Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

/ not two BARNWELL SENTINEL, BARNWELL, SOUTH CAROLINA s / / \ (f "1" T B: Z. I ALBERT N. DEPEW Ex-Gunner and Chief Petty Officer, U/S. Navy Member of the Foreign Legion of France Captain ~Gun Turret, French Battleship Cassard ’ \Winner of the Croiic de Guerre / OopyHRht, 101R, by R*IUjr *n<1 Britton Co., Through flpeoi*] Armor^inent Wltb th* Oeorge Matthew A<)ams fierriee / CITY 1 ~h LEGIONARIES VOW VENGEANCE WHEN GERMANS HIDE ' >•: BEHIND BELGIAN WOMEN AND CHILDREN. Synopsis.—Albert N. D»*i»t*w, nutlior of the Story, tells of Ills service in the Flitted Suites nijvy, ilurjngwhiHi lie attiiliied the rank of chief “petty e'Hicer,■ firstclass gunner. The world war starts soon after he receives Ids honorable dlsrlgyrgc from tin* navy, arrd lie halves for France witlin (Mermliyitlnn to enlist, lie Jqius fin* Foreign-Legion a;id is assigned to the rireadnuught C’assard, wh/’re Ids niArksirflinsldp wins him hitch honors.—La ter he:, Is t ransferrdd to the land forces and sent to the Flanders'front. -He gets, his first experience In a front line trench at / V • I / /• Pixinude. r only waked up , when ptsrt of the roof J raved In on him. Yet he did not know he M had been shelletf! 1 went’ on*down the road a stretch, hut soon found It was easier walking CHAPTER V—Continued. ' 4-i— . ... I never saw a battery better con- >ealed tliail this orie.Up on the ground you couldn't see the muzzle twenty yards away- and that was' all there was to see at ally distance. There was a ruined garden just outside the gun quarter's. and while the gunners were there picking, apples then- would be a hiss ajid an * \|ilo-ion, awl ov*t^ would go s'diuc of tjie tn*es, >*r inayTn ' drawn hack anil forth on the track by llttb* Ih lgian englrTes.^ After I bad been at my'gun- for sev eral days I was ordered hack to_jny regiment, which was again in th** front-11 tie-trenches: My couhsiv v\as past tmih iin' British and French tines hut quite a distance behind the front bombardment- anti ,got‘ back ,nu the road I sat down In rest and smoke. A Couple of shells had burst so near the crater that they had thrown" the .dirt right into the dugout, and I was a little, dizzy from,the shock. While I was_s.it- a man or two. hut never a shell "styuok nearer the guns than that. The pollus used to thank Fritz for helping them pick the apples. beeairse- thy cxplofclokfS would bring-them down In great style. t Shclls from our heavy artillery passed xm. guard had **a*b b**en wounded in Jiist over the garden,‘too, making an awful racket. But they were not In It With the “7fi’s.’/ „ They gave me a little practice with a /TfV' under the direction of expert French gunners before I went to my 14-Inch naval gun, and, believe me, It was a fine little piece. Just picture to yourself a little beauty that can fend a 38-pound shell every two- sec onds (or five miles and more. If you want If to. and land on Fritz’ vest .-button every time. There Is nothing I like better than a gun, anyway, and I have never since been entirely satis fied with anything less than u As you probably know, the opposing artillery in this war Is so widely sepa rated that the gunners never see their targets unless these happen to he buildings, and even then it Is rare. So, since an artillery officer never sees tin* enemy artillery or Infantry, lie must * depend on others to give him the range and direction. For this purpose there are balloons and airplanes attached to each artil lery unit. The airplanes are equipped with wireless, hut also signal' by smoke and direction fff flight, while the balloons use telephones. /The ob servers have maps and powerful glasses and cameras. Their maps are marked off in zuiwa to correspond with the maps used by the artillery officers, The observations are signaled to a receiving station on the gVoum'l and ■are then telephoned to the flatteries. All our troops were equipped with telephone signal* corps detachments and this was.a very Important arm of the service. The enemy position Is shelled before an attack, either en barrage or otherwise, mid communica tion between the waves of attack and the artillery is absolutely necessary. Bombardments are directed toward certain parts of the enemy position almost as accurately as you would use a searchlight. The field telephones are very light and pico portable La the last degree. They .can he rigged up or knocked down in n very short time. The wire is wound lines. „ Fverywhere there were ambulances and wagons-going backward and for ward. I met one French, ambulance that was-a long wagon full of pollus. from a field hospital near the firing line and was driven by a man wlmsc left arm was bandaged to th" Snoul- der. Two pollus who sat in th** rear the leg and,one-bad had a big strip, of his scalp torn