The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1918-05-22
WHOLE HILLS
Are BLOWN UP
Harry c. Evans Tells Of Experiences
at the Front When Whole Hills
Blown up by the Enemy
ENTIRE COMPANY WAS BURIED
Commends Two Gallant Iowa Boys,
Harry MeHenrsy and Donald Mac.
Rae--Both Were Heroes
(By Harry G.. Evans.)


SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE-An-
nouncement Of the arrival of the lieu
tenants from the front was made
throughout the various camps, and
that evening scores or officers came
to their "Y" headquarters to greet
them and hear their experiences.
Il was five weeks at the 'front.'"
said Lieutenant Reason "We would
stay five days in the front line
trench, then fall back to the second
line for five days, then to the re-
serve five days. In each position we
were under fire. This being true, we
had rather be in the first trench, for
only from these could we fight back
To be shelled and not be able to shell
back is like standing still and letting
a man hit you. We were Occupying
ground that the French had recently
taken from the Germans. One of our
men tripped over a wire stretched
through the grass just above the
ground. 1t was electrically charged
and exploded mine that killed a SOL
dier. Another soldier hung his coat
on wire and started to brush it. A
mine was exploded in a cave in the
chalk hill near by where company
of French soldiers were sleeping.
THE whole hill was blown up and
the entire company buried beneath
the debris No effort has as yet been
made to eXhume the bodies. There
were no infantry charges or raids by
either side during the time l was on
the front, but every day there was
continual play OF artillery"
Raiding the Enemy.
I'VE we're constantly under fire."
said Lieutenant ShOtt, "and we con-
stantly shelled the boches. We made
one raid with our company. was
second in command Our outposts and
airmen had given us definite infOrma-
ton as to the outlines of the German
trenches and the surface Of the earth.
We knew just where every shell hole,
and every depression was in No Mans
Land. A few of our men had crawled
out and cut the barbed wire in front
of the boche trench, and we filed
through. l do not think we were scar
ed. yet there was peculiar sensation
that | had never known before. We
expected every moment to have to
encounter the boche barrage, but it
did not come. The most exciting mo-
ment of MY life was just after we got
through the wire and came upon the
enemy's trench. 1t was there: if we
ever reached it, we anticipated a
hand to hand fight. Imagine our sur
prise when We found the trench was
empty. We went on to the second
trench and it was empty. We fell
back to our own trench. Not a shot
had been fired. The raid we had so
carefully prepared for for weeks end
ed in nothing, because the boche
would not come out and fight"
Lieutenant Mansfield's company al
so made raid, but with the same re-
suit Evidently the Germans did not
care to meet the Americans in a hand
to hand encounter. Mansfield told us
how the Germans sent over mustard
gas balloons one afternoon. Some
of them reached our lines before they
were destroyed. fell and bursted. A
few Of the boys were caught. These
fellows are now in our hospital here,
and l have visited them. If Dante
we're living today he would be asham-
ed of his puny efforts to describe ways