The Butler weekly times and the Bates County record. (Butler, Mo.) 1918-1950, 1919-02-13
The Ammunition Train.
From The Stars and Stripes.

From The Stars and Stripes.
Now that the armistice is in gooG
working order. there is no harm i,
admitting that life for the men of the
ammunition trains was not, in all
strictness, a flowery bed of ease
And yet this newspaper has beer
asked time and again, What is al
ammunition trai t.. 1t is reason
able question. for The ammunition
train, in its present high state of de
velopment and utility. is as much d
product Of the War Of IoI4-Io18 a.
are gas masks and Hindenbur.
lines.
1t is complete military unit. Gre
ated by the demands of modern war.
fare, with its own battalions, horse
and motor, its own headquarters de-
tachments and its cwa personnel and
supply units.
The purpose of tie ammunition train
is to haul ammunition, to haul it
from the ammunition dump-usually
at night---to the batteries or to the
Infantry. 1t is a-true gypsy outfit
travelling here and there over the
front, always under sume kind of
shelfirc. camping wherever possible
with true regard for safety of horses
trucks ard men and ior the distance
from those batteries which it feeds.
1t is probably the most widely
scattered outfit in the Army Its
motor trucks range from the coast
to as far front as the roads will per-
nit; and the motor companies them
selves, OF course, are widely scat
tered. So are the horsed companies,
though not so much. as they work
up close behind the front. as a rule,
in a single sector.
Excitement? Here are few high
spots j /: the career Of one horsed
company which might apply with
equal f:c,!ity to any one of the 9th
erS.
Its Introduction To shellfire- was
made early one morning after all al
night march in Geld rain. The
COMPANY turned into shell-wrecked
village for the day. canouflaged its
wagons, tied its horses in the houses
and then tried to get some. sleep
amid the ruins, with shells bursting
in the town and over it. The Ger
mans were trying hard for battery
on the heights above the town. and
as is usual in cases OF This kind. :hc
innocent had to suffer
In the evening The Company took
to the traffic-choked road again and
moved up front, CLEAR up, past its
supply bases, past its heavy artillery,
4. 1>a< thn aud th,rI 1,,,c
trenches. close to the Jumping
place for the Americans in the Ar
gonne fight. And there. in the midst
of a thick woods. pi'1cd deeply with
shell holes, and with no roads, it was
to camp at 10 o'clock at
night
When the Infantry moves up. the
Artillery, of course, follows, and the
train tags right alons
behind And it gets full share OF
There was the time at IVORY. for
instance. a few days after the Ar
over a plank road. winding over
hill, within full view of the German
balloons. Shells fell
when the men first struck that road
and kept falling, first on one side of
the highways and then the other.
splashing the riders and caissons
with mud and dirt.
At the batteries the men worked
getting out the shells. and
then whipped their horses through
the screeching blasts. escaping un-
scathed. Here it was that the cap
tain of this particular company. a
veteran of Cuba, China and the Phil
ppines, rode his horse deliberately
20 the top of a little knoll with full
view of the balloon and within ma
:hine gun or sniping distance and
,alted there. encouraging his toiling
men. until the last one had passed.
There was the time, on the Verdun |
ront, when men and caissons, re-
urning in the early morning from a
rip and riding in comparative safe
y along a road, suddenly were gal
anized into quivering breathlessness
" a parachute star shell that flung
IS binding glare directly over them,
nd then, an instant later, the roar
f Boche plane was heard.
With an appalling crash, he swept
own along the road, working his
,achine gun like mad, and the men
lst sat there in silence and took it,
tatching the little spurts of flame
art up from the stones at their
orses' feet. That was the toughest
art of it. taking the Boches' hell
'ithout being able to fight back