Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1919-01-29

rival in France. had driven off the bes
of his human fighting machine
AS the early hours of the morning
came on, we could see that thu
Yanks team was making touch dowI
after touch down against the crown
princes veteran iron tossers. Morn
ing found us on the far side of the
'Seventy-flve yard line"
/ A person can think of the past
present and future in but few sec
onds when ones mind is at such &
high pitch. Such thoughts as these
were ours as we made that two kilo-
meter advance.
We were soon in position again
ready to fire. This time we were not
to be disappointed 1t is true that
the moments that we did wait seemed
like hours, but now we could hear the
man at the telephone. What was
passing over that wire we were soon
to know.
1t was but few seconds, and the
skipper" emerged from the tele-
phone dugout and began ;suing fir
ing data. The gun was laid exact
ly by the time the last cipher of the
range reached the gunner corporaPs
ears. We then waited but few sec
onds and the Command fire" was Civ
en- and at the same instant four
sharpnel were on their mission to-
ward Fritz's lines-if we could only
see the effect, but we were too busy
to bother with that now.
The range was changed a couple
of times and the DETECTION was
changed couple of times-then, we
were firing correctly. The barrage
was on. For hours we continued that
hail OF iron on Fritz's lines. When
the gun got hot we would swab the
barrel out with water and then again
get back into the action
| shall never forget the events OF
that next few hours and that night.
They flashed as might a moving pic
ture super-thriller before my eyes.
A shell burst near me and | was
hurled violently to the ground. stunn-
ed by the terrific explosion. was
buried in mud, but when l came to
my right senses, much to my surprise
Il
en- wounded was again back at the
gun.
And so the battle went on-and
with it came night.
Things are mysterious enough in
the day time, but night with it's sus-
plclous darkness makes things even
more romantic and horrible.
Much to our surprise, this war
wasn't bit like the wars we studied
about-neither was it even like the
books that we have read about this
same war. OF all the wonderful
writer's we have, none of them will
even be able to draw pictures in
print that will be vivid enough to
make people realize just what it was
like.
One reason why it took the U. S.
so long. to get in the mix-up was be-
cause Germany had sprung on hui
mainly such an entirely new kind of
war.
Up to August, 1914, war had been
very simple and elementary sort
of affair, much like a fist fight on a
large scale Two rulers got sore at
each other. They got their armies
together and went to it," horse, foot
and dragons; fist, feet and paving
blocks, no holds barred, and the
devil had the man underneath.
Then, man was man and he
fought like man, with the same
ideas. the same ideals, the same
qualities, the same tempers and the
same temperaments that governed
him in civilian life. War didn't
change them. They were the same
men they had been before, only now
engaged in different occupation.
They brought with them the same
virtues and the same vices that had
been theirs before. If their word
had been good before, it was good
now. II they had been kindly and
merciful before, they were the same
now. Women and children did not
enter into those wars-they were the
audience-it was man against man
not brute against child.
Our first war was the revolutions
airy war. Any man that had a squir-
rel gun, pound of shot and horn
of powder just donned his fighting
clothes, went out behind a stone wall
and let fiy-the war was on.
Then came the civil war. | never
could see why they called it a civil
war until / learned little of the in
side stuff on this scrap-it certainly
was a gentleman's war beside this
one. If you We're good runner you
could stay ahead of a cannon ball
that might come rolling your way.
Then came the war with Spain.
That was little rougher. They be-
gan then to use hard and heavy iron
still it din't compare with this war.
If the others were war, | think there
is a word to describe this mix-up.
still not in the long column of
"Webster's Unabridged" In August,
1914. the papers said that war was
declared. They should have said
that the dominion of hell had come
to earth. When Greece was world
empire she thought that the gods
took sides in the wars, especially at
the siege of Troy; and so it seems to
have been in this war; the devil was
with his rival, the kaiser But the
Lord always remained on the side of
humanity. Things looked pretty dark
at times but we knew that victory
was waiting for us at the end
1t was the beginning of the end of