Jackson County journal., 1918-11-08
CHAPTER Vll-Continued.

| surely wished l was the gunner
,lncer. would have enjoyed 1t more
II could have got back at Fritz
somehow. But l was not the gunner
officer and l told him SO. had to
shout at him quite a while before he
would believe me. Then he wanted
me to fnd the gunner officer, but l
aid not know where to find him. If I
could have got to our guns l guess I
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 10 the Paris opera houses. When
he was with us he used to say that
the only difference between him and
Caruso was $1,000 a night.
poilu and | dragged him into
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.
stuck my head out of the dugOut
end there was the captain discussing
the matter with himself, cursing the
Germans from here to HelgOland and
putting in word for the bombs every
once In a while. All up and down the
trenches you could hear our men
curslng the Germans In all kinds of
languages Believe me, l 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
10 do | think that was why all of
Us cursed so much then, though we
we're pretty handy with language at
any time. But when you are under
heaVy fre like that and cannot give
" pack as good as you get, you go
(razy unless you have something to do.
,uSsing is the best thing we could
think of.
Up the trench the third bay was
SIMPLY smashed in and the Germans
we're pacing bomb after bomb right
:" II ana in ours. The captain yelled
""' that ne was going up to the next
"a! 10 examine it, but no more had
"e eot there than he had his lead
"Neh clean off his shoulders.
AT daybreak our trenches were all
pouhded in and most of our dugouts
"e,e MED up. Then Fritz opened up
'u MS artillery fire right on us. We
."ousn' they were going to charge and
~ nsured their barrage would lift
~ We could see them come over.
a-"e received orders to stand to with
na., oa!ohets. Then the man at the
'',''cope shouted, "They comet"
-. "a battery directly behind us went
~ "'" actlon first ard then they all
ohs". ea III and inside Of five minutes
rs,. elslt hundred guns were raising
cona, WIN Fritz. The Boches were
an. e"t square in No Mans Land and
m",- rlI'eS and machine guns simply
coma mem down. Many of them
th0,. n'''f way across, then dropped
70 guns and ran for our trenches
b,va e"e themselves up. They could no,
u so' Oack to their own trenches
tbos. ""S shame to waste shell or
Woe ~ poo' hSh. If they had been civ
Atnon Wv raw would prevent you from
Th@n 'hrm-you know the kind
along. '''olS drag themselves
h,v" '"' IS The way they look when yor
cot ven e"' mem. But when they have
there sJ,u-R'ckS, !, cuffs, bayonet labs
add - . nothing they will not Go tt
think :, sour misery. They seem tt
An An 'lat il boosts their own courage
fun fo 'i'ery fire like ours was grea
much e.. Ine gunners, but it was no
treDcbas Ior Fritz or for us In tn,
as mnos we got under cover almos
NE ,n cn. as Fritz and held thumbs fo
Then h,'FS ~ to get through in a hurry
50 ouio. ie IRE died down and it wa
We ~ made you jump.
Op a"St "oGSht our parapet was buste,
hroup5l,, 5,Vu =, Zeal, but when we locke,
had han,uie uie periscope we saw wha
&eye 're"ea TO Fritz trenches and
VI Naed me- they were practicall
"iolvo,.n.,o no Mans Land it looked lik
DS hve-and-ten: evsrywher