Show WAR jariis by frank E hagan no delusions of grandeur it happened late lale to in september 1018 when the seventy seven ty seventh division was given the job of driving the germans out of tile the argonne forest as the al lied forces pushed on toward sedan and Ale cre the three hundred and sixty eighth infantry a regiment of colored troops formed the connecting link between the french fourth and the american first armies a position whdeh would place it in the forefront of the attack but there was one soldier in that outfit who had no delusions of grandeur about the part lie was going to play in the historic encounter which was to be fought on the alie morrow the night before the battle tile the following conversation according to thomas BI Jo johnson linson war correspondent of the new york sun took place between two members of the three hundred and sixty eighth first negro soldier well guess wese gwane show em cm tomorrow ilear hear dey got fifty shousan tho usan white troops hebin bebin us nn an when we bus ide de line for em dey coln right through second negro soldier first negro Soldier what yo at so gloomy about wese gwine he be in nil all de newspapers tOl oi Lorrow what you reckon beyll say second negro soldier what whal deylii say why beyll say fifty thorgan white troops pled to death dats what beyll bayl the litany of the the germans had find their ilenin of hate but the french had their litany of tile the jollu and that may hav laue e had something to do with the final ou outcome of tile the war it was a trench jest which Is said to have originated somewhere along the ainne aisne a bit of i humor which h elved bellied break the strain and suspense of waiting under shellfire could there be a more perfect philosophy for the soldier than this of two things one Is certain elther you are mobilized or you are not mobilized if you are not mobilized there Is no need to worry if you are mobilized of two things one Is certain rither youre behind the lines or youre on the front it youre behind tile the lines there Is no need to worry it if youre on the front of two things one Is certain centala tala either yaure resting in a sale safe place or youre soure exposed to danger if youre resting in a safe place there Is no need to worry it if youre exposed to danger of two things one ls Is certain either youre wounded or youre not wounded if youre not wounded there la 19 no need to worry it if youre wounded of two tivo things one Is certain 14 elthea I 1 t 1 e i youre wounded seriously or youre wounded slightly if youre wounded slightly there Is no peed to worry if youre wounded seriously of two things one Is certain either you recover or you die if you rec recover 0 ver there Is no need to worry if you die you cant worry when the shells fell short great consequences often result from small acts and some insignificant object may inny change the destiny of thou sands of human beings A small defeet defect in some american made explosive supplied sup piled to the british during the world war may have saved the lives of thousands of if germans and cost the III lives PS of an equal number of Eli glish up to a certain time tile the shells which cume came from this factory lint had been very accurate the timing regular and tin tile percentage of error small then ihen tile lie british gunners began 4 hilll to notice a difference the timing filling and file bursting of tile the shrapnel shell shelf W was 11 14 very short the ministry of mu inu tilt ions realized realised reali sed the seriousness of the situation and sir ernest moir a mem tiel of tile lie council was sent to america to investigate lie ile visited tile lip fac tory and made a thorough la I 1 tion without being able to locate the difficulty then quite by chance it occurred to him that there might have apen some ome allan change e in ill tile the manner of handling tile the powder and consequently a change in tile the olds bolds t h twell tile the particles pa nicles of the powder vo der when lie heid head of tile the mu netlon fat batory tory was asked if there had been any such change lie he re replied piled why yea ses we have been flee n making tin an addition to our factory and have had to bring the powder in trucks over temporary roads instein of by ra rail 1 road ns as formerly sir arnest raw hla hia problem solved the powder had been shaken more in tile the trucks than it had find been in the railroad cars consequent ly th the evold voids between tile lie particles wert less the quantity of nir in tile powder less and the rate of burning was quite quit dellI telY affected atTe cled so tit it ills alon the rough method of transport was abandoned and from hat flint time on there were no compIn complaints Ints M 1931 western union |