Williston graphic., 1919-01-23
UutDa M y ~ ~ 1hn G.. ussra 3

Then our sergeant asked the name
Of the other sergeant, and when the
man told him he said the man was
senior to himself and therefore in
command and would have to be obeyed.
He seemed to cheer up a lot after
he said this and did not shiver any
more, so thought I would volunteer
then, so I said to him, "Well, mon
vieux, do you think we are seeing real
shelling now" And then was going
to say I would go, but he looked at
me in a funny way for second and
then said. "Well. my son, suppose you
60 and find out"
thought he was kidding me at first,
but then I saw he meant it, thought
two things about it-one was that any
thing was better than staying there.
and the other was that the old dugOut
was pretty fair place after all. But
I did not say anything to the SER
geant or the other mell-just went
out of the dugout. The sergeant and
another man went with me and boost
ed me over the back wall Of the hole.
lay fiat on the ground for a minute to
get my bearings, and then started off.
I set my course for where I thought
the communication trenches were, to
the right and just stood up and ran,
for figured that as the shells were
falling SO thick and it was open
ground would not have any better
chance if I crawled.
I tripped several times and went
down, and each time thought I was
hit, because when I got it in the thigh
at Dixmude it felt a good deal as
though had tripped over rope.
And one time when I fell a shell ex-
ploded near me and began to shiver
again, and I could not go on for
long time. All this time I did not
think would get through, but finally,
when I reached what had been the
communication trench felt I had
done the worst part of it, and I began
to wish very hard that would get
through was not at all crazy about
going west
The mouth Of the communication
trench had been battered in and the
trenches 1t Joined with were all filed
up. There were rifles sticking out
Of them In several places, and I
thought probably the men had been
buried alive in them. But it was too
late then, IL they had been caught, so
I climbed over the blocked entrance to
the communication trench and started
back along it. 1t led up through sort
Of gully, and thought it was bad
place to dig a communication trench
In, because it gave the Turks some
thing like the side of hill to shoot at.
Every once in a while I would have
to climb in and out of shell hole,
and parts of them were blocked where
q shell had caved in the walls. In one
place ] saw corpses all torn to pieces,
80 I knew the Turks had found the
range and had got to this trench in
great shape. At another place ! found
lots Of blood and equipment but no
bodies, and I figured that reinforce
ments had been caught at this spot
and that they had retired, taking their
casualties with them.
The Turks still had the range, and
they were sending shell into the
trench every once in a while, and 1
was Knocked down again, though the
shell was so far away that it knocked
me down with force of habit more
than anything else. I felt dizzy and
shivered lot, and kept trying to think
nf MIy1s WI h inrr ole h,rf
So finally got to the top of the
little hill over which the gully ran,
and on the other side I felt almost
safe. Just down from the crest of the
hill was one of our artillery positions,
with the good old "75s" giving it to the
Turks as fast as they could. told
the artillery officers what had hap
pened, had drink of water and
thought would take nap. But when
they telephoned the message back to
division headquarters the man at the
receiver said something to the officer
and he told me to stay there and be
ready. thought sure he would send
me back to where I came from and
knew I never could, make it again
but ! did n2t say anything.
When looked around l saw that
eur real position was to the right Of
where the artillery was, and that there
were three lines Of trenches with
French infantry in them. So the
trenches had come from were more
like outposts than anything else, anG
were cut of. I felt pretty sure, then
that the boys in them would never
come back alive, because as soon a.
their fire let up the Turks would nd
vance, and to keep them back our guns
would have to wipe out our men, ant
IL they did not, the Turks would. Al
first was glad had come out, bu
then remembered what the artiller,
officer had said and I figured I woult
have to 60 back and stay with then
or bring them back. Either way Their