The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1919-05-23

didn't know though, that the English
attacks had withered four times in
front Of those defenses and the
Australians, once; in the attempt to
penetrate this line. Those things
were not told to Jim beforehand. His
work about completed the day before
it didn't seem that he was to do
much in an active way. So he was
made responsible for the supply of
ammunition. As the days advance
was to be over two miles, it was no
light task to bring up ammunition
for four machine guns, the dumps
being a mile away at the start. And
there would be constant shelling to
contend with; but it didn't satisfy
Jim. He wanted to be in it. During
the night he organized his line of
supply and ammunition dumps and
put a Corporal in charge.
At six in the morning when one of
the heaviest artillery programs of the
war opened up, Jim was on the tape
with the first platoon of the company
Just before going "over the top;
which in this case meant only to
walk forward from the tape laid out
on the ground the night before by
the engineers; big one put the Ser
geant who was platoon leader, Cor
poral and a Private out of commiss-
ion. 1t took but minute to fill their
places, by advancing other men; and
they were off.-To what? Almost
Immediately the officer in command
of the platoon disappeared. 1t was
thought he also had fallen. The ad-
vance was steady. A hundred yards
had to be covered every three minutes
in order to keep up with the creeping
barrage put down in front of them.
They were told just what minute
they were to be on each of two ridges
they had to cross. Regardless of
that program had to be
followed up if the party was to be a
success.
Scarcely an hour after Zero hour"
land the first mile had been covered
and machine gun nests and the ad-
vanced trenches had been taken; but
real opposition was yet to come IN
"the Line" itself) one OF Che section
Sergenats went down with shatter-
ed thigh. The other section Sergeant
had been made platoon leader at the
very beginning And then he went
down and didn't attempt TO rise
again when the rest got up after the
explosion Of "big one among them
And Jimmy? He was trying to figure
out what was wrong with his right
arm. 1t wouldn't work. Then he
noticed that the remaining Sergeant
didn't rise. He went and turned him
over, saw he was dying, and went on.
There you have the situation jim
was in. A platoon of machine guns
without a leader. Jimmy with piece
of shell in his right shoulder render
ing that arm useless, what should he
do? There was no choice, was there?
To even hesitate in that particular
place would be fatal,-but he was a
Yank. He took that platoon through.
By noon the battalion to which JIM
mics platoon was attached had their
objective and dug in On an elevation
that objective. But it
soon developed that everything was
not as it should be. There were
more prisoners to be taken care of
than the battalion had men. The
counter attacks were not only COM
ing from in front, but also from the
left. No communication with regi-
mental headquarters where there
should have been wires through. And
along in the afternoon, attacks began
to develope in the rear. Could it be
possible that their left had been held
up; and thus allow the ferries to
man the Hindenburg trenches behind
them again? Runners sent back
were not heard from again.
Jimmie's work was done. He turn
ed over what was left of his platoon
to an infantry officer ,as he didn't
feel as spry as he had in the morn
ing; and it seemed necessary to get
some first aid for his shoulder.
Shortly after three o'clock he started
with the only surviving runner he
had. At this time the true situation
wasn't really known, so he didn't
realize just what he was attempting
to do. He still had his battle map
showing all trenches, wires, ETC..
compass and his binoculars. How
cunningly the Germans had covered
every escape with machine gun fire,
that they couldn't actually occupy,
was a credit to them, and would take
long to write about. And of how
Jimmy had to run down sunken
road, from one trench to another;
which was swept by two machine
guns and fully expecting to find Ger
mans in the trench he was going to.
But it was his only chance. The
bullets kicked up the gravel of the
road all about him at his very feet
as he ran. And here he found the
two runners, sent out previously to
he cto ,.fino hack. 1viI,O in this road