The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1918-09-13

! dred yards. but what chances we must
take Through a rain of steel and
stones before we reached the quiet
section in German territory. Nobody
can tell how many miracles were per-
formed on this one battlefield. On all
-sides men were escaping death by the
! smallest space. Shells would whlz by
| so fast that the wind would blow the
! steel hats from our heads. At one
time my rifle was broken IN m! nanus
by piece of shrapnel; later tmy' gas
mask was destroyed by ouliet 1rohi'
a machine gun. 1t was there IN the
1 German territory / saw the nrst man
1 killed that had ever seen. A sneh
! hit close beside him and blew MIN In
/ to a million pieces. After that saw
/ several killed. 1t did seem odd 10
have man fall by youE side, 1t seem
ed as though that was the right thing.
After we passed the German barraee
hit seemed as though we were only out
for a short hike, but looking BACK
over the way we had come we could
! see the shells bursting and -men COM
ing through as we had come. AT last
! we came to what was left OF trench.
There was plenty Of German equip
ment around so ! asked my command
er how far we were from the Ger
= man lines. He answered thatswe were
4 there. had expected to see lew
7. Huns but they had left befdfW got
there. Just little farther On I came
to dead German, as leaned over 10
take his pistol and other things l
wanted, / saw his face. He was SO
very young. Only kid. l just
couldn't touch him. It seemed nara
world then that such a little boy
should die and he had mother some
where. On we kept going steadily
pushing the retreating Germans back:
Scattered on our way was all sorts OF
German equipment rifles, bayOnets,
packs and everything they had. A lit
6 tie past the dead boy we came upon
the Germans coming back, prisoners.
! Most of them were so glad to get cap
tured that they would throw up their
q hands with .'kamerad'' and start to-
q ward our rear. We would just laugh
4 and il DIE would 30 little slow we
{ would stick bayQnet just so he could
feel the steel, then he would move.
We didn't bother to take prisoners,
kent the steady walk forward, now
and then lying down to keep away
from the machine gun bullets. At lasi
we arrived at the Germans third
lines, It was the first real trenches
/ 7 had seen since leaving our own. Here
we rested for few minutes. Here
false l saw one of the saddest sights
IT saw. It was just boy about IL
Wears old, the average boy who runs
away. Early in the game he had been
/ hit through the stomach with piece
,of shrapnel He asked me for drink
and held my canteen to his lips. He
itook a few swallows then sank to the
ground. I thought he was dead but
few minutes later he jumped up and
shifting all the water from his mouth
with a lot of blood he, mumbled few
words so low could not hear then he
sank dead into the bottom of the
trench. I Strengthened him out as
hest l could in the shell fire then
climbed from the trench and was once
more after the Hun. All that day un'
til late in the afternoon we chased
them back. We had nothing to eat
and only small canteen OF water
At last we stopped for the night. tired
out with no rest in sight, hungry with
lno food, thirsty and no water. sleepy
and no chance to lie down. We had
| had no sleep for two days. The work
wasn't done, however long the night
before us and we must prepare for it
We started to dig our trenches, JUS
a couple of feet deep and couple
wide. Machine gun bullets flew sc
thick that part of the time we had
to lie flat on our stomachs to work
all the time under the red not sun o.
France. When l had my hole deeI
enough for protection l went out owe,
the field we had just passed ant
looked for guns and ammunition o.
anything 1 could find. We used thu
lGerman ammunition later to kill then
with. shooting them with their owl
shells There we're many Huns deaf
and wounded. One Hun nearly deaf
called me to him. He could talk lit
tie English. gave him the last o
nv water. He reached down into hi
pocket but | had my bayonet at hi
tchest ready for any false move. He Jus
shook his head weakly and tried t.
smile. then brought out his pocket
book 4 took II when he offered i
He told me to take what wanted