| Show gunner unno gr depew ar M V aw fay Es en gunner and chief petty officer ctr US navy member of the foreign legion lethion of france albert A inay N f captin captain gun turret french battleship cassard A W winner of the croix de dc guerre 4 copyright 1918 tor by greffly and 13 britton co through special arrangement with the georgo matthew adama service t CHAPTER XII continued fc 11 no one roan man can see all of an attack chieh may extend over miles of ground but during tile tho three weeks I 1 was in pic lic trenches on the gallipoli peninsula we made tour four grand attacks and many minor ones so I 1 know in a general way what they are like each wave Is organized like tile the others first come three lines of what you might call grenadiers grena diers though they are arc not picked for size as the old kings grenadiers grena diers used to be they are deployed in skirmish formation which means that every rann man Is three yards from the nest they were armed only with grenades but you can take it from me that Is enough behind them come two lines hues also in skirmish formation and armed with machine guns and grenade rifles the first men on the left carry machine guns the then n conic come three rifle grenadiers grena diers and then another machine gun and so on down the length of the line after these come two lines of riflemen with used bayonets then come the trench cleaners or coppers up as wo we call them they were some gang ang g believe me imagine a team of rugby players spread out in two lines only with hundreds of men on the team instead of eleven and each man a husky capable of handling bandling a baby grand piano these fellows were armed with everything you could think of and a whole lot more that you could not dream about in a nightmare it used to remind me of a trial I 1 saw in new york once where the police had ra raided aided a mens flop and had all their weapons in the courtroom as exhibits the coppers up were heeled with sticks clubs lahs blackjacks black jacks two handed cleavers axes trench knives pon pollards poniards poni ards lards up to date tomahawks brass knuckles slung shots anything that was ever invented for crashing a man with I 1 guess except firearms these knockdown knock down drag out artists arrests follow the riflemen very closely their job was to take care of all the turks who could not escape and would not surrender there fire are lots of men in iii any army who will not surrender but I 1 think probably there were more turks of that gameness than men in most other armies I 1 have heard that it Is a part of their religion that a man it if he dies fighting goes to a very specially fancy heaven with plenty to eat cat and smoke and I 1 suppose if he surrenders they believe he be will be put in the black gang stoking for eternity down below it was awfully hot hof nt at the dardanelles Darda nelles and I 1 guess the turks did not want it any hotter for very few of them ever surrendered and the trench cleaners had a lot to do their job is really important for it Is dangerous to have groups ot of the enemy alive and kicking around in their trenches after you have passed almost almat every prisoner we took waa was s wounded the one thing I 1 do not like to have people ask me is how does it feel to kill a man and I 1 think the other hoys boys feel the same way about it it Is not a thing you like to talk about or think about either cither but this time at V beach when we got past the first and second turk trenches and were ere at work on an the third I 1 do not mind saying that I 1 was glad whenever then I 1 would stick another one I 1 slipped my bayonet into a turl find and more glad when I 1 saw another one coming I 1 guess I 1 saw red all right bach time I 1 thought maybe you are he orle oni who cho did poor old murray and nd I 1 could see murray as he looked when they took him down from the storehouse wall theal thea 1 I would stick another one the others from the cassard were red hot too and they went at the td turks in great style there wo a nothing to complain about in the way w that wo we had b a no r e the foreign J I 1 gl an t U alb have 11 AM but the turks were not as bad as fritz they were just its as good or better as 03 fighters and a whole lot whiter often when we were frying in the trenches and not a drop of water was to be had something would land on the ground near us and there would be a water bottle full sometimes they almost bombarded us with bottles then too they would not fire on tho the red cross as the germans do they would told their firo many times when we were out picking up our wounded several times they dragged our wounded as close as they could to the barbed wire that we might find them ensler easier after murray died I 1 got to thinking a lot more than I 1 used to and thou though h I 1 did not have any hunch exactly still I 1 felt as though I 1 might get it too which was something I 1 had never thought much about before I 1 used to think about my grandmother too when I 1 had time and about brown I 1 used to wonder what brown was doing and wish we were together but I 1 could remember my grandmother smiling and that helped some I 1 guess I 1 was lonely to tell the truth I 1 did not know the other garbles very well and the only one left that I 1 sus nus really very friendly with