The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1919-01-01

after we had things lined up Fritz be-
gan to welcome us with a couple Of 2"
high explosive and gas shells. He drop
ped about 80 shells all around us. How
can tell He was trying 70 hit the am
munition dumps at Charpentry but his
shells were all falling short. After mid
| II is rather uncomfortable IRVINE to
| sleep with gas mask on, but after q
| 20 mile hike fellow can sleep win any
kind of chance, gas mask or not. Well
about 3 a. m. my bunkie woke me up
and said, do you hear that damned
| Dutchman?' I listened and Fritz had
| two planes over us. He made us pres
gods, but. those cans sure do have an
awful kick. We We're half covered witch
dirt and through it all not a man was
hurt The next morning ,.l,ag We ,. started t. e
giving us a little, more welcome, shrap-
mel and whiz bangs fell all around and
right into us. A piece Of shrapnel as
big as your han M RnocSed me cod as "a
top and dented it in a half inch or more.
Another piece hit me on the shoulder
and tore my coat a little but didn't hurt
me otherwise Six seconds later ANOTHER
shell Knocked one of my fellows off and
crippled another. To say that / wasn't
scared would be the biggest lie ever
told. But we kept on digging and by
night were very well protected. The
roads. took my platoon to the section
assigned to it which was the farthest
up on the front. The shells came so
thick and fast that it was impossible
to dodge them and we soon got SO we
didn't pay any attention to them. 1t is
quite a stunt to keep bunch of men
working when they have gas masks and
rifles strapped to them and the shells
breaking all around. / had two miles of
road to keep in repair and keep. the
traffic open on used to think had
seen traffic thick on some of our city
streets in the states, but never in my
that went over our section of road for
two days and nights, just before the
big drive started on November list. Ev-
cry kind of truck, wagon, auto. motor
cycle, gun, troops and tractor ever, made
was on that road during that time, and
Just as close together as they could be.
Both nights it rained and when any
thing got stuck in the mud regardless Of
what II was, we had to either .n pun them en-,
Instructions were to take orders from
no one but to keep traffic open regardless
of costs About O'clock the night Of
ped four : 4 bombs on US, one Of them
struck the road right in the center and
made q hole about ID feet across ana 8
feet deep. 1t was about a half mile.
from Epinonville, SO grabbed four emp
ty trucks as they came along through
town and loaded them with rocks from
one Of the wrecked buildings and in 18
minutes after the bomb hit I had traf-
fic moving again. Then when our guns
opened up about 1:30 the next morning
Fritz let us alone and started for the
Rhine After dinner November LIST, l
was relieved and believe me when / got
into my bunk I slept like a dead man
for 16 solid hours. The next morning
we got orders to move. " was ral'iii I,
as usual and the mud was almost knee
deep, but we started UP the line for \
place near Romagne Talk about our
old camp being hot, this new one sure
was warm one i made q shack out
Of two thicknesses of 3x10 plank and
after salvaging stove and setting it
up we were well fixed
The French had two anti aircraft guns
about 200 feet from our camp and FRITZ
used to like to come over and try his
luck at hitting them with his big cans.
1t was some sight one night three Gar
man planes came over and four big
search lights turned on them anu Tie I. n
craft guns opened up. The planes were
low and they opened up with their ma
chine guns. Never will I see anything
like 1t again. The two guns near )
were each putting Is shots a minute in
to those planes and all of a sudden one
OF them burst into flames anu cams
crashing to the earth. It fell about a
half mile from camp and both men were
dead. The other two planes turned Dack
for their lines and things got quiet
again. All during that little battle