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Show ; FIX BAYONETS! C TTk Wt c Clow Runre Described in RemorV oM ScncM by Ckcr o tA Marines : Capt. JOHN W. THO MASON, Jr. (I iMliifil by Author trwm Sketch Mxla ao tb Bttlfli t by tb Bell Syndicate. Inc.) CHAPTER VII Continued 11 "Any one of tliose nine-inch babies would have blotted out twenty of us," marveled a lieutenant, leading lus platoon around a thirty-foot crater i that still smoked. "Or ripped the heart out of any concrete-and-steel fortification ever built the good ' Lawd was certainly with us !" 'To the company commanders, gath-: gath-: ered at dark In a much disfigured -r:? Boche shelter in the Wood of Somme-. Somme-. Py, the major gave information. "The Blxth took Bianc Mont, and they are holding it against heavy eounttr-at-tacks. Prisoners say they were ordered or-dered to hold here at any costs they're fighting damned well, too ! The - - infantry regiments piped down the . Bois de Vipre, just as we did the Essen hook. The division is grouping around the ridge, but we're pretty well Isolated from the French. To-night To-night we are going on up and take the front line, and attack toward St.-Etienne-a-Arnes town north of the ridge and a little west. Get on up to '-' "Blanc Mont with your companies r. C. will be there, along the road that runs across the rldge- CHAPTER VIII - Biting the Boche with the American Saw-Tooth Formation. For-mation. ' . " Not greatly troubled by the Boche "Shelling, that died to spasmodic bursts is the night went on, the battalion 5 mounted through the dark to its ap-r--.--pointed place. Here, beside a blasted -. road that ran along Blanc Mont, just . behind the thin line of the Sixth, the weary men lay down, and, no orders being immediately forthcoming, slept like the dead that were lying thlck--:-' ly there. Let the officers worry over the fact that the French had fallen -behind on each flank, that the divl-.... divl-.... . . slon was, to all purposes, isolated far out In Boche territory let any fool worry over the chances of stopping one tomorrow tomorrow would come ,' sbon enough. "The lootenant says to get all the rest you can don't no body need to tell me tha " In the deep dugouts behind the road the battalion commanders prodded at ;1ield-maps and swore wearily over the .ominous gaps behind the flanks "three kilometers on one flank, five on .. the. other, where the French divisions i.; .had, not kept pace. Into these holes .,' the Boche had all day been savagely striving to thrust himself, and his snc-- snc-- cess would mean disaster. Already -J'the Sixth had a force thrown back i-.--. to-cover the left rear, disposed at right j,: angles to the line of advance. . . . And orders were to carry the attack ;forward'at dawn. On tcp of that, ""'ufter midnight a Bochu deserter " crawled into the line with the cheering cheer-ing news that the Germans were plnn-- plnn-- ning to attack in force on the Amer- :-.-.-ican .flanks-at dawn ; a division of fresh troops Prussians had just been brought up for that purpose. It looked bad It looked worse than -that. "Well," said Major George nam- ! ilton of the First battalion of the Fifth, "orders are to attack, and, by : God, we'll attack" a yawn spoiled ;j the dramatic effect of his pronounce-' pronounce-' merit "and now I'm going to get some :'. sleep. Coxy, wuke me at 5:30 that j; will be nn hour." i And nt dawn, while the ridge shook ami thundered under the barrage that went before the Boche flank attack. '! and the Sixth held with their rides the branch behind the left, the Fifth marines went forward to carry the ; battle to St.-Etlenne. Noon found them well forward of i the ridge, lying in an open fiat, while : the leading battHlions disappeared In pine woods on a long slope ahead. It had fallen strangely quiet where they Jay. Up forward, though, all hell suddenly sud-denly broke loose. Artillery, maehine-euns. maehine-euns. rifles, even the coughing de tonations of grenades, mounted to an inconceivable fury of sound. "Here comes a battalion runner there's the skipper, over there what's up, anyway?" any-way?" The second-ln-oornmnnd enme through his company with a light in his eyes, and he sent his voice he-fore he-fore him. "Peploy the tint platoon, Mr. I.angford. Three-pace Interval, he sure. Where's Mr. Connor? Oh, Chuck, you'll form the second wave behind Tom. About fifty yards. Other tvo platoons in column behind the company com-pany flanks. On yo' feet. Chilian ! We're goln' up against 'em!" ' And so, all four companies In line, the First battalion, n thousand men. went up against the Boche. "Captain," Bald the second in-oonimand, as they started, "we're' swlngin' half-left. This tuck wlil take up rlcht to ?t.