The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1918-10-12

drawn back and forth on the track by
little Belgian engines.
After I had been at my gun for sew
eral days l was ordered back to my
regiment, which was again in the
frOnt-line trenches. My course was
past both the British and French lines
but quite a distance behind the front
lines.
Everywhere there were ambulances
and wagons going backward and for
ward. I met one French ambulance
that was a long wagon full of poilus
from a field hospital near the firing
line and was driven by man whose
left arm was bandaged to the Shout
der Two poilus who sat in the rear
on guard had each been wounded in
the leg and one had had big strip of
his scalp torn off. There was not
sound man in the bunch. You can
imagine what their cargo was like, if
the convoy was as used up as these
chaps. But all who could were sing
ing and talking and full Of pep. That
is the French for you: they used no
more men than they could possibly
spare to take care of the wounded, but
they were all cheerful about it
always.
Just after I passed this ambulance
the Germans began Smelling a section
of the road too near me to be comfort
able so I beat it to a shell crater
about twenty yards off the road, to the
rear. A shrapnel shell exploded pretty
hole-I did not look around to see how
close 1t was-and l remember now
how the old minstrel joke had heard
on board ship came to my mind at the
time-something about fellow feel
ing so small he climbed into a hole
and pulled it after HIM and wished
might do the same. l flattened my
self as close against the wall of the
crater as / could and then I noticed
that somebody had made dugout In
the other wall Of the crater and /
started for it.
The shells were exploding so fast
by that time that you could not listen
for each explosion separately, and just
as l jumped into the dugOut a regular
hail of shrapnel fell on the spot had
just passed. 1t was pretty dark in
the dugout and the first move / made
1 bumped into somebody else and he
let out yell that you could have
heard a mile. 1t was a Tommy who
had been wounded in the hand and
between curses he told me had sat
right on his wound when 1 moved.
asked him why he did not yell sooner,
but he only swore more. He surely
was a great cusser.
The bombardment slackened up a
bit about this time, and thought l
would have look around. l did not
get out of the crater entirely, but
moved around out of the dugout until
l could see the road l had been on.
The first thing saw was a broken
down wagon that had just been hit
in fact, it was topping over when my
eye caught 1t. The driver jumped
from his seat and while he was In the
air his head was torn completely from
his shoulders by another she'll do
not know what kind. This was enough
for me, so back to the dugout.
How the Germans did it do not
know, but they had found out about
that road and opened fire at exactly
the moment when the road was COW
cred with wagons and men. Yet there
had not been a balloon or airplane in
the sky for some time.
After a while the bombardment
moved away to the east, from which
direction / had come, and knew our
batteries were getting it. The Tommy
and 1 came out of the dugout. AS
started climbing up the muddy sides
saw there was a man standing at
the edge of it, and / could tell by his
puttees that he was a Limey. / was
having a hard job of it, so without
looking up I hailed him.
"That was sure some Smelling
wasn't it?" l said. "There's a LAD
down here with a wounded fin; better
give him a hand"
what Smelling do you mean," says
: the legs, without moving, "There's
been none in this sector for some
time, I think"
The Tommy was right at my hee
by this time, and he let out string
of language. was surprised, too, ant
still scrambling around in the mud.
Then the Tommy let "Gawd ell
us !" and I looked up and saw that the
legs belonged to Limey officer, 6
major, l think. And here we had beer
cussing the eyes off of him!
But he sized it up rightly and gave
us hand, and only laughed when we
tried to explain. / got ratified and
told him that all saw was his legs
! and that thpy did not lAoS like an Off