The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1918-06-07

| DOy III SyfI.p bnt OAuGls navy Ju''
been received cancelling all leave. II
you had been three hours earHer yoJ
would have gotten away. Just stay in
that train. as tits going.back. Rations
will be issued to you for your return
journey to your respective stations
Beastly rotten. know" Then he left
A dead silence resulted. Then men
started to curse, threw their rifles on
the floor of,the car; others said moth
ing, seemedSto be stupefied, while some
had the tears running down their
checks. 1t was bitter disappointment
to all.
How we blinded at the engineer OF
that train; ii. was all his fault 60 we
reaSoned) why hadn't he speeded up Q
little or been on time. then we would
have gotten, on before the order ar.
rivedf Now 1t was no Blighty for us
That return journey was misery to
us: inst can't describe It.
When we got back to rest billets. we
found that our brigade was in the
trenches (another agreeable surprised
and that an attack was contemplated
Seventeen of the forty -one will never
get another chance to go on leave;
they were killed in the attack. just
think II that train had been on time,
those seventeen would still be alive.
hate to tell you how l was kidded
by the boys when got back. but 1t was
good and plenty.
Our machine gun company took over
their part of the line at seven O'Clock.
the night after I,returned from my
near leave.
AT $3.50 the following morning three
waves went over and captured the first
and second German trenches The
machine gunners went over with the
fourth wave to consolidate the cap
tured line or ''dig in," as Tommy calls
ii.
Crossing No Mans Land without
clicking any casualties. we came to
the German trench and mounted our
guns on the parados of same.
1 never saw such mess in my life
punches of twisted barbed wire lying
about. shell holes everywhere. trench
all dashed in, parapets gone. and dead
bodies, why. that ditch was full of
them, theirs and ours. 1t was a regu-
lar morgue. Some were mangled hor-
ribly from our shell fire. while others
were wholly or partly buried In the
mud. the result of shell explosions cav
ing In the walls Of the trench. One |
dead German was lying on his bach.
with rifle sticking straight up in the
air. the bayonet of which was buried
to the hilt In his chest Across his feet |
lay a dead English soldier with bull
let hole In his forehead. This Tommy
must have been killed just as he ran
his bayonet through the German.
Rifles 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
q communication trench, was q stretch
er. On this stretcher a German was
lying with white bandage around his
knee, near to him lay one of the
lAlC AC0 CAOco On
arm covered with mud andrhis helmet
filed 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
and easy; but when got
closer could see a large. jagged hole
In his temple. The three must have
been killed by the same shell-burst.
The dugouts were all smashed in and
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
L was worth your life to expose your
self am instant.
Don't think for minute that the
Germans were the only sufferers; We
we're clicking casualties so fast that
,ou needed an adding machine to keer
rack Of them. II
Did you ever see one Of the steam
novels nj, work on'the Panama canal
Wen. II would look like hen scratch
M alongside OF Tommy digging In
chile under fire. You couldn't see day
tight through the clouds Of dirt from
ITS shovel.
After losing three out Of six men Of