Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 270, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1915 — FACE DEATH ID KEEP TELEPHONE LINES WORKING [ARTICLE]

FACE DEATH ID KEEP TELEPHONE LINES WORKING

The Job of the Soldier Lineman Is Most Hazardous in Battle Line. DEATH CONSTANT COMPANION Letter Describing Operations of Armies “Somewhere in France" Tells of Daring Work of Men Who Keep Telephone Lines Open. New York.—The following letter from a soldier in the British army, “somewhere in France,” has been received in this city by the father of the writer: “I expect you are wondering what we are doing up here for the past week or so* As operations are concluded now—or anyway those in which our division has been concerned —1 think Tm at liberty to give you some idea of what’s been done without fear of falling foul of the censor. ‘'You’ll recollect all the trouble a short while back about a chateau, its stables and a crater —which we have continually been disputing over with the Boches —which they finally kicked us out of with liquid fire and sundry other horrors? Well, the division on that section got pretty badly mauled and the position became most uncomfortable. So about ten days ago our division was told off to prepare an attack and to restore the situation if possible. “We were well away to the left of this zone, and as they did not propose to move us until the last minute we were busily employed in constant Journeys over there to reconnoiter and prepare the ground. I was given the Job of doing this for our battery and the brigade. I also had to range the eight-inch and 9.2-inch howitzers. I really had a very heavy week's work. Firstly, this new zone was about a four-mile walk and under fire all the way. No horses could be used and a bicycle was harder work than walking, owing to the mud. All the time the’ weather has been vile —tons of rain and very hot and muggy. I had to get off each day about six a. m., and dididn’t get back till eight p. m or so. Always Getting Cut. “We had to run miles of telephone wire—and as this was always getting cut by shell fire you can guess that I and my telephonists had some pretty hot times keeping our communications going. All observation had to be done from our fortified trenches. These were Mimply hopeless— battered to mere mud heaps and perpetually bombarded by the enemy—and the infantry holding them had a frightful time of it. These particular trenches run along a crest of a slope and have been alternately held by us and the Deutschers several times during the last few weeks. It’s almost impossible to describe the confusion and beastliness of them —the soil is very loose indeed and the rain and the shelling have turned them into a gigantic sort of hog-wallow, like you have in the center of * farm. “The smell 'js horrible and all over the place are dead bodies, scattered equipment, refuse, etc. One feels it’s perfectly Idiotic to fight over the tenjurs (A such • fffls hole-every tree is

