The Southern herald., 1918-10-11

shell hole and were making ourselves
as comfortable as possible In 1t when
along came shell Of what must haYe
been the Jack Johnson size, and we
were swamped. We had to dig three
Of the men out, and though one OF
them was badly wounded we could not
send him back to the hospital. In
fact, the shelling was so heavy that
none Of us ever expected to come out
Of 1t alive.
SO it was like keeping your own
death watch, with the shells tuning
up for the dIrge. 1t was impossible to
listen to the shells. If you kept your
mind on the noise for any length Of
time 1t would split your eardrums, /
am sure. So all we could do was to
lay low in the shell hole and wait for
something to happen.
Then they began using shrapnel on
us, and one Of our machine gunners,
who got up from his knees to change
position, had his head taken clean OF
his shoulders, and the rest Of him
landed near my feet and sQuirmed
little, like a chicken that had Just been
killed. It was awful to see the body
without any head move around that
way, and we could hardly make our
selves touch 1t for some time. Then
we rolled 1t to the other side Of the
hole.
Then, to one side Of us, there was
a more violent explosion than any yet.
The earth spouted up and fell on US,
and big clouds Of black smoke, sliding
along the ground, covered our shell
hole and hung there for some time.
One Of our sergeants, from the regular
French infantry, said 1t was shell
from a Turkish 155-mm. howltzer.
That was only the first one. The
worst thing about them was the smoke
people who think Pittsburgh Ia
smoky ought to see about fifty Of those
big howltzer shells bursting, one after
another.
We could not tell what the rest Of
our line was doing or how we were
standing the awful fire, but we felt
sure they were not having any worse
time than we were. In few minutes
we heard the good old "75s" start
pounding, and 1t was like hearing an
old friends voice over the telephone
and everybody in our shell hole
cheered, though no one could hear ui
and we could barely hear each other
] Still we knew that If the "75s" go1
going in their usual style they wOulC
do for an enemy battery or two, ant
that looked good to US. The "7bs'
| made the noise worse, but 1t was al
| ready about as bad as 1t could be
and thousand guns more or les'
} would not have made 1t any hardel
3 to stand.
} One Of our men shouted in the ser
t geant's ear that the men in line aheat
Of US and to the right were trying t
: give us a message Of some kind. Th'
, sergeant stuck his head above tn
g parapet and had look. But l staye'
s where l was-the sergeant could Sc,
= for himself and me, too, as far as
Q was concerned.
! He shouted at us that the men Il
O the other trench were trying to sigma
: something, but ne could not make
t out because the clouds Of smoke woul
r roll between them and break up tn
|, words. So he laid down again in tn
e bottom of the hole. But after a Will
! he looked over the parapet and say
e a man just leaving their trench, evI
e IDENTIFY with a message for us, and h
J. had not gone Ave steps before he wa
+ blown to pieces, and the lad who fol
8 lowed him got his, too, SO they stOppe
i trying then.
, And all the time the "75s' wer
!. sending theirs to the Turks not ia
over our heads to 900 yards benin
US, and the howltzers were droppln
their 240-pOund bits Of iron in ever
a vacant space and some that were nc
:. vacant. It was just one big roar an
r screech and grOwl all at once. llk
. turning the whole dog pound lOos
a on a piece Of meat.
: The conclusions felt like one Ion
string of boxes on the ear, and Ou
q throats were so dry that 1t hurt I
!. swallow, which always makes you
!. ears feel better after strong cOncui
. sion. One after another of our bog
I. was slipping to the ground and diggin
! his fists into his ears, and the rest
!. them sat on the parapet FIRE step wilt
Il their heads between their knees an
a their orms wrapped around the
heads.