Roosevelt Standard | 1927-07-28 | Page 4 | War Stories Come Back with a Bang!

war storks come back with a hangl bang fix BAYONETS by capt john W thomason jr tbt tha zigzags of the german trenches the tit cols bois de dipre was a bluish mangled wood two kilometers north peering from their sh shelters eltera the battalion saw till nil tills this ground swept by a hurricane of shell fai move down low 11 the trench to the left caulle the lie order the battalion moved filing around the traverses with judicious intervals between men so that the bioche shells might not include too many any in their radius of death for ife lille was beginning to shoot buck back tie ile hid tile the range of his avacato 4 lat u seitei u un tle llie hf lifshi gh ground lie could soo see what he was wag shouting at shells began to crash do down til among the lie companies whole boil lads were blotted out and men choked rind and coughed as the reek of high explosive caught at their wind pipes lordy aint we ever goin to get outa this dam place an got get at leni em A shell v biltl it a driving band loose came with a banshee scream an ani tuen men and pieces of men were blown in fit the nir air that was in the first platoon said tile the second in command shaking tile the dirt off tits his gas mash something ought to be done about that gunner 11 II another landed in the opposite lip of the trench aln ie tile two officers cIrs crow crouched lied linof burying them both my illy god cagni you killed ile hell no are you par I ar enough to the left the malor sprit sent ord we will wait here the sixth lends were tile life last battalion in support today coining caming front froin the maze of trenches in tile rear real the assault regiment began to pass through gli the fifth bal tullon tallon following battalion at f yard distances A number of french laby baby tanks started with the ass assaulting ault waves but it was its an evil plato for tanks tank filips trenches so wide that the little follows fellows went nent nose don into them and stuk sti ik rind nud direct lire fire from froin noche beebe artillery stopped the alie most of them I 1 the battalion was vas out of tile the trench now and going forward r rc its pace on the battalion ahead all at once there was a snapping s rind and crackling in the air it a corporal spun round and collapsed limply while ills blouse A 4 pushed their way vay onward M iiii lintl ui I 1 it aki ll 11 junr ri 11 ai ins t tty inn beside lidin bled and went town lown swearing through grayish lips it a shattered eird the men flut flat bened and all faces turned toward the lunk lank machine guns on the llie left lefel 1 biell 1 ts that hint li hook weve got to pass thank god cod its long rangel ranke I 1 conic come in you birds anil and the battalion went un on enduring finally when well past its front ran dongon oly illey to the line of advance the seventeenth company that had the left I 1 turned savagely on in tile the essen hook and got a foothold in its roar rear A rine one from the regimental lead head quarters company wa was rushed up to ns ag am sl st them nna the men yelled with de light as tile vicious little cannon got in hits on the roche beebe ernola cc ments hopelessly cut off tile large body of germans in tills this formidable work surrendered after a few sharp and bloody minutes and the seventeenth senell rending ng had bah its prisoners re joined the bat battalion tallon prisoners began to stream back from the front of the attack telling of the success of tb iha sixth wounded came with them some walking some canted can led on improvised stretchers fay by the boche most of them were grinning goin up there hoys boys goin linol binol Lo loholdt Look ll fellers feller sl got a lion bon blighty well give ein cru your re gards in parisi for awhile now the battalion halt ed col keeping its olk distance tance front froin tile lie unit ahead tiie the men inon lay on their rilles rifles and unreasonable yearnings for fee food kal eal eat cleill troops aint suppo supposed ed to oat 1 officers cast anxious glances toward tile lie utterly exposed left the alie french attack had failed to keep keel abreast of tile the american tho the left com corn piny finny hi ile seventeenth was in a cover of scrubby trees the other cac likewise con CI C I A 11 II ita It 1 I 1 fertit A force an fn me lie open on a bleak shiell pocked cocked slope A Il high KhIng dying buche plane spotted spoiled its platoon columns asp ravil eighty or a hundred yard on tile the chalky ground N no 0 good said the second in cocking lila ills head gander wise in ills his flat bat helmet Is coln to come of that adani thing guess gues all our noble avin alln tors have pone gone colne holne to lunch the plane high and sm small ill and shining in n the sly sky circled slowly above them far back bach of hie ile beebe lines the there re was it railroad gun that took a wireless from the llie wheeling vulture listen said the captain listen to th tb l there were lots of shells passing over v the long tearing whine of the tile the coarser voices of the boche replying and heavy stuff but most of 0 it was br breaking enking behind or in front of the battalion into this root roof of sound clune came a deeper note a far tt ciff rumble that mounted to an enormous roar like a freight t train 1 on a downgrade down