Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-03-13

tnelf rear our company commander,
| Lieut.. West, said:
Boys, the. Germans, are TRYING to
put one over by firing on us from these
houses. It's up. to you to so through
the houses and protect the rest of the
division
Go Through the Houses.
Tiny and 1 were oruered into a
shack that had been a dwelling place
but rather knocked about by shelIfiFe
We went up stains first and there was
nobody there Then we went down to
the street floor and openeG door and
came upon q German. He mad a ma =
chine gun-it was Lewis gun--and
had stuck the nguzzle through the
shutters of a window in such a way
| that no on eoutside would know it was
there. But the gun was, damned and
he was working on it. He was a big
Prussian Guardsman.
The shrapneI helmet always gave
me headache and when we went
over / always managed to get rid of
it, so [ did not have it this time. Tiny
and went for the, German, but he
picked up a rifle and just managed to
Whlrl it as club when we closed.
git it on the shoulder and was knocked
down. But good old Tiny Bradford let
the German have the bayonet. No,
he'll never see Prussia again.
Then Bradford cut off the sleeve OF
my tunic and shirt and put field
. dressing Oh the shoulder. When we
got down stairs, / reported sick to the
section commander, and at the base
hospital they found my collar bone
broken and sinews torn AT the base
/ got malaria and was sent over to
;
land. 1 was there two months and re-
joined the battalion at the beginning
of last November. Then finally L was
discharged"
Again the boy thought his story
ended and had to be rerroved for his
reticence. Was he never wounded en-
cept by the butt of the Prussian's
rifle?
Shrapnel Spoiled the Tea.
Nothing bat d Sc "a. tell, Us sat.l.
"On eday in the trenches a group
/ of us were standing by the dugout and
| watched a shrapnel she'll that came
I fros across the way. You can see q
shell going up; you know, bat Lot CON-
ing down. This one came down on top
Of the dugout. l forgot to say we Were
making tea at the time in a Canteen
! that we call a dixie. Pieces Of shrar-
mel and parapet spattarel all oyer lis
, and splasired mud into the dixie, so the
| tea was SPOILED"
But that was hardly catastrophe,
was it," the interviewing guide sug-
gested.
7 TT was to. us" said Jaffa
"B:lt what a ut the scratch you
got?"
! "&otniIg but d it OF 81 r,tpa1cl that
" mt through right here He roin!e j.!
out faint marks that may be small
scars on the palm and back of his right
hand, near the junction of forefinger
and thumb, but il was clear that the
/ loss Of a pot of tea had been the only
event of that day of any Importance
Would you be Interested in know
ing that 1 deserted?" he offered. well
lit was, near the end OF my service,
when I was back in England. Tiny
L Bradford and [ must have acted like
/ kids, for we were. always up for dodg-
| ing parades and failure to. answer roll
call. This time. we were going UP. be-
| fore the Colonel, for taking some APP
/ pies. from an orchard, and as the Col
oneI didn't like us because we both
I erred him we thought we'd get away,
| especially as we'd been paid off the
might before. We went in khaki, for
I'LL lu6y CdCGil you III y0dL ul441OtAA y00
| are not deSerter, but merely absent
|. without leave. We strelled off to an
other camp-this was on an island off
the coast of KeTrt-and then we found
la hut OIL the, shore and stayed ins that
/ In the night things got to crawling
over us, and lightning match we found
they were sand crabs. There must
have been millin of EN-. but we COL
lected them all together in a box and
threw the box into the fire We had
made. Gee, you ought to have heard
those crags. crackle! After that we
could sleep
Jaffe and Tiny got tired of the hut
on the shore, it seemed, and embarked
on the North Sea in q boat with no
oars, who knew the coast, found they
We're headed for the biggest whirlpool
in the world, where seven tides meet
Caught by Sergeant Major.
Later they raided camp postoffice
and filled up on the contents OF pack
ages intended for we'll behaved SOL
diers BY climbing through the WIN