The sun., 1919-04-13

ROUNDED. 10 make sure tndt hc Sot
us and to prevent help from reaching
us the enemy during the night wired
the hill in our rear and manned the
position with a strong garrison OF
machine gurners. We had no rations
now. In f., t, on account Of the ra-
pidity Of ouv progress the men had had
PRACTICAL only one ration for the
four preceding days There was very
little OF . pleasant nature to look for
ward to. But there we were. And our
orders being to hold to the last man,
there would We stay.
Our troops came UP from the rear
the next day and battled their way up
to the wire. Those damned machine
guns got in their deadly work and the
attack failed. We knew, however,
that they would keep at 1t until they
reached US, so We sat back and waited.
I'VE hadn't waited long when the
Boche attacked again. They started
with a machine gun barrage on our
rear and supplemented it with a cou-
pie Of trench mortar batteries, giving
US a mighty merry time of it.
I'VE were beginning to notice our
| lack Of rations now. We had been
drinking water from shell holes. and
though we could feel solid substances
in ii we were thankful to have even
that to drink. The Iu,n were restless
| and We're popping constantly out OF
| their meagre shelters on one mission
| or another. And the Boche was SC
close that branch could not be moved
without attracting a stream Of ma
| chine gun bullets. talked cheerfully
! with the men and distributed the Jew
| cigarettes that remained. They were
| stout hearted fellows, all of them
When told them to Stick to it. boys,
they answered, each post in turn
Don't worry about this post. Wei
stick, all right
'One OF them, Sidney Smith. wa!
shot through the stomach. told hin
he could go over to a safe place. neal
battalion headquarters. He said
why, ] amt hurt enough so I can
still shoot this gun, Lieutenant An
other little chap. Miller, crawled on
into the open after sniper on hi
own initiative. His rife cracked anc
no turned his head and said. I go
him. But he couldn't get back him
self. A Boche sniper got him.
The Strain Tells.
THE strain was beginning to tell OF
the men and their eyes took on an alb
normal. peculiar bulge. We smoked
dried leaves and ate twigs."
After detailing with a humorous
touch how he interviewed a German
prisoner. affecting total indifference,
1 hn xr-hi1 20 tvyn nrti1
lery strafe that 'nearly ruined tn,
whole detachment" and caused tn,
prisoner to squirm in mighty fear
Capt. Cullen described at length on,
Of the five attacks, this time at night
to which the outfit was subjected.
I'VE could hear the Boche around
us shrieking and calling TO each other
and trying to intimidate us with theil
schreckHchkctt. we have the Ameri
cans just where We want them!' they
yelled. They closed in on us. From
the direction of his voice the leader
was just behind my post OF command
"He would call out. 'Eitel.' And 9
voice over TO the left would answer
Her Then: 'Adolph,' Another vote,
now on our front would answer
'Hier!' Then: Sind deiner men da?'-
and the answer: ia Ja!' Then tn,
son or gun would shout: ALE
zusammen. (all together)-and there,
upon 1t seemed that the law OF gray
lily had been reversed and everything
went up in the air. They simply pilet
high explosive grenades in on us
Their trench mortars rained their In.
fernal shells. We couldn't see them
Of course, due to the heavy brush. an(
waited for them to rush us. Durinr
a lull their leader called out 'Kamerad
will you?'
"He seemed TO think we were read,
to surrender. That was about the las
straw for me.
Come in and get us. you blankety.
blank blank!' yelled at him. uslne
the few cuss words that I knew o,
his rotten language.
! Then we opened fire on where VIC
Judged they were and gave them hell
That settled that little attack. Their,
was blood all around us the next dov
and We knew We got some OF them
"Airplanes circled above us trvine
TO locate our position. 1T was n harG
Job for them, concealed as we xer,
under the trees. One day an aviato,
came down very low. 7 jumped on,
into an open space. and lying on m,
back waved a dirty white towel r.
him. He signalled Understood
was rewarded with a shower OF ma.
chine gun bullets which chirped al
around me. The next day the avIa.
tors tried to drop food to us, but we
could not reach it. Think OF Jerry