Show war stories come back with a baegl FIX BAYONETS by capt john W thomason jr hell sirl sir im idue doe in paris tomorrow night eliere wit ere those marines major ill tell leni eni what I 1 want so it was that a wedge of men de botched into the wheat at 23 hours 19 minutes it being sufficiently dark that battalion scout officer kofl icer and a ser sergeant genDt with hash marks on ills his sleeve sl feeve were the point the men were echelon ed back right nod and left ion with an automatic rifle on each flank daub in the center marched the colonel smoking to the horror of all a cigar smoking was not done dona up there after dark with him film was the vic ant rench french clip captain tain who lipp appeared eared to be very gallantly resigned to it the story would e reflected amaze and dell delight glit tits ills mess if he fever ever got back with walh it I 1 these droll americans American sl 1 ile he must remember just what tills this colonel said a type nom kom de dicel if only he had not worn tits his new uniform the cloth chosen by his wife you conceive the scout officer lending leading had out his canteen and wet his dry mouth ile he was acutely conscious of his empty stomach mind dwelt yearningly on the mess kit freighted nobly with monkey meat and tomatoes awaiting him in the dependable tommys tommas mu sette A hundred meters forward the last shells burst and he be saw new dirt ahead a spot darker than the dark he went up to it it away on the right a flare dare soared and something gleamed dull in the black hole at his feet a round deep helmet with the pale blur of a face aco under it a click and the shadow of a movement there and a little flicker ll cher a matter of split seconds the scout officer had a bayonet in his stomach almost feld ritter kurt iden company six of the Al margrave argrave of brandenburg regiment this established later by brigade in on examination of the pay book of the deceased being on front post with ills his eard a noise hard on the cc ss f the shelling and put out his fits neck dear god shoot 1 shoot 1 quick lyl the scout officer was conscious of a monstrous surge of temper he gathered his feet under him and his hands crooked like claws claws and he burled himself in the same breath there was a long bright flash right under his arm and the mad crack of a springfield the disillusioned ser eer bennt had estimated the situation loosed off from the hip at perhaps seven feet and shot the german through the throat too late to stop himself the scout officer went head first into the crater his fits hands locking on something att and hairy just the size to fill them and presently he was at the bottom of the orator dirt in his mouth and a buzzing in tits his head strangling something that flopped and gurgled and made remarkable noles noises under his hands there were explosions and annl ata h on hf hh ani legs H he 5 15 became decanie sane ngann find and r realized ea that whatever it NAs was it was dead ad he in tits his puttees for his kalf and cut off its shoulder straps and a button or two and looted its bosom of such pipers papers as there were C those being details the complete scout officer must attend to more ceplo and voices bleating T kamara amara deall terribly anxious voices in his tar car t ar the disillusioned sergeant a practical man had ducted ducked into the crater right behind the scout of officer fleer the raiding party in his fits rear had imme fired their weapons in n nil all tit dl erections lons ions A great anny rifles on forward stabbed the dark alth sharp flame and some of these were very near the sergeant tossed a grenade at the nearest lie he find and toted that frog citron grenade grenad fc around for quite a 0 while title somewhat against his judg ment meat he now reflected that it was good bustness business grenades I 1 hope to spit in yo mess kit they are ask t the be man that used one it was go good oil business for it fell fea fair in the other crater thirty feet away where the rest of that front post squad were beginning to react like the brave german roea men they were two of these survived much shaken and scuttled into the clever little tunnel that connected them with the Feld rItters crater emerging blui pacific cries at the sergeants very feet being a man not given to excitement he accepted them alive the while ho be dragged the scout officer standing we got our prisoners sir lets beat it he suggested their lines Is up sir its gonna be bad here P the colonel as gallant a man as ever lived but not fasts fast barked into them prisoners hey neya now how many two excellent by godf god I 1 give sera em here young maill man I 1 and he seized the I 1 V mile from Armint leres unhappy doches bodies by their collars and shook them lolen lly thought start something hey thought start something heyl hey the scout officer now blow blew his whistle the sergeant shouted in a voice of brass and the colonel made the kind of remarks a colonel makes it Is related by truthful marines there present that every german in von boehms army fired on them as they went back but no two agree as to the manner of their return it Is however established that the colonel bringing up the rear halted about halfway half way over drew his hitherto virgin pistol and wheeled around for a parting shot something in