-Ktienne, ?t.-Ktienne, won't It? We were polniln' a little one side of It before major give you any dope?" "The Boche have come out of St.-Etlenne two full Infantry regiments, anyway, and a bunch of Maxim guns and hit the second and third In the flank. Must be protty had. We're goin' up to hit them In the think ourselves. 'Bout a kllonlt-ter. Td say. Walt until their artillery spots this littie pron enai'e. None of ours in support, you know." livery nan km w, as they moved cut f the tint and ascended the slope head, that the case was desperate, out t" this ed was all th-lr strength ad skill in war. all Ibelr :ununj gained in other battles, and their hearts lifted up to meet what might come. "More interval more Interval there on the left ! Don't bunch up, you " The first shell came screaming down the line from the risht, and broke with the hollow rough and poisonous yellow puff of smoke which marks the particular abomination of the foot-soldier. It broke fairly over the center of the Forty-ninth, and every head ducked In unison. Three men there were who seemed to throw themselves prone; they did not get up again. And then the fight closed upon the battalion with the complete and horrid unreality of nightmare. The silent ridge to the left awoke with machine-guns and rifles, and sibilant sibi-lant rushing flights of nlckel-conted missiles from Maxim and Mauser struck down where the shells spared. An increasing trail of crumple 1 brown figures lay behind the battalion as It went. The raw smell of blood was In men's nostrils. Going forward with his men, n little dazed perhaps with shock and sound such as never were on earth before, the second-in-command was conscious of a strangely mounting sense of the unreality of the whole thing. i The woods on the crest were as far away as ever through the murk, their strides got them nowhere, their legs were clogged as In an evil dream they were falling so List, these men he had worked with and helped to train in war. There was a monstrous anger In his heart ... a five-inch shell swooped over his head, so near that the rush of air made his eardrums ear-drums pop and burst. 'He was picked up and whirled away like a leaf, breath and senses struck from him by the world-shattering concussion. The second-in-command was pulled to his feet by Gunner Nice, who had taken the second platoon. His head lolled stupidly a moment, then he heard words "an' that shell got all the captain's group, sir all of 'em I An' my platoon's all casualties " He pulled himself together as he went forward. His raincoat was split up the back, under his belt. . His map case was gone the strap that had se- From Men That Knew No Mercy. cured it hung loosely from his shoulder. shoul-der. There was blood on his hands, and the salt taste of It In his mouth, but It didn't seem to be his. And the front of the battalion was very harrow, now. The support platoons were all In the line. Strangest of all, the gray slope was behind them the trees on the crest were ouly a few yards away. Behind and to the left the mnchlne-gr.us mnchlne-gr.us s'ill raved, but the artillery fell I away. A greenish rocket flared from the pines ahead, and right in the faces of the panting marines machine-guns and rifles blazed. In the shadow of the pines were men In cumbersome green-gray nnlforms, with faces that looked hardly human under dt-op round helmets. With eyes narrowed, bodies slanting forward like men In heavy rain, the renmaut of the bnt-talion bnt-talion went to them. It was the flank of the Boche column col-umn which had come out of St.-Eticnnt St.