The Barnwell people-sentinel. (Barnwell, S.C.) 1925-current, March 10, 1927, Image 7
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JOHN W. THOMASON, Jr.
SYNOPSIS
\
CHAPTER I.—The author describee
fcew the First battaHon of the Fifth
marines are quartered near Marlcnjr
durine the first part of June, ttl»,
when they are suddenly sent up north
to relieve the First division, bearing
the brunt of a tidal wate of Germans
Just breaking through for a great of
fensive. Part of the Fifth wrest H>11
141 from the enemy and wait there for
I the German counter offensive they
«an see forming. While they lie pep
pering the Boche a detachment of
Second ^engineer* comes to their as
sistance.
CHAPTER II.—A terrific German at
tack soon develops, wreaking fearfnl
havoc among the marines, but not dis
lodging them. In the immediate vicin
ity other fierce encounters are reduo-
t»g the American troops and forctna
the necessity of replacements which
arrive presently. On the sixth of
June the Fifth runs Into bitter fight
ing In the vicinity of Champllloa
. . .. for hours they try to oust the
Boche from his stronghold In the woods
aad succeed commendably, but at
great cost.
CHAPTER III.—This narrative cen
ters about the activity of the marines
it really stands as a cross section of
III the fighting done by Americans.
After acquitting themselves marvel
ously at the Bols de Belleau and Hill
S4I early In June, 1911, the First re
ceived replacements to cover horrible
losses, fight some more and then are
relieved, somewhat compensated for
their heavy losses by a notable tribute
to their Jlghtlng qualities Issued by the
general commanding the Alxth French
army, but the liberty In Paris which the
battalion would have preferred Is hot
forthcoming.
CHAPTER IT.—Respite behind the
Uses Is soon crushed by new orders
to proceed far to the north In the
Solssons sector, where the Germans are
beginning a vast, new ogenslve. After
an all night's grueling forced march
tne battalion finally arrives at the
new front Their orders are to get Into
touch with the Moroccan division fight
ing with the French forcea
CHAPTER V.-^)b the morning ef
July II. after a barrage from every
French and American gun procurable,
the American forces, with the Sen
egalese and the French Foreign Le
gion, go forward. All enemy pensions
are taken, as ordered, though at fear
ful cost, and the First battalion of
the Fifth marlneo*are withdrawn for
rest and replacements, going back to
a well-earned rest over the ground
they had taken from the enemy la the
hard fighting of two days before
(COffrlNUED FROM LAST WEEK)
CHAPTER VI
Marines at Blanc Mont.
The battalion *roped Us way
through the wet darkness to a wood
of scrubby pines, and lay down In
the slow antamn rain. North and east
the run* made a wall of aound;
flashes from hidden batterlea and
(lares sent np from nervons front-line
trenches lighted the low donds; oc
casional sheila from the Boche heavies
whined overhead, searching the trans
port line to the rear. It lacked an
hour yet until dawn, and the compan
ies disposed themselves In The mud
and slept. They had learned tA got
vaII the sleep they couM before battle,
few days before, thla battalion,
^Ke first of the Fifth regiment‘ibf ma
rines, a unit ef the Second division,
had palled out of s pleasant town
below T/>ul, In the area where the
division rested after the Saint-Mlhlel
drive, and had come north a day and
« night by train, to Chalona-aur-
Marne. Thence, by night marches, the
division had gathered In certain bleak
and war-torn areas behind the Cham
pagne front, and here general orders
announced that the Second was de
tached from the American-forcea and
lent by tbe Generalissimo as a Spe-
4 dal reserve to Gourard’s Fourth
French army.
The dawn came very reluctantly
- through the clouds, bringing no sun
with it, although the drizzle stopped.
The battalion rose from Its soggy
blankets, kneading stiffened muscles
to restore circulation, and gathered
In disconsolate shivering groups
around the galleys. These had come
np In the night, and from them, stand
ing under the dripping pines, came a
promising smell of hot coffee. Some
thing hot was the main consideration
In life Just now. But the fires were
feeble, and something hot was long
In coming. This matter, finally being
disposed of, however, the men cast
incurious eyes about them.
