Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-12-24

below. We we're very near them ana
the noise was deafening. The flash
from them lit up half the sky. The
next morning we started over the top
after the Boche 1t was on this drive
that our platoon-the second-done
such brilliant fighting that we were
cited by our captain. This platoon
opened fire on a. German battery and
put it out of operation. We were up
there for five days and were pretty
well played out when we got back to
a rest camp-Convouvre
After staying at Courouvre for
week, we were sent up to the st.
Mihiel sector TO hold the line up there.
The Germans had been there for a
long while and had fixed up some nice
dugouts for us. We enjoyed the stay
there as we had a nice big stove and
kept it burning all night. The Huns
were pretty quiet up there with the
exception of one night, and they tried
hard to run us away. They opened
up on US with those G. l. cans this is
the name given the big shells over
here) and we were ordered to go to
some crossroads and mount our guns.
This was about 4 o'clock in the morn
ing. They don't care what hour they
make you get up over here. We were
off for the crossroads before dawn and
after staying there the whole day,
along came orders sending US up to
Hannonville. We got there about IL
O'Clock and mounted guns. Our job
up here was to hold the Inc. The
guns were mounted at dusk and taken
in before dawn.
From Hannonville. our next chance
to get at the Huns was a sector east
of the Mouse. river. This was a very
hard sector and the Huns kept us
very busy lodging G. /. cans, and the
supers were also on the job.
at was at this place that had the
surprise of my life. We came in about
10 o'clock at night, and our platoon
was held in reserve. After getting the
mule carts unloaded we took our guns
and ammunition to a dugout Going
into this dugout which was about 40
feet under the ground, and was also
shell-proof, found it was the Annap-
oils Machine Gun Company that we
were relieving, and much to my sur
prise / found Beef Tongue and
Monk McGuckian, besides a whole
bunch of others that / knew. l, like
them, was so surprised l did not know
what to say. 1t was very happy
meeting. Monk was anxious to know
about Howard and viii.
I'VE were not held in reserve very
long, as we got an order to get ready
for a little raiding party. Guns were
cleaned and packs made up before
morning, when we started out
After an hour of heavy artillery
fire we started out to take this big
hill The hill was too big for our
small raiding party, and we went up
there every day but couldn't stay on
account of the heavy firing. We cap
tured quite a few of German priso-
ners while up there. Some of them
were mere boys, and it seemed to me
that every machine gun was manned
by boys with an older man to look
after them. We captured several
guns and one doughboy got a whole
team gun and ammunition. They would
fire until we got close to them, and
then they would hold up their hands
and yell, 'Kamerad' 1t was great
sport to shoot at them when they tried
to get away.
AFTER coming back from this So
called little raiding party, we were
back there in night or so, and laid
a machine gun barrage for the infan-
try. When the guns stopped at IL
o'clock, on November IL, we were just
finishing barrage and we fired eleven
boxes of ammunition (25O shots to the
box) at the Huns.
Now that the war is about over, the
question which concerns all of us the
most, is when do we start for home.
Hope they will soon ship us over
Heard from George Miller the other
day, and he is getting along all right
now. He has been sick in the hos
pital
1--WE have done more than can
write about, so must wait until re-
turn and tell you.
Hoping this finds all well, l am,
Your devoted son,
PVT. JAS. H. ARMIGER."