grade the company flattened against tit ground like partridges rind and the world shook and reeled under thein its as a nine inch shell cra crashed lieI into the earth fifty yard ahead exploding with it a cataclysmic detonation that rocked their senses art an appalling geyser of black smoke and torn earth leaped skyward jagged splinters of steel whined away away and stories atones and clods showered down don before the smoke had lifted from the monstrous crater tile llie devastating im ble came ogain mid the lie second shell roared donn fifty yards to the rear ah lordy got us bracketed ill 1 I saw that one I 1 saw it look right where tile next ones gonna hit ani an look where its gonna lilt I 1 laud lad if I 1 just knew it gonna lilt tit mo ine alah 11 1 the thard shell came and men who risked an eye could see it a dark I 1 tremendous streak shooting straight town down to tile quivering earth A yawning hole opened with thunder fairly between two platoon columns an and the I 1 earth vomited it was won I 1 darful shooting all the shells that followed dropped between the columns of prone men but not a man was hitt lilt I 1 the henry heavy projectiles sank far into tile chalky soil and ill clife explosions sent tile the deadly fragments outward and over the company more fore than a dozen shells were fired in all the high sinister plane wheeling overhead the lie hit then the company wont went fo forward rard with the battalion very glad to move any one of those nine inch babies would have blotted out twenty of us marveled a lieutenant leading leui ling ills his platoon around a foot criter crater that sti still ll 11 smoked or ripped the heart out of any conert te an and 1 st etcel eel fortification ener eer built the good bawd was certainly with us to the company commanders gathered at daik in a much disfigured Z in tile wood of somme ay ahe inon alic alith took look blane moril mont and they are holding it against heavy beavy counter at tacks prisoners say any they were ordered to hold here nt at tiny any costs fighting damned dar lined well tool tile infantry regiments piped down the dols de dipre just as we did the eison hook the division Is grouping arouni around the ridge but were pretty vell isolated from tile the french tonight we are arc going on up and take the front fi ont line and attack toward st rt I 1 alenne a arnos arnes town north of the ridge and a little vest get on up to diane ilont with your companies r 1 C vm bo be there along the road that runs across the ridge CHAPTER vill VIII biting the boche with the Arne american rican sawtooth saw tooth formation rna tion not greatly troubled by the boch li belling olaf died to spasmodic bursts burts as the night anent on the battalion mounted through the lark dark to its appointed place here beside bedole a blasted I 1 road that ran along blanc mont just behind tile the thin line of the sixth the weary men lay lon down find and no orders being immediately forthcoming slept like the dead that eliat wore were lying thickly there let the off officers leers worry over lie fact eliat the french had fallen behind on oil pad each lank thiu that the division sion was waa to tit all purposes isolated far out in hoche doche teril tory let lct any fool orry oer tile the chances of stol stopping ping one toni tomorrow orrow tomorrow would conlo comb soon enough tile the loo loutenant tenant says to get nil lilt tile the rest ou can dunt dont no body need to tell me lne tha in the deep dugouts behind the road tile battalion bit bat tallon commanders prodded at held maps and snore i ca arlly rily oer the ominous gaps behind the flanks three kilometers on one flank live ave on the other where the french divisions had not kept pace into these holes the bohlae had till day been savagely to thrust himself find and ills his sue suc cess could mean disaster Al already tile sixth had a force thrown back to cover the left rear disposed at right angles to tite alie line or of advance anti and orders were to carry the attack atmark at dawn on top of that after midnight n docile deserter into the line Allic with the cheer ilg news that the germans were planning to attack in forone forgeon for ceon on the american flanks tit at dawn a deslon of fresh troops prussians 3 had juat been brought brou glit up for that purpose it looked bad it looked worse than eliat well said major george hamilton ito of the first battalion batto Ilon of the I irth iirth I fth orders tire are to attack and by rol god viell attack a yawn spoiled tile dramatic effect of ills pronouncement ind and going to get some sleep wake me at eliat vall be an hour and at divin dan while mille the ridge shook ekr jahp went before the cefie tank ti afa cli and the sixth held heid he id with will their rifles i lie iho branch behind the left the rift fifth h marines went forward to carry the battle to st eilenne noon found them well forward of the ridge tying lying in an open flat while the leading battalions disappeared in pine woods on a long slope ahead it had fallen strangely quiet where they lay up forward though all hell suddenly broke loose artillery machine runs guns rifles even the coughing do to tona nations tlona of grenades mounted to an inconceivable fury of sound here comes a battalion runner theres the skipper over there up anyway I 1 the second in