Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1918-12-05

v.s s,ineane - the sreuad anA 6iRxiss
Ia Asts - Ma eaFs a.d ~ NJ 4
them sat = IT, uarapet Are step vith
thelr 49, Aafveea thelr ksees Ard
theIr srus vrnpued around tAeir
headsL
Our serreant came 10 No after q
while and began acting lust IKE
people do at q show, only he shouted
instead OF whispered In my ear. when
people are looking at o show they
always want to tell you how good some
other show O. and that was the way
with the sergeant.
you should zee what they did to
~ at St. Eloi." he said. "They Just
baptized Us with the big fellows. They
did not know when to stop. When you
see Smelling that 10 Smelling. you will
know Il, my SON."
swell, II this Is not Smelling. what
the devil II 1T Are they trying tO
kid US or are you. mon vicux?" which
Is a French expression that means
something like "old timer"
"Afy O n when you see dugouts
cayed In, roads pushed nil over the
man. guns wrecked, bodies twisted up
In knots and forty men killed by one
shell-then you will know you are
seeing shelling."
Then one of our men sat IN straight
against the parapet and stared ut us
and began to shake all over. but we
could not get him 70 saw ANYTHING or
move. So We knew he had shell shock.
And mother man watched him for a
while. and then he began to shake,
too. The sergeant said that II we
STAYED there much longer we would
not be fit to repel an attack, SO he
ordered US into the two dugouts we
had made In the hole, and only himself
and another man stayed outside on
watch.
The men in the dugout kept asking
each other when the b%ombardment
would end, and why We were not rein.
forced, and what was happening, and
whether the Turks would attack US. 1t
was easy to see why We we're not rein
forced-no body Of men could have
rot to US from the reserve trenches.
The communication trenches were
quite a distance from US and were
battered up at that. Some Of the men
said we had been forgotten and that
the rest Of our troops had either re-
tired or advanced and that we and
the men In the trench who had tried
to signal US were the only detachments
left there.
Pretty soon another man and I
relieved the two men who we're out
side on watch. and as he went down
into the dupout tho sergeant hon
to us that he thought the Turks were
afraid to attack. He also ordered one
of us to keep a live eve toward our
rear in case n Of our troops should
try to signal us. When I looked
through a little gully Mt the ton OF
the hole, toward The other trench. all
I could see was barbed wire and
smoke and two or three cornses
began to SILVER a little. and 7 was
afraid I would get shell shock too
So T began to think ahout Murray and
how he looked when thew tool, h;r
off the wall. But that did NOT ston the
shlyerinr. 50 I thought ahout nv grand
mother and how h looked the las,
!, time I saw her. I was thinking abou'
, her. I guess. and not keeninp a yer,
good lookout. when n man rolled owe,
), the edge and almost foil m mo. II,
was from the other trenches. 7 corrle,
him into the durout and then went q,
7 acatn and stood nv watch until m,
relief came. We were doing half.hou
, [shifts.
! When I rot into The ducont ami,
!. the man was .,omirp IN. 10 voc ius
= about as nesr shell shock as T In,
been-by this time 7 was sh,ver,n,
a only once in a while when 7 did M
= watch mvself. He snid four mon IN,
been sliced nm irving to pat 70 ns he
fore he came. that thev nod lbs
= II men ont ~ their % Including IN
y serreont.mo ,or IN command md tv
]cornorols. int thev wara almost on
= Of ammunition that Tho trenches ~
: both sIdes of them Ind heen hlo,yn !