The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-09-07
CHAPTER XVI (Continued)

CHAPTER XVI Continued
Our faces are encrusted, We are
weary TO death: when the attack
comes We shall have to strike many
OF the men with our fists to waken
them and make them come with us
our eyes are burnt, our hands are
torn, our knees bleed, our elbows
are raw.
How long has it been7 Weeks
months years? Only days.
We see time pass in the colorless
faces Of the dying, we cram food
into us, We run, we throw, we shoot,
We kill. We lie about, we are feeble
and spent, and nothing supports us
but the knowledge that there are
still feebler, still more spent, still
more helpless ones there who, with
staring eyes, look upon us as gods
that escape death many times.
In the few hours of rest we teach
them There, see that waggle-top?
That's a mortar coming. Keep
down, it will go clean over. But if
1t comes this way, then run for it.
You can run from mortar"
We sharpen their ears to the ma
ucious, hardly audible buzz of the
smaller shells that are not so easily
distinguished
They must pick them out from the
general din by their insect-like hum
we explain to them that these are
far more dangerous than the big
pnes that can be heard long be-
sorehand.
We show them how to take cover
from aircraft, how to simulate a
dead man when one is overrun in
an attack, how to time hand-gren-
ades so that they explode half sec
pr before hitting the ground.
We teach them to fling themselves
into holes as quick as lightning be-
fore the shells with instantaneous
fuses; we show them how to clean up
. trench with a handful of bombs;
we explain the difference between
the fuse length of the enemy bombs
and our own; we put them wise to
the sound of gas shells; show them
Rll the tricks that can save them
from death. ...-
They listen, they are docile-but
when it begins again, in their ex-
citement they do everything wrong.
Hale WeSthus drags off with a
great wound in his back through
which the lung pulses at every
breath. I can only press his hand:
sits all up, Paul" he groans and
bites his arm because of the pain.
We see men living with their
skulls blown open: we see soldiers
run with their two feet cut off; they
stagger on their splintered stumps
into the next shell hole; lance
corporal crawls mile and half on
his hands dragging his smashed
knee after him; another goes to the
dressing station and over his clasped
hands bulge his intestineS.
We see men without mouths, with
out jaws, without faces; We find one
man who has held the artery of his
arm in his teeth for two hours in
order not to bleed to death. The sun
goes down, nlgnI COMES, LIE SIlelLS
whine, life is at an end.
We have been relieved. The wheels
roll beneath us, we stand duly, and
when the call 'Mind-wire" comes,
we bend our knees.
1t was summer when we came up,
the trees all were green, now it is
autumn and the night is gray and
wet. The lorries stop, We climb out
"a confused heap, remnant of
many names.
On either side stand people, dark,
calling out the numbers of the regi-
ments, the companies. And at each
call o little group separates itself off,
a small handful of dirty, pallid SOL
diers, a dreadfully small remnant.
Now some one is calling the num-
Der Of our company. 1t is, yes, the