the nature of un on beau goste geste seeing this the tall french captain to his rear and left drew tits his pistol and wheeled also im pursuit the colonel and to j this attest the scout officer and his sergeant then shot the frenchman through the as seagoing sea going marines say eay stern sheets the scout officer and the sergeant got him back some way both filled with admiration at his bis language dy by the time they stumbled the nervous outposts to their own place the french captain had lapsed into english As a wound you perceive it Is good for a permission but it Is not a wound aund it Is an indignity ityl 1 and besides my new bree breeches chest 1 ah dlou dion de dieul ce cc sale colonel cit what will my wife bayl that one she chose the tha cloth herself I 1 tun nerre de canon I 1 li and he sank into stricken silence the raiding party shook down in their several holes praising god and went to sleep tit alib colonel with his prisoners received the compliments of the battalion bead headquarters quarter s and departed tor for brigade the scout officer observed to his amazement that they had bad been out of their lines loss less than twenty minutes wheres the forty ninth he wanted hantid to know first uell hell jim they went up to the dols bols right after the major sent for you an the seventeenth were moving battalion headquarters up there now get your people and come along attack or something after a very full night the scout officer crawled and scuttled along the last tip of the dols bots do de belleau looking tor for a hole that a battalion runner told him about seen the loutenant loo tenant diggin in just past that last maxim gun sir air right at the tha nose of the woods where the big rocks Is theres about a dozen dead IIAn les kayin by a big tree all together cant miss it sir or the scout officer had bad no desire to be moving in the cool of the morning when all well regulated people are asleep if possible and it if you moved hero here tho the old boche had a way of sniping at you with that wicked flat cat trajectory austrian gun but he followed an urge that only so he fe canie came nf last to a miserable shelter scooped in the lee of a rock here two long legs protruded from under a brown german blanket and here he be prodded and shoot shook until the deplorable countenance of his bis brother brot lifer officer emerged yawning say demanded the scout of officer fleer you save my slum gilme my slum why hello jim why you vou come back like you said you was where you befell been you said you was comin right back you save me my monkey meat we went on a raid damn it r raid what raid oh we went over to torcy dorcy gamme my monkey meat well you see sec jim the fact la Is well we got moved up here right after you left and they attacked from in here an we came on in after them just got to sleep 1 I had any sleep or any chow or anything two sardines by the bright face of 0 god ali tha scout 0 officer meer pounced upon a frowsy drowsy musette bag which the other had used for a pillow and jerked out a fire blackened mess lilt kit no ile wrenched ill ehfe lid off and snarled horribly empty by god I 1 nis ills hands fell lax las across his knees he looked sadly over the blasted fields of torcy dorcy and he said with the cold bitterness of a man who has tried it all and come to a final conclusion war sure Is hell there were places like this down in the Tour touraine alne country around the town americans called st onion canals with poplars mirrored in then them where it was pleasant to loaf at theand the end of 0 the day the women were kindly and disposed to lends it Is a pity that there were not enough to go around they had also an eye for corporals and sergeants the bored privates on the bank sentimental souls bouls are singing sweet ad e iane it or it may bo be something very different the sergeant a sensitive spirit will presently see that they get et some extra pollee police duty CHAPTER X the rhine the bugles went while it was still as dark as the inside of a dog there was swearing and sickly yellow can dle light in the billets mean houses in a mean little rhine province tow town n and the chow lines formed on the company galleys in an ley icy december rain the rain pattered on helmets and mess kits and fell in slanting lines through the smoky circles of light where the cooking fires burned feebly the faces of the marines as they filed out of the dark tor for food were gray and frowsy drowsy the cooks issued corn bill hash bash and dared any man to growl on ti alie I 1 e coffee how the hell bell could it be filled enough litif wet wood and very little of that been up all night as it Is you sports just pull in your necks I 1 the companies gulped their ration in sullen til bi lence rolled damp blankets bets 1 S into the prescribed pack and wh when en the bugles squawked assembly y wey fell in without confusion or enthusiasm thusia sm platoon sergeants with flash lights or lanterns called the rolls somewhere out in front first sergeants received the reports oil officers clumped along the lines to their units grumbling all here first sergeant serge autV beg the capets capt ns pardon see you in the dark sir all present counted for sir pl nice day tor for a hike major says coln to the rhine today eighteen or twenty kilo mets dont know exactly