The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1918-05-02

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fourth wave to consolidate the cap
tured line or ''dig in.r ar Tommy calls
It
Crossing No Mans Land without
clicking any casualties, we came to
the German trench and mounted our
guns on the ps.rados OF sa;pe.
never saw such a mesSin my life
punches Of twisted barbed wire lying
about. shell holes everywhere. trench
all hnsh>sd In. Darapets gone. and dead
DodteN.s why. tnat ditch was fun OF
theEn. theirs and ours. II was a rexu-
lar morsi1e- Some were mangied hor-
ribly from oi,r shell Gre. while others
were wholly or partly buried In the
mud. the result of shell expln.ions cav
ing In the walls of the trench. One
dead German was lying on his back.
with rifle sticking straight up In the
mir. the bayonet OF which was buried
to the hilt In his chest Across his feet
lay dead English soldier with bul-
let hole In his forehead This Tommy
must have been killed just as he ran
his bayonet through the German
hif1es and equipment were scattered
about. and occasionally a steel helmet
could be seen sticking out of the mud
At one point. Just In the entrance to
a communication trench. was a stretch
er. On this stretcher a German was
lying with white bandage around bis
knee. near to him lay one of the
stretcher-bearers. the red cross on his
arm covered with mud and his helmet
filled with blood and brains. Close by,
rf< -
trench. with head resting on his chest.
was the other stretcher-bearer. He
seemed to be alive. the posture was SO
natural and easy; but when 1 got
closer I could see a large. jagged hole
in his temple The three must have
been killed by the same shell-burst-
The dngouts were all smashed In and
knocked about, big square-cut timbers
splintered into bits. walls caved In and
entrances choked.
Tommy. nfter taking trench. learns
to his sorrow that the hardest part of
the work is to hold 1t.
In our case this proved to be so.
The German artillery and machine
guns had rs taped (ranged) for fair;
1t was worth your Life to expose your
self an instant
Don't think for q minute that the
Germans were 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 cnnal7
Wen. II would look like hen scratch
Ing alongside Of Tommy digging in
while under IRE You couldn't see day
light through the clouds Of dirt from
bis shovel.
After losing three out Of six men Of
our crew We managed to set mp our
machine gun One Of the legs of the
tripod was resting ON the chest Of
half-buried body. When the gun was
firing. II gave the impression that the
body wus breathing. This was caused
by the excessive vibration
Three or four feet down the trench,
about three feet from the ground,
foot was protruding from the earth-
We knew It was q German By the black
leather boot. One of our crew used
that foot to hang extra bandoliers of
ammunition on. This man always was
q handy fellow; made use Of little
points that the ordinary person would
overlook.
The Germans made three counter
sttncks. which we repulsed. but not
without heavy loss on our side They
also suffered severely from our shell
ami machlne-gun fire. The ground was
spotted with their dead and dying.
The next day things were somewhat
quieter. bat not quiet enough to bury
the dead
: We lived. ate and slept In that trench
with the unburied dead for six days.
It was awful to watch their faces be-
come swollen and discoiored- Towards
the last the stencil was fierce.
What got ON my nerves the most was
that foot sticking out Of the dirt Ii
seemed to me. at night. In the moon
light. to be trying to twist around
Several times this impression was SC
strong that went to II and grasped II
In both hands, to see II could feel
movement
told this to the mnn who had used
II for hatrack t7st before lay down
for Q little mp. N things were quiet,
and ] needed q rest pretty badly
When .I-weke-up the foot was gone,
BE had cut Il oR With our chain saw
out OF the spare parts' box. and hac
plastered the stump over with mud.
p7rins the next two or .hree days.
before We were relieved. missed thn,
foot dreadfuily; seemed rs II hac
suddenly lost chum.
sAtnk chs. vu>>>x-~< thf~w - all q
watch the rats, at night. and some