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Show Salt Lake Marine Relates Thrilling Story of Battles (Editor note The following story told by Private Carl E. Johnson, U. 8. marine corps, on of tho first Salt Lake boys to rot urn from Franc ater sooing active sorvico in oovoral localities, is roploto with many intsr-osting intsr-osting and personal touches of tho human side of tho groat war. Ho on listed in Salt Lake on June 5, 1917. At present he is homo on a furlough, vis-iting vis-iting his parents at 324 North First West street. It was through the efforts ef-forts of Sergeant E. D. Camomile of the local marine mobilisation bureau that this vitally interesting tale was set down.) By Priv. Carl . Johnson v T T whs two days after Christmas. I 117, that I ai sent aboard a X transport at an Atlantic port for overseas service. The trip arms ', waa uneventful and was made In eleven days, landing at a French part, wo were billeted at an nM bar racks that at one time was Napoleon's headquarter. From this historic port the regiment was loaded aboard one of those cute little trains. In boxcars, on which waa painted the sign that the car would ,i i forty m eiVlPC-fi'L'1" hnrsrs, and the accurnniodatl(na were about the same In toth cases. For three nights and dys we traveled through quaint French towns of white walla and beautiful beau-tiful gardens, which did not show any effects of war, except that all available avail-able soil waa used for vegetables and the walls for flowert. We nnlnaded at f homp- flex- and were billeted In chicken coops, barns, upstairs and downstairs- in fact, every conceivable part of the town waa used. The people of the town were very cour teous and gave us everything; that they could that would hetp to make us comfortable. Our greatest need was straw, and aa we couldn't make tho natives understand -what we wanted, one of the boys secured a handful of straw and went yelling down the street that we wanted straw. The people Immediately understood and In a short time we had all we could use. We were here two day a. during which time we drilled and hiked from daylight till dark. We were then hiked for thirty-three miles to a part of and were there twelve days and wer relieved by the French. They are s happy lot and smile all the time. It seems as though their smile la contagious, con-tagious, because everybody smiles at them, or with thetn. But every time they smile at me I say. "It's on you." They don't know what it means, so I get by. TRENCHES AT LAST. On May 2 we were all at Vande-conrt Vande-conrt when tho call aounded to prepare pre-pare to advance. Thai waa the best ca.-f ever heard, except "'rhow" call. We were ready in about thirty min-iites. min-iites. Tor that Is tho limit used hy marines to move, and hiked back atx mtlea and were loaded Into trucks for a Uitrty-six-hour ride which look us through the outskirts of Tans to Meaux. which la aitout eighteen miles from Chateau Thierry. We hiked from Meaux to Chateau Thierry and for three days held ourselves In readiness for the "big push." Wo went Into the trenches In tho dark and relieved French soldiers and some marines. The next morning Just at dawn the tier-mans tier-mans at Lacked, but were beaten back to their starting point. About 9 o'clock they attacked again and tried to hold their ground by retreating into a. wheat f eld which waa about JOo 1 yards from our trenches, but we mnd ; them trying to crawl back to their lines. Kvery now and then one of them would ahow .himself only for an Instant, but that waa enough, because most of the marines are sharpshooters and we got every one of them. It Is the grandest feeling when you get a bead on yuur firat Hun and pull th rwr hlr" f" Th fighting In this, sector is out In the open and the French cannot understand under-stand how we can stand up in the open with bullets flying through the air and deliberately fire from the shoulder. We have wasted but little ammunition and every shell found a mark. We went over the top at them ; the next day In a heavy rainstorm without artillery preparation antl had gone only about 100 feet when the Huns opened up a cross machine gun 1 fire and it seemed that the bullets -came from all directions. I was In the first wave that went over which was ' composed of bombers and grenades, the second line was made up of ma- I chine guns and rifles. Aa the Huna opened up It seemed I Kruno tnrnt hd bren "(tons nvmr iy ths armies and which wms a desolate place. We made a camp here, and tn a few days had a sanitary place which was a-nod to look at and which surprised sur-prised the people of the vicinity. HIKES AND DRILLS. We were here durlns; January, Feh-ruary Feh-ruary and March, the time betna used In hikes, drilling and almost ull kinds of exercise that would make us hard for the work to be done. It rained every day, and all of the equipment would be wet through and would weigh a ton, but we knew that It was doing us good and we did not complain. On March 15 we were ordered to march to the front, and w stoppsd nineteen miles from Verdun. Here the companies were split up Into replacements. replace-ments. We were assigned to the Sixteenth Six-teenth company of the Fifth regiment. We wear our -marine clothes until they are worn out and then we re ceiva army clothes until we are relieved re-lieved from the front, and then we get marine clothes again. We cherish our ornaments, as they are hard to get, and put It on all the rmy clothes . so that everyone will know that we are marines. FIRST SHELL COMES. Tt was at thts camp that I heard my first shell and IP sounded just like the whirr of an aeroplane. We were all "recruits" In this respect and we Mhit the dirt amid the laughter of the older men, who could tell by the sound of a, shell Just about where it would hit. It happened that the place where I went down was a nice soft spot, full of mud and water, but I was used to that sort of stuff and didn't! mind It very much. We were now in the trenches, but to the rear of the actual fighting, getting our first taste of the big fight. The artillery fire waa continuous and our casualties happened here and were quite heavy. This place is used