Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-23
No Wonder
Germany Quit
BY MAJOR FRANK G. MAIIIN
OF the Army Recruiting Station
NUMBER FIFTY-FOUR

THE scouts life was not happy
one in the trenches. He had to go
out into No Mans Land at dusk and
stay there till dawn, rain or shine,
hot or cold, maybe to get caught
in a barrage laid down not only pN
the Boche but by our own guns,
shot at by rifles, pistols, machiuc
guns and hand grenades. All OF this
they didn't mind so much, but one
thing they did hate and that was
the Boche light Minnie (trench
mortar). The Minnie threw a shell
weighing about pound and a half
for a distance of approximately q
mile. And that blamed 1ittlet shell
could be dropped with beautiful az
curacy just where they wanted 1t
and when it hit it burst with n
sharp, penetrating crack that made
every nerve in your body jump
know and speak from experience.
Now the Boche had bunch of So
called listening posts and when Ole
of these posts heard one of our
patrols he would shoot in a signal
star and within about a minute the
Minnies would start dropping ali
over that part of No Mans land.
Then was the time to do a sprint
for the nearest dugout. And the
worst of it always was that once
you got to running you always got
real good and scared, in fact the
faster you ran the worse scared you
got. In one place right on the edge
of No Mans Land was a deep dug
out with q very step stairs anu
when the patrols would get caught
by the Minnies anywhere near that
dugout, everyone instantly departed
for that place. There was consId-
cradle wire in front of the dugout
but by the time they would get
that far they were all so scared they
were really volplaning through the
air and simply scared unbeknown
over such things as barb wire en-
tanglements. The first man to the
entrance would literally dive head
first down those step stairs and
each one followedd using those first
in as cushions to break his fall.
Once in the dugout and breath re-
covered it was all a huge joke and
everyone would lie there and laugh
like q lot of idiots. AS soon as the
Boche got tired sending friend Mir
ME over calling on us, out the pa
troll would go. Perhaps before they
got into the Boche lines the same
performance would be gone through
with again. Frequently they woulG
actually get into the Boche lines
before the Minnies would arrive aid
in that case our boys sure had u
chance to laugh, for all the sweet
little Minnies would go calling ont
in No Mans Land where nobody
was and the Boche wouldn't know
the Yanks were in their trenchcs.
Then were the times the patrols
made up for all their past unpleas-
ant experiences and they would
have the time of their lives max
ing life unpleasant for the Bocho
garrison of that particular trench
sector.
But sometimes the Hun would get
so exasperated he would drop Min
nies for half a mile back in our
trenches and just generally sprinkle
the landscape all night long. Abors
o'clock one morning l was walk
ing along q path through the woods
thinking intently about something
miles away and not paying the least
attention to the Minnies bursting
on the other side of a little ridge.
The thing that brought me to life
was when a Minnie hit tree rig hit
over my head. 1t never touched m .
but tore up my runner pretty badly
who was following fifteen or twenty
feet behind. About one-twentieth ot
q second after that Minnie hit l was
spread -eagled just as fiat on the
ground as it was humanity possible
to get and that is some fiat. About
every second Minnie burst either on
the ground around me or in the
air when they hit trees. Suddenly
I heard, even above the Internal
cracking of the SHELLS, the thud of
hobnailed shoes hhnning and run
ming fast OF course l was right lh
the path and that fool was running
aling the path through utter black
ness. Well! with one foot he stepped
on one of my hands. skinning every
knuckle and with the other foot no
Kicked me in the ribs, nearly burst
| ing in half dozen ribs. The unex-
| pected obstacle he hit caused him
to turn somersau1t in the air, but
he landed on his feet, still. running
| and never even slowed up. / came
right up off the ground and started
T, after him with but one idea in my
mind, and that was catch him and
| kick him in the ribs as hard as he
] kicked me, but I never caught him
much to my regret. even though