Cheyenne record., 1919-04-03

at an our tunnels were Ghot fun of
holes and q sieve was WatsrtiGht COM
pared 10 them.
Naturally ~ were not Just taking
all this punishment without any come
back. Our guns were at It fast and
from the way the IRE slackened in
certain places We knew We were max
ing II effective. Ny guns did for two
enemy pieces that I know Of. and per
haps several others.
The French sarbies were q good
deal more excited in action than I
thought they would be. They were
lodging around below dscks. trying
to miss. the shrapnel that came
aboard. shouting. swearing. singing
but fighting hard, at that. They stood
the gaff Just a. wen a. any other
garbies would, only In their own
sweet way-which II noisy enough,
believe me.
One Of our seemen was hit 130
times by fragments Of shrapnsl, SO
you can zee what they were up
against In the lodging line. A gun
turret In action II not exactly the
best place on earth for q nervous
man nor one who likes his comfort.
There is IN awful lot Of heat and
noise and smell and work. All the
time in a fighting gun turrst. But
during an engagement I would rather
be In q gun turret every time than
between decks. At that, II anything
does happen In q turret-it = good
night sure for all, and no rain checks
needed.
One of our Junior lieutenants was
struck BY . fragment Of shell % he
was at his station behind the wheel
house and a piece Of his skull was
driven into his brain. He was car
ried into my gun turret, but he
would not let them take him to sick
bay to have his wound dressed. There
he sat, asking every now and then
how the fight was going and then sort
Of doing OF for while.
After half an hour Of action we put
about and started away. stin firing.
As a parting slap ON the back. the
Turks tore of one Of our big-gun tur-
rets, and then away we went. back to
Brest with q casualty list Of only 1b.
We did not have much trouble guess
ing that 1t was dry dock for NJ again.
We got back to Brest after Q quiet
voyage, patching ourselves up whore
we could on the way. and again there
was tho rush work, day and night.
to got into shape and do 1t over again.
They turned us out in IL days and
back we went to the Turks and their
Hun assistants.
We were lucky getting inshore, only
receiving q nasty smash astern. when
the Turks got our range and landed
two peaches before we got out We
nearly tore our rudder of getting
away. But we had to come back right
away. because we had carried quite
number Of heavy guns from Brest
and were given the Job Of running
them ashore. It was day and night
work and great job for fun, because.
while you never knew when you
would get 1t, you had good reason to
feel you would get damned by a cute
little shell or a dainty bit of shrap-
mel before the job was over.
Aboard ship It was deck work, Of
course, and IL was not much better
there than ashore with the guns, be-
cause the enemy trenches were near
the shore and they amused them
selves trying to pick ~ of whenever
We showed on deck. guess we were
. regular shooting gallery for them.
and some Of our men thought they
did not need al the practice they
were getting. for quite . few Of NJ
acted a. bulls eyes.
But we did not mind the bullets %
much. Thsy mako . clean wound or
put You away entirely; shfapoel
tears you up and can play al ktnds
Of tricks With various 66rts of your
body without killing you. A. for
shslls-well, mineemeat % the word.
he NsiFows WssS f6icf With mines
and thsrs had bssn Q great deal of
damage done there. % aftsr . Wine
the British detailed their YarmoU1A
tzawlses to 60 In and sweep up. TAsy
had b 20 up unpeotscesd, Of coaEss,
and thsy started OF oos night an
0ar0na.
BveEything went wen mtIl tAsv
turned at the Nazfows and seaFted
back. Thsn. bsfoco you could ten Il.
I've o. six ssarchlishts were playing
On one Of the trawlefD and shells
wseo splashing the Water all over hee.
Both banks wsFs Simply banging away
point blank at them and I nsvsf
thought they would ct bach.
They did ct bae1, though, but
some Of them had hardly enough msn
left b work ahip. But that - me
The LlDsya ThA1 WIN sst hack 1fe0
anywhere Whils tAGs - one nan
alive.
A chap aboard one Of the traWlsrs
said Q ehen went through the wheel
house between tie Quartermaitse ard
himself and an th0 q. n. said Wis,