to break In the "new hands" and we fired at everv shadow and noise, and It takes some I noise to be "heard out there. Fortunately Fortu-nately there were no casualties by this firing in the dark. ALLIGATOR CRAWL. We were here" several days, during which time It rained all the time. One night several of us, under command of a second lieutenant, went on a scenting tour of No Man's Land. I distinctly remember going over the. top of the trench into the dark, but I'J was plumb scared to death until we j jumped back again several hours later.) The Oermans used flares continual! and when one was fired we had to hold "XT' the position of our bodies still while the flare burned, because one move and we would be annihilated. Mt of the lime we were crawling on our stomachs in the mud nd I got to be a real alllxator before we were through with thts trip. We were sent back to a rest camp, which are good p aces and keep one . busy working all the time: but It is a different kind of work than in the trenches and w rested good. We were billeted in dugouts; worked at night snd slept in the daylight. V . were here ten days, then back to the trenches. We mete y.nt to the Verdun se.-tor ' ' as though the first wave Just melted? and in a few seconds I couldn't see ; i anyone near me so I fell into. 'a shell' hole full of water up to my neck. I I was In thts position for about an hour waiting for the second wave to come, j but they never came, they were com- j pletely annihilated. The first time I i put my head up I received a shower of ; machine gun bullets but waa not hit. ; so I stayed in the hole until It was : quiet and then ventured a look over. . To my surprise I aaw a marine sergeant ser-geant In about the same predicament as myself about sixty yards from me and 1 era weld over to him. He, too, j had not been hit We two crawled back . about a mile before we saw any of our j men and had Just got into safety when I our artillery started a. barrage to clear out the ridge beyond. j 640 CASUALTIES. j That fight lasted about three hours ' and of the 900 marines that went Into j the fight 640 of them were either killed 1 or wounded. In this attack the tier-' 3 mans used "whizz bangs." which are 1 1 built on the order of a fcitokes gun, be- ! Ing a piece of two inch pipe about four feet long and Bet on a solid base and pointed in the direction of the enemy. I trenches, their range is very small a,nd 1 limited. They fire a shell about ten 1 Inches long, which travels through ths I air with great speed and their action is terrific. During the night, after we had filled 'up our ranks with reserve replace-j ments we relieved the Ninth infantry; and the following morning took up po- sltlons on top of a small hill which 1 was about 600 yards In front of another hill of about the same sise which was, occupied hy the Huns. Our hill was a bare position covered with a growth of grass about eighteen inches high, and : In thts we'hld. The other hill had a; heavy growth of underbrush, rocks and ' timber, and was the edge of the bal- j lesu wood. ! I might say that in all this time I ' had no shave, baih nor a change of clothing because water was scarce, and our rations which were brought up at night consisted mostly of hard tuck, which we always carried with us and I "monkey meat." which is shipped from Argentina. On June IS ws made the great attack on Kalleau wood. GREAT SMASH. The ground was the hardest ground I have ever traveled, beiiia rocky, and covered with a heavy growth of un- , derbrush snd timber. Thousands of great trees) have been blown down and behind every rock and tree wss a Ger- man machine gun crew. We fought through this heavy fire for -eight days and succeeded In holding all of the 1 ground we had gained, w here we dug , in. On June 24 we made a great attack to clear out the wood and went over 'm the top at about t a. m. 1 had only ; Z gone about I'M feet, and as I raised u my arm to push nside a heavy bush ( B 1 received three bullets in the left fore- j arm and one in the shoulder. The sen- m a tion was Just like be:ng hit with ajl liasebull hat oi the "funny (tone. I . dropped my nf e and sat down behind ' a tree. I looked at my arm and saw ; the mll bone of my forearm hanging , H out nf niv Hleve. urd I f.tc ft qh of bu for it. Tiey are a hungry ht and we never t-tke a prisoner who has any food with hlr;i. I was taken by ambulance for fifteen fif-teen mtlea to the Ikimc hospital nt Null- Vy. where I st.iyed for two week. I Then we were went to the American lae hitpit;tl st a Kreprh jwiit. whre I e spent the ttme jnlll fteplciuter 10 ' f when we were sent home on tin M mnl j V WM, llH'h - - 4r-Mlai- - wiwu . we -T tut t4ve hoi;rs snd returrte-i to port and when we gt there e had (a list of 44 degrees. We were jlaed on another ship, whirh is the la i gent ! one afloat and arrived home six uays, later. mv arm and then tied It up the best i j could and started for the rear. WOUNDED AND GA&SbD. r Men were ruithing forward past ine - all the time and all offered asniMtance. ' but I was aide to walk snd made the mile to the firnt station, where I wa i fmed up a little. While I was going back to the f rit stHtrn the Huiih i (. m.th gas, and not being shl ti put on the mask. 1 inhaled the gas. snd si a remill was pretty sh-k for a few weeks, but it was not a deadly dead-ly gas and the results were just a horned now and lungs. We took about 3ou prisoners, in Ills engagement, ss we had had older 1x4 lo take any prisoner, as we didn't tiae enough men lo take thtlBto the rar. Those rtons will fight as-Hong a they are I under i-over. but they pull that j "Kamerad" stuff as Soon as they are j up against It. There are a lot 'f them-that holler Kamerad that won't say It ny mora on this earth. Home of tho younger men are to rw pitied, but we don't have any SMrfpethy fr the older ones. and it seems that the older men are I the first ones to quit. I I wnt lack to the first field sta-I sta-I tion. whre my wounds were dressed. I with a lot of other bos, those abl to walk did so and th rest were carried nark by the Hun prts-mtraWe had a lot' of spoiled beef that had been throw a wut and these jrisoneis fought |