off. There was riot a sound' man in tin* hunch. You can Imagine what their cargo was like, if (he convoy was as used up as these chaps. But all Who could were sing ing and talking and full of pep. That Is the French for you: they used no more men than they could possimy spnre to take care of tin* wounded, but- they were all cheerful about It—- always. Just after I passed this ambulance th<* Bormans began shelling a section of the road too near me to be comf**rt- able, so I beat it to a shell cratef about twenty yards off_lhe toad, to .the rear. A shrapnel shell exploded pretty near me,Just as I Jumped into this hole—I < 1 i<1 not look around to see how close It was-and' I remember now how tin* old minstrel joke I had heard on board ship cam* to iny mind at the time—smoo thing about a fellow feel ing so small he eflnibed/fnto a .hole and pulled it tffer hlm-*-nnd I Wished I might do the same. I flattened my self as close against^ tin* wall of the ■cratef* as I could and then I noticed that somebody 1 had made a dugout In the other wall Of the crater and I started for It. . - \ . . • • • - e cer’s legs, which might have made it! friendly with the men, and while 1 worse, onlyhe Was good-natured about ‘ think they liked him they were so it. , Then he said that he had ld*en tough they would never admit it, and aslepp In a hnttnlrimJiendqUa&ers (lug- gsolhe of them claimed he was a Jonah, out. about a hundred yards away, and *^>r jinx, or had luck of some kind But *" Outdoor Church Services Popular at W Capital they all told him their vows as soon as they mad*], them and lie was sup posed to he a sort of referee as to whether they kept them or not.- ^During'my second stunt in the front . . v * . • '< . . ... I ASHINGTON.—Washington's latest ehurchgoing Is out of doors. A1 fresco vespers on the ellipse back of the White House groutfdS were held lust Sunday at five and will occur regularly until October. The district war camp community service Is in beside It. because Jhrgmjns ITad shelled fTThes things got pretty had. The Ger- it neatly right vlfr urif(«Jfqf6’h the middfk [mans were f)ye to our one and, they. Also, there were''so* npiny wrecked kept -pushing hack parts of the line horses and wagons tp climb over on ! and cleaning out others. And the the road—beside**"dead men. weather was as had as it could he After I had passed the area* of the and the food did not always come reg ularly. Now, before they took their vows, every last man in the bunch would havelb**8£rkicking ami growling all* the time, but, us it/wus, the only time they growled was when the Ger mans pushed us-hack.. charge and the navy yard hand pro vides the music. Clergymen from all denominations make addresses, while the congregation, drawn from every state and all ug**s and conditions of war -workers, constitutes th*: choir. These outdoor services-offer many amusing incidents. ITayerfUj posture with bended head disappears whefi the birdmen cut capersjn the sky di rectly over- the preacher. 'The drone of the biplane -drowns-the minister’s i*'- -now he’s, righted him- ling there 4i squad-of Tommies .-came -U mgs- krpt gcttfng xrorsojnrrt ymr up with about twice their number of Herman prisoners. The Tommies-had been making Fritz do the goose step lyol tlhey started them :rt it again when they saw me sitting there. It sure Is good for a laugh any *diqio, .Ihla- goost* step. I guess they call it that after the fellow who invented it. Ope thing I haif noticed about Fritz was the wary ims-coeft- flared out at the bottom, so I took this change to fin<l out- -abeurt-B. ■ whHe thcy bail ted "for IT rest just a little farther down the road., I found that they'carried tln*jr emergency kits in their coats. These kits contained Canned nieat, tobacco, needles, thread and plaster—all.this In addition to their regular pack. Tln-n I drilled down the road some, more, hut hud to stop pretty soon to let a column of French Infantry swing voice, and whispers oT/*Look, oh, look! a nose, dive- Beir'—Interfere - with Tne dominie’s exhortations. The religious character of these Sunday afternoons was repeatedly Stressed by the barm*t young man* in cltarge, probably because the social and sentimental^ tmle t-tuck-out so .prominently, ..Pretty heads resting on. manly shoulders^furtive, handclasps—notes thrown, frorii’a" group of sailWrs to a bunch <n giggling girls*—spurs entangled with'fluffy petticoats—with the big could see that the fnen talked to the chaplatn more and quite a few of t’h’cm rongrvgatiun sitting around on tin* grass, it’s natural enough that nLehic man- got real chummy with Jiiirf. < Ure morning Fritz .started in bright ners'displace proper Church behavior. - ——- Washington Is n .city crowded with untittacived males and females, boys and early, to begin his strafe. Tl+e—^training at