The Arizona copper camp., 1918-07-27

stream of stretchers coming out of the
communication trenches and burial
parties were common sight.
In the dugouts the noise of the guns
almost hurt. You had the same sensa-
ton as when riding on the subway you
enter the tube under the river going
to Brooklyn-a sort of pressure on the
ear drums, and the ground constantly
trembling.
The roads behind the trenches were
very dangerous because Boche shrap-
mel was constantly bursting over them.
We avoided these dangerous spots by
crossing through open fields.
The destruction in the German lines
was awful and / really felt sorry for
them because realized how they must
be clicking it.
From our front-line trench, every
now and again, we could hear sharp
whistle blasts in the German trenches,
These blasts were the signals for
stretcher bearers, and meant the
wounding or killing of some German in
Atwell and had tough time of it,
patrolling the different trenches at
night, but after awhile got used to it.
My old outfit, the machine gun COM
pany, was stationed in huge elephant
dugouts about four hundred yards be-
hind the front-line trench-they were
in reserve. Occasionally would stop
in their dugout and have a confab with
my former mates. Although we tried
to be jolly, still, there was a lurking
feeling of impending disaster Each
man was wondering, if, after the
slogan, "Over the top with the best Of
luck" had been sounded, would he still
be alive or would he be lying "some-
where in France" In an old dilapidated
house, the walls of which were SCARED
with machine-gun bullets, No. 3 sec
tion OF the machine gun company had
it's quarters. The company's cooks pre-
pared the meals in this billet. On the
fifth evening of the bombardment
German eight-inch shell registered a
direct hit on the billet and wiped out
ten men who were asleep in the sup
posedly bomb-proof cellar. They were
buried the next day and attended the
funeral.
The driver of the ambulance was a
corporal of the r. A. M. O., and he
had the "wind up," that is, he had an
aversion to being under fire.
/ was riding on the seat with him
while Atwell was sitting in the ambu-
lance, with his legs hanging out of the
back.
AS we passed through a shell-de-
strOyed village mounted military po-
liceman stopped us and informed the
driver to be very careful when we got
out on the open road, as it was very
dangerous, because the Germans lately
/ had acquired the habit of shelling it.
The corporal asked the trooper if there
was any other way around, and was
informed that there was not. Upon
this he got very nervous and wanted to
turn back, but we insisted that he pro-
ceed and explained to him that he
would get into serious trouble with his
commanding officer if he returned
without orders; we wanted to ride,
not walk.
From his conversation we learned
that he had recently come from Eng
land with a draft and had never been
under fire, hence his nervousness.
We convinced him that there was not
much danger, and he appeared greatly
relieved.
When we at last turned into the open
road we were not so confident. On
each side there had been a line of
trees, but now, all that was left of
them were torn and battered stumps,
The fields on each side of the road
| were dotted with recent shell holes
and we passed several in the road it.
self. We had gone about half a mile
when shell came whistling through
the air and burst in field about three
! hundred yards to our right. Another
| soon followed this one and burst on
the edge of the road about four hun
| dred yards in front of US.
I told the driver to throw in his
speed clutch, as we must be in sight
| of the Germans. I knew the signs
that battery was ranging for us, anG
the quicker we got out of it's zone OF
| fire the better. The driver was trem
| bling like leaf, and every minute
expected him to pile us up in the ditch
preferred the German fire.
In the back Atwell was holding onto
the straps for dear life, and was sing
| ing at the top of his voice:
| We beat you at the Marne,
| We beat you at the Aisne,
We gave you hell at Neuve Chapelle,
And here we are again.
Just then we hit a small shell hole
and nearly capsized. Upon a lou(
yell from the rear looked behind, an(
there was Atwell sitting in the middle
of the road, shaking his fist at us. Hi:
equipment, which he had taken of
upon getting into the ambulance, wa:
strung out on the ground, and his rifle
was in the ditch.
I shouted to the driver to stop, anC
in his nervousness he put on The
brakes. We nearly pitched out head