The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-01-19

volume OF roaring sound the guns made
themselves. nor yet the more remote but
terrible crashing OF our shells as they
burst on the German lines which made
the most impression on me. but the
noise they made going over our heads,
tens of thousands OF the noisy birds, big
and little. every one delivering himself
OF hundred "whews' and "shishes" as
he was on his way. They seemed not
more than two feet above us. | wanted
to stick my cane up and touch them
one could actually feel them in ones
hair. The breeze was from the north
when II started. but they made the wind
turn around and blow the other way II
was solid. ten million dollar roof OF
whistling hardware. and not one too
many for the chore.
After an hour or so, we Chose OF US
who could get into 4 deep sap where the
/, era shing roar was somewhat muffled)
went to sleep. have learned men can
and will sleep anywhere.
Assault Lasted Twelve Days.
At 5.25 the assault was launched.
an assault that kept on assaulting so far
as our division was concerned for
twelve days. in which we crossed rivers.
captured towns cut and climbed through
acres and acres OF barbed wire entangle-
ments. stormed slopes and bluffs and
ridges and hills for fourteen kilometers.
all the way facing stubborn and terribly
effective artillery and machine gun fire
Of the Boche
How long was Dante In hell? We
We're in twelve days
saw so much, endured so much.
worried so much | can't remember half
| of il. Some days and every night Il
rained, We slept in holes like foxes.
when we slept, or in'captured Boche dug
| outs. 1t was cold. oh, so cold at night.
wo wished a shell would come along
and end ii, and then II the sun came
| out and thawed us out We were afraid II
would. When We crossed the Dormois
River where IL widened into a swamp.
! the Boche was Smelling industriously
and il looked Ike a hail storm on the
| surface of the water. | saw shells break
| from percussion when they hit the water
| the same as II they had hit the hard
ground Much OF the time we had to
lean over and shout into each others
! ears 10 be heard, then again Il would
| die away apparently.
There were many srewsome sights
| continually before us. l noticed that our
| men and the French when killed gen
orally cuddled up in heap. The Boche,
| however. were all sprawled out. Maybe
| because we were always attacking and
most OF the time Crouched down. Both
our dead and theirs looked like stuffed
| figures oSwaX works, except those mu-
| tilated by Shells We crossed a small
| cemetery. used until few weeks be-
| fore the attack by the civilian COM
mun,ty. Our artillery and theirs had
pounded this spot until the graves were
| literally blown out OF the ground The
dead soldiers Just killed. were by no
means the most revolving sights at this
| terrible spot.
But what's the use? After four days
and nights we gained our second set Of
detectives and surmounted a great ridge
which looked down It's far slope onto the
most wonderful valley and plain dotted
with towns. lakes, chateaus and farms.
This panorama spread out before us for
miles and the sun was as bright as any
| June day.
Here We saw what I'm sure no men
| had seen before. We saw four divi-
sions (twelve regiments) attacking
abreast. with as perfect liaison between
each other as squads could have. They
| coveted a front OF about four miles. Ny
regiment was the centre of our division,
which was the right centre of the four
divisions We could actually see. Our
guns were close behind us and tho Ger
man artillery behind their infantry. And
| what n duel they had-the way artillery
generally fight duels--firing on each
others infantry instead OF on one an
other.
This made double belt OF fame,
smoke. tossed UP men, earth and debris
along our whole front ! shall never,
never forget 1t II ! forget all else In
life. The sky was full OF aero duels,
battles between great escadrilles of
planes and antiaircraft barrages from
ground batteries, ! saw ffty-seven
French planes In one fleet They looked
for all the world like a great flock OF
wild geese on the Missouri flying V
shaped, point in front. At that, II looked
like the Boche planes could come over
at will and by shooting off fireworks In
the air succeed in Jalonning our lines
for their artillery to get the range on
our men.
We were almost constantly in an at