tin* pav.v yard or at Camp Meigs and Washington university— lieutenant'was walking i^p and-down girls from eveiijr city- and hamlets They are the nicest,...cleanest, happiest -th** trench/to see that the sentries young people in the world, a slice of young America which is neither the upper nor the lower crust, but they’re lonesome and bored In their few leisure tnOTtrcnt ir tmd want to phtyirigcth cr. : * 7~ ■ ■ ' ^•n 'to the road fronT a field. They 'I'll** Sdiells were exploding so fast by that thin* that ’you could not listen for each explosion separately, nnd just as I Jumped into the dugout a regular ball of shrapnel fell on the spot l had just passed. It was pretty .dark in, the dugout and. the first move I made I humped into somebody else nnd he on drums or reels . _ \ -i-he J let *iut u yell that you could huYe h**ard a mile. It was a Tonimy-who had been wounded In the hand and between curses he told me I had sat right on Ills wound when I moved. I - _ % asked lilnr why he did not yell sooner, but lib only sW'ore nio’re. lie surely was a great cusser. - ’ The homh:#.nJment slackened up a bit about this trim!*, and 1 thought I Would have a look around. I did not get out r of the crater entirely, but dugout until on. flg^t thing I saw was a broken- dow tr wvagoti that had ju-f be**ii hit— in fact, it was toppling over when niy cVjt* caught it. Tin* driver jumped from his seat niid w hile lu* w as in-the air his load was torn completely -from his shotfM.lers by anottur shell*—-I do not know what kind. This was enough ftH—nSe, so. back-to the dugout. IIow t)u* (»«*rm_aiis did it I do riot know, l-ut they ■■had fuiiHd'dut about that road and opeped fir** at exactly were on their way to the ttVnehes as re-enf(|rcetuents. After every two .companies there would he u wagon. Pretty soon F saw the uniform of the Legion. Then a company of my regi- iqentlcnme up and I wheeled in with themi \V»* were In the rear of the col umn that had passed. Our boys were going up for their regular stunt in the front lines, while the others had Just arrived at that part of the front. Th£n for the first time my feet be gan hurting me. Our boots were made oft rotigh cowhide-nniMllted very well, but It was a day’s labor to carry them pit 'your feet. I began lagging behind. I wpuld lug twenty or thirty yards behind and then try to catch up. But tin* thousands of men ahead of me How the “Boys” Outwitted the Commanding Officer TROOP train stopped at Laurel, Md., one morning not so long ago.- Oa A 'that train were Ifundreds of Washington boys. The commanding officer, fearing that his train would be besieged by thousands of relatives if they . _ stopped In Union station, had n * the How We Give 'Em the Butt. moved around out of tin* I gyul.d,.•&,*'**""Tfy** road I had been the momcn-t-wvhe'p the roud was eov- W- ; A Regular Hail of Shrapnel Fell,. X > . t and you would be surprised to sow how' quickly our corps established com- inunictvtion from a newly won trquch to headquarters, for instance. They word asking for mur casualties tiefore we had finished having them, almost. Artillery fire . W iis directed by * men whose duty it was to dripe out the range from the information sent them ored with wagons and men. Yet there had not been a balloon, or airplane in the sky for some time. After a while the bombardment moved away to tin* east, from which direction I had cpnie, and I knew our batteries were getting it. The Tommy and Ucamc out‘of the 1 ; dugout. As I "Muted climbing up the muddy sides I saw ther** was a man standing at the edge of it. and 1 could tell by his puttees’that he was a Limey. I was having a hard J*ib of it, so without looking up I hailed him. “That was su-r* some shelling, wasn’t it?" I said. “There’s a lad, down here with a wounded fin; hettru give him a hand.”! - “What shelfingulo you mean,” says Jhe legs,, without moving, “There’s kept up’the steady pace and very fest limped’, .though they had been on the mar elf since 3 it. m. It was then ubout 11 a. nr. Those who did limp were carried in th** wagons. But I had seen very few rnen besides Ui* v drivers tid ing in th«* Wagons, and 1 wanted to be as tough as the next guy, So I kept on. But, believe me, 1 was sure giud wlnvn -we halted for a rest along the Mad. ! „ That is, the re-enforcements did! Our company of the Legion had not come from so far. and when the. front of the column luid drawn out of the way along the road we kept on filing, as 'the saying Is. I did not care ubout being tough then, and I was ready fox the wagon^ .’ Only now there were no wagons! TJiey belonged with the other troops. So I had to ease along as/best I could for what seemed like hours—to my feet—Until we turned off onto another toad and halted for a rest. I found out \Iriter that our officers 'Md gone, astray and were lost at this, time.'’ though, of ciTtrrsxvThey did not tell us ■ ; We arrived a t?