Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 19??-1918, 1918-04-14


next traverse climbed upon the sand
bagged parapet TO investigates brave
but foolbardy deed-"Crack" went a
bullet and he tumbled back Into the
trench with hole through his stomach
and died few minutes later. A lance
corporal In the next platoon was so en-
rnged nj the captains death that he
chucked n Mills bomb In the direction
OF the noise with the shouted warning
to us; duck your nnppers. my lucky
lnds." A sharp dynamite report. flare
In front Of ~. and then silence.
We Immediately sent up two star
shells. and In their light could see two
dark forms lying on the ground close
to onr wire. A sergeant and four
stretcher.benrers went out In front and
soon returned. carrying two limp
bodies. Down In the dugout. In the
illckering light Of three candles, we
saw That they were two German offl.
GERS. one'a captain and the other an
"unteroflzler," n rank one grade higher
than sergeant general. but below the
grade OF lieutenant.
The cnptnln's face had been almost
completely torn away by the bombs
explosion. The unteronizler was alive.
breathing with difficulty. In few min.
uies he opened his eyes and blInked IN
the glare Of the candles.
The pair had evidently been drink.
Ing heavily for the alcohol fumes were
sickening and completely pervaded the
iugout. I turned away In disgust.
hitting 10 see man cross the Great ID.
vide full Of booze.
one of our officers could speak Ger.
man and he questioned the dying man.
In faint voice. interrupted by fre-
quent hlccoughs. the unteronizler told
his story.
There had been drinking bout
among the officers IN one Of the Ger.
man dugouts. the main beverage being
champagne. With drunken leer he
Informed us that champagne was plen-
tlful ON their side and that II did not
cost them anything either About seven
that night the conversation had'turned
to the "contemptible" English. and the
captain had made wager that he
would hang his cnp on the English
barbed wire TO show his contempt for
the English sentries. The wager wal
accepted. At eight O'Clock the captain
and he had crept out into No Mans
Land to carry out this wager.
They had gotten about halfway
across when the drink took effect and
the captain fell asleep. After about
two hours Of vain attempts the unter-
ofiizier had at last succeeded In wax
Ing the captain, reminded him Of his
bet, and warned him that he would be
the laughing stock Of the officers mess
II he did not accomplish his object, but
the captain was trembling all over and
Insisted on returning TO the German
lines. In the darkness they lost their
bearings and crawled toward the Eng.
lish trenches. They reached the barbed
wire and were suddenly challenged by
our sentry. Being too drunk TO realize
that the challenge was In English. the
captain refused to crawl back. Finally
the unteroflzler convinced his superior
that they were In front of the English
wire. Realizing this too late. the can.
tain drew his revolver and with NUT.
tered curse fired blindly townrd our
captain.
Then the bomb came over and there
no wos dvlnr-sod n yood ,ob too wo
tbourbt The captaip deod3 We'll hi.
mon wo,len't ween nj tho pews
mo,,o, ,ha rn,arom.,or a,.a
eauon uisks ou, 'ney naa ieit every
foolhardy errand.
Next afternoon we buried them. In
our little cemetery apart from the
graves OF the Tommies. IL you ever
20 INTO that cemetery you Will see TWO
INV. wo"uo' ',osses ~ 'ne .o'neI VI
Wv M. - 50 "''r"' ''o'" ''e e'
con,,,,
German Army
Died - 1916