Western Kansas world., 1918-08-22
CHAPTER ~.

CHAPTER ~.
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The scene of the slaughter could
now be surveyed at leisure. Dead and
wounded were strewn all around, and
over them clouds of smoke and flames
made the air thick. But we were al
ready too hardened to feel much pity.
Humanity was thrown to the winds
and the cries and begging of the
wounded left everybody cold.
Some Catholic sisters lay dead In
front Of their convent. The only build
ing that was spared In Donchery was
the armory Of the Twenty-third French
Dragons.
There was not much time In which
to do anything, for at seven O'Clock
the French began to hurl shells Into
the village. We fortified ourselves be-
hind a thick garden wall directly In
front Of the Meuse. The river bank
at this point was fiat, but on the oppo-
site side 1t was steep. Here the French
infantry had dug itself in and estab-
lished three lines, one above the other.
The artillery firing was too far. We
did not come within its range, so that
we were able to observe the effect of
the shelling Of our own artillery on the
enemy infantry positions before us.
The 21-centimeter shells raced by
above our heads and burst with fear
full noise In the enemy's trenches.
The French could not resist this hail
of shot very long. They soon aban-
doned all the heights on the river
bank They abandoned Soudan with
out fight and it was left intact, which
had not been the case with Donchery.
ho
When the bugles sounded in Don
cherry, 1t was discovered that our COM
pany had lost 3S men in battle. A po-
sition was taken behind the dragoon
armory and our company, which now
was reduced to 80 men. was ordered
to attempt the building of pontoon
bridge over the Meuse. After we had
been REINFORCED by SO men. we
marched in small detachments in or
der not to draw the enemy's attention
to us. After an hours march we
stopped in small forest about 200
meters from the Meuse to rest until
darkness set in. At twilight division
bridge train was driven up close to
our hiding place. This was soon fol-
lowed by a corps bridge train as re-
serve. After all preparations were
made and the main advance work,
such as setting up the bridge stays and
landing platforms, were ready, the
single pontoon wagons drove up They
were speedily but silently unloaded.
We completed four pontoons. that is,
20 meters of bridge, without the enemy
discovering anything.
Then suddenly the searchlight of
the enemy was set I'm action and
scanned the river. We dropped to the
ground at once. The enemy must have
seen us. for the searchlights played
here and there and kept our bridge
position under continuous glare We
were discovered hardly before we
knew what had happened. and rain
of IRE fell In the water In front OF
us. We continued to lie fiat on the
ground as four more shots struck the
water, this time. little nearer to the
bridge and one shot hit the bank. At
once a third rain of shot followed and
two struck the bridge Two men fell
| In the water and two lay dead on the
bridge. Those In the water SWAIN
ashore and escaped none the worse for
their experience except for bath
In spite of the continued volume Of
artillery fire, we brought the two dead
men to land. The bridge was now
greatly damaged and there was no
choice except to replace the damaged
| pontoons by new ones We began this
difficult task as soon as the artillery
| IRE let up. Hardly had we begun II
again when a salvo struck and greatly
| damaged the bridge Fortunately we
had no losses. We were now ordered
| to retire. and after a half hour begin
anew. The enemy's searchlights were
| now dark. We brought about ten pom
\ toons up without interference and then
We were suddenly bombarded again.
| We had attracted the attention Of the
ensmy's patrol
Several batteries now opened nre on
| NJ af ONE time and after ten minutes
| the entire work was only = Pile Of
| wrecknge Two more men were killed.
The order now came to ref1ro. HaAt