The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1918-08-20
ZERO HOUR AT HAND
Interesting War Story is
Written by Earl Way
land Bowman,

II is zero hour All night the
Doys-our boys-have been waiting
watching, knowing that with the
coming of the dim shadows of dawn
would come zero hour'-the hour
IN which they would go over the
top"
The artillery has been pounding,
pounding, pounding thru the long
hours-were they alone? Were they ?
1t is all SO much like a dream-ages
or was it only minutes?-that rush
thru the slush and mud, over shell
swept roads, from back there some
where to up here" into the front
line trench.
An hour ago hell broke loose. It
was the final deluge of death poured
from American and French guns
into the German positions out yonder
beyond that forbidden trip all ma
lions nave named mo. Mans Land"
For an hour the air has been filed
with the sob and shrek and scream
of great shells.
NOW 1t is Zero hour" There is
a moments lull in the cannon-fire,
It's like the dead silence, the un-
earthly calm, that comes sometimes
In the midst of furious storm.
The men are grouped about the
ladders.
The very nerve in every man is
tence as steel wire-fve minutes
more-four minutes-three min
utes-
Down the line the whisper runs:
Remember. At the whistle every
man goes over. No waiting-keep
out of the way of the man behind
and give them hell"
On, want to get boche on nv
old bayonet," huns a voice like an
echo and a suppressed laugh ripples
thru the air. J
"Sh-hh! Silence!" ia a
Two minutes-one minutes
Every man knows that some who
are waiting, waiting for the com
mand to go over" are spending
their last seconds on earth: every
man knows that before the red sun
throws his lances above the eastern
lorlzon already lighted by the gray
1eralds of morning, come of those
there will have paid the
asst farthing of the great price that
men who fight for liberty, for coun-1
ry, for home, for righteousness. are
'alled to pay.
what thoughts go tumbling thru
heir minds-what images of home.
green fields, of faces-faces-
All, the whistle!
Now! Over, Over! And get
em!" eo'
Shadowy forms spring out of the
renches. Figures running, stooped
orward-leaping shell-hoies-stum- $
ling, dash toward the lanes cut al
eady thru the wire
Every mans eyes fixed straight
head; every mans mind alert to 5
ne thing he is to do; every mans at
ention riveted, on his especial duty. 5
Machine guns belch death into
lelr faces, they drop fiat, the next =
lstane are up, part of them-some o.
Ill never rise again-and rush on. r
Into the enemy trench. Il
Now, now-It is steel against steel o
Keen point into quivering flesh, tt
re great shells flying overhead? h
re hand grenades, bombs, bursting n
i around? Are men dropping el
lrprlsed-startled-by the sudden N
rust OF bayonet or smash of gun CT
lit on helmet covered heads?
Perhaps-perhaps- is no "
me to see. Each man is busy too. I
lsy with his own part in the great y
venture to notice. There is no &c
using TO see If comrade is doing 81
lis Bit No grumbling at the work IT
the enthusiasm, of the "other fell IN
W. no whining that II am do
g more than my share" No-and 81
ank God. There is no COMPARE ds
'e' patriotism lover there" Every &c
an is doing all, all, that he can do; IN
cry man is doing his best III
only so may the trench be taken u
no other way can the Vandal be ga
iven back. In
1t is the Zero hour" in Idaho. pa
Here at home, in our own state. co
our own town, in our own family
Gle it is zero hour" or
1t is zero hour" in the drive for sp
$S,5O0,O00 worth of war savings Wv
'mps Idaho must buy-you and I tol
list help buy before we have helped ste
whip the Hun. tn
1t Is zero hour" tel
The whistle has sounded. SUI
Why, why do we stand and wait? we
thu