The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-09-10

kIOunu 4 WOuiu not nave any petter
chance IL / crawled.
l tripped several times and went
down, and each time thought / was
hit. because when l got II In the thigh
at Dixmude IL felt a good deal as
though I had tripped over a rope.
And one time when | fell a shell ex-
ploded near me and I began to shiver
again, and I could not go on for a
long time. All this time l did not
think l would get through, but finally,
when l reached what had been the
communication trench / felt / had
done the worst part of 1t, and I began
to wish very hard that I would get
through was not at all crazy about
going west
The mouth of the communication
trench had been battered in and the
trenches IL Joined with were all filed
up. There were rifles sticking out
OF them In several places, and !
thought probably the men had been
buried alive In them. But 1t was too
late then, If they had been caught, so
/ climbed over the blocked entrance to
the communication trench and started
back along 1t. 1t led up through a sort
of gully, and / thought 1t was a bad
place to dig a communication trench
In, because Ii gave the Turks some
thing like the side of a hill to shoot at.
Every once In a while l would have
and parts of them were blocked where
a shell had caved In the walls. In one
place / saw corpses all torn to pieces,
so / knew the Turks had found the
range and had got to this trench in
great shape. At another place / found
lots of blood and equipment but no
bodies, and / figured that reinforce
ments had been caught at this spot
and that they had retired, taking their
casualties with them.
The Turks still had the range, and
they were sending a shell into the
trench every once In a while, and |
was Knocked down again, though the
shell was so far away that IL knocked
me down with force of habit more
than anything else. / felt dizzy and
shivered a lot, and kept trying to think
of Murray or anything else but myself.
So finally / got to the top of the
little hill over which the gully ran,
and on the other side / felt almost
safe. just down from the crest of the
hill was one of our artillery positions,
with the good old '75s' giving it to the
Turks as fast as they could. / told
the artillery officers what had hap
pened, had a drink of water and
thought | would take a nap. But when
they telephoned the message back to
division headquarters the man at the
receiver said something to the officer
and he told me TO stay there and be
ready. l thought sure he would SEND
me back to where l came from and
/ knew / never could make it again,
but / did not say anything.
When / looked around / saw that
our real position was to the right of
where the artillery was. and that there
were three lines of trenches with
French infantry In them. So the
trenches / had come from were more
like outposts than anything else, and
were cut off. / felt pretty sure, then,
/ ina tAc uOJS III Iitln WOulu uefGT
come back alive, because as soon as
their fire let up the Turks would adj
vance, and to keep them back our guns
would have to wipe out our men, and
IL they did not, the Turks would. AT
first l was glad / had come out, but
then remembered what the artillery
officer had said and 1 figured I would
have to go back and stay with them
or bring them back. Either way there
was not one chance in a hundred that
any of us would make 1t. Because
when l got through 1t was really just
a miracle and nobody would have
thought it could happen.
Then the officer told me to go back
to the beach, where our naval guns
were. and that / was detailed to them.
Maybe you do not think / was glad7
But there was rough work still ahead
of me, because when l got behind the
third line I saw a wide open field that
was light gray from the shell smoke
hanging over 1t. and / could see the
flashes where the big mes were doing
their work, and / had to go through
tnAI uelQ.
1 fell time and again. sometimes
when l thought a shell was near. and
sometimes when / had no reason for
it-only l was thirsty again. and was
shivering all the time, and was so
weak I could not have choked a gold
fish. / do not remember hardly any
thing about going through that field.
and you might say the next thing l
knew was when / was overtaken by
a dispatch runner. and got In a tin
tub at the side of a motorcycle and
was taken to the guns.
1 felt ready for a Rip Van Wrinkle
nap then. but the officer In command
would not let me. He said they were
short of gunners-the terrific Smelling
had killed off dozens of them-and as