Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 125, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1918 — TELLS OF FUN IN THICK OF BATHE [ARTICLE]

TELLS OF FUN IN THICK OF BATHE

BATTERY COMMANDERS BLOODTHIRSTY, HE DECLARES. Colonef Robert H. Tyndall, commender of the 150th fieW arbjery, in a letter to William HerschsD, of The Indianapolis News, reveals some of the humors ofbeing m “the thick o’ things" in France-, good stories of his battery manders and the cammenders of the headquarters and supplies companies. The letter fallows: “In the Field, May 10, 1918. “Dear Old Bill: —I hasten to answer your delightful letter of April 19, so as to encourage you to continue the good work. “We are having some wonderful times over here —a sensation nearly any hour in the day. Of course these are things you have been reading about for the last three and a half years, but actually to be a part of the thing is indeed very interesting. Many humorous incidents mark our lives here, for which we are all grateful, as you may know that if is were not for the humor the serious part of this game would grow monotonous, and we would all go to pot. “Say, Bill, I have the most bloodthirsty battery commanders you could imagihe. Even when not fighting the enemy they constantly are trying to outdo each other, always waiting to turn a trick on the other fellow. The other evening Captain Hofman, of headquarters company, came into the mess and remarked that he had seen what he thought to be a craps game going on down the road. Of course a guard was dispatched to break it up. Presently the report came back that it wasn’t craps game at all ; it was Captain Fetchman’s supply company standing retreat. It took Captain Fechtman three days to think up a get-back at Captain Hofman. Then he came in with a report that he had such a model company all of his menjwere attempting to imitate the, “Rainbow Stoop” affected by the officers of the headquarters company. “The battery commanders are so bloodthirsty that when I go to the battery positions the first thing they say is: ‘Weill, when are we going to lire?’ If we are quiet for a brief period they get hungary for action and there has never been a word of complaint from either officers or men about the work. In the last scrap we had fired day and night for three days—and swinging ninetypound projectiles and carrying them through the mud is no baby’s pastime. • The men of Battery A, under Captain Miller, and of Battery E, under Captain Kelley, fairly pray for action as they say their battery commanders never smile unless things are hot all around them. And that is really true. “I want to tell you a little joke on Captain Kelley. It happened while he was at his gun position at 4:00 o’clock one morning. He had a man on top of a dugout, the man acting as an observer to pass the word when the infantry signal rocket was fired, which would mean that the mission had been accomplished and our was to be shifted. As it apparently was taking more time than Captain Kelley thought necessary he asked by ’phone if the man was still up there. The man at the other end of the line, being somewhat of' a wit, replied: ‘No he has come down.’ I can not repeat Captain Kelley’s words here, but the enemy must have thought another barrage was breaking loose. But after investigation, Captain Kelley found that the man had come down through no fault of his own. A fragment of shell had hit him with just enough force to knock him from his observation point. It put a dent in his tin hat but didn’t hurt him seriously. * “Battery E has come in for considerable shelling and, up to date, has fifty-eight men in the hospital from gas. We moved this.baftery to a new position, believing the enemy had located it. But when they got into the new position the first thing Captain Kelley wanted to know .was when he and his boys could go to the old position, as all were complaining of lack of action. Kelley used the argument that, after having fired so many thousands of shells at the enemy it would be reasonable to suppose he would fire a few in return. ‘We’re a fighting outfit, you know,’ Captain Kelley said. That will make you understand, Bill, the fighting spirit of the men of the 150th field artillery. I had a little fun with Kelley, however, as I accused him of liking the old position best because the inspecting officers are not so anxious to linger around where * constant shelling is going on. “Major Prather, of the third batatlion, stood the heavy shelling in the vicinity of his dugout from 7:30 to 11 o’clock, then decided it was getting so warm he had better mbve, which he did. And he had not been ' out of that dugout more than a few seconds before a boche shell smacked it. I visited him in his new position a little later and we went back to see his old home. I asked him whether he had secbred all his belongings before leaving and he replied that he had. But I knew better and told him so, for I found several articles of apparel that he had lost interest in. “Well, I’ve told you about all a conscientious censor will permit me to tell and hope you will return the compliment early. And Bill, I still have more hair than Carl Fisher, even if mine is getting gray. “Youra, “808 TYNDALL.”