Jackson County journal. (Sylva, N.C.) 19??-19??, 1918-12-20

Sion. One after another of OUR boys
was slipping to the ground and digging
his fists into his ears, and the rest of i
them sat on the parapet fire step with
their heads between their knees and
their arms wrapped around their
heads.
Our sergeant came to me after q
while and began acting just like
people do at show, only he shouted
instead of whispered in my ear. When
people are looking at one show they
always want to tell you how good some
other show is, and that was the way
with the sergeant.
"You should see what they did to
us at st. Eloi," he said. '"They just |
baptized us with the big fellows. They |
did not know when to stop. When you |
see Smelling that is Smelling, you will
know it, my son.
"Well, if this is not Smelling, what |
the devil is it? Are they trying to
kid us or are you, mon vieux?" which
is a French expression that means
something like "old timer
"My son, when you see dugouts
caved in, roads pushed all over the
map, guns wrecked, bodies twisted up
in knots and forty men killed by one
shell-then you will know you are
seeing shelling."
| Then one of our. men sat up straight
against the parapet and stared at us
and began to shake all over, but we
could not get him to say anything or
move. So we knew he had shell shock.
And another man watched him for
while, and then he began to shake,
too. The sergeant said that if we
stayed there much longer we would
not be fit to repel an attack, so he
ordered us into the two dugouts we
had made in the hole, and only himself
and another man stayed outside on
watch.
The men in the dugout kept asking
each other when the bOmbardment
would end, and why we were not rein
forced, and what was happening, and
whether the Turks wOcld attack us. 1t
| was easy to see why we were not rein
fOrced-nO body of men could have
got to us from the reserve trenches.
| The communication trenches were
!. quite a distance from us and were
J battered up at that. Some of the men
2 said we had been forgotten and that
5 the rest of our troops had either re-
E tired or advanced and that we and
r the men in the trench who had tried
to signal us were the only detachments
E left there.
e Pretty soon another man and ]
t relieved the two men who were out.
e side on watch, and as he went down
S into the dug00t the sergeant shouted
t to us that he thought the Turks were
q afraid to attack. He also ordered one
!, of us to keep live eye toward oul
e rear in case any of our troops should
S try to signal us. When I looked
:. through a little gully at the top o.
It the hole, toward the other trench, al
d I could see was barbed wire ant
d smoke and two or three corpses.
!" began to SILVER a little, and I wa
l. afraid I would get shell shock, toe
e, So began to think about Murray an,
IS how he looked when they took hin
II off the wall. But that did not stop tn
shivering, so thought about my grand
r mother and how she looked the las
d time saw her. I was thinking abou
10 her, guess, and not keeping a yer
,e good lookout, when a man rolled owe
le the edge and almost fell on me. II
ID was from the other trenches. carrie
ee him into the dugout and then went on
1 again and stood my watch until tn
relief came. We were doing half-hou
in shifts.
al When I got into the dugout agai
it the man was coming to. He was jus
Id about as near shell shock as I ha
he been-by this time I was shiverin
he only once in a while, when I did NJ
lie watch myself. He said four men ha
Nv been sliced up trying to get to us b.
Vi fore he came; that they had 10.
he IL men out of their 81, including tt
as sergeant-major in command and tw
d. corporals; that they were. almost Of
ed of ammunition; that the trenches {
both sides of them had been blown
no and that they were likely to go
or pieces at any moment. He said the
nd all thought the Turks would attat
behind their barrage, for he said tt
y, curtain of fire did not extend mo
" than hundred yards in front of the
trench. What they wanted us to (
was to relay man back with tt
news and either get the word to a
vance or retire or await reinforc
ments, they did not care which-on
to be ordered to do something. The
Il was not a commissioned officer le
81 with either of the detachments, y
Al see, and you might say we were !
n in the air-on1y we were really as
I'll in the ground as we could get.
The man thought there were 9th
of our lines not far behind US, but '
knew better; so then he said he d
not see how any one could get ba
from there to our nearest lines.
did not see either. Then we all
8 ured we were forgotten and would +
= come out Of there alive, and you c
y believe me or not, but I did not mu