The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1918-09-26

them sat on the parapet fire step with
their heads between their knees and
their arms wrapped around their
heads.
Our sergeant came to me after a
while and began acting just like
people do at a show, only he shouted
instead Of whispered in my ear. When
people are looking ut one show they
always want to tell you how good some
other show Is, and that was the way
with the sergeant.
"You should see what they did to
us at st. Eloi," he said. 'sThey just
baptized US with the big fellows. They
did not know when to stop. When you
see Smelling that Is Smelling, you will
know ii, my son."
well, If this. is not Smelling, what
the devil is 1t? Are they trying to
lid vi or ire you, mon vieux?" which
Is a French expression that means
something like "old timer"
my son, when you see dugouts
caved In, roads pushed all over the
map, guns wrecked, bodies twisted up
In knots and forty men killed by one
shell-then you will know you are
seeing shelling."
Then n of u men sat up straight
against the parapet and stared at us
and began to shake all over, but we
could not get him to say anything or
move. So we knew he had shell shock.
And another man watched him for a
while, and then ne began to shake,
too. The sergeant said that IL we
staged there much longer we would
not be ft TO repei an attack, so he
ordered us into the two dugouts we
had made in the hole, and only himself
and another man stayed outside on
watch.
The men in the Gugout kept asking
each other when the b~ombardment
would end, and why we were not rein
forced, and what was happening, and
whether the Turks would attack us. 1t
was easy to see why we were not rein
forced-ho body of men could have
got to us from the reserve trenches.
The communication trenches were
quite a distance from US and were
battered up at that. Some of the men
said we had been forgotten. and that
the rest Of our troops had either re-
tired or advanced and that we and
the men in the trench who had tried
to signal us were the only d%etachments
left there.
Pretty soon another man and I
relieved the two men who were out
side on watch, and as he went down
into the dugout the sergeant shouted
TO us that he thought the Turks were
afraid to attack. He also ordered one
of us to keep q live eye toward our
rear in case any of u troops should
try to signal us. When l looked
through a lite gully at the top of
the hole, toward the other trench, sill
l could see was barbed wire and
smoke and two or three corpses. l
began to SILVER a little, and / was
afraid I would get shell shock, too.
So i began to think about Murray and
how he looked when they took him
off the wall. But that did not stop the
~shivering, so l thought about my grand
mother and how she looked the last
time ! saw her. / was thinking about
her, | guess, and not keeping a very
good lookout, when a man rolled e
the edge end almost fell on me. He
was from the other trenches. I carried
him into the dugout and then went out
again and stood my watch until the
relief came. We were doing half-hour
shifts.
When I got into the dugout again
the man was coming to. He was just
about az near shell shock as / had
been-by this time ] was shivering
only once in a while, when I did not
watch myself. He said four men had
been sliced up trying to get to us be-
fore he came: that they had lost
IL men out Of their 80, including the
sergeant-major in command and two
%corporals; that they were almost out
of ammunition; that the trenches on
both sides Of them had been blown In
and that they were likely to 60 to
pieces ut any moment. He said they
all thought the Turks would attack
behind their barrage, for he said the
curtain of fire did not extend more
than a hundred yards In front Of their
trench. What they wanted Us { do
was to relay a man back with the
news and either get the word to ad-
vance or retire or await reinforce
ments. they did not care which-only
to be ordered to do something. There
was not q commissioned officer left
with either Of the detachments, You
see. ard you might say we were up
In the air-onIy we were really as far
In the ground as we could get.
The man thought there were other
Of our lines not far behind us, but we
knew better; SO then he said he did
not see how any n could get back
from there to our nearest lines. 1
did not see either. Then we all ng-
ured we were forgotten and would not
come out Of there alive. and you can
believe me on not, but / did not much
care. Anything would be better than
j Just staying there In that awful noise