The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1919-01-02

Just born lucky, is the way Hor-
ace Skinner, member Of the Gas and
Flame unit, who participated in some
Of the heaviest fighting toward the end
Of the great war. explains his escape
from death on a score Of times.
In a letter TO his parents, Mr.. and
Mrs. Frank Z. Skinner. the young sol
der says he has been under fire from
rifles, machine guns. the guns Of aero
planes and from artillery pieces.
big shells have fallen and explod-
ed so close 10 me that. If mad been
anyone else, would certainly have
been killed At least they seemed al
ways To get the other fellow, but some
how | always escaped.
Mr.. Skinner, soon after the intensive
training through which his Organlza-
tionn was put on arrival in France last
March, was detailed 10 carry messages
on a motorcycle. On one occasion, as
ne writes, he was saved by a hunch.
Without any apparent reason he had
alighted from his motorcycle and was
stroIilng aimlessly, when high explo-
sive she'll struck directly under the
machine. totally demolishing it.
81 had to walk back to headquar-
ters." he wrote, where they gave
me another machine. but that incident
made m nervous for several days.
His greatest fright was experienced.
Mr.. Skinner says, when his company
was subjected to bombardment from
aeroplanes returning to their bases
from An air raid on Paris
'One night" he writes. I'VE were
lying in our billets, and nothing over
us except our blankets and the custom
ary red-tiled roof with holes which let
in starlight. bugs and rain. All of a
sudden we heard a she'll burst. We
waited and nobody said word. Then
We heard dull, far away boom. In a
few seconds we heard again the now
familiar rising and falling scream of
another coming over, and then the
sharp crack. as it exploded. For prob
ably 80 minutes they kept them com
ing. The next morning we found they
had been landing half.mile away.
Gee. but We felt cheap.
Mr.. Skinner wonders how on one oc-
casion he escaped bullets Of a machine
gun. which seemed to cut the air with
IN six inches Of his ears.
"We had got so darned close to
Fritz line, is the way he tells the
story, that we could hear the whis-
pering hiss of his machine guns. When
they sound like that they are coming
within six inches of you ears. Further
off they make rather prolonged
sound like drawing out the word
sing" On this occasion Mr.. Skinner
passed through his own barrage.
Describing a drive near Verdun Mr.,
Skinner writes:
"ln that drive | saw men killed,
blown all to pieces. | was blown off
my machine myself by H. E. shells.
One morning as | went up to the com
pany the valley was full of gas. All
of the officers were being sent to the
hospital, and sergeant was in com
mand.
"On the morning our real big often
sive started in this sector. another fell
low and |, following up the infantry,
were going over the top just for fun
and souvenirs. We climbed the steep
north bank of the valley and had a
walked about 10 minutes when the
earth seemed to rise up in front of u
and then fall over on top of us. We
dug ourselves out and found that nei-
ther had sustained a scratch, but right
in front Of US was a hole six feet
across. On the way back she'll struck
Is yards in front of me.
| was riding to battalion headquar
ters one pitch black night when truck
hit me. | was in the hospital for two
days and the machine was in the scrap
heap for eternity.
about November 1--WE moved tC
Brieulle, about 80 miles north of Yer
dun. That is the hottest place was
ever in. Fritz had pulled out all of his
little stuff when he retreated, but the
| big eight and l6 inch stuff Just raineC
into that country. They made {
'woosh sound as they came over; We
couldn't tell where the darned things
were going to light. | saw what wa.
left of one poor guy who had run int(
one of these. One leg was on one side
away on the other side. His head was
hanging by piece of the neck in !
tree. We couldn't find his body. Be
lieve me. they can smear fellow al
over the surrounding country if they
hit him.
The letter describes at length tn,
activities of the Gas and Flame uni
from the time of their arrival at Brest
where they spent their first night sleep
ing on duck-boards in barracks built b,
Napoleon, until their arrival at Verdun
where the letter was written.