Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1918-09-20

! der 'Poar Ia Merite." but of the sol
} diers he never had 4 thought
They had not seen a bed for months
They were never given chance to re
move their clothing.
They received only shells and steel
and were almost eaten up by vermIn
They were covered with lice. There
was scarcely enough water for drink
Ing purposes, to say nothing OK water
for washing their clothes.
Our hair and boards were long and
rest the lice would not let us sleep.
While we were In the trenches the bull
let's did not do much dam we but daily
men were killed by indlicct fire. Tho
thousands which whixzed through tho
air every minute flew over our heads.
They struck trees or branches and
glanced OF. striking the men In the
trenches. Failing to pierce their OBJ
ject directly they tore terrible gaping
wounds as they entered the mems
bodies sideways. Whenever we heard
charges concerning dum-dum bullets,
we thought of these cross-shots. al
though we never doubted the existence
of the dum-dums.
whether or not dum-dum bullets
were made In the munitions factories
cannot say. suspect they were. How
ever. did see many dum-dum bullets
made by the soldiers themselves. The
points were filed of from German mus
ket shells so that the nickel covering |
was perforated. barring the lead filling. |
The bullet fiattened when 1t struck |
its object. If. for Instance. IL entered |
a mans arm, the explosive charge In II
would so shatter the arm as to blow II |
or and leave 1t hanging by the
skin.
German soldiers were frequently
seen supplying themselves with dunn
dunn bullets In the trenches, preparing
to infict terrible wounds.
On January 8. 1915, the Germans at
tackled on their entire front OF the Ar
gonne forest sector and several hun
lred prisoners were taken. The hand
.o-hand fight continued until six O'Clock
u the evening.
ourselves In u bit Of trench held by
tight Frenchmen. 1t was impossible to
'etire so we acceptedlthe unequal fight.
Fortunately we were well supplied
With hand grenadcs.
We cut the fuses short so that they ,
would explode as quickly as possible.
threw one among the eight soldiers.
Before the men could get out of the
WY of tho FIRST. the second one fol-
owed. which exploded In their midst.
We took advantage of ,he confusion
hus created to hurl five more. Our
nemies were now reduced 10 four men.
We opened fire with our muskets. clos
az in on the four. Their bullets
'hixzed around our heads. One man
'as shot In the mouth. That left three. :
hey turned and tried to fee. :
In such moments as these one Is In a
rcat rage and forgets danger entirely.
We were very close to our enemies G
ow, right on their heels when the last
an stumbled and fell. !
l sprang on top OF him. He defend
] himself with his fists. My comrade ;
ent after the other two. Bleeding at /
10 mouth. this man fought on. After
had knocked several of his teeth out &
, raised HIS hands and surrendered. {,
released him from my grip and a
oked him over carefully. He was h
'out tbirty-five years Old. He showed b.
Q his wedding rins and talked to me. b.
knew what he wanted. he wanted his dl
q.
He gave me his canteen that might be
Ink some wine and wept. Perhaps h.
thought of his wife and children. CO
essed his hand and he showed me 81
! bleeding teeth. l called him a fool &c
d told him no was lucky to have got &c
l away with the loss OF only few tn
liars. / was glad l had not killed
n. | took him back myself. In order 90
protect him against being mlsused. IN
/ delivered him over TO where the IN
soners were being assembled, he or
,ssed my hand and smiled. ne