Mexico Missouri message., 1918-10-31

we drew nearer the shore they began
using shrapnel on us and in no time
at all our tunnels were shot full of
holes and q sieve was watertight COM
pared to them.
Naturally we were not Just taking
all this punishment without any come
back. Our guns were at 1t fast and
from the way the fire slackened in
certain places we knew we were max
ing it effective. My guns did for two
enemy pieces that know of, and per-
haps several others.
The French garbies were good
deal more excited in action than
thought they would be. They were
lodging around below decks, trying
to miss the shrapnel that came
aboard, shouting, swearing. singing
but fighting hard, at that. They stood
the gaff just as well as any other
garbies would, only in their own
sweet way-which is noisy enough
believe me.
One of our seamen was hit 130
times by fragments of shrapnel, so
you can see what they were up
against In the lodging line. A gun
turret in action is not exactly the
best place on earth for a nervous
man nor one who likes his comfort.
There Is an awful lot of heat and
noise and smell and work, all the
time in d fighting gun turret. But
during an engagement i would rather
be in a gun turret every time than
between decks. At that, if anything
does happen in a turret--it is good
night sure for all, and no rain checks
needed.
One of our junior lieutenants was
struck by a fragment of shell es he
was at his station behind the wheel
| house and a piece of his skull was
! driven into his brain. He was car
ried into my gun turret, but he
would not let them take him to sick
| bay to have his wound dressed. There
he sat, asking every now and then
how the fight was going and then sort
| of doing off for a while.
| After half an hour of action we put
about and started away, still firing.
AS a parting slap on the back the
Turks tore off one of our big-gun tur-
rets, and then away we went, back to
Brest with q casualty list of only Is.
We did not have much trouble guess
ing that 1t was dry dock for us again.
We got back to Brest after q quiet
voyage, patching ourselves up where
we could on the way, and again there
was the rush work, day and night,
to get into shape and do 1t over again.
They turned us out in II days and
back we went to the Turks and their
Hun assistants.
We were lucky getting inshOre, only
receiving q nasty smash astern, when
the Turks got our range and landed
two peaches before we got out. We
nearly tore our rudder off getting
away. But we had to come back right
away, because we had carried quite
number of heavy guns from Brest
and were given the job of running
them ashore. 1t was day and night
work and a great job for fun, because,
while you never knew when you
would get it, you had good reason to
feel you would get damned by cute
little shell or a dainty bit of shrap-
mel before the job was over.
Aboard ship it was deck work, of
course, and it was not much better
there than ashore with the guns, be-
cause the enemy trenches were near
the shore and they amused them
selves trying to pick us off whenever
we showed on deck. guess we were
q regular shooting gallery for them
and some of our men thought they
did not need all the practice they
were getting, for quite a few of us
acted as bulls eyes.
But we did not mind the bullets SO
much. They make a clean wound OF
put you away entirely; shrapnel
tears you up and can play all kinds
! of tricks with various parts of your
body without killing you. AS fol
, shells-well, mincemeat is the word
The Narrows were thick with mines
= and there had been a great deal Of
q damage done there, so after while
r the British detailed their Yarmouth
r trawlers to go in and sweep up. They
had to go up unprotected, of course
. and they started Off one night al
G serene.
: Everything went well until the!
Q turned at the Narrows and starteC
! back. Then, before you could tell II
a five or six searchllghts were playing
ON one of the trawlers and she'll
h were splashlng the water all over her
q Both banks were simply banging ava,
: point blank at them and neve
. thought they would get back.
n They did get back, though, bu
4 some of them had hardly enough mel
q left to work ship. But that is lik
y the Limeys. They will get back froI
Il anywhere while there is one ma
K alive.
r. A chap aboard one Of the trawler
said shell went through the whee
Iy house between the quartermaster an
$. himself and all the Q. NJ. said wal