The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1918-10-04

SNAS -
gas there that hung around for sew
eral minutes, but it was not very bad.
The man began talking to me, and
he said 1t was an honor to lie on the
field Of battle with a leg shot off anu
dead men piled all about you, and
some not dead but grooming. He told
me l would soon be able to hear the
grooming, though 1 had not said I
minded it, OF anything about it. Then
he said again what an honor 1t was,
and asked if l had a drink for him.
I had not had any water all day, and
l told him so, but he kept on asking
for 1t all the same. Some of the Turk
ish bombers must have sneaked up
pretty close to our lines, for when l
looked out Of the hole toward our
lines, and a shell burst near them,
l could see a Turk coming toward us.
We played dead then, but / had my
bayonet ready for him in case he had
seen us and decided to come up to the
hole. Evidently he had not, for when
he got near the hole he steered to the
side and went around.
The other garby was cheerful when
he was not asking for water, but you
could see he was going fast. So we sat
there In the hole and he died. Shortly
afterward the fire slackened q little
and l got out and started toward our
lines. But l remembered about the
other wounded mar l had passed
when / was carrying Philippe Pierre,
SO l began hunting for him, and after
a long time ! found him. He was still
alive. His chest va all smashed in
and he was badly cut up around the
neck and shoulders. I picked him up
and started back, but ran into some
barbed wire and had to go around.
l was pretty tired by this time and
awfully thirsty, and l thought If I did
not rest a little bit I could never make
1t. / was so tired and nervous that
l did not care much whether 1 did
get back or not, and the wounded
garby was grooming all the time.
So when I thought the shells were
coming pretty thick again I got into a
shell hole and 1t was the same one
/ had left not long before. The dead
garby was there just as l had left him.
The wounded one was bleeding all
over, and my clothes were just soaked
with blood from the three men, but
most Of all from him. There was some
Of my own blood on me, too, for when
1 was knocked down by the shell my
nncn hlnd ond Hapt hloalin, fnr N lo--
time, but, Of course, that was nothing
compared to the bleeding Of the
others.
The. worst of all was that he kept
grooming for water, and it made me
thirstier than I had been, even. But
there was not a drop Of water any
where and / knew there was no use
searching any bodies for TASKS. So
we just had to stick it out. Pretty
soon the wounded man quit grooming
and was quiet, and I knew he was
going to die too. 1t made me mad to
think that I had not been Of any use
in carrying these two men around,
but If I had gone on with either Of
them 1t would have been just the same
they would have died and probably
/ would have got 1t, too. When I fig
ured 1t out this way I quit worrying
about 1t, only I wished the fire would
let up.
So the other man died, and there
were two Of them in the hole. / read
the numbers on their Identification
disks when shells burst near enough
SO that I could see them, and after a
while got back to our lines and rolled
in. I could not remember the num-
bers or the names by hat time, but a
working party got them, along with
others, so 1t was all right.
My clothes were q mess, as I have
said, and I was so tired I thought /
could sleep for a week, but I could
not stand 1t in my clothes any longer.
1t was absolutely against regulations,
but I took Off all my clothes-the
blood had soaked into the skin-and
wrapped myself In nothing but air
and went right to sleep. I did not
sleep very well, but woke up every
once In a while and thought I was in
the hole again.
During the night they brought up
water, but I was asleep and did not
know 1t. They did not wake me,
but two men saved by share,
though usually in a case like that 1t
was everybody for himself and let the
last man 60 dry. You could not blame
them, either, so / thought it was
pretty decent Of these two to save my
share for me. I believe they must
have had a hard time keeping the
others off of It. to say nothing Of them
selves, for there really was moi more
than enough for n good drink all
around. 1t tasted better than anything
I have o drunk. Go dry for "a
hours In the hottest weather you can
find, do q nights work like that, and
come to In the morning with a tin
cup full Of muddy water being handed
to you. and you will know what I
mean.
At Gaba Tepe there were steep little
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