Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 202, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1918 — YANK SOLDIERS COOL, WILLING AND DETERMINED [ARTICLE]

YANK SOLDIERS COOL, WILLING AND DETERMINED

Our Doughboys Mean Business When They Take the FirstLine Trenches. THEIR EFFICIENCY EVIDENT Veterans Before They Enter the Trenches, by First-Rate Military Training if Not by Experience —Every Man in Line Has Personal Grudge to Settle With Huns. With the American Troops in AlsaceLorraine. —By the dim light of the moon yoffcould barely see the stream of pouring out-of the sheltering woods and scraping over the dusty French road toward the trenches. They said very little and trudged along with that measured swinging tread which enables Europe’s veterans to carry their heavy packs almost un-heard-of distances. The stream seemed unending, as the United Press staff car picked Its way from squad to squad without using lights, without falling in ditches and without touching a single doughhoy. Finally one section of the human stream halted in a ruined village. The press car stopped, too, for beyond this point everything except ammunition and food goes on foot. The officers gave the order to rest, and a lot of packs dropped to the ground, followed by doughboys. Their rifles they never dropped. In the moonlight you could see the ground covered with resting soldiers, mostly sitnng. There was a clicking of rifles and sounds of tightening packs, and bits of gossip which could come only from a group heading for its first night in the t*enches. Indifferent to Danger. These were Uncle Sam’s citizen soldiers, new men just over from “the states,” as they have a habit of calling home when over here. A few questions revealed the fact that a year ngo tfese boys were clerks, carpenters, students and whatnot, in civilian ■ clothes. Six months ago they were in a training camp. Now they were sold’ers in France, and tonight they were making their genuine debut into the war for civilization. There was no wild enthusiasm nor any evidence of fear or even apprehension among those citizen-soldiers as they rested before making the last lap intc the trenches. There was a nrrrer-of-fact sort of confident prevalent. and every man was making ihe mor of the breathing spell to see tint he was 100 per cent ready for baitle Interest and talk centered around the clicking rifles and other equipment. “This old gun’s sure going to do

some work from now on,” said one doughboy to his pal, as he played with the rifle fondly. “It’s the best gun in this army.” “Say, you never shot this gun.” replied the other. “Nobody ever did, si nd nobody will but me. It’s some Bochegetter. It was made for me ’specially, Bo.” Officers went through the crowd, giving a final warning about use of gas masks, and attention centered around masks for a moment. A lot of chaps tried them on again. Then packs again were adjusted, and the group of doughboys streamed slowly on. Ready for Business. As they got nearer the front trenches the word was passed to walk more quietly. Conversation except in undertones stopped, and they descended into trenches. All you heard was the steady knock of hobnailed shoes on the trench duckboards, as these i.ew arrivals were quietly initiated to the trenches in France. Quietly and without commotion the officers stationed their men, with lookouts watching across moonlit No Man’s Land, the former occupants of the trenches left, and the relief was completed. There is something about the fearless quiet way these new dougbhoys take the trenches that makes you feel they know a lot about warfare. They are veterans before they enter the trenches, by first-rate military training if not experience. Their discipline Is fine, and their efficiency tells you they are ready for business — meaning whipping Germans. “Well, you can tell Kaiser Bill we’re here to fight,” said one doughboy, as he took his station. “Hear the Germans say we’re just a crowd of untrained boys. We’ll soon show them we’re soldiers.” It happens this doughboy’s platoon did it very soon, next night 150

Germans came over, and fifty of these '“untrained boys” withstood the attack and stuck to their guns. The Germans who were still alive and able to run, retreated, double-quick time. ‘All in Day’s Work. Speaking of the way the newly arrived Americans take to the trenches and to their duties, one brigadier general, who had just finished a complete relief, said: “They’re not exactly glad to get into the trenches. I guess no one is glad of that. But these boys all figure it’s work to be done, and they’re here to lick Germans. They’re keen to get the job done. They’re confident, all right, but not boastful, because they know there’s a lot to learn.” A dougnboy gave his version of how he and his pals felt while out there facing No Man’s Land for the first time. “We’re not scared of the Germans, and when the time comes, we’ll show them. We’re going to do our best, which is about all they ask of us. Believe me, it’s going to be a mighty good best.” The new men in the fighting game adapt themselves to the front quickly as did the first Americans over. Every night it is “over the top” for patrols of them, and In a few days they are entirely familiar with No Man’s Land. The German front trenches next fall in the line of .investigation and the Germans soon adopt the policy of falling back to avoid fighting. Back of the lines on the home side, bank clerks, barbers and men of every profession who have temporarily become soldiers soon make themselves at home among the ruins and in woods. They eat army “grub”' and relish it more than the most delicate meal they ate from a white linen covered table and real dishes, especially if there has been work to do. Soldiering agrees with them, you can see, by the work they do, the meals they eat and the huskies they have become. Chauffeur Gets “Fresh." Discipline is fine, even if it is hard. A major tells how his chauffeur became a little “fresh” one day. Knowing the doughboy was a good chap, the major took him aside and talked to him Instead of “bawling him out” before the crowd. The doughboy apologized. “I’m sorry, major,” he said. “You see I own a couple of businesses back in New York, and have more than a million dollars in my own name, and it’s a little hard to remember my place in the army now. But I’ll do it, somehow.” You think you are in an international army when you visit some of the new American units now in the lines. One company from New York boasts that its members know seventeen languages, and if you wander in on them about mess time, when talking and plates full of “grub” have been emptied, you are convinced. But all of these doughboys are ardent Americans, and they have won the admiration of their comrades who can speak the tongue without an accent. They are all snappy looking soldiers.

Sure of Success. The new units have dragged- their clean and fresh-looking equipment, such as supply wagons, camp kitchens, machine-gun outfits and all that is needed up into the Alsace and Lorraine hills. The line runs up and down steep mountain sides and across pretty valleys; It Is beautiful country and a fine place to be initiated to the front, for the doughboy must be on the alert all the time. In this area there is a shell-swept, well-wired No Man’s Land across which Germans cannot come without being easily detected. Woods and hills and wild country make the’ place one in which only strict attention to business will keep the Germans out. These doughboys in the line have no hankering to “take things easy.” Every man In the line will tell you in confidential tones that he has a personal grudge to settle with the Huns for dragging the world into this nasty business, and the sooner aggressive action is taken the sooner Germany is going to be punished and war made a thing of the past. This is the job every doughboy figures he has to do, and the confidence with which he takes to the trenches tells the world he will succeed.