North from the edge of the pines
tha battalion looked out on desolation
where the once grassy* rolling slopes
of the Champagne stretched away like
a great white sea that had been dead
and accursed through all time Near
at hand was Sonaln, a town of tha
dead, a shattered skeleton of a place,
« shells breaking over It Beyond
northward was Somme-Py, nearly
_. ;ed out by four years of war.
From there to the horizon, east and
t west and north and south; was all a
stricken land.
Tbe second-in-command,
frem tha pi mb with other officer
tbe bettaUon. could see nothing
moved la aU thai
- Typical Leathernecks.
there, thousands of them, bat they
were borrowed like animals In tha
earth. North of Somme-Py, even then,
Gourard’s hard-fighting Frenchmen
were blasting their way through the
lines that led np to the last strong
holds of the poche toward Blanc Mont
ridge, and over this mangled terrain
could be seen the smoke and fury of
bursting shrapnel shells and high ex
plosives. The sustained roar of artil
lery and the Infernal clattering of ma
chine-guns and musketry beat upon
the ears of tbe watchera. Through
glasses one coaid make out btta of
blue and bits of green-gray, flung
casually about between the trenches.
These, the only touches of color In
the waste, were the nnbnrled bodies
of French and German dead.
“So this, Slover, la the Champagne."
said the second-in-command to one
of bis non-coms who stood beside
him. The sergeant spat. “It looks
like hell, sir!” be said.
The lieutenant strolled over to
where a French staff officer stood
with a knot of officers In tbe edge of
the pines, pointing out 'fwtnres of
thla extended field, made memorable
by bitter fighting.
"Since 1014 we have fought hard
here," he was mylng. “Ota, the French
know this Champagne well, and the
Boche knows It too. Yonder"—be
pointed to the south west—‘is tha
Butte da Souain, where our Foreign
Legion met In the first year that
Guard division that' Tha Prussians
call tha ’Cockchafers*. They took tha
Batts, but most of tha Legion are
lying there now. And yonder"—the
Frenchman extended his arm with a
gesture that had something of tbe
salute In It—"stands tha mountain of
Rhelms. If yon look—the air la clear
ing a little—yon can perhaps see tbe
towers of Rhelms Itself."
A long grayish hill lay against tbe
gray aky at the horizon, and over It
a good glass showed, very far and
faint, the spires of the great ca
thedral, with a cloud of thell-flre
hanging over them.
“All this terrain, as far as Rhelms,
la dominated by Blanc Mont ridge
yonder to the north. Aa long aa the
Boche holds Blanc Mont, he can
throw his shells Into Rhelms; he can
dominate the whole Champagne aec-
1 tor, as far as the Marne. Indeed, they
say that the kaiser watched from
Blanc Mont tha battle that be
launched here In Jnly. And the Boche
means to hang on there. So far. wa
have failed to dislodge them. I ex
pect"—he broke off and smiled gravely
on the circle of officers—“yon will
see some very hard fighting in tha
next few days, gentlemen I"
The second-in-command and the
captain, that afternoon, were huddled
under a small sheet of corrugated
Iron, stolen by an enterprising orderly
from the French gunners. The captain
was very large, and tbe other very
lean, and they were both about the
same length. They fitted under the
sheet by a sort of dovetailing process
that made It complicated for either
to move.
A second-in-command la sort of an
understudy to the company command-
. er. In some of the outfits the captain
does everything, and his understudy
can only mbps around and watt for
his senior to become a casualty. In
others. It la the junior who gets
things done, and the captain la just
a figurehead. In tha Forty-ninth,
however, the relation was at Its hap
piest The big captain and hla lien-
tenant functioned together aa smooth
ly aa parts of a sweet-running engine,
and there was between them the un
demonstrative affection of men who
have faced much peril together.
