Rockingham post-dispatch., 1918-12-19
is made Of good stuff. He has m!
laEting admiration.

laEting admiration.
found our truck well hidden in
some shell-torn woods about half q
mile south of c.. The place used to
be a very large German stronghold
l wish l had time to describe 1t.
We had hasty supper in a little
shack. Hard to eat with no light. Got
our tools together, left two men with
the truck and went back up to the
plane. Our artillery was giving them
h. A steady roar and swish Of
shells passing overhead. The German
shells were bursting on the road to
our left A few came fairly close, and
made us flop down in the mud. The
number of dead Germans and Amer
leans lying all about were not con-
ducive to courage. We got the wings
and tail off the ship, but the armor
plate was too heavy for us to move
the nacelle and engine. Also the
ground was such a mass of shell
holes that we couldn't get our truck
in there We tried to roll 1t out to
the road but couldn't bulge it.
l decided to wait till morning. 1t
was then 1880 p. m, when I would
go out and try to find way for the
truck to come in between the shell
pits, and perhaps drag it out the next
night. l made place in the truck to
sleep. The men, all members OF the
21Sth squadron, one sergeant and nine
men, crawled into wh't was left Of
former German telephone nut. At a
little after IL O'Clock, midnight, the
German guns started in in earnest. At
first they dropped them into the lit
tie town of Cunel, slz-slz-rump, slz-
slz-rump, one right close after the
other. It kept up about 20 minutes
to half an hour, when they raised
their fire to the little valley in front
of the woods where we lay. Sbz-sbz-
Observation-Disclosures, followed
by a rain of rocks and dirt on the
truck and shed. Another, and another
hit close enough by to sprinkle us with
trash. l ran to the shack and told the
men to scatter and find shell holes for
protection, no two men together.
l came upon heavily fortified &C.
ment dug-out. There were between
80 and 40 machine gunners and in.
fantrymen in there. It was packed.
An officer of a machine-gun company
yelled over from a shell hole, ~ don't
give a c. D. about myself, but
got tAxee men I'd like to put in there.
Any more room?" I was ashamed OF
myself for being there and said, Eyes,
for one" 1t was inky black. I STUN.
bled up the mud steps and tried to
find a she'll hole behind q tree. ZBZ.
ZBZ-ZBZ7Blam. 1t hit just behind me.
I dropped fiat to miss the shower OF
shell splinters, rocks, and dirt 1t
was just getting UP again when one
struck with an awful crash right in
front of me. was half standing when
1t burst. Something hit me smash
In the face. l dropped down fiat and
lay there trying to get the dirt and
mud out Of my eyes. ! was fool
enough to think was blinded. soon
found that could see all right, or as
wen as ever in the inky darkness. I
knew some skin was off my nose, but
that was all. With that swat in the
face my fear Of those shells disap-
peared. / heard footsteps in the road.
Suddenly it occurred to me that now
was my opportunity to get me a few
"boche." joined the boys on the
road in the attack. We slowly made
our way to Cunel. The shells bother
ed me very little now. My idea was
to crawl up on some German machine
gun nest and wipe them out with my
lugger (revolver). had about so
shells for it. l smile now when I
think of it. From the hilltop behind
Cunel I could take in all the doings.
The Americans were Just ahead. Here
and there the machine guns would
speak up from various places on the
hillside. They would fire about Is
shots at q burst. They were not in one
line but scattered about all over the
hillside. l could note their positions
from the light glow (pinkish) when
they fired. The Germans were invisi-
BILE. suppose our were too far from
the German side. soon gave UP my
idea of hunting up German nest. Fiji
ty chances to one I would be shot by
our own guns as crawled over. could
hear the German shots above the sing
Ing shells, pss-pss1pss-psspss, plOpp,
as one struck near, or zing-z-z as one
rickoshayed. I lay fat out behind .
tree trunk.
fired nearly forty-five Of my 60
rounds with my revolver at the
sound of the boche guns, OF course
I couldn't tell where I was shooting,
but who can tell but what one Of
those forty-hves found it's mark? The
Americans were on the slope way be-
low so they were safe from my little
German lines. What wouldn't1 have
pouring of my whole .being into those
Herman lines. What wouldn't have
given to have 1t daylight and a good,
clean rife on my shoulder.
The German artillery fire had now
stopped to our rear and they were