St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1918-07-27


to be In our positions at seven o'clock
In the morning. Promptly at 8 80 regf-
ment No. 81 was ordered to attack.
Pioneers led the way. They were sup
I Piled with hand grenadesRThaa week.
" attacks were opened half an hour
before the infantry went over by a
storm Of artillery fire. The artillery
action required very careful calcula-
ton because the distance which sepa-
rated our position from the enemy's
was very slight. II varied from three
to n hundred meters; never any
more. At the point where we attacked
the distance was 20 meters.
Promptly at eight O'Clock the artil-
lery started. The first three shells
struck a ditch. but the following ones
hit fairly, that is. right in the French
trenches. Once the artillery had the
proper range whole salvos of batteries
descended upon them with admirable
exactness. The cries of the wounded
were heard once more, a sign that
many had been hit.
An artillery officer acted as observer
In the foremost sense and directed the
fire by phone. Promptly al $50 o'clock
the artillery fires stopped and we at
tackled. The eleventh company of the
SiIty-seventh regiment, of which I
spoke before, came under the fire of
the enemy's machine guns and Is Of its
men were killed after they had only
proceeded q few steps outside the
trench.
Dead and wounded men lay among
the branches and the trees everywhere
on the ground. Every mar who was
able to run sped forward to reach the
enemy trench as quickly as possible. A
part of the enemy defended itself des-
perately In a trench filed with water
and mud. A terrible h~and-to-hand fight
resulted. We stood in water up to our
knees.
Men, severely wounded, lay in the
mud, holding their mouths and noses
above the water. During the fighting
they were trampled. more deeply into
the dirt under our feet for we could
net see where we were going we could
only "roll up the entire trench.
The section won was fortified with
all possible haste. Once more we had
acquired at a heavy cost in human life
a few meters of the Argonne forest.
This trench, which we took, had
changed hands many times and even
now We were preparing for the usual
counter-attacks.
Presently the ''jackasses" went into
action. The ~"jaekasses' are the guns
of the French mountain artillery. They
were so named because they were
drawn by mules. They are guns of fiat
trajectory, kept from 80 to 100 meters
behind the enemy lines. The shells
from these cannon flew directly over
our heads and u their way through
the branches at a high rate of speed.
Because of the high velocity of the
shell and the short distance it travels
the detonation when the shot is fred
and the noise of the explosion, sound
almost at the same instant. These
"jackasses' are greatly feared by the
German soldiers because they are kept
working day and night.
1t was winter and very cold. The
trenches had been filed with water
and were now nothing except deep
bitches of Rud. Under these eondi
tons, through the ice-cold nights, our
routine consisted of 4S hours duty
and u hours rest. Every week a storm
ing attack was made, the. success of
which was entirely out of proportion
to the enormous losses. In all of the
four months I was IN the Argonne for
ests we gained 100 meters. The fol-
lowing data will indicate how heavy q
price was paid In lives for this little
piece of France.
Each regiment had its " ceme-
terry. There was the One Hundred and
Forty-ifth infantry regulars, the Sixty
seventh, and One Hundred and Seven
.ty-third infantry regulars and the
One Hundred and Fifth Hirsch-
berg battalion. On the day we were re-
Ifeved from duty in the Argonne for
ests there were more dead in these
cemeteries thun there were survivors
of the several regiments. The Sixty
seventh regiment had more than 1900
Head. All the victims were members
Of that unit except a few pioneers.
who had been assigned to duty with
IT. There was a day without
some loss Of life. and on the days when
the storming attacks were made, death
had an extremely large harvest.