New Britain herald., 1926-12-27

ed over the ruined village of Bel leau and the crossroads, and was crowned by Q little stone tower.
 On June 6, at daybreak. the sec ond of their occupation of this front, the Marines attacked the enemy. But their attack was not q success, and they began trying to hack their way through the forest. Their losses were heavy and continuous although the Germans had to reinforce their troops time and again.
 It was on June 25, after reiey- ing the French, that the Second Di- vision, of which Jim Elwell was a unit, joined the Marine brgiade. They were assigned the task of rout- ing the Germans. That same day they took the entire forest, and Jim Elwell learned what war was.
 The Second Division did it's work and did it well. On July it turned over it's front to the New England troops and from then on it was looked upon even by the Germans as one of the best American shock troops. And while Jim Elwell, who played his small part in this victory got no medals for his work, he got but we are getting ahead of our story.
 From the many ledges and rocks of the wood, the Germans were di- !, fire. They had dug their curious. protecting fox holes" to provide the guns with cover.
 And Jim, advancing in the face of bullets along with the wave of American troops. saw man after man fall-in front of him. 10 either side of him. Heard the sing of those deadly little lead messengers, the scream of shells, the cries of wound- ed.
 Princeton, fall with bullet through his breast saw him smile a ghastly smile, and die.
 Jim Elwell kept telling himself that he was afraid. But he kept moving on. A man beside him screamed and dropped. Jim shudder- cd. Yes, he kept telling himself, he was afraid.
 The uproar was hideous. The acrid smell of gunpowder burned in his nostrils. From the woods ahead puffs of smoke kept bursting, each puff packed with death, he told himself.
 And then strange emotion took hold of him and it seemed that he was moving in a dream. It all was untrue. unbelievable. It was not he, Jim Elwell, that was here keeping stp with death. No, Jim Elwell was back in Cam denville, back with Moliie and Prof, back with the twins. An
 He was back now fighting with that bully who had paused at the Elwell back fence to throw insulting remarks at the twins. Yes. he was fighting with him, and the man had hit him, hit him in the left shoulder.
 For the shoulder suddenly burned and then grew numb and ne recoiled from the shock and stumbled.
 But 1t would take more than one blow to keep him down. He was getting up now, getting up and
 But that was blood running down the front of his blouse. Blood, and he was feeling faint. But he was up again and moving forward. Again that smell of powder in his nostrils. And the din around him--cries, ex- plosive sounds, and the at-tat-tat, rat-tat-tat of the machine guns - and then seeing little puffs of dirt coming up from the ground as the bullets bowed into it.
 He was feeling very faint, now. Strange that Rusty wasn't around to throw that croquet ball and res cue him. Where was Rusty, anyhow?
 "Hey, there man." someone shouted at him, 'you're hit, don't you know it? Why in hell don't you 20 back?"
 Jim smiled, saw misty figure with an automatic pistol in his hand. But he had never seen this man be- fore and he grinned a sickly grin and kept on.
 And then, suddenly, q loud explo- sion somewhere back of him, and something came up from the ground and hit him. Hit him in the leg. and he dronped down,
 He lay there for several minutes and this time when he tried to get