The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1919-04-25
and many fights took pace between

them.
Zone night we world send over
trench-rniding party and the next night
over would come Fritz.
'"There was a certain part Of our
trench nicknamed Death alley, and the
company which held 1t was sure to
click it hard In casualties. In five
nights in l clicked for three recon-
noItering patrols.
"John French--he was lance cor
pornl then--was In charge OF our sec
ton. This was before i went to ma
chine gunners' school and transferred
to this outfit. This French certainly
was an artist when 1t came to scout
ing In No Mans land. He knew every
inch Of the ground out In front, and
was like cat-he could see in the
dark.
ION the night that he won his D. G.
M. he had been out IN front with 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 cut in front,
and our captain gave orders for an
other patrol to 60 out and investi-
gate.
Corporal Hawkins was next on the
fist for the Job, but, blime me, he sure
had the wind up, and was shaking and
trembling like dish Of jelly.
"A new leftenant, Newall by name,
had Just come out from Bllghty, and
pretty fine officer, too. Now, don't you
chaps think because this chap was
killed that say he was good off,
Ger, because, dead or alive, you would
have to go 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 would deem it favor If I
could go In his place.
"Now, don't think that Hawkins was
coward, because he was not, for the
best of us are liable tc get the shakes
at times. You know, Hawkins was
killed at La Bassee couple of months
ago-killed while going over 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
was dry-ran parallel with the Ger
man barbed wire. Lining the edge OF
this ditch was a scrubby sort of hedge
which made fine hiding place for
patrol. Why Fritz had not sent out
working party and done away with
this screen was mystery to us.
French leading. followed by Leften-
trailing behind, we crawled through a
sap under our barbed wire leading out
to listening post In No Mans land
We each had three bombs Newnll
carried revolver-one Of those
Yankee Colts-and his cane. Blime me
believe that officer slept with that
cane. He never went without it. 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 star
shell.
Reaching the listening post French
told us to wait about five minutes un-
til he returned from 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 q
sound around the listening post. Sud
ly voice, about six feet on my right
whispered, All right the way is clear
follow me and carry on
my blood froze In my veins. Il
was uncanny the way French ap
preached US without being heard.
''Then, with backs bending low, ou
Of the listening post we went, in thu
direction of the ditch In front of tn,
German barbed wire. We reached ths
scrubby hedge and lay down, about sill
feet apart, to listen. French and thu
officer were on the right of our line
About twenty minutes had elapsed
when suddenly, directly In front Of tn,
German wire we could see dark, shad