Courier Democrat., 1918-09-26
Langdon Fighter. Has
Big Story About the War
Continued to Page Four

Continued to Page Four
}ree'' but no such luck. We kept
right on going and unloaded in very
pretty country, where we stayed for
about two weeks. While we were in
this place the company was reorgan
lied into combat groups. These units
were the final selection of the captain
and made up the formation in which
we later went into the trenches.
was transferred again into the com
pany headquarter group as run
ner, and believe me that is 70 soft
job. You know the runners usually
go home with wheel barrow full of
medals, or else they don't 60 home
at all. But to go on with my story,
l was given instructions in my new
duties and also in intensive signal
ing, and to simmer it all down it
amounts to this. | have to keep in
touch with battalion headquarters,
with the captain and the company
and with the companies on both sides
of US in the line. Also I have to
carry messages to the different units,
whether it is through barrage or ma
chine gun fire; The first six me-: in
this division who were recommended
for bravery in action were, ;runners.
Also.I have to-. be a '.signalrnan, a
bomber, machine gunner, a rife
man and most nything in case of ne
cesity.
One night at retreat the Captain
said to US, "Now boys, we are soon
going into the trenches and he was
right, We were loaded into motor
trucks and driven to the foot of q
young mountain, where we waitec
until night and then started hiking
over. Oh, Lord never will forget
that night! 1t was raining pitch
forks and black as ink. We started
at dusk and climbed untiA dawn ant
then went down into a small town
Whenever the order carae to rest
we could fall right down in the mue
and water and swear we could not g
another step, but whenever the res
time was up, we would stagger t.
our feet and stumble on. When VI
finally got into this little town on tn
other side of the hill, We were told t
fall out beside the road while the
looked UP some barns for US to slee
!, in during the dayL 1t was still rain
ing and / was soaked and chile
CLAIR through but I-sat right down
: the mud and water on the edge of tt
;. road and fell sound asleep. Cues
= what woke me. Well, it was a Ge
man shell and two of them had lar
;. ed in the town while I was sleepir
~ and never heard them, but Il
third one was high explosive and
landed about 200 yards from where
Z was and you should have seen r
z leave that vicinity. The Boch
rd threw a few more shells in there al
er then quit crawled into some h
v. in barn and slept like dead m
nd all day. < IL
ii. That night we moved into
a. trenches and were split up with I
at French. Our company was pre-
on we'll scattered and it was hard VIC
for keeping in touch with the. differ,
&c. platoons. For INSTANCE, our Comps
!p- Headquarters was in a section of
;he trenches which ran through a ruiz
he village, while our second platoon '
hip way down the line in another ruiz
I'VE village, and in order to keep in to-
ip. with them we had to GOA long d
i've tance back through communicat
re. trenches to the supports and t
i. work down to their communicat
trench, and this is the reason we
to do that. The section where
trenches were was not solid Ii
In other words there would
trenches through ruined will
;ra' and part way down the vale
ata- then they would stop and there WI
was be quite an open space, a macl
was gun emplacement, or a strong p
leio every one hundred yards or sgl
iier can imagine how safe it would b
'ean try to go along there in the day
q Of course at night our patrols pr
IN ed all over, but as said before.
iVe' had to go way back of the supp