Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-05-03
BY HERBERT COREY

night-perhapS he just splteful-pernapS MS
activity precursor of the great offensive tnat
was initiated on the British front the following
day. But he began TO work on the Ohio trenches
and on that long, lonesome road with the per
sistence of a woodchopper. There were no bursts
of shells, but the of fire gradually qulckened,
until the parson, safe in village hSteen miles
away. noted that his house thTummed with rosi
1T vibrated like window pane under the
pressure of a wet thumb said he.
TERRIFIC COMPARTMENT
At last the dusk had thickened until the bocne
airplanes could not detect movements the roads.
Then the French relief went forward. never see
French troops going forward after almost four years
of war that do not feel almost a pang OF admlra-
ton for them. These we're young, fresh-faced men,
we'll and strongly built Their eyes were lively and
alert and they joked quietly between themselves
Finally they had filtered into the trenches ana the
Americans began to come out in small groups TO
make their way down the open road
The Smelling had become terrific Not dozen
times in this war have heard such an uproar. The
line of trenches the Americans had held was
marked out by succession Of she'll bursts and the
flames that side or another sent up from time
to time showed iGnumerable fountains OF dark
earth squirting into the blackness of the night.
Shells were dropping the road the Americans
were to march down. Shells were dropping on the
battery positions in the valley below. she'll
passed through the walls of the regimental head
quarters directly above the dugout in which Colo
mel Hough waiting with the French captain
and Red The French batteries began to send
she'll for shell. Hidden in the hOows they
were the blasts of fame from their gun-muzzles
could not be seen. But they were reflected from
summers day. One no longer detected single
crashes in the steady roll of sound.
Il had dickens of a time getting my team
down the hill last night, said the driver of of
the combat wagons next day, Internationally. THAT
road so full of shell holes that had to weave
my four mules in between EN- dozen times
had to stop the team and make right angle turn
Sometimes l drove in the ditch, because the road
had been pulled up and thrown in the gutter"
GERMANS USE LARGER GUNS
1t was big stuff that the Ohio troops came
uch last Heretofore
been using the medium calibres-l05s and 155's-I
in their destructive fire here. These equivalent
four and sixnch pieces, respectively, and carry
a large charge of high explosives. But last night
the Germans used pieces of 30 and 240 calibre
There were holes in the hard macadam of the
road in which four mules and a wagon could be
hidden from sight. After the last American dough
boy had marched out safely, and the last American
combat wagon had wiggled out between those
holes with four mules and the truck that was
to be taken away, two heutenants of the supply
company tried to climb that hill in a sidecar.
We had to quit they reported. -Four times
we carried that sdecar through holes that could
not go around That before got to the top
of the hill. There the flares showed us that the
road ahead worse than the road behind, and
so we came back. No getting all tired out"
The last mule driver up the hill deserves dec
Grafton, if a man did. He had made the trip
once before last night Once a big shell sent
Jagged fragments whizzing near him and splattered
him with mud he sat the drivers seat. He
had nursed his team around those fear-compelling /
holes in the darkness that only broken when
enemy she'll crashed near by, and at last he had
reached place of comparative safety Then his /
lieutenant came to him:
I'm sorry" said the lieutenant. But some
one must make another trip up the hill tonight
and l guess you're elected
The drivers answer is something for Americans
to be proud of:
Il hate like hell to go again. said he, "but
what it takes to gO-Ive got
MARCHING OUT
There was a slight IulI in the bombardment just
as the Americans began to trckIe out across the
half mile of blackboard their way from the
trenches to the road This blackboard is unpro-
tected after the fashion that has persisted in this
section since the beginning of the war. 1t merely
links two sections of strong points and back of
it is another strong point. But there is not an
inch of that is not felt out every day by the Ger
mans indirect fire. One has oddly unclothed
feeling climbing it after the comparative pro-
lection of the trench.
So the plodded that blackboard slip
ping its greasy Stats, swearing when they
stepped in the frequent holes where stats were
missing, sweating under their heavy packs in the
darkness. At this precise moment the Germans
bombarding the battery emplacements well
in the rear. When the reached the farther
crest of the hill. from which they could catch
glimpses of the battered village, in which the ad1
vance post located and the other battered vii
lage, two miles farther in the valley, where the
regimental command still in being, in the per
of Colonel Hough, they could the route
ahead of them marked out by shell bursts