The Southern herald., 1918-10-11

| JSAf
The man was telling us that some
time before they had seen the Turks
bringing up ammunition from some
storehouses, but they did not come
anywhere near. He said their sergeant
wanted our messenger to tell them
that, too. He would say few words
very fast, then he would shlver again,
and his jaws would clip together and
he would try to raise his hand, but
could not.
Then our sergeant asked the name
Of the other sergeant, and when the
man told him he said the man was
senior to himself and therefore in
command and would have to be obeyed.
He seemed to cheer up a lot after
he said this and did not shiyer any
more, so thought would volunteer
then, SO said to him, "Well, mon
vieux, do you think we are seeing real
shelling now" And then / was going
to say would go, but he looked at
me in a funny way for second and
then said, "Well. my son, suppose you
go and find cut"
thought he was kidding me at first,
but then saw he meant 1t. / thought
two things about lt--one was that any
thing was better than staying there,
and the other was that the old dugout
was a pretty fair place after all. But
did not say anything to the SER
geant or the other men--just went
out of the dugout. The sergeant and
another man went with me and boost
ed me over the back wall of the hole.
/ lay fiat on the ground for a minute to
get my bearings, and then started of.
set my course for where / thought
the communication trenches were, to
the right, and just stood up and ran,
for l figured that as the shells were
falling so thick and 1t was open
ground l would not have any better
chance II I crawled.
trlpped several times and went
down, and each time thought / was
hit, because when got It In the thigh
at Dixmude 1t felt good deal as
? though had tripped over a rope,
And one time when fell shell ex-
ploded near me and began to shiveE
again, and l could not go on for
: long time. All this time did not
! think / would get through, but finally
=. when / reached what had been the
= communication trench l felt had
= done the worst part Of 1t, and began
: to wish very hard that would gel
i through was not at all crazy about
! going west.
The mouth Of the communication
: trench had been battered In and the
trenches 1t Joined with were all filled
\ up. There were rifles sticking out
:, of them in several places, and
a thought probably the men had beer
!. buried alive in them. But 1t was toe
= late then, If they had been caught, sc
= climbed over the blocked entrance t
:, the communication trench and started
:, back along it. 1t led up through sor
: of gully, and thought it was bat
a place to dig communication trench
: In, because 1t gave the Turks some
= thing like the side Of hill to shoot at
~ Every once in a while would hav'
to climb In and out OF shell hole
- and parts of them were blocked wher'
= shell had caved In the walls. In on
a place saw corpses all torn to pieces
10 so l knew the Turks had found tn
- range and had got to this trench Ii
\ great shape. At another place foun'
a lots of blood and equipment but n
~ bodies, and / figured that reinforce
"a ments had been caught at this spO
"a and that they had retired, taking thei
n casualties with them.
N The Turks still had the range, ant
In they were sending d she'll into tn
h trench every once in a while, and
w was knocked down again, though tn
Il shell was so far away that it knocke
10 me down with force Of habit NOR
10 than anything else. felt dizzy an
Ar shivered lot, and kept trying to thin
10 Of Murray or anything else but myself
40 So finally got to the top Of tn
4. little hill over which the gully raj
q and on the other side felt almos
Iv safe. Just down from the crest Of tn
70 hill was one of our artillery positions
~ with the good old "75s" giving 1t to tn
m Turks as fast as they could. fol
m the artillery officers what had haI
ar pened, had a drink Of water an
thought would take nap. But whe
or they telephoned the message back
% division headquarters the man at tn
IA receiver said something to the Office
oh and he told me to stay there and b
ready. thought sure he would sen
o- me back to where l came from an