The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1918-10-21

the mountains. There must have
been many hundred guns going, but
/ found out later that they had sew
eral hundred more. About 2 o'clock
about twice that number of guns
opened up and it sounded like an
inferno. We got to our positions
about 3 and had to wait till about 5
o'clock when the real barrage opened
up and lasted until 6. They had
thousands of big guns and never in
the history Of the world had such a
barrage been put on.
"At 5:15 we opened up a machine
gun barrage also, and it lasted until
6 o'clock. The noise of the whole
thing was deafening and you couldn't
hear what man said when he yelled
in your ear. It was awful Our
regiment led in the attack, and just
lat 8 o'clock the barrage was lowered
to right in front Of the men. They
jumped out of the trenches, followed
the barrage and went out to fight
the boche. About all the fighting the
first day was with the machine gun
nests. You see, the German infantry
had left and the machine guns had
covered their retreat. / followed our
battalion and saw many interesting
things and had several narrow es-
capes. ] saw platoon Of infantry
take a machine gun nest that had
about % Germans in it, and every
one had Red Cross brassard on their
arm. They think that will help them.
Pretty soon we began to meet the
prisoners coming back and they were
an interesting bunch; some young,
some old. saw some boys that were
not over Is years of age. / only
saw one or two middle-aged men.
We got big bunch of prisoners the
first day. We had no trouble with
the German artillery until we got
near the river, and about p. m.
they opened up on us and things
got real interesting. All kinds of
shells came over and our guns gave
them shell for shell, and some for
good measure. While we were rest
ing | was standing talking with two
boys in the road, and along came
whizz-bang and exploded over our
heads and hit one right in the face,
and killed him instantly. I moved
right away. Several other men were
killed in the same locality by the same
kind Of shells. That night we went
out on a night attack and captured
a hill in front of us. | came back
to another woods about $3.50 in the
morning, between this woods and the
hill the major and the headquarters
company were along and they evil
IDENTIFY saw us, as they opened fire
upon US with machine guns and you
ought to have heard them sing over
our heads. We fell to the ground and
hid behind the grass and then they
opened up again with some more
whiz-bangs and you ought to have
heard them roar. One fell about ten
feet from me and doctor, but !
was very thankful it failed to ex-
plode, as we would have been blown
into kingdom come. No one was
hurt at all and after about 45 min
utes we went on to the woods and
got about an hours sleep. The next
day was very much like the first,
also the third. | went back from the
line early Sunday morning to bury
a man. / had finished the job and
was starting back just out in the
open about 100 yards when a big
shell hit near me, blew me up in the
air. One piece hit my helmet and
that saved my head. suppose it
was about an hour before | got away,
and / managed to get back to the aid
station. They put me in an am
bulance and started me on my jour
ney back. | saw two German planes
brought down and saw them get sew
eral of our balloons. / went for
three days and nights without any
sleep or anything to eat. 1t certain
" was a great experience, but / don't
really care for any more Of the same
sort. / am getting along just fine,
50 don't worry about me.
MILTON LEWIS CLEMENS,
Chaplain 31oth Infantry,
q0kh 0i.rie;nn IT g A A T. r