got his soon afterward though not as bad as murray and then there was no one that I 1 was really chummy with that would not have bothered me at all before murray died the other lad I 1 spoke ot of as having been chummy with was PhlIlIp pe pierre he was about eighteen and came from bordeaux ile he was a very cheerful fellow and ho he and murray and I 1 used to be together a lot he felt almost as bad about murray at ai I 1 did and you could see that it changed him a great deal too but he was still cheerful most of the time CHAPTER XIII limeys limays anzack and one night while we were expecting an attack the word was passed down thellie the line to have themire the wire cutters cotters ready and to use bayonets only for the first part of the attack for we were to try and take the first enemy trench bi surprise the first trench was only about eighty yards away our big guns opened up and at zero we climbed out and followed the curtain of fire too closely it seemed to me but the barrage stopped too soon as it does sometimes and there were plenty of turks left we were half way across when they saw us and they began banging away at us very hard they pounded at us as we came on until we were given the order to retire almost as we were on them what was left of us As we turned and started back the turks rushed out to counterattack counter attack us the first of them busy with nith bombs T then ian I 1 tripped over something and rolled around a while and then saw it was pierre ills his left leg was dangling cloth and flesh and all shot away and the leg hanging banging to the rest of him by a shred two or three of our men who were on their way back to our trenches tripped over me as I 1 tried to get up and then a shell exploded near by and I 1 thought I 1 had bad got it sure but it was only the rocks thrown up by the explosion finally I 1 was able to stand up so I 1 slung my rifle over one shoulder and got phillippe pierre up on UK tit other with his body from the waist up hanging banging over my back so that I 1 could hold his wounded leg on and started back there was only one or two of our men left between the trenches our machine guns were at it hard and the turks were firing and bombing at full speed I 1 had not gone more than two or three paces when I 1 came across another of our men wounded in several places and groaning away at a great rate pierre was not saying a word but tile the other chap did enough for the two of them one wounded man was all I 1 could manage with my rifle and pack over the rough ground and the barbed wire I 1 had tc go through IL so I 1 told this fellow whose name I 1 cannot remember I 1 never did know him very well that I 1 would come back for him and went on I 1 almost fell several times but managed to get through safely and rolled over our parapet with phillippe pierre they stared the lad back in a stretcher alghn uway when I 1 saw him again he gue mo me a little box bos as a souvenir but I 1 have haac lost it the turks had not got very far with their counterattack counter attack L because cause we were able to get our barbine bar going in time to check them but they jiey were htiu out in front of their benches ren ches clies when I 1 started back after the other garby I 1 was not exactly afraid as I 1 crawled along searching tor for the other man but I 1 I 1 was very thirsty and nervous for fear our barrage would begin again or the machine guns cut loose after what seemed a long time I 1 came i upon a wounded man but he was no not t the one I 1 was after I 1 thought about a bird in the hand band etc and was just starting to pick this chap up when almost on us an and d abba ace i of us but neither of us was hurt I 1 thought the fire would get heavier then so I 1 dragged the other chap into one of two holes made by the shell some pieces of the shell had stuck into the dirt in the hole and they were still hot also there wits was a sort of gas there that bung around for several minutes but it was not very bad the man began talking to me and lie he said it was an honor to lie on the field of battle with a leg shot off and dead men plied piled all about you and some not dead but gronning groaning he told me I 1 would soon be able to hear the groaning though I 1 had bad not said I 1 minded it or anything about it then he said again what an honor it was and asked if I 1 had a drink for him I 1 had not had any water all day and I 1 told alm him so but he kept on asking for it all the same some of the turkish bombers must havo have sneaked up pretty lose alose to our lines for when I 1 looked out of the hole toward our lines and a shell burst near them I 1 could see a turk coming toward us we played dead then but I 1 had my bayonet ready for him in case he had seen us and decided to come up to the hole evidently lie had not for when lie he got near the hole bole he steered to the side and went around the other garby was cheerful when lie he was not asking for water but you could see lie he was going fast so we sat there in the hole and he died shortly afterward the fire slackened a little and I 1 got out and started toward our lines but I 1 remembered about the other wounded man I 1 had passed when I 1 was carrying phillippe Philllp pe PI alerre erre so I 1 began hunting for him and after a long time I 1 found him he was still