The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-09-09
over THE TOP"
Fine Description By Pvt. Edward Ward
of an Attack on the Boche.

fantry.
After referring to his inability to write
sooner he goes on to say, Il sent you
card not long after | was wounded
but will add that / was wounded
through the left foot and will tell you
the particulars later. If you see blank,
you will have to pass ii over and excuse
anything that sounds blunt or hollow,
for I'm going to try to write what /
think will pass the censors all right.
well, the first of the drive started on
July - 1918. We sent heavy barrage
Of artillery on the enemy's first line
trenches that lasted about 30 minutes.
The barrage started at 3 in the morning.
II had just commenced to break daylight
and this barrage was sent to No Mans
land all the time raising it little to-
wards the enemy and you can just bet
those boys in olive drab from that little
place they call United States crept very
close behind this barrage with fixed bay
onets until they finally fell into the en-
emy's trench and took many prisoners,
destroying their machine guns, and yet
they kept on and took several villages
that ] could name, and though the boche
made several counter attacks and tried
to retake those villages again, he found
out the resistance he met with from us
was too strong for him to carry out his
plans.
Il had charge of the prisoners, or, bet
ter put it, ! was guard over about 80 and
huJ Ga Aha ~. faly ,rfs n
from them that ! prize very highly, not
for their value, but simply getting them
on the occasion it was.
"The men we got in that sector in gen
eral were either very young or slightly
over the age of a soldier hi many eases,
especially on machine gun posts, there
were usually one old man and one young
man that might be called boy. And in
some places they have been found
chained to their machine guns, which
gave me reason to believe that there are
certain organizations Of Germany who
do not want TO fight, but are compelled
to by their superior officers But this
isn't what | want 10 tell you, nor is this
the only battle we took part in.
"0n the third day after this, we we're
moved onto another sector This was
somewhat different problem, and a
more difficult one, but we faced it as
bold as though il were nothing. Instead
Of attacking at in the morning, we
made our attack at 3 in the afternoon
We were holding a little woods that had
no trenches, but little dugouts only two
or three feet underground that served
very good protection from shrapnel and
machine gun FIRE from the boche. But if
one Of their shells happen to land on one
of these. goodbye to anyone who was
within it. 1t was in one of these that
my lieutenant's orderly and were catch
ing a few minutes rest when the lieu
tenant came and told me to go TO the
company's p C., to bring him back all
the information / could from the cap
tain, and then he said in his good CHEEKY
way, with a grin on his face, that we
were going over to see Fritz. IL was
puzzle to me, for such a thing seldom
happens this time of the day, but / was
platoon runner so | seampered off on my
errand, and after talking with the cap
tain and getting the necessary informa
ton. he said, You will have about two
minutes left when you get back to Lieut..
G., and tell him to advance at double
time for about SO yards at the blast of
my whistle. You can bet | ran at my
best back to the platoon and sure enough
had only about two minutes left.
THE whole company was deployed and
we're all very restless waiting for that
blast of the whistle that meant to rush
towards that Hill about q mile and half
away that the Germans held, which we
found out soon after seemed to be one
nest OF machine guns. That blast of the
whistle marched many forward never to
return We never thought Of this, but
those two minutes seemed like hours,
Then, at last, a sharp whistle sounded
and with fixed bayonets we rushed into
the field towards our objective. Hardly
had we advanced into this field before
we began to hear the enemy's guns at
their best, and Of course our men began
to fall, but those unframed kept nobly
on their way. There was no barrage as
before to clean up some Of those guns, so
Of course we had a hard job on our
hands
"But, say, when we deployed, /, being
a runner. of course followed close TO the
lieutenant of my platoon, so had a fine
chance to see how the company deployed,
and never saw anything quite so won
derful Men as far as you could see were
moving forward in perfect formation,
Just as we had done time and time again
in our drills. We who were not wounded
kept on and at $500 ] got mine, only
through the left foot, but quite enough
to knock me fiat on the ground.
1--WE were by this time nearing the hill
and / think they must have got pretty
good range on us, for ! had scarcely fall
en- when the lieutenant got one through
the left leg, just below the hip. He be-
gan to bleed very badly, and found
after cutting his trousers it was coming
from an artery and blood was streaming
out both where the bullet entered and
where il exited. Thanks that had re-
ceived a good deal of instruction along
that line, or ! should certainly have been
lost Just what TO have done, After ]
fixed his wound and succeeded in check |
ing the flow Of blood, we both were very
comfortable The sun was very warm,
but we had to lie there in this manner
for two hours before the Red Cross came |
and picked us up.
about 4 o'clock the machine guns let
up considerably and knew the boys had
reached their objective, and had managed |
to destroy some Of the deadly weapons.
But they continued to snipe at any move
they saw from treetops, As we lay
there it certainly was a pretty sight to
see the waves deploy from the very same
place we did, and they did not meet with
so strong resistance as we. Then the
prisoners began to come back.
after we arrived back at the first aid |
station, the lieutenant died. The fellows |