“As for me," remarked the captain,
drawing np one soaked knee and put
ting tha* other oat In the wet, “I want
to get wounded In thla fight A bon
bllghty. In the arm or the leg. I
think. Something that will keep me
In a nice dry hospital until spring. I
don’t Ilka cold weather. Now who la
pushln’T It’s nothin' to me, John, If
your aids leaks—keep off o' miner
So tha last day of September, 1018,
passed, with the racket fep forward
unabated. So much of war la just
lying around .waiting la mors or Ism
discomfort And herein Uee the ex
cellence of veterans: They swear and
grOwt horribly ander discomfort and
ftrlngs nourish in the men a cold,
mounting anger, that swells to sullen
ardor when at last tha Infantry comas
to grips with tbs enemy, and then It
goes hard Indeed with him who stands
In the way.- *
On tbe front a few kilometers from
where the battalion lay and listened
to the guns, Gourard’s attack was
comint to a head around the heights
north of Somme-Py and tha strong
trench systems that guarded tbe way*
to Blanc Mont ridge. Three magnifi
cent French divisions, one of chas
seurs, a colonial division, and a Una
division with a Verdun history, shat
tered themselves in fruitless attacks
On The Essen trench and the Essen
hook, a switch Hue of that system.
Beyond the Essen line the Blanc Mont
position loomed Impregnable^ Late on
the 1st of October,'‘a gray, bleak day.
tbe battalion got its battle orders, and
took over a mangled front line from
certain weary Frenchmen.
Gathering the platoon leaders and
non-coma around them, the captain
and the second-in-command of the
Forty-ninth company spread a large
map on the ground, weighting Its
corners with their pistols.
Ton give the dope, John,” ordered
tiie captain, who waa hot a man of
words, and his Junior spoke somewhat
In thla manner.
“Here, yon birds, look at thla map*
The Frogs have driven tbe Boche a
Mlometer and a half north of Somme-
Py. You see It here—the town yon
hatched them shell thla morning.
They have gotten Into the Prussian
trench—this blue line with the wire
In front of It It’s just a fire trench,
mostly shell-holes linked .pp. Behind
It quite close. Is tha Essen trench,
which la evidently a humdinger 1 Con
crete plll-boxea and deep dugonta and
all that sort of thing—regular fort
“The Frogs say It can’t be taken
from the front—they’ve tried. We’re
goln’ to take it On the other slde-of
that la the Elbe trench and a little to
the left the Essen hook, and In the
center the Bols de Vlpre—same kind
o’ stuff, they say. We’re to take them.
You see them all on the map. . . .
Next, away up In this corner of the
map, la the Blanc Mont place. Who
ever la left when we get that far will
take that too. . . . Questions? . . .
Yea, Tom, we ought to get to use those
sawed off shotguns they gave na at
8L Mlbiel—though when we get past
the Essen system, we’ll be In -the
open, mostly. . . The old Denx-
leme division Is goln’ In tonight—It’s
goln’ to be some psrtyl Move out of
here as soon as It’s dark. That’s alL"
The road here waa screened on the
side toward th^ enemy by coarse mats
of camouflage material erected oo taU
poles. Through this screen-‘the Ger
man flares, ceaselessly ascending,
shone with cold, greenish whiteness,
so that men saw their comrades’ faces
weirdly drawn aty! pale nnder their
helmeta Tbe files talked as they
went—
“I’ve seen the time I'd have called
those thlngx pretty—but now—reckon
hell’s lit with the same kind of
glims!” . . . "Remember the flare
that went np In our faces the night
w« made the relief in Bel lew woods?
Seemed to me like everybody In the
world waa lookin’ at me." “Bols de
Belleau I mighty few In the battalion
now that remember them days,
sonny. . . .”
Tbe road passed Into desolation and
wound north, kilometer after kilo
meter. Presently the camouflage
ended and tbe battalion felt exceed
tngly naked withooc Us shelter. Then
a slope to the left screened tbe way.
the crest of It sharply outlined aa the
flares ascended. Beyond that crest the
machine-guns sounded very near; now
and again the air waa filled with the
whispering rush of their bullets, pass
ing high toward some chance target
In the rear.
The upper air was populous with
shells passing, and the sky flickered
with gun-flashes, but the road along
which the battalion went enjoyed for
the time an uneasy Immunity. The
rests were all too short; the sweat
ing files swore at their heavy packs;
the going was very hard. Presently
the road ceased to be a road—merely
a broken way across an Interminable
waste of shell-holea, made passable
after a fashion by tha hasty work of
• " "Douce mem,
doucementlt «; , * Farther back
the ambulance* would be waiting for
them.
