The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-08-22
YANkS BURY DEAD LEFT
Continued from Page y

rage and shell fire and hell fire. for
the guns must have their food-they
cannot be starved. So on they go ir-
respective of obstacles, cursing and
swearing, laying the lash to frightened
horses, giving little attention to the
reign of pandemonium.
Pushing through and around these
heavy ammunition wagons are the am
bulance motor trucks. The Claxon is
not used to warn ammunition drivers
to the side of the road, for the road
is theirs, all of it. Wounded men
must wait while the cannon is fed. So
the trucks watch for their chance and
slip by when opportunity affords.
Signposts are everywhere. Every
to make sure travellers have a right
on the roads and to regulate traffic.
Everywhere you see Mountaineering
soldiers wearing helmets, gas masks
ready for use, armed for immediate &C.
ton; men with pick and shovel; men
bathing in the streams; men playing
ball; men moving batteries, the great
wheels of the wagons trimmed with
caterpillar tracks; orderlies and mes
sengers, on foot, horseback and motor
cycle speeding on errands.
Bordering the roads are huts and
barracks and tents, hidden in the
woods when possible, camouhaged
when in The open. Here's a company
at mess. Other men are lounging UNI
der trees and behind entertainments.
Some of the villages are intact, others
seriously damaged. A few miles be.
hind the immediate front, often with
in the shelled area, peasants are har-
vesting their hay crop. Here chill
dren play about the streets Of the vii
lagos as if nothing unusual was liable
to happen. | saw a dozen of them in
v%estigating a hole in the ground six
feet deep, made by a shell from a long
distance gun. The shell had struck an
hour before.
We were crawling along the edge
of a wood in a Ford car when sudden
ly we heard the purr of an airplane
directly overhead. 1t came tluttering
over the tops of the trees like a
wounded bird. The driver was max
ing strenuous efforts to keep the noise
of the machine in the air and to send
it on and up, but finding this imposst-
Bile he undertook to land in the field
Just beyond, where he half fell, the
nose of his machine striking into a
soft bank. The propeller was demol-
ished. When within a few feet of the
ground the driver jumped, struck the
ground unframed and scudded for the
timber. We saw it was a French ma
chine, driven by an American. We
called to him in English. He turned
and came back, his face radiant. 81
thought | was landing across the Get-
man lines he explained, "and didn't
want to be captured" He was out OF
gasoline. He belonged to the sector
north Of us and had lost his way.
Just after arriving at the rest camp
that afternoon a squad of boys came
in from the front trench, a thousand
yards away, carrying a Lead German
on a stretcher and bringing along an
other one who had saved himself by
throwing up his hands and crying
'kamerad." The United States chap
lain was sent for and the remains OF
the German, after attention by q
couple of young doctors, was carried
to the cemetery nearby. A group OF
our soldier boys stood about while the
chaplain read a passage from the
scriptures and pronounced a simple
burial service. Then turning to four
old German men, as many women ana
a number of children who had FOL
lowed from the village 1--WE were on
German soiD the chaplain, speaking
in German told them we had buried
his man with the same ceremony we
hurled our own soldiers: that after
death there was no such thing as a
German. a F%renchman or an Ameri-
can: that we would mark the grave
and after the war was over and this
dead mans folks came looking Tor
the grave they should point it out n
tell them we gave him a Christian
burial. There were tears in the OLD
women's eyes as the chaplain finished.
Then we raised a cross made OF white
boards over the grave and inscribed
on il the words found on the German
identification tag. They were:
Karl Baer
Frankfort-on-the-Main
Schwanheimer Street 81
19.7-1SS9 L. |. r. 81
The figures showed the date of the
.Ll I-1.. ~ 1000 Tho "a n