The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1919-01-24

them.
zone night we would send over a
trench-raiding party and the next night
over would come Fritz.
'"There was q certain part Of our
trench nicknamed Death alley, and the
company which held it was sure to
click it hard in casualties. In five
nights in / clicked for three recon
noitering patrols.
"John French-he was a lance cor
poral then-was in charge of our sec
ton. This was before l went to ma
chine gunners' school and transferred
to this outfit. This French certainly
was an artist when it came to scout
ing in No Mans land. He knew every
inch Of the ground out in front, and
was like a cat-he could see In the
dark.
"On the night that he won his d. Q.
M. he had been out in front with a pa
troll for two hours, and had just re-
turned to the fire trench. A sentry
down on the right of Death alley re-
ported a suspicious noise out in front,
and u captain gave orders for an
other patrol to go out and investi-
gate.
Corporal Hawkins was next on the
list for the job, but, blime me, he sure
had the wind up, and vas shaking and
trembling like a dish of jelly.
"a new l%eftenant, NewCl1 by name,
had just come out from Blighty, and a
pretty fine officer, too. Now, don't you
chaps think because this chap was
killed that / say he was a good Off
Ger, because, dead or alive, you would
have to go a bloomin' long way to get
another man like Newall. But this
young leftenant was all eagerness to
get out in front. You see, 1t was his
first time over the top. He noticed
that Hawkins was shaky, and so did
French. French went up to the Off
Ger and said:
"'Sir, Corporal Hawkins has been
feeling queer for the last couple Of
days, and 1 would deem 1t a favor If I
could go In his place.
snow, don't think that Hawkins was
a coward, because he was not, for the
best Of US are liable to get the shakes
at times. You know, Hawkins was
killed ut La Bassee IL couple of months
ago-killed while going owe the top.
"There were seven in this patrol
Leftenant Newall, Corporal French, my
self and four more from B company.
"About sixty yards from Fritz's
trench an old ditch-must have been
the bed of a creek, but at that time
dry-ran parallel with the Ger
man barbed wire. Lining the edge Of
this ditch was a scrubby sort of hedge
which made a fine hiding place for
a patrol. Why Fritz had not sent out
a working party and done away with
this screen was a mystery to us.
French leading, followed by Leften-
ant Newall, myself third, and the rest
trailing behind, we crawled through a
sap under our barbed wire leading out
to a listening post In No Mans land.
We each had three bombs. Newall
carried a revolver-one of those
Yankee Colts-and his cane. Blime me,
I believe that officer slept with that
cane. He never went without 1t. The
rest of us were armed with bombs and
rifles, bayonets fixed. We had pre-
viously blackened our bayonets so they
would not shine in the glare Of a star
shell.
Reaching the listening post French
told us to wait about five minutes un-
til he returned from a little scouting
trip Of his own. When he left, we,
with every nerve tense, listened for his
coming back. We could almost hear
each others hearts pumping, but not a
sound around the listening post. Sud-
ly a voice, about six feet on my right
whispered, All right the way is clear;
follow m and carry on
my blood froze In my veins. 1t
was uncanny the way French ap-
preached us without being heard.
'1Then, with backs bending low, out
Of the listening post we went, In the
direction of the ditch In front Of the
German barbed wire. We reached the
scrubby hedge and lay down, about six
feet apart, to listen. French and the
officer were on the right of u line.
About twenty minutes had elapsed
when suddenly, directly in front of the
German wire we could see dark, shad-
-