The column went quickly through
the town of Sommw-Py, Into which
shells were falling, stumbling over the
debris of rained walla aad ^house*.
There was a very busy French dress
ing station there, under the reile of
a church. It was too dark to ms, hut
each man caught the sound aad the
amell of 1L They cleared the town
and went on to a crossroad* French
guides were to have met tbe battalion
there, tor the line was Jnst ahead, bat
the guides were late. There.was a
nerve-racking halt* The next battalion
In column closed up; a machine-gun
outfit, with its solemn, blase males,
jammed Into the rifle companies.
>. The Forty-ninth waa the leading
company, just behind tile .Battalion
Headquarters group, and the second-
in-command went np to where the
major and hla satellites were halted.
"Crossroads-are always a dam* bad
btistneas, Coxy,” the major waa ob
serving to his adjutant “Just askin’
for It here—no tellln’.bow lafe our
Frog friends will be—get the men
moved Into that ditch off the road
yonder—Ah I thought aoP
A high, swift whine that grew to a
shrieking roar, and a five-inch shell
crashed down some fifty yarda to the
right of the crowded road. Everybody
except the mules were flat on the
ground before It landed, but wicked
splinters of steel sung across the road,
and a machine-gunner, squatting by
hla cart, collapsed and rolled toward
the edge of the road, swearing and
clutching at hla thigh.
(CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.)
How Doctors Treat ,
Colds and (he Flu
To break up a cold overnight or
to cut short an attack of rrippe, in
fluenza. sore throat or tonsillitis, phy
sicians and druggists are now recom
mending CalotalM, the purified ant
refined calomel compound tablet tha'.
gives you the effects of calomel and
salts combined, without the unpleas
ant effects of either.
One or two Calotnbs at bed-tiaa
with a swallow of water,—that’s all
No-saHs, niknaurea nor the slight?*
interference with your eating, worl
or pleasure. Next morning your cok
has vanished, your system is thpr
oughly purified and you are feelin;
fine with a hearty appetite for break
fast Eat what you please,—no dan
ger.
Get a family package, containing
full directions, only 36 cents. At any
(*Jt)
i; but]
that
drug store.
KODAKERS!
Send year films to os for develop
ing aad printing. Owe day service.
Write for prices.
Loll&r’s Studio
1423 Main Street
COLUMBIA SOUTH CAROLINA
We sell Eastman Films
6 6 6
is a Prescription for
Cold*, Grippe, Flu; Den
gue; Bilious Fever and
Malaria.
. It Kills the Genas
RHEUMATISM
While in France with the American
Army I obtained a noted French pre
scription for the treatment of Rheu-
matisf and Neuritis. I have given
this to thousands with wonderful re
sults. The prescription cost me noth
ing. I ask nothing for iL I will mail
it if you will send me your address.
A postal will bring L Write today.
PAUL CASE, Dept. 0-348, Hbrng bg
PAUL CASE
Dept. 0-348 Brockton, Mass.
"Those Sawed-Off Shotguns They
Gave Us at SL Mlhiel. ,, ''
French engineers, tolling behind the
assault of the Infantry.
The files plodded on eaegi aide of
the tumbled track, and aa they neared
Somme-Py a pitiful stream of traffic
grew and paaaed between them, the
tide of French wounded ebbing to the
rear. They were tbe debris of the at
tack! that bad spent
through the day—walking
drifting back Uka shadow* In *taln*d
bins uniforms—men wh
Perfect Behavior
The boys and girls of a congested
neighborhood were Invited by their
teacher to write their own personal
rules of life. The collection Included
the following:
"You must always be oblgent, dean
your neck, stand ereck, and swallow
good fresh hair.”
"Don’t get nosejt or hit anybody
with cross eyes because It gives you
bad luck." -
"Never try to steal a dog’s bone or
you’ll have no pant*"
"Always* live fair and never aak
yonr father or ancle for money when
they are drank.
"Don’t steal from the Five and Ten
and if you hit a girl yon are a
coward."
“Every week you must have a bath
and don’t do no m urderln."—Coillar’*
.i- -iT
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