wrecked and blackened and there isn’t a vestige of greenery left, bar the beastly green fungus-like patches where the H. E. shells have burst. Even the rain water and mud goes bright green from this cause. Talk about the ‘blasted heath' of Macbeth — it isn’t in it with the ruin and desolation of this part of the world. *1 don't know if I’ve managed to convey to you any idea of the part I've been existing in lately, but it's been like a horrible nightmare to me—and I’ve seen a few horrors this last year. Shelled All Day Long. “All day long we have been shelled up there, and they’ve also had several trench mortars at work throwing 90pound bombs by compressed air. This particular brute is called a minenwerfer, and you can see the bomb coming. It goes up miles in the air, turns a somersault and then begins to drop. One gets an idea after a time as to where it will fall, and then there’s a rush for cover. The beastly thing lies on the ground for about two seconds before bursting, and altogether it's a thoroughly nerve-racking brute. The infantry loathe them and keep a perpetual lookout for the “soissidge,” as they call it. It’s also called the aerial torpedo. The effect is terrific, and I believe it does more harm than most shells. Glad to say we have got onto several of these things recently. “Every hour or so all the German guns would open a prearranged bombardment of this position, and then we get it with a vengeance. You can’t imagine how rotten it is. You crouch down in the very bottom of the trench, and it seems as if it's impossible to come through it alive. The air is full of a colossal and deafening rushing sound, the whole earth trembles, parapets and sandbags fall in, and showers of splinters and smashed-up things fly shrieking all over the shop. Every instant the explosions seem to come nearer to you, and finally when you have made up your mind that it’s all up with you, the row dies away, and you go back to the ordinary intermittent shelling and bombarding w’hich, then, seems almost peaceful. Dead Are Everywhere. “Of course we had plenty of casual ties and the gunners didn't escape. The last day I was up there our wire got blown to bits somewhere out in the open behind the trenches for about the hundredth time, so I went out with one of my telephonists to try to repair it. We were in the midst of registering our targets for the attack, and we had to go over some awful places —dead Deutschers everywhere. Suddenly as we crept along a hedge there was a terrific bang, a cloud of smoke, and my man, about fifty yards ahead of me, disappeared entirely. Of course, I flattened out at once. I thought the poor chap had been completely blown to bits, as the shell had burst right at his feet. However, I heard a yell after a few seconds and made a rush for the spot, taking what cover I could, because it looked as if we'd been seen and the Deutschers had fired one of their forward guns at us. I found the poor beggar still alive and conscious, but horribly cut. I made him as comfortable as I could", told him to lie still, because he could be seen and would very likely be shot at again, and then bunked off to try to find a stretcher party. “We were some way from our trenches and in a part that's strictly avoided on account of the attention paid to it by the Deutschers —I suppose because there are some of their old trenches there that we took with the bayonet. Luckily I hadn’t gone far before I met a sergeant and two men. So I collared him and, sending off one man for the stretcher bearers, the rest of us went back and got my chap out of ft. We tied him up as best we could, and then had to carry him pig-a-back to the fire trenches, where the stretcher bearers dressed his wounds

and set about getting him off to the casualty clearing station. I think he’ll recover all rigbL but he had a rotten time of It Came "The Day." “There have been a good many wounded in the battery recently, but none killed. We have had two guns hit and knocked out aa well, but I feel sure the enemy haven't really located us, because they’ve never been able to stop us firing, and only put over half a dozen rounds during the big show yesterday. "The other battery in our brigade has not been so lucky. They’ve had two officers wounded and quite a number of men killed. “Well, to resume: I eventually got all our reconnoitering and registration done, but not until I’d spent several days tn this horrible zone and was almost worn out. Then, yesterday morning at a quarter of three a. m., came ’the day.’ It started with halt an hour’s bombardment of the Deutsch er’s trenches by all our guns, and during this time our infantry crept up under cover of darkness. Next, at an arranged moment, all guns were turned to the left, and onto other pre arranged points, so as to form a flanking wall of fire while the Infantry got in. Finally we all switched on to our final points and kept up several hours’ bombarding of the enemy's communication and reserve trenches, while our infantry consolidated the positions gained. It was all perfectly successful, and we accomplished everything we were ordered to do. Thanked for Their Work. “All through the day the Deutschers tried to counter-attack, but we easily beat them off each time. Last night was absolutely quiet and we all got a good night’s sleep. We have received telegrams from the commander of the Second army and also from the commander in chief, thanking us for doing the Job so well and generally buttering us up. Our corps commander has also wired to us of the artillery, thanking us for the ‘perfect co-opera-tion’ afforded by the gunners. So we’re all pleased, and the Sixth division is very bucked at having brought off the Job O. K. Furthermore, they say that he couldn’t have continued to hold Ypres without taking the post tions we’ve got, and better still, they say that the division is now coming out for a rest. "I suppose this has only been a minor show, but there were a good many thousand men engaged, and we really had a battle with the Boches and whacked them. “I do wish the end would come in sight, for I’m absolutely tired of .the whole thing, and want to get home, it rather looks as if we're in for another winter out here. “We had unlimited ammunition for this little show, so perhaps things are bucking up in that direction. All the same we didn’t Are nearly as much aa we could have done, but specialized in accuracy. They say that they found all our registered points full of dead Boches and smashed-up machine guns.”