Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1918-07-27

bagged parapet to investigates BRAY
but foolhardy deed-"Crack" went
bullet and he tumbled back into tn
trench with hole through his stomac
and died few minutes later. A lane
corporal In the next platoon was so en-
ragged at the captains death that h
chucked Mills bomb In the direction
OF the noise with the shouted warning
to us: "Duck your nappers, my luck,
lads" A sharp dynamite report, far
In front Of us, and then silence.
We Immediately sent up two sta
shells, and in their light could see tw,
dark forms lying ON the ground clos,
to our wire. A sergeant and fou
stretcher-bearers went out In front ant
soon returned, carrying two linn
bodies. Down In the dugout, In tn,
Pickering light of three candles, w,
saw that they were two German Off
GERS. one a captain and the other az
"unteroffizier," rank one grade higher
than a sergeant general, but below. the
grade Of lieutenant.
The captains face had been almost
completely torn away by the bombs
explosion. The unteroffizier was alive
breathing with difficulty. In few min
utes he opened his eyes and blinked In
the glare of the candles.
The pair had evidently been drink.
Ing heavily, for the alcohol fumes were
sickening and completely peryaded the
dugout. I turned away In disgust
hating to see a man cross the Great Dl.
vide full of booze.
One Of our officers could speak Ger.
man andahe questioned the dying man.
In faint voice, interrupted by fire.
quent hiccoughs, the urteroffizier told
his story.
There had been drinking bout
among the officers In one of the Ger
man dugouts, the main beverage being
champagne. With a drunken leer he
Informed us that champagne was plen-
tiful on their side and that 1t did not
cost them anything either. About seven
that night the conversation had turned
to interchangeable" English, and the
captain had made a wager that he
would hang his cap on the English
barbed wire to show his contempt for
the English sentries. The wager was
accepted. At eight o'clock the captain
and he had crept out into No Mans
Land to carry out this wager.
They had gotten about halfway
across when the drink took effect and
the captain fell asleep. After about
two hours of vain attempts the inter-
offizler had at last succeeded In wax
Ing the captain, reminded him of his
bet, and warned him that he would be
the laughing stock Of the officers mess
II he did not accomplish his object, but
the captain was trembling all over and
insisted on returning to the German
lines. In the darkness they lost their
bearings and crawled toward the Eng
lish trenches. They reached the barbed
wife and were suddenly challenged by
our sentry. Being too drunk to realize
that the challenge was In English, the
captain refused to crawl back. Finally
the unteroffizier convinced his superior
that they were In front of the English
wire. Realizing this too late, the cap
tain drew his revolver and with a NUT
tered curse fired blindly toward our
trench. His bullet no doubt killed our
captain.
Then the bomb came over and there
he was, dying-and good job too, we
thought. The captain dead? Well, his
men wouldn't weep at the news.
Without giving us any further infor-
nation the unteroffizier died.
We searched the bodies for identifi-
'ation disks but they had left every
hing behind before starting on their
errand.
Next afternoon we buried them In |
'ur little cemetery apart from the
raves Of the Tommies. If you ever
% into that cemetery you will see two
title wooden crosses In the corner of
he cemetery set away from the rest.
They read:
Captain
German Army
Died - 1916
Unknown
II. l. p.
Unterofiizler
German Army
Died -- 1915,
Unknown
II. l. 2.