Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-11-12

smoky ought to see about fifty of those
big howitZer shells bursting, one after
another.
We could not tell what the rest Of
our line was doing or how we were
standing the awful fire, but we felt
sure they were not having any worse
time than we were. In a few minutes
we heard the good old "75s" start
pounding, and it was like hearing an
old friends voice over the telephone,
and everybody in our shell hole
cheered, though no one could hear us
and we could barely hear each other.
Still we knew that if the "75s" got
going in their usual style they would
do for an enemy battery or two, and
that looked good to us. The "75s''
made the noise worse, but it was al
ready about as bad as it could be,
and a thousand guns more or less
would not have made it any harder
to stand.
One of our men shouted in the ser
| geant's ear that the men in line ahead
of us and to the right were trying to
| give US a message of some kind. The
! sergeant stuck his head above the
parapet and had look. But / stayed
where l was-the sergeant could see
for himself and me, too, as far as
was concerned.
He shouted at US that the men in
the other trench were trying to signal
something, but he could not make il
out because the clouds of smoke would
roll between them and break up the
words So he laid down again in the
bottom of the hole. But after a while
he looked over the parapet and cav
a man just leaving their trench, evi.
IDENTIFY with message for us, and he
had not gone five steps before he was
blown to pieces, and the lad who fol.
lowed him got his, too, so they stopped
trying then.
And all the time the "75s" were
sending theirs to the Turks not fan
over our heads to 900 yards behind
us. and the howitzers were dropping
their 240-pound bits of iron in every
vacant space and some that were not
vacant. 1t was just one big roar and
screech and growl all at once, like
turning the whole dog pound loose
on piece of meat.
The conclusions felt like one long
string of boxes on the ear, and oul
threats were so dry that it hurt tc
swallow, which always makes your
ears feel better after a strong concus
sion. One after another of our boys
was slipping to the ground and digging
his fists into his ears, and the rest OF
them sat on the parapet fire step with
their heads between their knees and
their arms wrapped around theil
heads.
while and began acting just like
people do at a show, only he shouted
instead of whispered In my ear When
people are looking at one show they
always want to tell you how good some
other show Is, and that was the way
with the sergeant.
"You should see what they did to
us at st. Eloi," he said. "They just
baptized us with the big fellows. They
did not know wnen to stop. When you
see Smelling that is Smelling, you will
know it, my son."
swell, if this is not Smelling, what
the devil is it? Are they trying to
kid us or are you, mon yioux?" which
is French expression that means
something like "old timer"
my son, when you see dugouts
caved in, roads pushed all over the
map, guns wrecked, bodies twisted ul
in knots and forty men killed by one
shell-then you will know you are
seeing shelling."
Then one of our men sat up straight
against the parapet and stared at us
and began to shake all over, but we
could not get him to say anything OF
move. So we knew he had shell shock
! %%STSS$M%NSyNZSTyVIYT7T II TTTT-T77T