Mountain advocate., 1919-03-28

ny John Catron Jones. Continued
From Issue Of March "a

all his was new. We a int know ex
actly what we were up against, the
stroffing was wicked and every night
the air planes bombed the whole
country around. Days they snooped
around to see where we were; at
night they brought over the iron ra-
tions and dumped them. II is a wick
ed mean feeling to be awakened at
night by the buzz and purr of those
planes, it is a feeling that one can
never get use to. You hear
the thing buzzing over your
head, il seems exactly over
your head, every minute you ex-
pect to hear the explosion right over
your head. It doesn't come perhaps
and then there is more suspense f.
nally when he gets where he thinks
he is in position he drops his load and
flies away. You feel yourself all over
if it comes near and you are happy
to find no wounds. You crawl back
into your bunk and hope for little
sleep. About the time you start doz-
ing the purr Of another motor comes
to your ear and puts you on the alert
again, and you are in for another long
spell Of suspense. They come over
in waves, but when it is all over and
you are sound asleep, crash comes
shell and buzz goes the gas alarm and
up you are again scrambling breath
lessly to get into the mask. If you
have been careful to put it right un-
der your head, but woe unto you if
you haven't. You hold your breath
and make dive or scramble, you
don't know whether the gas has
reached you or not, but you know
one Whit of it is deadly. The longer
you hold your breath the more ner-
vous you get, you know too if you
struck a match it would probably
mean death to you and all your com
rades disclosing your position. That
is how we made our debut in Chau-
teau Theirry front. My Division lost
some, lost pretty heavily as a whole
| think as it was tough patch of
ground fercely contested inch by
inch. After seven weeks of this we
were relieved by the French. We
were pretty well worn out. Food
had been hard to get to some of the
men, all Of us were lousey and dirty
and our clothes were worn badly.
We began to look like soldiers of
combat We got relieved and again
were happy, and now we were sure
ly going out to rest to a town. We
hadn't seem a civilian in ever so long
two nights to get out. Our friends
the planes must have gotten on our
tracks for they followed US and bomb
ed the roads and straffed with ma
chine guns, luckily it was dark and
they could not see their targets well
enough to do serious damage. Next
day we loaded up in trucks and rode
for eighteen hours without sleep or
food, | shall always remember that
night. We stopped at Givery, not so
far from Verdun. Two days rest at
Givery and the order to roll packs
already to move, we were told that
we had about twenty miles to move
that night. With full pack that is
some hike, I'll testify that it was all
of twenty miles we walked, eight con
secutive, hours with eight minutes
rest between each hour, | swear to
this day / don't know how we ever
did it, but only two men fell out on
the entire hike. A little coffee that
morning a few hours sleep, some beef
and coffee then we were ordered to
load our guns and go into the lines.
1t was late in the p NJ. before We got
the final word to move and we arrived
at our destination, that is, where our
dump was to be, with full packs, after
having walked five hours, we should
cred machine guns, tripods and am
unition, carried them three kilometers
took positions in the front line and
of course some of the men had to
stand guard all night. This was IN
the Argonne wood before the drive
began.
By careful work the Americans
had secreted about two hundred
men and thousands of pieces
of artillery without the Germans
knowing it, The French had been in
there and were allowed a few out
posts to be held by small detachments
of French whose blue uniforms is
very easily recognized. The usual
amount of artillery exchanged but
no more. Things went on as usual.
We kept under cover, the new artil-
lery got into place but never fired "A
shot for five ar six days. This prep
aration went on and then on the night
of September the 25th, about IL o.
Al, nnnv,nI Tho