East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1918-12-12
TRoM CI.ARENCE BEAN.

tton OF a night at the front IN letter
to his parents who now reside at Ell
gin.
II have just come into the dressing
4 tent after disposlng OF an ambulance
load Of wounded. The night is dark,
pitch. dark. not star shining. IN
front / can occasionally see a ground
flare light against the sky as 1t lights
up no mans land. Far off to the
| right a flash goes up from a Fritzy
ammunition dump-they light UP the
sky sufficiently to read paper.
Jerry has been burning his dumps as
he retreats. Everything is quiet, now
and then can be heard the rattle from
a machine gun that shows that some
gunner is nervous as the boys hop
over the bags at day break. Then an
artillery plane buzzes overhead and
drops a signal battery of lis how
tiers turn loose salute and then
everything is quiet again.
THE quiet times are always the
worst, because you always know some
thing is going TO happen. Now and
then he drops a few gas shells into
our valley and L have to run out and
sound the alarm. Then everything
| Is quiet again until / call out gas all
clear and the sound of my own voice
scares me in the darkness The boom
of a gun the boys call the 'mistrous
/ is the next thing that arouses us-its
1 HIS gun and we listen until we hear
| whiz-z-z-crash! II has landed in
what is left of the village that is
couple of blocks away. 1t is not that
/ shell that interests US though, it's
| the next, because when the next one
lights up we can tell whether the
shells are falling shorter or goins
farther away.
Down the hill / can hear the am
bulance. its motor laboring heavily as
1t works its way around the shell
holes in the darkness. Then silence
again. II only our guns would keep
speaking or even his. anything but
the silence, 1t is uncanny.
I'm the morning. or rather this
morning-but a little later. though
there wiz be plenty of noise. 1 am
told by the lads who do the work
that they are going to put over big
ger barrage than they uid yesterday
morning, and that was some bar
rage. 1t was Just an hour before day.
break-everything was quiet--a lone
plane flew overhead and its machine
gun rang out rat-tat-tat-just three
shots Then a big naval gun over on
our left spoke, and then two shots
were fired together by naval guns on
our right. Then all at one time hell
turned loose I'm front of us. back of
us. and all around us The sky was
as light as day. and the earth shook
so that we could hardly stand. Talk-J
n VHq
yelled in one another's ears-the bar
rage was on.
Finally it grew day break the big
guns stopped and only the French
75s that our boys were shooting con-
tinued and we knew then that the
boys had hoped over the top. and
now, in an hours time, greater
barrage will start. Intermingled with
this and the ambulance pulls up-the
call of 'stretcher bearers is heard, and
cases are hurried into the dressing
rooms. The severe cases two tents
farther down the line; the doctors
and attendants silently hurry at their
tasks. and the slightly wounded are
taken to my tent Down the road
comes a stretcher supported on the
shoulders of four men-and others
are walking. So the night passes on
and daylight comes. The fires of
the cooks are seen and the smoke
starts up: an observation balloon
rises to take advantage of the clear
morning air. and so on until night
comes again. These are the things
we have been doing since we arrived
az this sector, and though it has its
disadvantages. it ms better than being
a stretcher bearer and going over
with the lads and moping up no
mans land.
Though I have seen a great many
destroyed towns in a great many
parts of France, l thought many OF
the stories of its desolation We're not
true: now | am prepared to believe
anything
"we had driven all night long in
our truck coming here through the
rain until finally we got stuck and at
day break we were awakened to
helm get our truck out of the mud.
I polled my head out and looked
around. | thought was dreaming
I rubed my ewes and looked again; no
Il was reality; as far as one could
see there was nothing but desolation
and ruin. Not n tree was standing;
not a blade of grass and even the
wire re-entanglements were ruined, and
shell holes-some were large enough
to put large houses in; others were
small: there was not an inch OF
ground that had not been turned
over by the shells. The sight was
terrible. II was no-man's land of the
day before.
Further on we arrived at a small
city. or what was small city, though
not a building stood. not single wall
stood not one stone of any building
stood upon the other. The town was
rnzed flat to the ground. and the en-
gineers were using the stone to build
roads.
"Reautirul France, sincerely
hope that it was onoe, or else these
Frenchmcn would have nothing to
fight for Whoever gets the battle
area as It is would be better off with
out it, As for the rest of France, 1
know nothing. , have never been
out Of the battle area. The harrage
IS open. can no longer write, SO
VIII go out and listen to the kind Of