The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1918-04-09


impulse, cursing when he ours
laughs -
The last I had seen of our boys
was their wild and seemingly trium-
plant race straight ahead to the last
Hun line.
The queerest thoughts went through
my brain.
Had the Germans countered?
Were they coming back?
Had our lot?
A familiar laugh brought me to my
senses. 1 looked up. And there above
me, was my Chum!
MY little bag" he yelled to me
delightedly, with flourish of his
bayonet towards the Huns I had seen
Ieaping over me.
Got 'em out there easy as easy;
more coming"
And with that he vanished, for he
saw I was only crippled, and he knew
the stretcherbearers would be COM
ing along soon. 1 tell you 1 envied
him his luck. 1t was a nice little
bunch he had.
Plenty German Prisoners.
But it was nothing to what follow
ed. After a little came another squad
and another, and yet another.
At one time 1 found myself sur
! rounded with them, and a Cheerful
! shepherd to whom l spoke set ms
| laughing, sore though 1 was with the
remark: this is nothing; you're only
to go over there with a bayonet, anc
they'll run up to you in crowds" He
| passed on, too, with his lot.
The next thing 1 knew was some
of our boys lifting me out of the soak
ing rain and 1 was being carried un-
| derground. 81.
Where to? =.
Oh, a Hun dug-out, and the fines
and queerest you ever heard of.
An iron cross! - .>-.-. ---. -
Yes, that was the shape. of it-aI
iron cross. can't say why 1t wa!
laid out in that fashion unless it wa!
just sort of artistic fancy on the
part of the architect who designed
it. But at any rate there were thu
| four big galleries radiating from {
centre space, each of them a littl,
broader at the far end than wher'
they came together. 1t was a. perfec
design, but apart from it's curfou
shape, I think the one thing tina
struck me about it was the fact tina
the only item it contained was on,
poor solitary coat The place, excep
for the beds, was stripped bare.
I was laid on one of the beds t
wait the coming of the. .stretcher
bearers, but before they arrived som
more of my chums were carried in
They had got further into the charg
than I had, and from them 1 Learned
how things had gone after 1 had fall
en-.
It must have been great sport.
I have said there was no sanguin
airy fighting or anything of that sor
when the boys reached for them an
for this reason. The Germans wer
dead beat with terror and fatigue an
gave in without murmur!
Surrounded by German Prisoners
) Poor devils! From all accounts the
must have had an awful time. l ha
no opportunity of speaking to any O
them even when I lay in the trenc,
surrounded by scores, but I had op
portunity enough to size them up, an
must say that, compared with thei
captors, they were a sorry lookin
lot, allowing even for the fact tina
they had been cut off from supple
: for days, and were half-famishet
They were of all sorts and condition!
young and old, whiskered and shaver
: big and little, fat and lean-a mos
= incongruous crew, in fact, and the
= seemed to have as much disciplin
about them as a flock of sheep.
One thing particularly struck M
= Quite a number of wounded wer
amongst the captives, and notice
that they were much less excited tina
those who had escaped injury. TIL
reason, no doubt, lay in the fact ths
the wounded were suffering too niue
to care about anything but the
d wounds. Those who had not
V scratch, however, were either abs
: lutely wild with excitement or wei
s extremely moody. But everyone
e them, wounded or unwounded, wei
d shaking like jellies with sheer ne
e vousness-the effect of the big gun
/. I suppose-and everyone SCENE
r far from dissatisfied with the ia
IS that war for them was now a thir
of the past.
AS for our boys-they were II
victors, of course, and were natural
happy, but before victory came
6 them they were the jolliest croY
ever seen. .-.s-
I've told you how they raced b
hind the barrage. ~,.-.,.
Well, that was nothing, I heliey
= like the way they raced around
:. the fourth line when roping in t
- Huns They were like sheep do
= among a strayed and bewilder
# flock, and, judging from the nul
W bers I saw them bring in, they q
their work right well.
A Gruesome Adventure
al And now L come to- the most gru
of some part of my adventures on tn
Id great day. =.
I'd 1t was some time before the a
bulance men get down Pur way. a