American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1918-06-14

Nldu ONEIStdS tOullnEtnNs Whltn "a "
service at Ypres and was all but wiped
Jut there in the early days of the war,
brought a message of hope and con-
fidence to a large chautauqua audience
last night We have heard people who
have been in Belgium, others who
have been in England and France, but
Sergeant Gibbons is the first Of the re-
al fighting forces to be heard the first
and only one who has been in a Ger
man prison camp, and could speak of
his own knowledge of things on both
sides of the line.
For probably an hour and a half
he held the closest attention of his
hearers, describing warfare as he saw
and was a part of it, from the time of
his enlistment, through a short train
ing, scenes in the trenches, the use of
gas, numbering of civilians, by the Ger
man big guns, going over the top, to
falling in battle and life in a German
prison camp. His story brought war
nearer to us, and also an appreciation
of the work that is cut out for us to do
How the thin line of British and Ca
madam soldiers the first few months
of the war were able to stop the Ger
man ARMY III DGlSluln anu
has been one of the marvels of the
war. Short of small arms and ammu-
milton. with a dearth of artillery, no
transport service worthy of the name,
and with no reserves, the feats of the
heroic men who interposed their bod
les between the German army and the
channel ports will stand as the most
heroic of all the things done. Sergeant
Gibbons was a part of this living, hu-
man wall. And out of more than four
hundred men who went over the top
at Ypres to take a German trench.
only two came back, seventeen were
taken prisoners, and the others paid
the supreme sacrifice 1t was things
like this, simply told, that gripped his
hearers from first to last
In the early war, he said, the allies
did not have the elaborate trench sys-
TENS of the present They had one
trench, a shallow one, made by con-
Meeting shell holes, without communi-
eating trenches, fire steps, bomb proofs
or bags of sand to shield them from
the enemy's guns. There were no re-
serves behind the lines because there
we're no troops to hold in reserve, and
men were rushed to slaughter prac-
tically without training. The enemy
was sending over thirty shells to one
for the allies, who lacked both artil-
lery and shells. Calls for artillery sup
port was answered time after time
that it could not be given, there was
nothing to give. The supply of shells
had been exhausted.
With antiquated rifles and short
ha fi,sct
had to meet wave after wave of the
foe, and by sheer grit and pluck stand
off forces outnumbering them twenty
to one, hoping for support that did not
come because it did not exist.
Sergeant Gibbons was in the first
attack where gas was used, where the
Indians threw down their guns and
ran, and his company went into the
breach and helped save the day. The
war was nearly lost there, he said.
There were no masks. and little pro
lection against gas, but the Canadi-
ans and the Scotch carried the war
to the enemy, and although suffering
losses of thirty thousand, they preven-
ted the lines from breaking.
will the lines hold?' he asked? Can
the Germans break through? They did
not then, and they can not now. There
is no doubt about who is going to win
the war. only when it will be won The
question of who will win the war was
settled on April s, 1917. II is now only
a question of how we'll the people al
home stand behind the soldiers. The
allies now have the guns and muni-
tions, he said, and can give two shells
for one.
Sergeant Gibbons was wounded in
the Ypres battle above described, and
lay for four days in a shallow trench
lust back of the German lines. The
fifth day he was taken into a Belgian
r. pital and moved from one hospital
to another until he crossed the Rhine
= into Germany where he was held foi
several months before being exchanged
People in this country can not believe
the stories of atrocities told about the
Germans. he said They will not believe
them until their own boys come home
and tell their own personal experien
ces. The full truth has not been told
What has peen printed is true. but only
a small part of the atrocities find theil
way into print.
OF his own condition he said tina
il was not the wounds inflicted in bat
tie that made of him what the Ger
mans believed would be a hopeless
cripple, but what the German doctors
did to him to make him such. No mai
is exchanged from Germany whom tn
Germans believe will ever be of an,
service in any capacity. The Britisl
and the Canadians are treated NOR
cruely than other prisoners, 5eeaus
of the campaign of hate that has bccl
waged against them. Black bread i
the morning. soup at noon, and blac
bread in the evening, was the prisol
fare Relief societies in England an
America furnished clothing for the Ca