The Nevada County picayune., 1918-09-12
CHAPTER VI.

At 12 o'clock, midnight, we were alarmed and half an hour later were on the march. The cool night air felt good. and despite our weariness. we made rapid progress. Toward four o'clock in the morning we arrived at Cheppy. It had been completely plum dered We halted here for brief | rest and watched preparations being | made for the execution of two frac- tireurs. They were two little farmers | who had supposedly concealed a French machine gun with its crew from the Germans. The sentence was | executed in such a way that the peO- pie were shown who their real rulers | now were.
 The little town of Pogny. located l midway between Chalons-sur=M =Marne and vitry-le-Francois, fared DO bet ter than Cheppy, fact which we dis covered when we entered there at nine o'clock.
 We were now considerably nearer the spot where the guns were roar ing, and retiring of wounded and the intuition columns showed Us that west of Vitry-le- Francois. q terrible battle ragged. At four o'clock in the after noon, we arrived at e-Francots after a forced march. The city was filled with wounded, but the town It. self was not damaged. The battle must have been going badly for the Germans because we were ordered Into action without being given any rest. We were within three kilometers of the battle line, when we came within reach of hostile fire terrific hail of shells tore up every foot of ground. Thousands of corpses of German soldiers indi- I cated at what enormous cost the Ger mans had brought ID alt available re serves. The French did everything they could to prevent the Germans from getting the reserves Hto action and increased the artillery llre to uu- He#ra-of Y6rHce lt srcwod iWUp5 sthte=tar aa Ha 6e#aHfa 5a breaE through this h#rrae. We eaW hundreds of shells exploding every minute. We were ordered e. raa fte gauntlet oi u5s AeI l8 sIH-.e Hle.
 Lying prone rHaa tbe ereuaa, we saw how tae Grst.of our m-u at- tempted ta Ha-e THts Hau uamuanl 0f Inc shet5s t.a-fine arHud -H.n Hte maameu. a.a#e= were ##.ad uH.er ground thrown Up ~ tha Hfzl=rover explosives or -a~u " sHHwgE ur gren- ndes. I've meH lad =eaa,a.v= reached Che lineNhra a le'tsliaeete8 sh1t from
 sF4,T4 .,F Is5rI., .. f1,#.,. .1f~...tI,. nt their feet When fine smoke cleWed. there was ua trace ef the men
 You can imagine One feelings Of those who lay on the ground not 108 feet away witnessing this spectacle and waiting their turn.
 An officer cried "Nextw Ii was my turn. As if aroused from a night mare, I sprang up, my gun in my right hand, sidearm in my left, and ran ahead dedged two shells just as they burst and ran close to several others, bursting the same instant. < number of times I sprang back, then ahead again. running to and fro like a madmau, seeking q loophalC. But every where there was iron and fire. I ran
 like q hunted animal seeking a way to noss to save myself. vith a hell in front of me, and m officers revolver always ready behind.
 Throwing caution to tAe winds, prepared to meet death and the devil himself. at Inst #raa htiHdtF aheal -4n. ran=rau. until someone seized my cont t8il and shouted in my ear:
 "ttere We are Are yau #wa#de3s You had better look Perhaps you are wounded an1 dont know it.@
 was=amoHg thaSe If my comrades vho had gotten through Trembling en oearaI etanned and looled around.
 "Slt down an# sou WilI#fee better" said aae of the men. We also haye rembted"
 Pre.auay some wounded were hreu-bt up. There were about 4s men ra3 a sereeant took command Moth tuG more was seen of our officers.
 We continued to advance and passed several German batteries Many had suffered heavily in dead and wounded which lay around their guns destroyed bv enemy fire. Other batteries still manned were useless because no more ammunition could he gotten through.
 We paused to rest Several artil- lerymen approached us, and noncom- miSsioned officer asked them why they did not fire.