Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-02-02
Shell Hits Church Roof.

In Yonca. however, was standing
near our field kitchen by d French
mother Pop Davis. the cook, had just
given her some coveted white bread and
she had divided il mong her little FAM
| lily. when here came the scream of a
shell and the roar as it exploded. prob
ably block or so away. And the Loo;
OF terror not unmixed with anger. that
/ saw in that mothers eyes, tn. little
s.irl of about four years who clutched
her mothers skirts and began 10 cry,
and the way the woman lowered her lit
tie family about her. helpless. though
she was-well. when you have such pic
ture in your mind it don't DO Fritz much
good to holler ''kamerad!' Another thing
which didn't help any came about five
nninuteS later when shell hit the roof
of the church on the big hill just above
me and the slate was coming down for
the next half hour.
And ! am glad and proud to say
that when the end came it found the
18th Field Artillery right up on the
front. with every battery in position
and every gun warm. You who took
part in the big demonstrations back
home will find it hard to believe me
when tell you that we soldiers on
the front. SO far is I observed, made
absolutely no demonstration. I do not
remember hearing SO much as one
cheer, and about the only differences
hang a blanket over the window at
night before we lit a candle. We
got the news of the armistice by wire
less about $3.50 am. on the 18th, and
an hour later heard what was prob
ably the last shrieking shell that ]
stable, and about daylight Fritz put
over a few for luck, but they hit just
beyond the town and did no damage.
That afternoon a corporal (''Whitey''
Cowsert) and went down to the
Mouse river and took a swim in it,
while a group Of Heinies watched us
wonderfngly, for the water was some
cold There had been an attack about
daylight that day in which our artil-
lery had fired barrage, and the 9Th
Infantry had forced its way across
the Mouse just below Mouzon. But it
had not been. q, b1oodless victory, and
we saw at least fifty boys in olive
drab, lying just as they fell in the
last hours of the great war, their
bodies hardly cold.
Naturally there was much speou1a-
ton as to what our next move would
be, but in a few days we got orders
ito be prepared to move north" and
then ve knew what was coming. Six
days after the armistice was signed
We began our march to the Rhine. At
first the road was Uttered with all
the debris Of war, just as we had
found it along 50 many marches be-
fore. Hundreds and hundreds of
shells, German helmets, discarded
clothes. empty haversacks, she'll
splintered caissons. broken-down wag-
ons. snlashed-up motor trucks with
iron tires, speaking of Germanys
rubber shortage; thousands Of yards
of machine gun belts, usually loaded
hand grenades lying all about-only
junk over here, but worth a million
dollars if placed on the American
souvenir market just then. We soon
got out OF the war zone, however, and
entered Belgium nearGerouville about
noon the third day. The whole town
came out to meet us, with banners
and evergreens, and village band,
which for four years had kept it's in
struments hidden from the Germans.
All through Belgium we found the
streets decorated, and 1t was at once
pleasant and pitiful to see how they
had taken bits of cloth and made
American hags by sewing red and
white strips on to a. patch of blue. or
taken colored paper or colored inks
to show their regard for our national
emblem.