iii command came through ills his company with a light in his yes eyes and lie he sent ills his voice before him film deploy the first platoon mr longford langford three pace interval be sure wheres mr connor oh chuck form the second wave behind tom about fifty yards other two platoons in column behind the company flanks on yo feet chII IunI were goin up lip li leni cm and so all four companies in line the first battalion a thousand men up against the beebe captain said the second in command as they started sv ingin half left this tack will take up right to st etienne wont it we were a little one side of it before major gle you any dope done the beebe have hare come out of st ettenne Et lenne two full infantry regiments anyway find and a bunch of maxim guns and lilt the second lind third in the flank must ile he pretty bad were coln up to hit them in the flank ourselves bout a kilometer id say walt until their artillery spots tills little promenade none of ours in support you know every man knew ns as they moved out of tile flat and ascended the slope ahead that the case was desperate but to tills this end was all tb jhc thc lr ir sti strength bength and skill in war all their cunning gained in other battles and their hearts lifted up lip to meet what might come collie more interval more interval there on the left I 1 dont bunch up you the first shell came screaming down the line from the right and broke with the hollow cough and poisonous yellow putt puff of smoke which marks the particular abomination of the foot aldier soldier ol dier it broke fairly over the center of the forty ninth and every lead ducked in unison three men there were i who seemed to throw them prone they did not get up again anil and then the tight fight closed upon the battalion with the complete and horrid unreality allty of nightmare the silent ridge to the left awoke with machine guns and rifles and sib sibilant rut hunhing liing flights of nickel coated missiles from maxim and mausar iau r struck down where tile lie shells spared an increasing trail of crump crumple lel 1 brown figures lay behind the hat battalion tallon as it berit the raw smell of blood was in ri hiis ii is going forward with lilg its mn a lliel ile dazed cerbi perhaps pa with shock and sound such as nevor never ere on earth before the second in command wils was consa conscious loul of a strangely mounting sense of the unreality of the whole thing the woods on the crest were its as far awny away ns as ever through tile the murk their strides got them nowhere their legs were clogged ni as in an evil dream they were falling failing so fast these linen he had worked with and helped in n train in war there was aa anger in his heart it a five inel inch shell swooped over his licad so n that the rush of air made his ear drums pop and burst 11 he e waa picked up and whirled away I 1 like ce a leaf breath and senses truck struck from hin hill by the worlds world s shattering hattei ing concussion tile the second in command was pulled to ills his feet by gunnar nice who had bild taken tile second platoon ills head bead lolled stupidly it a moment then he be heard words nn an that shell sheil got all the captains group sir all of deml eni an my platoons all casual casualties ties ile he pulled himself together as he wint forward ills raincoat was spilt up the back under ills his belt ills map case was gone the strap that lind hd secured it hung loosely from his shoulder there was blood on ills hands and the salt taste of it in his mouth but it dziat dlo nt to be ills his and the front of tle battalion was very narrow now loe r support plat platoons rions were all in tye le inc Strang strangest eq of all the grdy gray slope atas as behind them thein the trees on the cicet mere flere only a few yards away behind and to the left the guns still raved but the artillery ml fell away A rocket flared dared from tile pines ahead and right in th faces of the panting marines machine guns gung and rifles mazed blazed in the sl shadow adoll of th the peres were men in cumber cumbersome green gray uniforms with faces looked hardly human under diep round helmets with eyes nar narrowed roweL bodies slanting forward like men mea in heavy rain the remnant of the battalion went to them it was the flank of the noche column which had come out of st etienne and struck the leading battalions of the fifth it had wat watched elied first etli ill keen delights delight then with incredulity the tortured advance of the battalion it had waited too long to open lis its own oun fire and now already shaken by tile the sight of these men who would not dr dle it shrank from the long ions american bayonets and the lilt llosa furious faces behind the steel A few brandenburger Brandenburg cr zealots zealous elected to dle die on their spitting maxim guns working them until bayonets nets or clubbed rifles made an end A few iron prussians the roche docile had such men stood up to meet bayonet with bayonet and died that way A great many more flung awny away their arms and bleated bleared Na Kamarad maraden cn to men who in that red minute knew r ca 1 I MA ri K rc ey simp im in hoeps 4 continued on page five FIX BAYONETS continued from page tour four death to 0 5 ae e fi vt n c d butas out as 1 the he 1 press re ss thinned VIUM die VIAS ka rung guns down dorfi the