-Eticnnt and struck the lending battalions bat-talions of the Fifth. It had watched first with keen delight, then with Incredulity, In-credulity, the tortured advance of the battalion. It had waited too long to open Its own fire. And now, already shaken by the sight of these men who would not die. It shrank from the long American bayonets and the pitiless, furious faces behind the steel. A few Bnuulenburpor nealois elected to die mi their spitting Maxim guns, working work-ing them until bayonets or clubbed rifles mcde an end. A few Iron-sonled Prussians the Boche had such men stood tip to meet bayonet with bayonet, bayon-et, and died that way. A great many more flung nwiiy their anus and bleated "Kamnrndon" to men who In that red minute knew no mercy. Some hid In holes, or feigned death, to be hnnted out as the press thinned. There was a battery of field-guns field-guns down the slope, ?fX yarns or so. The gunners those who were lucky took to cover after the first burst of fire. "Thank G in d fer a shot at them dam' artillerymen; Buttlf sight, an' aim low, you bin's don't let any of them get away:" . . . "Sergeant, reckon the lootennnt went,; let us go down an take them 77s?" "Shut up an' work yo' bolt, yon dam' fool Whailneil yon think you are a army core?" "Besides. Mr. Connor's d'd. . . ." On the hill beyond St.-F.iletme St.-F.iletme rew trenches sor-rrfd the slope; there were many Germans mill-ins mill-ins there, some 1.500 yards away. "Save yonr ammunition and lay low," the word was passed. "We're on onr own out here." And the battalion, a very small battalion now, little more than a hundred men, lay along the crest they had stormed, with their dead and wounded and the Boche dead and wounded around them. Almost immediately the Boche began to react. He opened on them a etorni of fire, high explosive and shrapnel, and his machine-guns dinned fiercely. A counter-attack began to form toward St.-Elienne. Sweating gunners struggled Into position with the two machine-guns that were left in the battalion, and these with their crews, were knocked out by shell-fire before either had been in action long enough to fire a clip. But the rilles gave tongue and continued to speak the last few men are always the most difficult to kill and the Boche had little taste for rifle-fire that begins to kill at 700 yards. That counterattack counter-attack shortly returned whence It came, and the one that followed It went back also. Whitehead, of the Sixty-seventh company, plumped down alongside the captalu of the Forty-ninth. Small, very quick and wiry, with his helmet cocked on the side of his head, he gave the Impression of a fierce and warlike little hawk. "Hunt's comin' over, Francis," he said. "Bad place; worst I ever saw. Got about thirty men left. Hell that our machine-guns got knocked out so quick, wasn't It? must be two regiments of Frltzles on our front yonder !" Captain Hunt, senior In the field, a big. Imperturbable CaUfornlan, came, and Lieutenant Kelly, promoted by casualties in the last hour to command of the Sixty-sixth company. "How does It look to you, gentlemen?" said Hunt. "Damn had" was the consensus of opinion, with profane embellishments. embellish-ments. Followed some technical discussion. dis-cussion. "Well," concluded the senior captain, "we've accomplished our mission mis-sion broke up their attack better hook up with the rest of the regiment. We'll find them throngh the woods to the right. Move oft your companies Kelly, you go first." Nobody remembers very clearly that swing to the right, through a hall of machine-gun fire and an inferno of shelling. They found the companies of the Second battalion digging in astride a blasted road, and went Into position beside thera. "I've organized the company sector with twenty men all we've got left you and I make twenty-two," reported the second-in-command, dropping wearily wear-ily into the shell-hole where the captain cap-tain had established himself. "Lord, I'm tired . . . and what I can't see," he added in some wonder, fingering fin-gering the rents in his raincoat, "is why we weren't killed, too. . . ." That night, lying in its shallow, hastily dug holes, the remnant of the battalion- descended through further hells of shelling. The next night tins of beef and bread came up. There was some grim laughter when it came. "Captain," reported the one remaining remain-ing sergeant, after distributing rations in the dark, "they sent us chow according ac-cording to the last strength report three days ago 2"0-odd rations. The men are building breastworks out of the corned-willy cans, sir twenty of 'em " Some runners got through, and Dlvl-! Dlvl-! slon H. Q., well forward In a pleas- antly exposed spot on the Soualn road, built up a picture of a situation sufficiently suffi-ciently interesting. Four Infantry regiments regi-ments were thrust saw-wise northeast to northeast of Blanc Mont; all were isolated from each other and from the French, who had lagged behind the flanks. Four little islands in a turbulent Boche sea, and the old Boche doing his damnedest. (TO BE CON-TITUED.) |