Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-03-08
BISON MAN BACK
 FROM TRENCHES
 WITH WAR CROSS
,(Continued from page one.)


 French division. And before going tip to take over sector of the front line, Rogers was assigned as laison man for the medical detachment of his regiment.
 "I didn't get a chance to kill any body that I know of" he said. My work, after we got in the first fight was with the medical detachment, and we wore a red cross on our sleeves, and were not armed. But once l got back with the artillery boys and fired two shots of the big guns and maybe 1 got some one" His account of the manner in which his regiment took over the sector is indeed graphic. We marched all night" he said, land it was raining and muddy most of the time Our packs got so heavy that they galled our backs, and the mud was so thick that we could hardly pull our feet out Of it to put them down again. Besides that, it was awful dark and roads were blocked so often with traffic. And besides all of that, we were be- ing constantly shelled by the enemy. I reached the sector we were to take over.
 "The trenches were full of rain and mud, and the dug-outs were worse. We had to pile up in the top hunks for the bottom was so deep in water that We couldn't say on the floor. Then, too, the water seeped down through the top of the dugout and we had to cover with ponchos and shelter halves to keep the water off, Twice l saw some good dug outs. They had electric lights installed, and were almost water proof, having concrete walls, and other conveniences."
 When asked if these were German dug-outs which they had taken over, he said, 'INo, they were French trenches. We never used the German dug-out, for their opening is of course toward the retreating Germans, and they fire. right back into the mouth of it."
 In describing how it felt to so over the top, he said: "The first time l went over the top was in the Cham palgn district, during the German of fensive in July.
 Horror of Wounds.
 You feel no fear You only hope that when you get hit, whatever hits: you will kill you instantly-you have a horror of being wounded and suf- ering.
 "Everybody believes that he is go- ing to be killed and every one be- comes resigned to it, and when you go over, there is no fear"
 When his regiment first took over their sector, he stated that the al- lied lines and the German lines were so close together that he could hear them scraping and cleaning their equipment.
 T was surprised,' he said. "There seemed to be nothing doing, and 1 asked some of the boys about it,
 Stick around, Buddy they said something will happen"
 And it did. The Germans began their offensive. We knew what hour they were coming, and we beat them to it. Their artillery was pounding, and screaming, but ours was answer. ing. At o'clock they came, but we were waiting, and we drove them back. It was slaughter. I saw the field later. You could walk across it, stepping from one body to another without stepping on the ground. Piled Up Dead.
 They started across, but they went back. You could SC them, hanging to the barbed wire like scraps paper blown against a wire fence.
 "The big shells were fearful Their power was so great. Often a big one would land some distance from me- and the brains, and blood, and skin and bowels of some of my buddies would be blown against my face, and their entrails wrap around my lags.
 ''The suffering was intense. l saw one lad in an awful shape. How long have you, been here, 'Buddy?' l asked -Four days, he answered. But the war was not all suffering and horror. Rogers stated that the boys always found way to employ themselves, and never let an oppor- tunity to do so go by.
 ''The French,"~ he said, like our boys very much. And they don't think our boys steal. But those doughboys will steal anything. One boy killed a hog on the march, and every man who could cut off little of the meat did so. And wine! The French would leave everything open, and the dough- boy would religiously steal it.
 Tobacco Was Scarce.
 Tobacco was the hardest thing for us to get while we were brigaded with the French. There would be just a few sacks to a squad, and we would divide it with teaspoons.
 II had some chewing tobacco sent to me, but the first sergeant got to it first, and l think the captain help ed him chew it, because when I asked for permission to speak to the captain about my tobacco, the sergeant just laughed and said I didn't have any tobacco, and l guess l didn't"
 Corporal Rogers stated that he had not been paid in il moths. He was asked how he got along without it. "A soldier does't need any money he said.
 He sailed from France the latter part of February, and after being