alive his chest was all smashed in and he was badly cut up around the neck and shoulders I 1 picked him up and started back but ran into some barbed wire and had to go around I 1 was pretty tired by this time and awfully thirsty and I 1 thought if I 1 did not rest a little bit I 1 could never make it IL I 1 was so tired and nervous that I 1 did not care much whether I 1 did get back or not and the wounded garby was groaning all the time so when I 1 thought tho the shells were coming pretty thick again I 1 got into a shell hole and it was the same one I 1 had left not long before the dead garby was there just as I 1 had left him the wounded one was bleeding all over and my clothes were just soaked with blood from the three men but most of all there was some of my own blood on me too for when I 1 was knocked down by the shell my nose bled and kept bleeding for a long time but of course that was nothing compared to the bleeding of the others the worst of all was that he kept groaning for water and it made me thirstier thirst ler than I 1 had been even but there was not a drop of water anywhere where and I 1 knew there was no use searching any bodies for flasks flacks so wo we just had to stick it out pretty so soon on the wounded man quit groaning and was quiet and I 1 knew he was going to die too it made me mad to think that I 1 had not been of any use in carrying these two men around but it if I 1 had gone on with either of them it would have been just the same they would have died and probably I 1 would have got it too when I 1 figured it out this way I 1 quit worrying about it only I 1 wished the fire would let up so the other man died and there were two of them in the hole I 1 rend read the numbers on oil their identification disks when shells burst near enough so that I 1 could see them and after a while got back to our lines hues and rolled in I 1 could not remember the numbers bers or the names by that time but it a working party got them along with others so it was all right my clothes were a mess as I 1 have said and I 1 was so llred I 1 thought I 1 could sleep tor for a week but I 1 could not stand win itin it in my clothes any longer it was absolutely against regulations but I 1 took on off all my clothes the blood bad soaked into the skin and wrapped myself in nothing but air and went right to sleep I 1 did not sleep very well but woke up CN every cry once in a while and thought I 1 was in the hole again during buring the night they brought up water but I 1 was asleep and did not know it they did not wake mo me but two men saved by share though usually in a case like that it was everybody for himself and let the last man go dry you could not blame them either cither so I 1 thought it was pretty decent of these wo to to save my share for me I 1 believe they must have had a hard time keeping the others off of it to say nothing of themselves for there really y was not more tl than enough for one good drink all around it tasted better than anything I 1 have ever drunk go dry for 24 hours in tile the hottest weather you can fl fand a d do a nights work like that and come to in the morning with a tin cup full of muddy water being handed to you aud and you will 1 know now what I 1 mean at gaba there were steep little hills sla in between them id m we took WL found lots of dead turks under piled of rock where our guns had batte battered red the walls of the quarries down on them we were fighting about this part of the country ono one time when we saw three motor trucks disappear over tho the side of a hill bill going across country the detachment from the cassard was sent over on the run and we came upon the turks from those trucks and several others just after they bad got out and were starting ahead on foot we captured that whole bunch I 1 do not know how many in all they were reinforcements on their way to a part of their line that we were battering very hard and by capturing them wo we helped the anzack a great deal for they were able to get through for a big gain we held that position though they rained shells on us so hard all that day and night that we thought they were placing a barrage for a raid and stood to arms until almost noon the next day but our guns gave back shell for shell and pounded the turkish trenches and broke t shrapnel over them until they had all they could do to stay in them finally our guns placed shell after shell on the enemas communication trenches trendier tren dies and they could neither bring I 1 picked him up and Star faid d back up reinforcements nor retire so we went over and cleaned them out and took the trench but then our guns had to stop because we were in range and ami the turks brought up reinforcements from other parts of tho the line and we were driven back after holding their trench all afternoon it was about fifty fifty though for when they reinforced one part of the line some of our troops would break through in another part that night there was a terrible rainstorm I 1 guess it was really a cloudburst wo we had bad all the water we wanted then and more too A great many men aad mules were drowned both of our troops and the turkish trenches were washed in and most of the works ruined there were several turkish bodies washed into our conr trench and two mules came over together though |
