The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-07-11

trencn soldiers who fell i'll the hrSt
battle of the Marine. Occasionally
from some point in the lines would
come the strains of a familiar tune.
At one time thousands of voices
were making the valley ring with MY
Country, 'Tis of Thee" At a small
village l saw a half dozen lads in
charge of a sergeant. One of them
had fallen and s%prained his knee. The
others were sick. One officer had d.
rected that they be billeted and left
behind. The boys were protesting, two
of them with tears in their eyes The
chap with the sprained knee endeav-
ored to show how good he could walk.
The knee gave way and he collapsed.
Another lad who weakening was re-
lieved of his load by a comrade, while
another took him by the arm and as
sisted him up a hill. A lieutenant
stopped them and inquired as to the
trouble. The soldier explained that he
had been on detailed service. had
missed the training and was soft.
He insisted there was nothing the mat
ter with him and was left in the ranks.
The spirit of the boys was wonder.
full. They knew they were approach
ing the line and were eager to reach
their destination. They did not know,
however, the glory that awaited them,
for they were to strike the enemy at
the point nearest Paris he had reached
and hurl him back across the historic
Marine.
The next day | was with some of
the Iowa troops just out of the
trenches resting and some of them
convalescing. There were two dozen
of them, among them Carl Marshall,
son Of Policeman George NJ. Marshali
of Des Moines, and Pat Ryan. the
newsy whose station was ~ Olsen's
corner, Sixth avenue and Locust
street.
Another boy present was Clarence
Johnson, whose parents live at 1926
Sixth avenue, Council Bluffs. These
boys had recently been in a raid and
they We're only slightly damaged.
Young Marshall had a thrilling expert
ence. With another Iowa boy of the
same name, Russell Marshall, not a
relative, he was in a listening post in
No Mans Land. Suddenly the Ger
mans, $50 feet away, attacked. A
grenade killed Russell Marshall,
knocked Carts helmet off and the
boches were on him. Backward he
went toward the United States
trenches. In warding off a blow from
a rife he suffered a severe bruise of
the left hand. The boche who gave
it was shot through the heart by Carl's
buddy from the trench. There were
fifty of the Germans. Twenty of them
got into our trench, not n of whom
left it. The rest were driven back,
One of them hung over the barbed
wire and five more stretched their
length in No Mans Land. Four Of our
boys were killed, two severely wound
ed and several slightly wounded.
One of the chaps, whose name I
have forgotten, was a brakeman and
run with Conductor Finnegan on the
train between Des Moines and Spirit
Lake. He knew me, and everybody
else who made the lake trains during
the summer months.
| gave them late news from home.
When l told them the results of the
city election young Marshall exclaim-
ed: "Hurrah for Mayor Tom Fair
weather." Then we gossiped about
home news and home folk like a pack
Of old women. Occasionally l would
call them back to their experiences
on the battle line, but they would soon
break away and come back to the
home folk. Did l know So and So.
and how was he. ETC.? They told me
how Gerald Rogers, another Iowa boy,
was shot through the leg, and how
he supported himself on one leg, lean.
ed against the side of the trench and
shot four Germans with his revolver.
THE raids are just like a gang
fight" said Marshall, land the rockets
that light up No Mans Land at night
remind me of the fireworks at River
view park" Marshall knows the Wor-
cester brothers of Des Moines. He re.
ferred feelingly to the death of Cap
tain McHenry.
A few weeks ago two Germans were
caught in a corner of No Mans Land.
They held up their hands anC shouted
"Kamerad." Four of our boys went