Baxter Springs news., 1918-05-10


tween the roof and the second layer
Of boards, the dirt being piled up ON
the second set of boards. This leaves
a narrow slot open which is your
shooting station. You can see the
German trenches fine but they can't
see you, unless they are looking at
your section Of the trench just when
YOU shoot and sec the flash Of the
rifle.
"The first time we went into the
trenches we stayed ten days. We
were all crazy to get a shot, but 1t
rained most of the time and the Ger
mans kept pretty low. But We got a
few shots at some Of the wagons we
saw on the other side and tried out
some shots at places where the Of
ficers had doped II out that the Ger
men snipers were laying.
"On our second trip In We got more
chances, for the weather was better
and we could get the. range better
Then we'd had u chance to talk things
over when we went back to our billet
for a rest and some Of the officers
give US Some good dope.
81 got as good place to shoot from
on the second trip as l had the first
time up. About the first day we were
in the Germans put some tin cans
up and We sure did pepper them
cans. Then, Of course, we were al
ways watching for the periscopes.
But it's getting so that it is hard to
knock them down, because the Ger
mans keep moving them and you got
to dope out which way the stick is
going to move and get it on the wing.
It takes some shooting even from
good rests like we had to get NOV
ing little box like periscope on the
wing.
"Thc best time of day for US was
early in the morning. 1t seemed like
as if the Germans weren't so careful
then. Anyway, the light seemed bet
ter, after the mist was burned out,
and we sure used to put in some
good licks after breakfast. 1t doesn't
do for u man to be always shooting.
The first thing he knows, his shooting
post will be spotted. We got so we
used to do our looking from one peck
hole and when we saw something that
looked suspicious or something that
was moving in one of the traverse
trenches, we'd jump over to our firing
stations and try one on it.
"By this scheme we didn't stand
much chance of getting hit, because
we never did any shooting from the
place where we did our spotting and
we spent most of the time trying to
find u good mark to shoot ut.
II don't know what it was that
made my gun bust. Maybe some wa
ter got in it some way. never did
find anybody who cop ID, explain it
very clear. But the old gun decided
to bust and my left hand got most of
it. They say it won't ever be of any
use to me and from the looks of it |
guess it won't. 1t happened on De-
cember %, just two days before
Christmas. / sure had a rotten
Christmas!
"But I'm not worrying much. My
luck wasn't so bad. Some of our
bunch got killed, you know. One man
in u company right near mine got a
bullet clean through his head. And
he was sitting in the trench at the
time. 1t was a stray bullet, | guess.
Probably was shot from trench
over to one side and hit something
and bounded straight along one of our
trenches. / guess they can fix this
hand up so it will help lot in hold
ing a steering wheel and / know
good enough so l can get a
job as chauffeur. From what ! hear
are making bigger money
than they ever did.
"Then the Government will fix it
so can learn to telegraph if / want
to. l guess there amt no reason for
me to worry"