>Trr—-section of the were properly posted ami were on the job. A shell whizzCd over his head and landed Just behind the parados and the dirt spouted up like I Imagine, a Yellovfcstone geyser looks. Apother officer came up to the lieu tenant—a new one who had only Joined the company about a week be fore. . They had walked, about ten yards when another shell whizzed over • them. They laid to and a third onq came. There were three in less than five minutes, directly over their heads. Then a shell landed on the left side of the trfcnch arid a poilu yelled that four men had got it. They were all wefunded and three died later. The lieutenant went over to them nnd Just after he pns^ed me a lad got It square not far from me and was knocked over to where I was lying. 4 : i The lieutenant came back nnd train go through to Laurel, nnd there rest..! /' It wus an ull-day wait, too. The boys felt pretty much cut up about bring deprlvetSof the opportunity of seeing their folks, but, of course, they said nothing. They just did something. Nobody can get ahead of Amerlcau soldiers— not even the commanding officer! * - The major or colonel, or whatever \\ _ rank he was, I have forgotten, waa Just - congratulating himself on his sagacity, when the first relative from the national capital put In, appearance. "Jiist chance,” thought the commanding officer. Then relatives began lb streum Into Laprel from Washington hy the score, In flocks, In droves’. Tfieqr came In uutoraoblles, buggies, wagons and on foot. They came all Hfternooa. The boys and their folks had a grout time. I’ll bet to, this day the commnndihg officer doesn't know how the men wor.ked It. But h»*r,e Is the way It was d< ^ Two of the men decided they were going to see their relutlve9. One® they had determined that much, the rest was easy.- They hoppej}'freight hack to Washington. When they hit Union station they 'made for the telephone, called up their own people arid told them that the train would -he aOJ-aurel all dny, nnd Instructed thent to notify fejends^ Then they tackled theNfelephones again. Between them they called up the relatives of nearly every ninn on the train and told them where they could see their boy on his way to France. Then they hopped another freight/back to J.aurel. No worider the Yanks are going throbgh to Berlin 1. \ Ride on Drawspan Recommended as Novel Thrill \ Y OU may have taken rides In nirpjnnes, tanks, battleships, automobiles, choo-choos, etc., but unless you have swung around on Capt. Bobert L. Tlllert’s “craft" yon have missed a mild thrill span of the Highway bridge. He Is helped’ me with the first-aid roll and ^ senior operator and vessels which then'the Germans began using shrnp- have to wait for the draw have to nel. The lieutenant was swearing wait on Tillert. He doesn’t keep hard abo^t the shrapnel nnd the Ger- them waiting very long, mans and everything else. There Is a tremendous toot, a Farther to the right a shell had just grinding and tluMlraw beL'ins to struck hear the parados arid made a operate. Tou are standing talking t<» big crater and across frotn it, against the captain, when you feel the iron Tillert’s "craft" Is the dTuw»* S: N the parapet, was a young ehnp with n -deepr gash in his head, sitting on th** fire-step arid nejt to him n fellow nursing the place where his arm had been Mown off. Our bread ration lay V-yiTm alj about the trench nnd some' of the t rduch tijiout, three r.’clock Tlwt/ufter- j pollus we’re fishing it btit of. the mud tnmn nnd l r**Joinei 1. my coInpany.'^T^and water and wiping the biscuits off was :iTl tired out aft**r this trek 'and <,n their sleeves or eating as fast ns found irtyself longing for th** Cassiird and th** rrrtling wave, whvr.e no Mara; thousand five-mile - hikes were ne.ces- sary.. But ;this was not in store for me—yet. x CHAPTER VI. x ■ Fritz Does a Little “Strafelng." My outfit was pne of thos'e that saw the Germans place wojrten and chll- they criuld. Only some of the/biscults had fallen In bloody watpr^and- they did nob eat these. X A young fellpwyl^afdly more than a »ny, stumbled ptWq* thp parados and fell* into the/trench right near the bar against “which you were easily leaning begin to revolve. It revolves calmly, pleasantly, brushing you aside,* as it were. But .when you .feel It re volving you.Jump as If you were shot, find nearly fall .out the window into the river. Captain Tillert gesticulates at you, waving one arm. T(ie draw Is how well out over the river. , ■’ / .’ ^ r . — . , “Wlmt does he mean?” you wonder, looking wildly about. “Does he want me to jump out* the window?” " > ' ^ i The captain keeps on waving his arm at you. *• , You fitep to the door and look out. You see the great gap in thetbridge, and on the other side the gates down and a policeman holding back auto mobiles. 