The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1918-10-10
SUPPLY TRAIN BREAKS RECORD.
Run for Sixty Hours and Kept Up
With Advancing Troops.

w llIl ADVANCING 1FOOpS.
With American Army in France,
Aug. 18.-Supply train 107 had plac-
ed its kitchen in the main square Of
Chateau-Thierry. Up the road little
way in the single arch remaining Of
the fine old stone bridge on which the
American machine gunners stopped
the German rush in early June. All
around was dusty, mushed masonry
and blazing heat. Henry Gonzales,
cook, speaking:
81 can't give you nothing, mad
dunn. It's against orders. Yes'um, I
know you're hungry, but what can a
bird do?"
A little withered, tired French wo-
man was asking him for bread. "Just
bread, M'sieu." She was the first of
the refugees to return.
"1t's hell, amt it, Maddum?" said
Gonzales, safe in his knowledge that
she could not understand English.
Don't sit down ,there." He pushed
a canned-corn box toward her and
patted her dusty shoulder. The old
woman sat down. He stacked mess
tin with corned beef hash and fried
potatoes and baked beans and placed
it before her.
'That's for the captain he said,
Don't you lay sip on it," He filled
the canteen cup with steaming coffee
and set it down on the board table.
'I'd give you some of that if 1 dar-
est" said Henry Gonzales. "But you
see how it is, Maddum.''
The old woman ate happily and
shifted and let the tears run into the
mess tin and watched Gonzales.
Whenever he looked toward her she
smiled, so that he hurriedly looked
away again. When she had finished
he hurried after her, across the dusty
square, white hot under the sun. l
saw him put some money in her hand.
81 was just bawling her out" said
Henry Gonzales, American. 81 told
her to keep out of here: I can't be
bothered with refugees
Sixty Hours Awake.
Supply Train No. 107 had just fin
ished a 60 hour run across country.
Some running, hey? Some running
to keep 100 big chain drive cars on
the road for 60 hours without a
smash. Especially when two nights
of that running was on muddy roads,
through nights blacker than John
sons cat, and through an army. The
supply train ran through an artillery
brigade and infantry regiments and a
tank convoy and Jinkins knows what,
as Captain Wesley says.
"We didn't lose a car on the way,
either" said he. "That's some run
ming. Hey!"
Here is the best Of it. That so
hours running was done without
sleep. The drivers sat at the wheels
of those big trucks day and night and
nursed them through the jam. If
the procession stopped-and such
professions do stop for thousand
reasons, varying from a belligerent
army to heart-sore mule-they Went
to sleep on the wheels. Just slumped
over on them, you know. Captain
Wesley used to go along the line
swearing at them feverishly. He had
to. If he let his voice drop to con-
versational tone he would have gone
to sleep himself.
All right. A record is established,
isn't it? Some running to tool 100
big chain drive trucks over muddy
roads, through strange country, for
60 hours without sleep. And then
the 100 got to Chateau-Thierry just
at the height of the jam forward and
Captain Wesley was told that the men
up forward needed food.
''They outran the supply trains, y
he was told. "Your train is the first
to get up
Ready To Go On.
Remember the 60 sleepless hours
the men of supply train No. 1O7 had
driven. That didn't stop them.
They pulled off one-half the load
Of each the 100 big trucks. Did it
in jig time, too. Captain Wesley ex-
plains that after you get just so tired
you sort of get your second wind.
You are not really sleepy after you
miss the second night. It's queer,
too, he says, that the third night just
sort of cancels itself. That is, when
you get to making up sleep you forget
about the hours you have lost. You
just get a good sleep and let it go at