The daily morning oasis., 1919-02-13
A Marine FROM.
Continued from First Page)'

dropped bombs,- but no carnage was
done.
We camped in the woods four
days, waiting orders to move up to
the line. On the last day Captain
Cochrane, commander of our COM
pany, gave US non-coms battle In
structions.. The marines were Ito go
over the top first, followed by the
Ninth and Twenty-third Infantry.
The Sixth Regiment of Marines was
on our left, and the Eighty-ninth
Division on our right. Our battalion,
the First, was the assaulting bat
talon.
The same day General Comerall.
General Lejeune, and General Neville
made addresses to the marines. Gen
eral Neville said that this drive was
to be the biggest drive made so far
and it was to be preceded by the
biggest barrage ever sent over. Oul
battalion's objective was at a poin'
seven Elometers from the starting
point.
On the night of October 80 We
were marched up to another wood
only short distance from the firing
line. No sooner than getting dug in
the Germans shelled the road we
came over, and all night their shells
came over, but none hit our camp. II
was on Halloween night that We
moved up to the line. Orders were
for no noise above whisper.
We took our place in the line and
dug in. We waited for the barrage
to start. We did not have to wait
long when the American barrage
started, and it was terrific. Then
the Germans put over a counter bar
rage, and we lay dug in between the
two. Many of our men were hit, and
a shell struck close to me, covering
me with dirt.
Five-thirty was the zero hour when
the barrage was to lift It seemed
an awful time coming. We advanc-
ed in three columns. Everything
went all right until we advanced in
to Heine machine gun nest. It got
many of our men before our machine
gunners put it out of commission.
Our captain and platoon commander
were both killed. We drove right on
and made our objective ahead of
time. The Germans surrendered by
the wholesale, and it was good to see
the Germans on the run with. the
Marines at their heels. Our regi-
ment gained their objective about 8
o'clock p. m. the same day; and from
there on we followed in support. All
the time we were under terrific
shell fire, and it was quite a strain.
Nothing to eat for many days but
hard tack, and sleeping in mud and
water every night. On November
9th there were only about 80 out of
$50 men left in our company. Sick
ness put most of them in the hos
pital.
With only a small percentage of the
men left we received orders one night
to move into line again. On the night
OF November 10th we moved up un-
der cover of darkness. They told us
we were to make a charge across the
Mouse River crossing on pontoon
bridges, and following that to clean
out wood. The old timers said it
was the worst the Marines had ever
been in. In the face of the German
artillery and machine guns we got
across, but many of our men were
killed, and it was a miracle that any
of us got across.
The Second Engineers threw two
pontoon bridges across just before
we reached the waters edge. A Ger
man shell destroyed one, so we made
it on the other. I went on nearly
waist deep in the water, and we all
got soaked; but the excitement was
too much for us TO mind the wet and
cold. There wasn't an acre of ground
that the Germans did not hit. It