The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1918-08-15

the Otner. Inere is no SCIeeM "
whistle more blood curdliing. or hid.
your head when you don't know
when or where it's going to light;
We sat around our dugout door and
listened to them all night long UNI
til about o'clock a. m. when they
ceased for a short time and we ven
went very peaceful until breakfast
was almost finished and most of the
boys had left the kitchen when a
shell hit Just SO feet in front OF 1T
in an old dugout where the boys had
been sitting, at least 40 or 80 OF
them, only a few minutes before and
nearly shook the kitchen down but
age done was plenty of dirt thrown
into our faces. Not man was
scratched but it did not take long
to find our big dugout again where
we rested, rather uneaslly for the
rest Of the day It was s, the m, most st
anyplace. During the bombardment
we counted a great number OF these
shells that failed on reaching their
destination to explode. AS near as
we could tell these were about
inch shell Of high explosive and be-
were not much left to tell the tale.
l found or 3 pieces OF the one
which landed by the kitchen and just
as soon as | can l will send them
home. We saw some great air fights
there, too, which is almost as thrill
ing and exciting as anything but not
SO dangerous on our part although
from stray machine gun bullets: l
saw fight between Z machines Sun
day. There were two Boche ventur-
ed over and Frenchmen challenged
them. One was brought down and
the other was last seen in wild
men after him and pouring plenty Of
machines make a dive almost
straight down over another machine
and using a couple of guns, and
most of the small machines and
guns are operated by one man:
Last night an air raid was pulled or
lance away on a pretty large city.
But we could not tell how many
machines there were. We knew
there must be great many from
the sound of the motors. The sky
was lighted up by flash lights, and
at one time we counted IA. The
roar of .antiaircraft guns was con
tinuous for almost two hours and in
that time three machines were
brought down, fact which we learn
ed today, but one was plainly seen
as it burst into flames several hun
dred feet up After they had finish
ed there | guess one fellow had
want to carry home SO on his way
back he tried to get us mere. His
Judgment was very poor. Yesterday
and today the roads have been lined
with refugees goiro back to safety.
Some carried all their possessions
on their arm and some had none,
others driving small one horse
table or rug and few clothes. just
what little they could save It's an
awful sight to see these people nov
ing around from place to place and
leave their homes and all their crops
at the mercy of Boche who have no
mercy on anyone. The Smelling
on an American hospital where
there were great number of sick
and wounded and nurses who had no
protection whatever. A few of us
ventured over to the hospital during
short lull in the bombardment and
found men lying in their beds torn
and mangled almost beyond recog-
milton and beneath heaps Of debris;
trenches by infantrymen coming
back csasionally, they say that
the boys who are helping in this
murderous work are paying the pen
atty Of death on no mans land, and
they say they lay and deep
along the barbed wire entangle
ments where no one can reach them
to be carried away for burial, Well,
Walter, must close for this time.
The censor no doubt will have
something else to do besides spend
ing all his time on me. Let me hear
from you often, l am, your brother,
Verne A. Negley,