The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1918-06-27

our cdptAIh- lie salu We we're at WAT
with Belgium. He told us TO show
ourselves brave. deserve the iron cross
and bring honor TO Germany. Then he
continued:
ave only make war against the
armed force, the Belgian army. Life
and property OF civilians are protected
under international law. Yet you sol
dicrs must not forget to keep your
lives for the fatherland or sell them as
dearly as possible. Unnecessary she'd
ding OF blood we will pzDhibit TO the
civilian population. Yet ! ask you to
consider that too much consideration
borders on cowardice and that will be
punished very severely
After this speech of our captain we
were loaded on our autos and AT e..
III. crossed the border into Belgium
casion we were ordered TO give three
cheers On the speedy autos we
reached our goal at 10 a. m. II WAS a
beautiful little rural village. Inhabi-
tnnts Of the villages we had passed
looked at US In asfonishment. SO that
we all got the impression that these
country people never knew why We
came to Belgium. They were fright
ened out of their sleep and looked out
at us from their windows.
As we halted and left our autos. the
farmers came out and offered us cof-
fee. bread. meat. etc. We were still
without n 6eld kitchen. so that We en-
soyed the enemy's offerings more so
since those of the better class of vii
layers refused any pay. They told US
the Belgian soldiers had departed to
some unknown destination.
After n short rest we marched on.
The autos returned. Hardly had we
marched an hour when we were over
taken by cavalry. Dragons and hus-
sars. who reported that the Germans
were marching all over the neighbor-
hood on all roads. Right behind came
the bicycle corps.
This was comforting. We no longer
felt alone. isolated In strange coun-
try. Another bicycle division over
took us and passed on. Angry words
were now uttered by members OF our
company. The others could ride but
taken for granted suddenly became
great Injustice. II Il did no good our
grumbling Mt least was diversion
from the weight OF our packs
The heat was oppressive. The sweat
came from all pores The new and
sim leather trapnin@s rubbed us sore.
especially upon our hips. II was a re-
lief nj 2 p. m. to halt at an abandoned
farm and rest on the grass. We
utes when suddenly we heard firing.
We Jumped up like lightning and hur-
ried TO our guns. The firing which
WAS about three kIlometers away grew
more lively. At once we were on the
march again.
From the expressions on the faces
Of the soldiers we could read the minds
Of the men. Something took possess
sion Of them which they had never ex-
I'erienced before. As for myself l
became very restless. Fright and Curl
osity iashed my brain. Everything
whiried around In my head and my
heart was beating wildly. But strove
to conceal my fright from my COM
rades. l am SURE that tried cnergeti-
cally. ] don't know that l succeeded
ha''s- than my compa.ions.
Although i knew we wouid pe In
the fight In an hour. 1 tried TO per-
suade myself that our interference
would not be necessary. / clung tight
ly " everything which might strength
en- this hope.
The bicycles lying In the road lndi-
Gated that the bicycle division was in
the fight at this point. How strong
the enemy was we did not know as we
raced toward the firing line. Every
body crouched down as low as possi-
Bile while jumping to the right and
were flying continuously. yet we
reached the firing line without losses.
We were greeted joyously by our hard
pressed comrades. The bicycle rcgi-
ment had not suffered any losses ex-
cept for few slightly wounded men
who were still able to take part In the
fight.
We were lying fat on the ground
and firing In the direction ordered for
all we were worth. even though we
had not seen our enemies. That was
apparently not interesting enough to
some OF our soldiers. They wanted
to know how the people were locking
whom they had to shoot At. They got
up TO n knecling position. Two men of
my company had to pay for their curl
osity with their lives almost Instantly.
Tho hrst victim OF our party went
down without a sound. The second
threw his arms high In the air and fell
on his back. Both were dead In.