Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1918-06-14
I @i97 81 |
IAR1huR GuY EriEy

fresh for prisoner. After while he
winked at me and winked back, then
the escort came to take the prisoners
to the rear. shook hands and wished
him. 'The best of luck and safe jour-
ney to Blighty."
liked that prisoner, he was q fine
fellow, had an Iron Cross, too. I ad-
vised him to keep it out of sight, or
some Tommy would be sending 1t home
to his cir! in Blighty as a souvenir.
One dark and rainy night while on
guard we were looking over the top
from the fire step Of our front.llne
trench, when we heard a noise imme-
diately in front Of our barbed wire.
The sentry next to me challenged,
Halt, who comes thereT' and brought
his rifle to the aim. His challenge was
answered in German. A captain in the
next traverse climbed upon the sand
bagged parapet to investigated brave
but foolhardy deed-"Crack" went a
bullet and he tumbled back into the
trench with hole through his stomach
and died few minutes later. A lance
ragged at the captains death that he
.hucked Mills bomb in the direction
Of the noise with the shouted warning
to us: Duck your nappers, my lucky
lads" A sharp dynamite report, flare
in front of us, and then silence.
We Immediately sent up two star
shells, and in their light could see two
dark forms lying on the ground close
to our wire. A sergeant and four
stretcher-bearers went out in front and
soon returned, carrying two limp
bodies. Down in the dugout, in the
pickering light of three candles, we
saw that they were two German off,
GERS, one a captain and the other an
'unteroffizier," rank one grade higher
than a sergeant general, but below the
grade Of lieutenant.
The captains face had been almost
completely torn away by the bombs
explosion. The unterofflzier was alive,
breathing with difficulty. In few min
utes he opened his eyes and blinked in
the glare of the candles.
|. The pair had evidently been drink
ing heavily, for the alcohol fumes were
sickening and completely pervaded the
dugout. turned away in disgust,
hating to see man cross the Great d.
vide full Of booze.
One of our officers could speak Ger
man and he questioned the dying man.
In faint voice, interrupted by fire.
quent hiccoughs, the unteroffizier told
his story.
There had been drinking bout
among the officers in one of the Ger
man dugouts, the main beverage being
champagne. With a drunken leer he
Informed us that champagne was plen-
tiful on their side and that it did not
cost them anything either. About seven
that night the conversation had turned
to the contemplate" English, and the
captain had made wager that he
would hang his cap on the English
barbed wire to show his contempt for
the English sentries. The wager was
accepted. At eight o'clock the captain
and he had crept out into No Mans
Land to carry out this wager.
They had gotten about halfway
across when the drink took effect and
the captain fell asleep. After about
two hours Of vain attempts the unter-
offizier had at last succeeded in wax
ing the captain. reminded him Of his
bet, and warned him that he would be
the laughing stock of the officers mess
If he did not accomplish his object, but
the captain was trembling all over and |
insisted on returning to the German
lines. In the darkness they lost their |
bearings and crawled toward the Eng |
lish trenches. They reached the barbed |
wire and were suddenly challenged by |
our sentry. Being too drunk to realize |
that the challenge was in English, the |
captain refused to crawl back. Finally |
the unteroffizier convinced his superior |
that they were in front of the English |
wire. Realizing this too late; the cap
tain drew his revolver and with NUT
tered curse fired blindly toward our
trench. His bullet no doubt killed our
captain.
Then the bomb came over and there
he was. dying-and good job too, we
thought. The captain dead? Well, his
men wouldn't weep at the news.
Without giving US any further infor-
nation the unteroffizier died.
We searched the bodies for identid-
cation disks but they had left every
thing behind before starting on their
errand.
Next afternoon we buried them in
our little cemetery apart from the
graves Of the TONNES. II you ever
20 into that cemetery you will see two
little wooden crosses In the corner of
the cemetery set away from the rest
They read:
Captain
German Army
Died - 1916
Unknown
r. l. p.
Unteroffizier
|