1 Then i-t dawns upon yqu that the captain is merely trying to get you to a point of vantage* where you may watch the operation of the draw. So ’ ]• lielitenunt/S the lieutenant rt,eased J*® »< "ttentlon, tvhlle the n-reat span aeree.le a, the tus Roes through his Wounds hlnlself. I -think he was and the span slides bark Intn.tlie b«<|go once mare. somj?' relation of the hoy>: lieutenant asked ltim how he felt, but the hoy only asked for water It’s a novel five-minute ride. dren In fjont of them as shleldSM and smiled. But you could see he waa against, our fire. JJPre than a third of'j in great pain. Then the boy said: “Oh, the pain Is awful. I nrn going • .; i ^ * ... t *■ - Women Passengers Had Misjudged the Fat Man been - none in this sector for some time, I thinkT •' ^ . The' Tomnijl was right at my heel hy this time, and he let out a string of language;—I w:as s.urpris(*d, top, and still scrambling around lu the mud. ' . , _ Then the Tommy let a f'Gawd ’elp by the ohsexv-vra in the air. Two turn U arf ami 1 up un«l saw that the u:tu:e..a.tokl..nert al-Uai -awUatWtwk- i.mg h ;.|,l-„l-r,l I„ a ttmT-y one man to receive the other wY)j>erate—the hoard. the message and ernte -the hoard. As soon us the rango/was plotted- out it was telephoned to thea gunners and they did the rest. officer, a major, I think. And here we had been cussing"the eyes off of himj_ But he si?e^l_ It up rightly and gave us hand, and flfcHk.lu4ighed .wheu ae tried to explain’ I gof rattled and our m*en, I should say, had he<'n pretty tough criminals in their own countries. They lalwnv^Hraded their pay against a lmmltjM of (In^Is or a roll of the honcs/whenever they got a chance. They had been in most of the dirty of the world. This war was not such a much to them; just one more Job in the list. They ctiuld call (?od ^nd -the saints and the human body more things than nny_hoss jsjtevedore that ever* lived. v V Yet they were religious In a way. Same of them were always reading religious books or saying- prayers in different ways and between them they believed In every-religion and super stition under the sun, I guess. Yet they were the toughest bunch I ever saw. After they sflW' fife GerTnans usfrig JOte naval guns fit -Dixiffude were., fold him that all I saw was his legs *aotu,t«d on flat cars and these were • -UUi 3 that they did not look like an ofii- ’ J.— tin* Belgian women the-\vfiy they did, almost every man In my^mpany took some kind pf a vow oy other, arid »o**sf“®f them kept "thelr^vows; too; I lieHeve.^And those that were religious got more so after that. Our chaplatn had always been very to die.” “You are all right, old man,” th®. lieutenant said. “You will home soon. The stretcher bearers are com ing.” So we passed the word for the etretcher bearers. Then he took' the w’ater bottle from the boy's side and sat him up and gave him some water. He left (he water bottle with the chap and ^ent to hurry the stretcher bearers along. When he got around the corner of the trench the boy was slipping hack and the water bottle had fallen dowm. So I went over to him and propped him uji again und gave him some more wa'ter. . • \ J • T HE car enme to a sudden stop .with the grinding noise that means the wheels have slipped the track. ,Yhe motornmn Jumped oqt. /The conduc tor-end rrinn passengers followed suit, and every last woman poked her head out of the window on the trouble sidew . Depew goes '/over the top" and, "gets” his first German ip a bayonet fight. Read hia story of^thla. exploit In stallment /TO BE CONTTNrr T her companion of the shopping bag: band* like that—with one over for good measure Only one passenger kept his plac® He was a fat man with two chins and the symptoms of a third, lie just sat there and smiled complacently as If the only thought he hud In this world w'lps of the good breakfast he had eaten and the good dinner that was to come. ,You will have your thouglTKj And If you are a woman yon ure bobyd to put them In words, which account® for one market-basket lady saying to "Pd like to have an even dosen hus- “One would he an overdose for me. Btj that fellow’s no marryln^ man I He’» too set on his own good times to tl® himself down to afry on** ptt tfe'l rTffKt~ffyer/'gn right.” .. ' . , But he wasn't a fast flyer, for Just then a husky black man came to the fat passenger put an arm around him, lifted him up, ‘gave him a crutch and half carried him from the car. Arid the fat passenger accepted,hls own help- • leaaoeas with 1 the docility of n g**od, brit not ovorbrtgfif child, * '* ‘7 7/" We are all right, women dear,,take us by and large, but*■»' * When we atop our criticizing of people and thing# wt know nothing aboet this world will be wearing winga. * a . *-4 -JX _