dam such a warl war I 1 id like the old kind where you went into winter quarters barr the captain pulled hla his collar around ills ears presently a bad tempered drawling voice bayed squads right t march rn arch there was a shuffle of hobnails hob bob nails nalls in the mud and the rattle of slang the first battalion ot of the fifth marines took the road these german roads were all honestly but the inch or so of mud on the surface was wag like soup underfoot and the overcoats soaked up the rain like blotting paper it was the kind of a morning with no line between night and daylight the blackness turned to gray and after a while the alie major on 11 hla horse could look back and see the th end d of his column the battalion he ha reflected ted was up to strength aga again n it I 1 blen been this large since it went to blanc mont the end of september ile ho shut his eyes on that thought a hundred and thirty men that came out where a thousand went in then replacements and after the armis tice more replacements perhaps the quality was running down a little the new chaps seem as tall and broad as the file old men the tall leathernecks Leather necks that went out the road from meaux toward chateau thierry Th Tb lerry in the spring odd just six els months since the spring but a few veterans and hard drilling between lights fights would keep the temper in an outfit one remembered a phrase in an order of the division commanders comm anders the second division has never ballej to impose its will upon the enemy 11 and today it crossed the gor cor man rhine lie he swung out of his bis saddle and stood by the road to watch them pass 1200 men belm helmets and rifles gleaming a little in hi the wet gray light the road led en eastward stward through al a country of low hills sodden in ilie alio rain untidy clouds sprawled on I 1 lie crests and spilled wet fi filaments lamen t at into t the valleys the land was all in ill cilli cultivation I ti laid oft off in precise squares A iza st li men walked silent remembering the tho old dead U dat T 67 sunie ine ir ety p lovizio boint sparsely green with turnips and rapo rape it looked ugly and ordered and sullenly prosperous there was slow conversation in the column anybody know where we coln today I 1 did hear bear the skippers orderly say wed make the rhine some time P now how far some guy ans loolen at a map tit at battalion said it was about thirty kilo mets 11 its always bout thirty in this dam country belil cut but I 1 remember one time it was twelve the night we hiked up to verdun back last march had dad a fragg araw gulde guide little shrimp wit a forked beard ask him how far all hed say was dooz kilo mets dooz 1 hiked all night in the rain like this an at daylight we camo came to a sig sign n wit the name of ali the place were goin to an it said dooz that guide he let on that he was right surprised sed 11 but there were very few men in the column who remembered the hilare to verdun in the early spring of 1918 1018 in one company eight in another eleven in the whole battalion the barest handful it had bad been a long rood road the first way sta tion lion was the dols cots de belleau a lot of people pc ople sto stopped plied there and were there yet and there wore were more comfortably fort ably rotting in the foret de retz south of soissons Sols sons and more yet well dead around blanc mont and a vast drift of them back bach in hospitals men walked silent remembering the old dead twelve hundred men hiking biking to the rhine and how many ghosts the mist rolled around the column you toil replacements never knew corporal Cor pral that got bumped off at soissons Sols sons dall dallein dally yin ln with a maxim gun lie he was a musical cuss an he be uster sing a song to the tune of the old gray mare she aint what she uster de be so methin like tho the U S naff flag will fly over germany less than a year from now and now it Is an its a pity he aint here to see it well but hes easy where lie Is me im cold as hell an this dam drizzle Is dral down my neck there was nothing hut but the mist and fah thi 1 r artl finda H tiiu u mc mean iz cai cold ld little W wind jn alth ith a bito in it it north and south from the edge of holland olland rl to the metz gateway all the armies were marching ahead i jus us bout toul of contact went the german armies the battalion passed a dense little wood of fars christmas arce woods the battalion called them this clump showed unmistakably that it had been a camp but there was no litter the he doche bocho who i ached there th ere had left it neat and clean along the road in orderly piles were some hundreds of the round german helmets and parked precisely in a cleared place where livorse ianes had been was a battery of field how the old boche was jettison ing what h ha need the battalion on observed and was thoughtful what about the ole boche you yon think he was licked enough no I 1 dont that stuff back there they laid it down under orders like they do everything its stacked it aint just thrown away an look how they police up behind themselves yen I 1 remember ne member the other day when we was advance adrance guard we could see their rear guard sometimes sometime s perfect order an all that not like ilka a defeated outfit at aall suret surel I 1 hope to spit in yo mess kit it |