Evening star., 1935-04-21

because it almost sounded as if he was chal
lenging the Almighty to talk back.
Upon this occasion - it was the evening
before Easter-the top sergeant was making
the rounds of the dug outs on some errand
of his own. 1t later appeared that it had little
to do with military business. though he appar-
emily thought it did. He walked into my dug
out and stood for minute in the middle of
the floor, his hands in his pockets, teetering
up and down on his heels. He stared at each
of us in succession, then spat disgustedly
Nov, listen. you gold-bricks," he snarled.
About tomorrow. It's Easter. That don't
mean blankety- blank dot dash thing to me,
but it does to lot O. you soft heads that's
never been away from home before. The skip
per says it'll be like those kaiser-lovin' sons
O so-and sos over there" - and he jerked
thumb toward the German lines -'to catch
us with load O hot lead while we're on our
knees prayin. So don't let me catch mothers
son O. you congregatin'. or prayin', or other
wise conductin' yourselves like you was at
home in church. You're soldierin' now. and
God won't help you blank blank bit more
when you drop down on your knees. than He
will when you're up on your dogs with gun
in your hand"
He stared hard at replacement, just a kid,
who had come up only two days before.
"An' you. you snivelin' brat. been watch
in you! A hell o. soldier you are! been
watcfin' you and your testament readin'
an want that book right now.''
The boy stammered something.
Gone on! Hand it ovez! He put the little
book in his pocket and staring us down turned
on his heel and left.
Things in that sector had been quiet for
three or four days. We had knocked off few
patrols - mostly captures - and had lost
about ten men, killed and wounded Nobody
who had been there very long was much ex-
cited about what would happen on the next
day and. speaking for myself. had the idea
that if we kept quiet. Heinie would be only
too glad to respect the holiday.
Along about midnight, however, some idiot
kicked a tin can out in front and they crashed
down on Us. They had learned lot of tricks
IN three years of fighting and they used one
of the favorites that night. They had laid
their guns as the artillery puts it - on our
sector during the day when observation shots
could be checked; that is. they had fired few
shots, getting the range and DETECTION cor
rectly, and then set them 80 that upon signal,
they could open up at any time of day or
night. And then their infantry would join in
with machine guns, rifles. grenades and every
thing. In short, if we let out 50 much as
whisper. they could pour everything they
had on u.
That is what they did on the night before
Easter.
It kept up for about fifteen minutes. and
two of our men - or what was left of them -
were picked up the next morning. That, how
ever. was not the strange part of it.
The shell-fre had torn up the ground BE-
tween the lines until it was unacceptable.
This was nastier than you would imagine
unless you remember that for months, perhaps
years. men had been fighting back and forth
over that ground, covering up their dead
where they fell. The result was that there
were arms and legs and what was left of long
dead men strewm all about when the SUN rose
on Easter morning. And exactly in the center,
not twenty-five feet from the trench where
my squad was stationed, burst had dug up
an old grave and churned it.