Evening star., 1918-08-15
Captain Up a Tree.

So Capt. Bradley found a tall tree
on the slopes of 2O4 which over
looked the German line and the places
where the German guns might De.
Being a tall tree, it was under sus-
picion by the boche. and naturally
under shellfire. Bradley ran twenty
four telephone wires from that tree
to various positions. so that II one
wire was cut others would still be
working Then he climbed the tree
and began to telephone.
He began yesterday morning at
daybreak. His guns were placed over
a spread of perhaps fifteen kilometers
of land. So were the German guns.
If he had concentrated his fire upon
a single area the boche would have
known that an attack on that area
was planned ard would have pre-
pared for it. He arranged to- fool
them. He spotted their batteries all
along the line
"Bingw shell would go on a boche
battery at one end of the spread.
and Bang" shell would go on an
other in the middle. and SO at the
other end There was no concentra-
tion all day long. but the guns work
= ed with a concentrated energy and
purpose just the same. Bradley sat
there with a glass at his eyes and the
telephone head dress strapped on and
told the Runners how to shoot.
OF course. he was under she'll fire.
Once his iron hat was knocked on
and dented Once the tree was hit.
Once. all his wires were cut. but he
had a gang of the bravest of the
brave-telephone linesmen-on the
Job. They kept running the wires all
day. The moment an "out" was re-
ported that moment they traced the
bad wire down until the break was
found
BY and by the Hun was up in the
air. Shells kept dropping with
miraculous accuracy on his best con-
cealed positions. If they had dropped
all the time on single position.
for him to spot the o. P. in which
Bradley sat. But they were smeared
all over the landscape The boche got
sulky and went to his holes and sat
there He did not even pretend to
work his guns. One could ride around
back of the American lines in sense
of security. .-' ---- -
When the Guns Began.
At o'clock our guns warmed up
thank you, and Knocking 'em for a
COOL" as the doughboys say. Con-
centration really started on the area
back of Vaux and the Bois de Ia
Marette. Over at the northeast was
the wood of ROCKETS. which must
naturally be full of boche- It was
filled with gas Destructive fire be-
Vaux is a mighty>pretty little town
vaux was mighty pretty little town
I have seen the picture postcards
which Germans thoughtfully allowed
themselves to carry when they were
captured. 1t is smashed. There is
very little left of Vaux.
At o'clock-"H hour"-the fun
started. An American barrage was
dropped on the ground in front of
the American trenches. Then it was
moved forward, smashing any Ger
man machine gunners and guns that
might be found there. The dough-
boys marched behind the barrage.
They marched into Vaux with hardly
q casualty. There was not fight in
vaux. Not even one puny little scrap.
The few Germans left there came out
with their hands up and begged to be
taken in.
1T was funny" said a dispatch
rider. IT was back with the first
bunch of boche we caught. and every
time some fresh ones would be
brought in they'd laugh and holler
at them"
Shells fell on the ranks, Of course
But not enough to really hurt Brad