The Carlisle independent., 1918-10-17

~~f NN~ WAS concerned.
 He shouted at us that the men in the other trench were trying to signal something, but he could not make it out because the clouds of smoke would roll between them and break up the words. So he laid down again in the bottom Of the hole. But after while he looked over the parapet and saw man just leaving their trench. evil dently with a message for us, and he had nor gone five steps before he was blown tosTieces. and the lad who fol lowed him got his, too. so they stopped trying then.
 And all the time the "75s' were sending theirs to the Turks not far over our heads 10 900 yards behind us. and the howitzers were dropping their 240-pound bits of iron in every vacant. II was just one big roar and sereeeh and growl all at once, like turning the whole dog pound loose on a piece of meat.
 The concussions felt like one long string of boxes on the ear, and our threats were so dry that it hurt to swallow, which always makes your ears feel better after strong concus- sion. One after another of our boys was slipping to the ground and digging his fists into his ears, and the rest of them sat on the parapet fire step with hnf Eo+ their arms wrapped around their heads.
 Our sergeant came to me after & while and began acting just like people do at show, only he shouted instead of whispered in my ear. When people are looking at one show they always want to tell you how good some other show is. and that was the way with the sergeant.
 You should see what they did to us at St. Eloi'' he said. "They just baptized us with the big fellows. They did not know when to stop. When you see shelling that is sheIling, you will know it, my son.
 Well, if this is not smelling, what the devil is it? Are they trying to kid us or are you, mon vieuxT' which is 8 French expression that means something like "old timer"
 My son, when you see dugouts caved in, roads pushed all over the map. guns wrecked, bodies twisted up in knots and forty men killed by one shell-then you will know you are seeing shelling."
 Then one of our men sat up straight against the parapet and stared at us and began to shake all over, but we could not get him to say anything or move. So we knew he had shell shock. And another man watched him for too. The sergeant said that if we stayed there much longer we would not be fit to repel an attack, so he ordered us into the two dugouts we had made in the hole, and only himself and another man stayed outside on watch.
 The men in the dugout kept asking each other when the bombardment would end, and why we were not rein forced, and what was happening. and whether the Turks would attack us. IL was easy to see why we were not rein forced-no body of men could have got to us from the reserve trenches. The communication trenches were quite a distance from us and were battered up at that. Some of the men said we had been forgotten and that the rest of our troops had either re tired or advanced and that we and the men in the trench who had tried to signal us were the only attachments left there.
 Pretty soon another man and relieved the two men who were out side on watch, and as he went down into the dugout the sergeant shouted to US that he thought the Turks were afraid 10 attack. He also ordered one of us to keep a live eye toward our rear in case any of our troops should try to signal us. When I looked through a little gully at the top o1 : the hole. toward the other trench, all I could see was barbed wire ant smoke and two or three corpses. began to shiyer & little, and l was afraid I would get shell shock, too i So began to think aboCt Murray ant how he looked when they took hin : off the wall But that did not stop ths shirering, so thought about my grand ! mother and how she looked the Ias ! time l saw her. I was thinking abou her, guess, and not keeping a very good lookout. when man rolled oyel the edge and almost fell on me. H.
 was from the other trenches. carried him into the dugout and then went ou again and stood my watch until ths relief came. We were doing half-houl shifts.