The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1919-01-20


lieutenant then jumped upon the par.
apet and said, "Come on, boys, lets
CO." Everybody jumped upon tn.
parapet and over we went. We had
not advanced more than one hundred
yards when the enemy discovered us,
and he Immediately opened fire with
his machine guns. 1t was not YET
good daylight, and there being q
heavy fog, the enemy could not SIC
us well enough to get good aim on
us. When we had advanced about
800 yards we all fell to the ground
and got in she'll holes. Every man
advanced as fast as he could. When
we reached our objective / was about
40 yards in front Of the platoon.
Some few of the men were nearer
than 90 yards, but they didn't get
out with a whole skin. At that time
/ was laying where small she'll had
struck and thrown up two little piec-
es of sod. / placed the sod in front
Of me, scratched up some lose dirt
with my hand, and placed by the sod
to hide my head from view on the
left. The enemy had some machine
guns left not more than 200 yards
away. The sods in front Of me were
not high enough to hide my pack
from the enemy. After | had fired
a few shots from that position, they
soon located me. Every time ! would
move the enemy would send vol
ley Of machine bullets after me.
got several good shots while / was
there. / am positive / knocked off
one Dutchman. About one minute
later, bullet hit the right side of
the crown Of my helmet. It knocked
a hole in the helmet, but the bullet
glanced off and never touched me
! began thinking had snapped with
the Dutchman, man for man. When
| found was not really hurt laugh.
ed out loud. The Dutchman contin.
ued to make it interesting for me fol
some time-every time | moved he
would give me shower of machine
gun bullets. ortunately / was not
hit. After / had been in that posi-
ton for an hour or more all became
quiet. / then got up and ran back
to where the remainder of the men
were in the front line, and got in a
shell hole. Sergt. Cristenberry soon
came to me. He had bullet through
his helmet which had skinned a small
place on the back of his head. He
had a much narrower escape than /
We laughed for a few minutes and
then began digging our holes bit
larger, so we could be more com.
Portable. After we had been al
work for few minutes / raised my
head and looked to the front. / saw
q Dutchman walking up railroad
track in valley about 200 yards in
front of us, / told Christenberry
about it. The sight Of my rife had
been somewhat damaged BY a piece
Of shrapnel, SO that ! couldn't ele-
vate my sights. told 'Christenber-
ry to do the shooting and l would
call shots for him (tell him whether
he was shooting high, low, to the
right or to the left, of if he was ring
ing the belly. After the first shot
the Dutchman stretched his coat-tail
behind him. They all wear a long
overcoat. There were six or more of
them showed themselves on the rail
road tracks. Each man would start
walking as thought he did not know
what had happened to his friend only
a few minutes before. / don't think
there was a single man out Of the
number that escaped with whole
skin, and some Of them never moved
after they fell to the ground. Dur
ing all that time there was no shoot
ing at US, SO we could raise up and
shoot as deliberately as we pleased
he tide had changed. For thirty
minutes before this time we could not
-aise our heads three inches from
the ground without being fired at.
Christenberry and / had some real
sport that morning He still speaks
Of the morning we were in the shell
holes together.
We were relieved that night by
the LIST battalion. We followed up
in reserve for three days, and then
went back to bury dead bodies. We
would gather the bodies of all the
Allies we found and carry them to a
graveyard and bury them. The
Chaplain was there and he would
conduct the services. The men
would then be buried with each mans
name printed on cross and placed
at the head of his grave. We would
bury the dead of the enemy in any
convenient place to get rid of them.
n