The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-12-28
Huns Take Advantage Of
Bright Moonlight to
Bomb and. Wreck
Many Towns
No Accounting for What Huns
|. Did. Churches Not Spared
Fiends Destroy
|. Civilians

point they did considerable damage.
Luneville did not escape either.
These two towns are railroad centers
where large number Of troops were
stationed.
Just about the time when q fellow
would snuggle down to catch a few
minutes sleep, the siren whistel would
sound, warning everyone within its
zone to take cover. Up we'd bounce
and scatter for cover, as much like
field mice running away from, dan
ger, only in this instance, we took
on the shape Of mysterious ehouls
darting about seeking whom we could
destroy. Never in my whole exper-
fence of life could / recall such
strange fancies that assailed me as
gliding from one cover to another
helping this man and that one to
elude the monsters above us.
All the old French section of Bac-
cara had been burnt by the retreat
ing Germans in 1915. l recall a
large Catholic Church. Beautiful in
its ancient architecture, inspiring to
all God fearing men even in those
days of cruel war, which did not es-
cape the fangs Of the air wasps. It's
spires were latticed with shot and
shell. Below, in the basement, where
shelter was given to many Of the
civilians during air raids, l have no
ticed both French and American
soldiers. At one time l sought ref
uge there myself.
The flooring in this basement was
covered with hay for the use Of the
poor women and children. We men,
made sure that these creatures were
provided for. The element of fire
risk in that basement was so great
in my mind, that was tempted to
risk the bombs outside. Both places
were dangerous.
On two occasions, / witnessed while
at Baccarat, fights in the air be-
tween French and German aviators.
To my intense satisfaction the. Ger
mans were brought to earth and out
of the running forever.
distinctly recall at this time, one
huge plane, pure white, evidently a
German ace, who had been curcling
Ger head. to get in range Of our OBJ
servation balloon. After some ma
neuvering, he finally succeeded.
Making a straight nose dive, he scat
tered tracer bullets and within dis
lance Of 5 kilometers (five-eights of
ia mile) got six Of our observatory
balloons, the pilots landing with par
achutes in safety. VI.
On September LIST, l was ordered
to take over a K. of c., but at Mon
tigny, which was a deserted French
village located q half mile from the
German front lines, on the road to
Strasburg, q distance Of IL miles
from my station. This city lies in the
Province Of Alsace. This is in the
Vosges sector and in full view Of the
Alsatian mountains. I had judge up
to this time that the Germans had
preponderance Of artillery.
A clever trick Of the French ar
tillery batteries was to use their IT,
SIS, firing as many as 100 shots at
some given point among the Germans
then swiftly changing their target
point, would swing their next batch
Of shots to another point, thus Gre
ating among the Huns the impression
that our artillery force was much lar
ger than it really was. The return
fire averaged ours however, and
more. To our every shot we received
five in return, They believed in Civ
ing US what they had, those Germans.
It was nothing very much out Of the
ordinary to have German shells burst
near to my hut say within thirty feet,
but then miss was as good as mile,
and you may believe me, thought
it a good miss and good mile.
At one time l. was billeted at
medical dugout and short distance
from this refuge, there was a station
used by the American forces for get
ting rid of the coolies. This station
may have been or may not have Been
popular among our boys, but it was
q popular site for the Huns in the
air, for every night or so there would
come shower of shots and bombs,
while we folks would be listening
from the point~where we had climb
ed to hear them wl1izz by. Some
music! ts
! To give you some idea just how
close these shots would clear our dug
out, / hays only 10 mention that TO-
stand upright would jeoparai your
head. Our dugout measured S0x76,