The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1919-01-02

ey Juudy, WHO pdiuAIpdttu III ui.2 bdttlt
winter in France is Ike. The at
tack was launched without taxing q
sirgle one Of the really veteran div
isions OF the \. L. F.
What is more, two OF the newly
arrived divisions had never been in
the line before, had never entered
even the Quietest sector, had never
ducked their heads before the ban
shea wall Of a German shell nor
heard an American gun fired in
anger.
One of these two new comers-and
surely this single ia, will Jhrill n
hundred million hearts back home
one of these green divisions, these
Freshmen Of the A. L, r., was met
on the first day by division of the
ce.e1lJ ei Prussian Guard, aud on
that day chased those famous troops
2cross seven kilometers of de-
}as.ated France.
Guns Nsgin to Speak.
1t was 4, 2:30 on Thursday morn
! ing ,hat, from every ridge and hill
it2 from the M9use 10 the Arg2nne,
ao suastbsan to speak. From far
70 the west in Champagne and from
lover the Gus, o. Eerdun .uere had
~ sha sound E. ai5-a-t ...as for
.hree hours past, and now and again
-no Gf our own crcat aha,l7 had gone
owing overhead.
The day had been one OF shifting
clouds and occasional autumEal rain
Ua'a. .,-T Tie INJoA h ~o clear
and the stars were brilliant, but over
he land a heavy white mist lay like
G We cl7.h a sholte"jng mist through
which the ever-thickening traffic
crept silently along the roads that
Gu ~ 49, L,-.-c. eld.
1nen, quite suddenly, all the guns
spoke at once. / was the beginning
Of three hour bombardment whicn
smashed German roads and wires,
mute, German batteries, sought out
AAd pulyesized Ge. nan p. C.'s, iell
Ike q rain of death or moving Ger
man troops, and drove scut.liug un-
der ground all living creatures over
Jherel
No Answer Awakened.
There was no answer II there
had been, it could not have been
heard. For as many mile as ont
cou.G see, b. she myriad, ceacelass
flashes in the night, .ur own guua
ere cursing from every crest and
clumn, At first vou could hear the
54uo If ,ur own shells, the Ccho
from hill to hill, the harsh swishins
The vatcr in the sHamps, the
angrg laytle against the hos6acais
and even, sometimes, the sAyilI
sharp commands, heard like IN.
call signals from some nearby Dat
terry. But as the fury reached il.
cIescendo toward dawn, all thee
over-tones were lost in the instant
succession of the shots
The cargo or many snip, the
strain and sweat OF many 4 steve
dore, the sale Of untold thousands OF
Liberty bonds, the toll of many mil
! lions of devoted hands came into
their own In that D0mbardment.
It's intensity can be estimated from
the fact that the count OF the rounds
fired on one-third of the American.
! front amounted to 10000 from the
larger guns and 10000 from the 5's.
Its sound can be guessed by the
| fact that when, after dawn, the
firing subsidized somewhat and the
batteries were content to shoot only
)ne gun a minute, i, seemed to the
! oilers underneath as though a
;trange, restful hush had settled over
the world. One Of those t0ilers, a
driver on the high seat of an ammu
4ition truck, shivered inside his
ather jacket and confded to his
steering-w
"Oh, Lord, thanks be I'm not Oh
the other end of that noise.
Just before Dawn.
That noise reached its most deaf
eqing climax in the last few minutes
before the zero hour. That is the
period of most painful expectancy,
when anxious eyes follow the creep
ing minute hands on thousands upon
thousands Of synchronized watches.
At $50 the first faint sign Of dawn
would be showing in the east, the
! long waiting would be done, the In
fantry would be UP and over the top.
! And every one behind them, from the
generals to the cooks, knew in his
proud and confident heart that for a
time there would be only one prob
lem. For all the rest, there would
be only the problem of keeping up
with the doughboys
! Then $50 came and an observer,
crouched in such a vantage point,
say, as any one Of those look-outs
which indent the parpapet on the