Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1918-05-30
A Letter From Lieutenant Mcdonald.

| esting letter from Lleutenaht MAJ eheil
Mcdonald, of Jefferson county, written
to his brother:
Somewhere in France,
April s, 1918.
Dear John-It rained today, as usual
| and although we had to be out in 1t all
dav. am rejoicing in the fact that its
raining on the Hun, and especially on
his roads. After having seen battle
field and the amount OF traffic necessary
| TO maintain an army, you can realize
what a proposition 1t IS, especially ii
il gets muddy and the roads are under
| she'll fire. II this condition continues
he will wear out his men and trans
portation. We are banking lot on the
drain that physical exhaustion makes
on morale, TO say nothing ABOUT MS
losses. All of us are hoping 10 gel
| into il soon, but no chance for yours
truly.
| was I'D through that country on a
tour of inspection about three weeks
ago. lust got out five days before the
"show" started. Spent several days go,
| ing over the engineering work oehlno
the line, and two days up in the forward
| dupout with a field company OF engln'
GERS. and went around with the officers
| in their work. Maybe it is best not to
mention the names of the places ! was
| in, but they will be given a prominent
place in the history Of this war: Wenl
over the lines that Fritz was driven ou'
of. Saw one mine crater that was near
" 200 feet across and fifty or Sixty
deep. The whole country was pitteo
| with shell holes, as though 1t had some
virulent form of smallpox. The holes
were close enough to Jump from one 10
! another, and some were at least ten
| feet deep. Got up on hill and looked
for miles on either side, seeing. the
trenches wind back and forth like huge
| serpents. There was absolutely no liV-
ing thing in sight.
You might imagine that you were
| looking over a desert that man had
never trod before, but you well knew
that if YOU started something 1t would
spring to life The big guns behind us
were Smelling a town, or what was lefi
of it, about three miles away. The
shells would pass overhead like an eX-
press train-swish, swish, swish, boom
and a red cloud of dust and smoke
| would fash up over the town and slow
| " drift away. Our eighteen-pounders
were pecking away like giant wood
peckers-bang, whz, whiz-z boom,
and a cloud would settle over Fritz
trenches.
Our planes, the slow artillery busses,
were flying about directing the artillery
| fire. Fritz would bark at them with
fbau oOt tOn
close. One of his planes started over,
and pop, pop, went our Arches
The sky was full of puffs of white
smoke. Fritz's anti-aircraft guns give
black smoke when his shrapnel bursts
Fritz was too high to be seen with the
eye, but we caught the fash Of the sun
on the plane as he wheeled to go back.
Passing the guard at the barrier we had
to sling our gas masks to the "alert''
and take a trench. Sat up on top of
our dugout and watched him (Fritz)
strait a battery about 500 yards off,
putting over about 500 shells, most
of them gas. We watched them burst
and the gas drift away in clouds. You
couldn't help wondering if he would lift
his range a bit and favor you with a
few. Fortunately the wind was in the
right direction and we could go down
and eat supper in peace.
After supper, when we went UP with
the work parties We avoided that spot,
though we went through some gas, it
was not enough to do any great harm.
Visited about a dozen work parties
carrying on" in the dark, wiring, rivet-
ing, cleaning trenches, etc. The day
before we had crimped big hole in the
front line with a big minnie. 1t was
about ten feet deep and fully twenty
feet wide. Fixed it up and went out
into No Mans Land to repair the wire
John, don't believe there is man
living that can stand out there the first
time and not have creepy feeling down
his back. The shells were passing over
head three or four per minute (this
was quit time) occasionally one would
burst close and the shrapnel would sing
all around you. Your tin hat felt about
as big as a postage stamp then. Pop,
pop, pop, would go machine gun on
the right; pop, pop, pop, would go
Fritz's and the bullets would 20 zip
crack. When close, a machine gun bull
let cracks like whip; a little way off it
sings. Flash, up would 90 fare, and
everybody would stand like a statue.
Fritz is great on flares. You can trace
the outline of his front line all night
long by his flares; and good ones, too.
One about every 500 yards every FIVE
minutes.
Away to the south the guns were 60
ing it at great rate almost contnu-
Gus flare against the sky and a dull
roar. We wondered if it was his much
talked of "show" which was scheduled
to come off tonight, or just a raid Ii
was just a raid. We knew Fritz had
minnie just across and didn't care to
stick around longer than necessary.
Then, his "show" might start at any
minute. Went along the front line and
visited company headquarters in a
dugout thirty feet deep. Came back
across the top, as walking on duck
boards in a crooked trench is very tire
some; was badly scared by one of our
guns which suddenly let loose about
fifty feet away without warning, bang,
whiz, whiz-z, and almost dying down
with faint boom about one-half min
ute later. Got in about a. m, had
lunch and turned in after making out
the report of the days work. Other
parties had to be met at a. m. and put
to work INSIDE like dugouts).
The next day being misty we went
out on top and inspected a strong point,
being on top about three-quarters of a
mile from Fritz for four hours. He
didn't take the trouble to strait us Saw
raid the next morning. AT zero hour
a red flare went up. Suddenly every
light gun on this front opened up on
the sector to be raided, firing a bunch
of smoke shells as we'll as H. E. Fritz
began to send up flares all along the
line. In five minutes heavy smoke
hung over the line, lit up red by burst
ing shells. A red fare went up, the
first detectives had been taken; Slight
pause as the guns lifted their barrage
10 the end line. The heavies take it
up, doing counter battery and Smelling
his reserve dugouts. A double flare,
the second detectives are taken; five