The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-05-08

filth that of necessity encrusted the
boys was beyond description. was
forced myself to go as much as slS
weeks without a change of clothing,
and when l did change, I sometimes
couldn't find much of the original
underwear to take off.
"Yes, had cooties-all of us did, -
he added briefly.
AT St. Mihiel,' he said, "the con-
troll of the air was with the allies and
the Americans. This made all the
difference in the world. We advanced
by kilometers instead of creeping for
ward as We did at Scissors.
t*In advancing through the night,
it was frequently necessary for one of
the boys to hold the muzzle of his
rifle while his companion behind him
held the butt of it. 1t was wonder
we ever found our position that night,
but find it we did and we held it"
DR.. Stone spoke casually of numer-
Gus incidents, each of which is ma
terial for an Article in itself, so fast
we're the big events through which he
moved, the majority of which have
been stamped past effacement in his
mind.
"Perhaps the bloodiest field I saw
was that slope of the hill at Mont
Blanc" he said "There the French
had tried three times to establish
their position and drive back the foe.
When the Americans went finally ov-
er it and took it, nearly every soldier
had either to step over or step upon
a blue coated corpse
He described briefly the horror OF
the thousands of German corpses
buried by bombardment in their dug
outs at scissors. "The stencil of the
bodies of the men and horses was ap-
palling," he said. 'Often it was ab-
solutely necessary for the Americans
to sleep beside putrefying corpses, it
time for sleep at all was available.
Of course, we did what burying we
could of the Germans, but the orders
to move forward frequently inter-
rupted the burying.
ssIn the Champagne sector we
drove a wedge five kilometers deep
into the German lines, and the
French to our right and to our left
could not advance. In our plight the
orders came for US to hold. We held
all right. But, let me tell you, our
boys paid the price of the holding.
The speaker pictured scenes where
the dead and the wounded were piled
hurriedly in shell-torn orchards-in-
stances again where the supply of
morphine ran short; times, again,
where there was nothing the surgeons
could do except to mix the scant
tablets and administer doses in the
thick of the fight and under such con-
ditions OF general storm and dls1n-
tegration as to offset the effects OF
the morphine, even had it been prop
erly given. s'But I did the best l
could he remarked, "and when 1t
couldn't be done any other way, l
made the solution, mixing it with my
finger and gave the MANNED one the
shot hoping that in some way 1t
might get him for a time out of his
agony. And in all of it the boys
with their faces half torn away, with
their legs and their arms swept into
nothingness, seemed fully to realize
that they were merely the driftWood
of the fight and that all their suffer
ing was necessary to help keep things
moving. And, if, of necessity, they
were left without care for: hours and
hours while the battle ragged, they
rarely groaned, provided they were
still in possession of their senses.
ct have seen fresh troops thrown
suddenly into the. hell Of the fight go
suddenly crazy under the nerve
strain. 1t was not fear. Their nerves
had merely gone to smash under the
strain of it all. At times it seemed
that I, myself, was about to go to
pieces"
Besides a gassing, Captain Stones
only wound of consequence consisted
of the stripping of the ligaments OF
his left shoulder. He was riding in a
side car attached to motorcycle dur
ing the Argonne engagement. He had
lust cautioned the cyclist not to drive
so fast, so as to avoid any accident
that might arise under the lombard
ment. A shell exploded directly in
front of them. tearing a hole in the