Norwich bulletin., 1918-11-05

At s.s0 we jumped of with a line Of tanks in the lead. For two kiios l the four lines of marines were as straight as a die, and, their. advance over the open plain in the bright sum light was g. picture l shall never for get The fire got hotter and hotter, men fell, bullets sang, shells whizzed-
 banged and the dust of battle got thick. Oyerton (Lieutenant John W. 1 Overton of Nashville) was hit by .
 big piece of shell and fell. heard he was hit in the heart so his death was
 without pain, He was buried that
 night
 1 "A man near me was cut in two. Others when hit would stand, it seem ed, an hour. then faH in a heap yelled to Winner {Captain Pere Will ! in the barrage worked from right to !, left, then a rabbit ran ahead and I i watched him, wondering if he would get hit. Good rabbit---it took my mind of the carnage You think of all kinds 1 Of things.
 About sixty Germans jumped up l out of a trench and tried to surren- ter, but their machine guns opened up we fired back, they rans and our left company after them. That made a gap that had to be filled. so Sibley aGFanCe0 one or DlS to GO lnG JOu Then a shell hit machine gun crew of ours and cleaned it out completely At 16.3o we dug in--the attack just died out. I found a hole or old trench and when I was flat on my back I got some protection Holcomb was next me, Winner some way off. We then tried to get reports. Two companies we never could get in touch with. Lloyd .tMajor Egbeft I. Lloyd of Philadelphia came in and reported he was holding some trenches near a mill with six men. Gates uieutenant Cliff ton B, Gates of Tiptonvilie, Tenn.)
 with his trousers blown off, said he
 had Is men of various companies. Am
 other officer on the right reported he
 had and could see some 40 men, all
 told. That, with the headquarters, was all we could find out about the
 battalion of nearly 800. Of the 20 company officers who went in, three came out, and one, Gates, was slightly wounded
 From then on to about p. m life
 was a chance and mighty unconfort- able. It was hot as a furnace, TO water. and they had our rangh to a T. Three men lying in shallow i, trench near me were bleWn to bits
 q went to the left of the line and found eight wounded men in a ashell . hole We. thought they were killed
 but they we're not hit. You could hear men calling for help in the wheat fields Their cries would get weaker and weaker 1sta die out The German
 planes were thick in the air; they
 were in groups of from three to twen. ty. They would look us over ana then we wauld get pounding. One of our planes got shot down, he fel ] tO11 and hit in the field back of us. Int
 tank exploded and nothing was left. We had a machine gun officer witt i. us and q 3 Sunmef can Iip and rA lported that Sumner was killed Ht , commanded the machine gun company with Us. Hughes headquarters were Z all shot up, Turner (Captain Arthur !. H. Turner of Wilkesbarre, Pa.) lost { : leg.
 Well. we just lay there all through the hot afternoon. It was great-s
 shell would land near by and vol
 would bounce in your hole. As twi , light came we sent out water parties for the relief of the wounded. The1 | we wondered if we would get relieved . At g o'clock we got a message con : graduating us and saying the Algeri 4 ans would take over at midnight W, l 4 ' man who had been blinded wanted m
 to hold his hand. Another, wounde' o 1 in the back. wanted his head patted o and so it went: one man got up on hi hands and knees. 1 asked him wha 7, he wanted. He said: Look at the ful . moon and then fell dead. I had hin \, buried, and all the rest I could find . All the time bullets sung and W Il prayed that smelling would not star
 again while we had our wounded O 4 top.
 u "The Algerians came up at mid ,,i night and we pushed out. They wen ' over at daybreak and got all shot III :, We made the relief under Germa 't flares and the light from burnin . town. U U We are now back in a town ft some rest and to lick our wounds. A = I rode down the battalion where one ', companies 250 strong used to marcl : now you see 50 men with a kid sec I end lieutenant in command; one com " n pany commander is not yet 21.
 e 'gn the first fight, 1o3 of the men i n the company that 1 brought, over wei
 killed or wounded The second fgl -z must have about cleaned out the ol l., crowd.
 -e We advanced ten. kilometers, wit .s prisoners and guns, and the bells ran IF in New York for the victory, whi .d well dressed girls and white shirte IT -.