The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-03-30
me German trench and mounted our
.. -, .bo poro6oS of same


guns on the parados of same.
! never saw such 4 mess IN my hie
-hlinchcs of twisted barbed wire lying
sNout, she'll holes everywhere trench
&ll dashed in, parapetS gone, ana ueau
bodies, why. that ditch was luil Vi
thco their, and ours. Il was regu'
lar uorgue. Some were manglcd nor
rialy fron1 our shell fire. While others
were wholly or partly buried IN me
r.,nI, the result of she'll explosions cav
inm in m, walls, OF the trench. One
dead German was lying on his back,
With a rifle sticking straight up IN the
mir. tn" bayunet of which was buried
IL the hilt in his chest. Across ms rect
Ii: = dead English soldier with bui-
LET hole in his forehead. This Tommy
must have been killed just as he ran
his baysnet through the German.
Rifles and equipment were scattered
about, and occaSionall" steel helmet
could be seen sticking out of the mud.
At one point, just in the entrance to
n communication trench, was stretch,
or On this stretcher a German was
living with Il white bandage around his
knee, near to him lay one of the
Observation-Disclosures. the red cross on mis-
arm covered with mud and his helmet
filled with blood and brains. Close by.
sitting up against the wall of the
trench. with head resting on his chest
was the other stretcher-bearer. He
seemed to be alive, the posture was SC
natural and easy; but when l got
closer l could see a large, jagged hole
n his temple. The three must have
been killed by the same shell-burst.
The dugouts were all smashed in and
knocked about, big square-cut timbers
splintered into bits, walls caved in and
entrances choked.
Tommy, after taking trench, learns
to his sorrow that the hardest part OF
the work is to hold it.
In our case this proved to be so.
The German artillery and machine
guns had us tapped (ranged) for fair
it was worth your life to expose your.
self an instant.
Don't think for a minute that the
Germans We're the only sufferers; we
were clicking casualties so fast that
you needed an adding machine to keep
track of them.
Did you ever see one Of the steam
shovels at work on the Panama canali
Well, it would look like hen scratch.
ing alongside of Tommy digging in"
while under fire. You couldn't see day.
light through the clouds of dirt from
his shovel.
After losing three out of six men OF
our crew we managed to set up our
machine gun. One of the legs of the
tripod was resting on the chest of Il
half-buried body. When the gun was
firing, it gave the impression that the
body was breathing. This was caused
by the excessive vibration.
Three or four feet down the trench
about three feet from the ground, q
foot was protruding from the earth
We knew it was a German by the blacS
leather boot. One of our crew USED
that foot to hang extra bandoliers OF
ammunition on. This man always was
O handy fellow; made use of little
points that the ordinary person would
overlook.
The Germans made three counter.
attacks, which We repulsed, but not
without heavy loss on our side. They
also suffered severely from our shell
and machine-gun fire. The ground was
spotted with their dead and dying.
The next day things were somewhat
quieter, but not quiet enough to bury
the dead.
We lived, ate and slept in that trench
with " HI the drburfed dead for SIX days,
1t was awful to watch their faces be.
come swollen and discolored. Towards
the last the stencil was fierce.
What got on my nerves the most was
that foot sticking out of the dirt. 1t
seemed to me, at night, in the moon
light, to be trying to twist around.
Several times this impression was so
strong that l went to it and graSped it
In both hands, to see if could feel a
movement.
1 told this to the man who had used
it for hatrack just before lay down
for little nap. as things We're quiet.
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