Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume] (Roanoke Rapids, N.C.) 1914-192?, 1918-07-05

hlJ rife to the aim. His challenge wa
answered In German. captain In tn,
next traverse climbed upon the sand
bagged pnrapet to investigated brav'
but foOlhurdy deed-"Crack" went |
bullet md he tumbled back into thu
trench with hole through his stomach
and died few minutes later, A lance
corporal In the next platoon was so en-
ragged at the captains death that HI
chucked Mills bomb In the direction
Of the noise with the shouted warning
to us: Duck your nappers, my lucky
lads" A sharp dynamite report, a flare
In front Of us, and then silence.
We Immediately sent up two star
shells, and in their light could see two
dark forms lying on the ground close
to our wire. A sergeant and four
stretcher'bearers went ont In front and
soon returned, carrying two limp
bodies. Down In the dugout, In the
| Pickering light OF three candles, we
saw that they were two German off,
GERS one a captain and the other an
"unterof'lzier," n rank one grade higher
than sergeant general, but below the
grade of lieutenant.
The captains face had been almost
completely torn away by the bombs
| nNUlpginn Tn, pptApnHiB all
breathing with difficulty. In few min.
uteS he opened bis eyes and bllnked In
the glare Of the enndlcs.
The pair had evidently been drink
ng heavily, for the alcohol fumes were
( SIckpnIng and completely pervaded the
dugout. turned away in disgust,
hating 10 SEQ man cross the Great d.
vide full Of booze
One Of our officers could speak Ger
man and he questioned the dying man.
In a faint voice, Interrupted by fire..
! quent hIecoughS, the unterofizler told
his story
There had been drinking bout
among the officers In one Of the Ger.
man dng0utS, the main beverage being
| champagne With n drunken leer he
Informed Us that champagne was plen.
tlfuI on their side and that II did not
cost them anything either About seven
that night the conversation had turned
10 the contemplate English. and the
captain had made Il wager that he
would hang his cup on the English
harhed wire TO show his contempt for
the English SentrleS. The wager was
accepted Al eight o'clock the captain
and he haI crept out into No Mans
Land TO carry out this wager.
They had gotten about halfway
across when the drink took effect and
the captain fell asleep. After about
two hours Of vain attempts the unter.
otiizler had AZ last succeeded In wax
ing the captain. reminded him Of his
bet and warned him that he would be
the laughing stock OF the officers mess
II he did not accomplish his object, but
the captain was trembling all over and
Insisted on returning 10 the German
lines. In the darkness they lost their
bearings and crawled toward the Eng.
llsh trenches. They reached the bafbed
wire and were suddenly challenged by
our sentry Being too drunk to realize
that the challenge was In English. the
captain refused to crawl back. Finally
the unterotli2ler convinced his superior
that they were In front Of the English
wire. Realizing this too late, the car.
tain drew his revolver and with NUT
tered curse fired blndly toward our
trench His bullet no doubt killed our
captain
Then the bomb came over and there
he was, dying and good job too, we
The captain dead? Well, his
men wouldn't weep at the news.
Without giving us any further infor.
nation the unterohzler died.
We searched the bodies for ldentlf.
cation disks hut they had left every.
thing behind before starting on their
foo.harly GRAND.
Next afternoon we buried them In
our little cemetery apart from the
graves Of the Tommies. II you ever
90 into that cemetery you will see two
little wooden crosses In the corner OF
he cemetery set away from the rest.
They read
Captain
German Army
Died - 1915
Unknown
X. |. p.
UnterOfiizier
German Army
Died - 1915
Unknown
X. |. p.