Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1918-11-01
CHAPTER vll-continued.

Cf7AP lex VIE-VOUtInue0s
s.
/ surely wished I was the gunner
officer. would have enjoyed it more
II could have got back at Fritz
somehow. But / was not the gunner
officer and I told him so. I had to
shout at him quite while before he
would believe me. Then he wanted
me to find the gunner officer, but I
did not know where to find him. If
could have got to our guns guess /
would have had another medal for
working overtime, but I missed the
chance there.
About this time another bomb came
over and clouted out the best friend
/ had in my company. Before the
war he had been one of the finest sing
ers in the Paris opera houses. When
he was with us he used to say that
the only difference between him and
Oaruso was $500 a night.
A poilu and I dragged him into a
dugout, but it was too late. One side
of his face was blown off; the whole
right side of him was stripped off
and four fingers Of the right hand
were gone.
I stuck my head out Of the dugout
and there was the captain discussing
the matter with himself, curSing the
Germans from here to Helgoland and
putting in a word for the bombs every
once in a while. Ali up and down the
trenches you could hear our men
cursing the Germans in all kinds Of
languages. Believe me, / did my bit
and / could hear somebody else using
good old United States cuss words,
TOO. It certainly did not make me feel
any better, but it gave me something
TO do. 1 think that was why all of
as cursed so much then, though we
were pretty handy with language at
any time. But when you are under
heavy fire like that and cannot give
1t back as good as you get, you go
crazy unless you have something to do.
Cussing Is the best thing we could
think of.
Up the trench the third bay was
simply smashed in and the Germans
were placing bomb after bomb right
in it and in ours. The captain yelled
out that he was going up TO the next
bay to examine it, but no more had
he got there than he had his head
taken clean off his shoulders.
At daybreak our trenches were all
pounded in and most of our dugouts
were filled up. Then Fritz opened up
with his artillery fire right on us. We
thought they were going to charge and
we figured their barrage would lift
and we could see them come over.
We received orders to stand to with
fixed bayonets. Then the man at the
periscope shouted, "They comet"
A battery directly behind us went
into action first and then they all
Joined in and inside of five minutes
about eight hundred guns were raising
Cain with Fritz. The Boches were
caught square in No Mans Land and
our rifles and machine guns simply
moved them down. Many of them
came half way across, then dropped
their guns and ran for our trenches
to give themselves up. They could not
have got back to their own trenches.
It was shame to waste a shell on
these poor fish. If they had been civ
vies the law would prevent you from
hitting them-you know the kind.
They could hardly drag themselves
along.
That is the way they look when you
have got them. But when they have
got you-kicks, cuffs, bayonet jabs-
there is nothing they will not do to
add to your misery. They seem to
think that it boosts their own courage.
An artillery fire like ours was great
fun for the gunners, but it was not
Snuch fun for Fritz or for us in the
trenches. We got under cover almost
as much as Fritz and held thumbs for
the gunners to get through in hurry.
Then the fire died down and it was
so quiet it made you jump.
We thought our parapet was busted
up good deal, but when we looked
through the periscope we saw what
had happened to Fritz trenches and,
believe me, they were practically
ruined.
Out in No Mans Land it looked like
WOOlworth's Gve-and-ten; everywhere