The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1919-04-30
Second InstaIment.)

We passed ON through the village
in the direction of our objective, but
none too soon; the Germans began
pouring shells into the village, think
ing we had taken up permanent resi-
dence there. After leaving the vii.
lage we were without shelter and x
posed to heavy fir from both field
and machine guns. A Large shell
struck within iour fGet OF me, the
wind from it nearly upsett..lg HE. 1t
made a hole in the ground where it
entered and the smoke spouted out
like a young volcano. 1t was a 'dud,...'
had it exploded, the war would
have been over for me. Many of the
German shells failed to expl6Je,. poor
materials used in their manufacture,
suppose.
Here Fat, who had kept with us,
fell. One of the boys asked him his
trouble. "Oh, they got me in the leg
he drawled in his usual tone of voice.
Ore Of the boys offered to help him
with first aid but he said he could do
it himself, so We left him.
Our tanks were meeting with dis
aster. The Germans seemed ito have
their number and,swere making direct
hits again~and again counted elev-
en- Of them out OF commission. AS we
nesred tint shell-torn road we were
swept by machine-gun fire again and
again. Suddenly one of our sergeants
raised his rifle and fired into the
branches Of a large tree on the other
side of the road. At the creek of the
rifle down came German machine
gunner with a crash, his comouflaged
helmet rolling to the middle Of the
road. We examined the location.
Jerry had taken an old cellar door
up into the tree for a platform for
his light machine gun and disguised
it with branches. He had a deadly
fire on the road and got many of our
boys as they thied to cross This
road had proven fatal to the Germans
also; it was literally strewn with
dead Germans, where they had. been
caught in our barrage while retreating
down it, We now established line,
using an old German trench, which we
repaired. We remained here the rest
OF the day
We ate our reserve rations and
drank the last of the water
One of our airplanes came over,
flying low, and shot a rocket of three
stars, meaning where are you?' We
all arose and waved our rifles; he
answered with single star, under
Stood and back he went to inform
the artillery. There was no further
infantry action that day, although the
big guns kept hammering away 1T
each other most of the time We kept
concealed as much as possible. The
mon of the automatic rifle squads had
Shot away most of their ammunition
These rifles were of French make, and
shot only French ammunition. There
were several German light machine
guns lying about with plenty of am
munition and the boys gathered them
up and soon mastered the operation
Of them, and used them later, too.
That night, those of our officers
safe, strengthened us out as best they
could, getting us back to our proper
company and distributing US evenly
along the line. We kept 2 patrol out
in front to prevent a surprise by the
enemy. A while before daylight the
word was passed down the line to be
in on the posts; the Germans were
coming. The fog had not yet lifted,
but we could dfmly see the gray uni
formed Germans coming up ravine.
We opened on them with rifle and ma.
chine.gun fire; their own machine
guns. They gould not face it, but
broke and run. We looked al one an
other, and grinned. After few min.
utes we started over, but were met
with such a CALLING machine-gun fire
were falling fast, it was simply sui.
eide to stand up, so we were ordered
to lie down. We were in field of
standing grain and the bullets were
fairly moving the crop. was flat
tened out on the ground as close as
could possibly lie, but my combat
coat, containing nothing but my rain
coat and shovel, was shattered with
bullets.t 1t was sensation all ito
own, bullets going through ones pack
and cutting the grain down upon one
Word was passed along the line to
fall back upon the old position. We
were glad to get away. The wounded
were left until darkness gave us a
chance to get them off After dark
I've advanced about hundred yards