The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1919-01-02

men came up. l have never heard how
the fellow came out. 1t is impossible to
get aid to all the fellows and many die of
wounds, who might be saved if medical
attention could get to them. The medical
department is doing wonderful work here
and facing the firing with the doughboys,
but they cannot get to everyone. That
second afternoon we ran into our biggest
bunch of machine nests and snipers. The
machine guns arouse little fear and the
boys treat them with comparative indif-
ference. They figure that the chances of
getting hit are very small, and it is poor
sport who will not take chance. We
cleaned them out with very little trouble,
although there were several close calls.
think the worst day put in was the sixth
day out. We had advanced about Is kilos
up to noon and had reached the top of a
high hill which gave us a grand view of
the country. We rested here about one
half hour and ate few hardtacks. While
we were eating, a Jerry airplane flew
casually over and took a good look at us.
Believe me, we knew what to expect.
There was nothing to do. We were out
in the open and in plain sight. We got
orders to advance very soon after and
proceeded down over the front side of the
w Q udd Iid1uiy SoC w" IL WhCA tuO
shells began to arrive. Talk about duck
could. About all one can do is to fall
prone wherever he is and trust to luck
that the shrapnel does not bear his name.
We got the most shelling there of any
place we had been. Some of the boys
were very badly cut up. was following
lucky star On that trip. One she'll came
between me and another chap and was so
close could feel it's heat and the force of
its explosion. | was standing up when it
came but fell before it exploded. The
shrapnel peppered the trees and ground
but all l got was a good coat of mud.
The other chap got piece of shrapnel in
the fleshy part of his leg. 1t went in one
side and came out the other He will be
in the hospital for some time. The boys
had to carry him for day and night on
a stretcher to a hospital. Such is the
luck of war; The worst effect of shrapnel
has been blood poisoning, which resulted
often in ockjaw. However, the Ameri-
can Medical Corps have a serum which
has practically eliminated this danger.
We dug in there and stayed until late
afternoon. In the meantime it began TO
rain and for the next two days it came
continuously and most of the time in tor
rents. We had no shelter or cover; we
were soon chilled to the bone. We were
expecting relief but as usual it was not
to be had. That night we dug into the
side of a hill again for the Jerrys were
still after US. | can tell you that we all
had springs in our beds for the next few
nights Every time we dug hole it
would fill up with water, but there comes
a time when clothes can't hold any more
wateT--so why worry. About 10 o'clock
that night we got orders to move again.
We had hardly slept at all for three nights
and had scarcely any food since the drive
started. We had orders TO establish
division line between Stonne and another
town, the name | have forgotten-we
will call it X. The mud from there on
was all French mud is supposed to be. 1t
is anywhere from few inches deep to
halt way to the knee 1t sticks and ac-
cumulates so that in a short time one
is carrying quite piece of real estate on
his lower extremities When we started
for town X out of the original company
of 100 we had only 20 men. Some were
ost for good, others were wounded, but
many were dropping out from physical
exhaustion. Other companies in the
battalion were in about the same cond-
/ lIOil, 81 tISy put lHttl! dIl TO one COUl-
pany and advanced. We reached town
X about one o'clock and were the first
troops to arrive there. The Germans
had left that afternoon. The way the
people greeted US was a caution. The
battalion headquarters were the first in
the town and the women came out with
hot coffee and bread They hugged the
boys and were SO over-joyed that it was
impressive. If the people at home could
only see these poor old French people
bent over with age and living a life of
misery for four years when they should
be living as any peace-loving people want
to live. The Germans had maltreated
everyone here as elsewhere. One old
lady had a terrible wound on her head
where she had been hit by a, German
Everything these people had to offer was
ours if we would have taken it, but of
course we we're not allowed to, even
though the bread looked as no other ever
has to me.
| We had marched through the town to
the other side to make contact with the
outpost of the 18th division who had ad-
vanced on our left. At the foot of the
street we found the street filled with
bodies where the Germans had mined the
road and our boys walking had exploded
the mine and killed many. We made a
detour and hit the road further on and it
was filled with craters caused by shell
fire The German machine guns were
just ahead and were raking the road with
their bullets. Occasionally they would
send up rockets to illuminate the road so
as to see if troops were passing. Pres
emily they spotted US and we heard the
tat t-tat-tat of the machine gun on one side
and then on the other. They have WON
derful system OF signals, and soon the
artillery opened up on us. From there
on it was a case of move on until we
could hear the whistle of a shell and then
flop. You can imagine what we looked
like but we were not on dress parade.
We reached our objective and established
our line about 3 o'clock and fortunately
no one had been shot up. We were told
to dig in for the remainder of the night
and sleep. There was little sleep but we
were glad to get chance to rest. The
next day cleared and we were glad to get
dried out That day was the climax of
our hardships. Although we continued
to drive until we reached Rancourt, things
seemed to be better for US and we felt
like new men to see the sun out again.
We found RAncourt to be quite fine
city, We stopped there day to get rest
ed up and our division established their
headquarters there. The people were as
overjoyed to see US as they were in other