived like a rat in hole.
On May goth, 1916, the word went
through the trenches that at IL o.
clock that night his company would
take their turn at fighting death.
All the evening the big British
guns have been storming the Ger
man lines with terrific force. Crack!
Boom! Crash A constant thunderl
Bombs exploding every second! A
rain of fire! Meanwhile Kirby wrote
a note--his last he feard-to his wife
and four children. 1t was hard, yes
very hard but the other men were do
ing the same. Yes, thousands of men
wrote their last note that very night!
Suddenly at II o'clock the big can
ons stopped. For minute it was quiet
as death. Then at the sound Of a pis-
toll Kirby and his comrades sprung to
their little ladders up into open space
between the English and German
trenches. There they threw their
hand grenades. But only German
corpses were in that trench. They had
all been killed by the big shells.
Forward, still forward they kept
still breathlessly running on up to the
next line of trenches Here a terrible
hand to hand fight took place with
few remaining Germans. These Ger
mans and half the English were
chopped up in this fight. Kirby still
lived. On, he and his remaining COM
rades pushed to the third line Ger
man trenches. They simply ran blind
ly. They were drunk with the joy of
getting back few of the lost trench
es for France.
When the third line of the enemy
trenches were finally reached it was
quite dicerent story. Here Ger
, man reinforcements had been gather
, ed. Kirby drew his revolver and fired
at the first German he saw. The next
moment Kirby himself had fell to
the ground stunned. When he came to,
he found himself on two corpeses
soaking in blood. He raised his head
to look about. Whizz, went bullet
within inch Of his ear. Four others
struck the ground about him.
1t was now about six the next morn
, ing. Kirby could not advance to the
Z German trenches; nor RETREAT to the
O rear. For eight hours he lay in the
hot sun, wouned man on top of two
G corpeses one Englishsman and the
9 othe German. Suddenly, just before
, dusk that day, he spied big hole in
a the ground that had been made by a
big shell the night before. Inch by in
, oh he dragged his weary body toward
: this hole. Only one more pull and he
a peeped over the edge. Inside were a
/, dozen of his wounded comrades and
' all but four were still alive.
There Kirby and his brothers lay
y all that day while the fire of both
r sidesagain blazed over their heads
I One 75cm. shell exploded over them
+ The mere impact through dead SOL
der on top of Kirby. A piece of anoth-
er shell cut Off the foot of sergeant
at Kirby's side. All of them were
hurt in some way by this lombard
? ment. Around them the wounded
: were mourning. Some even had the
death rattle. Their hope grew dim
D How long must they stay in that hole ?
: Better die in an effort to get back
I they agreed, than to die there from
starvation. They had not had thing
: to eat for over twenty-four terrible
5 exhausting hours.
1t was again dark Only rocket
: now and then would light up the sky
= Suddenly Kirby said: Boys, I'm 60
I ing to crawl to our line and tell them
where you are. They can dig trench
out to you and bring you all in" 1t
f seemed like suicide for Kirby to do
. this. His wound prevented him from
r crawling on his belly He had to lie
. on his back and work forward by dig
. ging his heels into the ground. Slow
( ly he worked his way along over the
. dead bodies which strewed the
: ground. He was faint and was suffer
| ing great pain. But at last he reached
, his goal
Within two ninutae a flor tallinO