Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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fHTJRaDAY, MAKCH 17TH, 1M7. FIX I BAYONETS! THE BARNWELL PEOPLE-SENTINEL, BARNWELL, SOUTH CAROLINA i „■» ' - • ^ part allotted to It from acme ten pla- Tfhe Boia de V.Ipre was a bluish man- toons of Frenchmen, eight or’ ten men gled wood, two kilometers north. Peer ing from their shelters, the battalion StHmhmi fTfr Na.JU- C«it JOHN W. THOMASON, Jr. 'isasn&S'^'S&Ai SYNOPSIS K-. CHAPTER I.—The author describes ■ow the First battalion of, the Fifth i marines are quartered near Marlgnjr during the first part of June, t»l«, when they are suddenly sent up north to relieve the First division, (Tearing the brunt, of a tidal wave of Germans Just breaking through for a great of fensive. Part of the Fifth wrest Hill 14* from the enemy and wait there for the German counter offensive they «en see forming. While they lie pep pering the Boche a detachment of Second engineers comes to their as sistance-" CHAPTER II.—A terrific German at tack soon develops, wreaking fearful havoc among the marines, but not dis lodging them. In the immediate vicin ity other fierce encounters are reduc ing the American troops and forcing the necessity of replacements which arrive presently. On the sixth of June the Fifth runs Into bitter fight ing in the vicinity of Champtllon . . for hours they try to oust the Foehe from his stronghold In the woods and succeed commendabiy, but at great cost. ^ CHAPTER III.—This narrative een- rs about the activity of the marines it really stands as a cross section of ll the fighting done by Americans. After acquitting themselves marvel ously at the Bole de Belleau and Hill 14* early In June. l»ll, 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 fighting qualities Issued by the general commanding the Sixth French army, but the liberty In Paris which the battalion would have 'preferred Is not fo{g)icoming. OIAPTER TV.—Respite behind the lines Is soon crushed by new orders to proceed far to the north In the goisaons sector, where the Germans are beginning a vast, new offensive After an all night’s grueling forced march the battalion finally arrives at the new front Their orders are to get Into touch with the Moroccan division fight ing with ths French forces CHAPTER V.—Oa ths morning ef July It. after a barrage from every French and American gun procurable, the American forces, with ths Sen egalese and the French Foreign Le gion, go forward All enemy positions nrs taken, as ordered, though at fear ful cost, and ths First battalion of ths Fifth marines are withdrawn for rest and replacements, going back to n well-earned rest ever ths ground they had taken from ths enemy In ths hard fighting of two days before CHAPTER VT.—After a short root behind the Champagne front, the marines are again advanced, to asaiat the French In a terrific drive against the heights of Blanc Mont After receiv ing final orders the regiment marches UP to ths battle line <>n their way. while passing a cross road, a German ftvw-lnrh shell "**r< ama down just fifty yards from the men A direct hit would have meant the annihilation of whole companies, of the marching marines, but the fortune of war la with them for the moment, only one casualty, a machine-gunner, being recorded (CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK) 9 CHAPTER Vll Furious Fighting by the Essen Hook. The men moved swiftly sod without ^^Uorder. to the ditch, which wss a communication trench parnltellnp ^^Ke road. Another shell came as they moved, falling to the left, and then another, closer, this time between the road and the trench. A mule or two reared and plunged, stricken; a ms rlne whose head had been unduly high slumped silently down the side of the trench with most of his head gone, More shells came, landing along (he road, between the road and the trench, and one or two of them In the trench Itself. Cries and groans came from the head of the column; stretcher bearers hurried In that direction; the battalion lay close and waited.- Then the shelling stopped. Up forward the major drew a long breath. "Just har- assin’ fire on these crossroads. I was gfrald we were spotted. Now, those guides—” A little group of FTench- «men arrived panting at the head of the column and the men were quickly on the move again. "If Brother Boche i had kept dingin' them seabaj^ around here, he’d a-burt somebody. Where do we go from here?" Said the major, coming to the head of the Forty-ninth with a French guide—'‘Francis, we’re takln' the regi mental front—division’s putting four 'battalions In the line. The Sixth will be on our left; Infantry brigade on the right Let me know hotf your sector looks—my P. O. will be—I’d tetter send a runner with yon. Here’s your guide.” The company moved off, and the v other companies, going Into position In the battered Prussian trench, fac ing the formidable Essen work. The French riflemen they found there were iging on in the very teeth of the »my. Their position had been Haatl- constructed a few days before by the hard-pressed Boche and was a mere selection from the abundant •bell craters, connected by shallow digging. * The marines stumbled and -Slipped through Its windings. It wss clattered np with -dead men. for It hfd been strongly held and dearly fob, Jkt Torty nlath wok ortr Urn to~a platoon, in command of a first lieutenant. It was what was left of s fall battalion. v r Courteous and sauve, although he swayed on hla feet from weariness and his eyelids drooped from loss of sleep, the Frenchman summed up the situation for the marine, captain. "We hold this Are trench. In your sector are four communication trenches run ning ~tb the Essen work, which 4s about a hundred meters distant. We hold most of the boyau on the ex treme right; the others we have bar ricaded. You cannot take this Essen tfench by frontal assault ’"—“Why can’t w*Y” growled the American. "When it la light you will see, Mon Capitalne! You can only get forward by bombing your way In the boyaux. They are too strong In machine-guns, thp Boche. Now I take my men and go. Seven days and nights we have been on oar feet . . those of us who are left are very tired—It is well that you be watchful In this place, but do not stir up the Boche yonder. Thay shootr with, mlnenwerfers when you frighten them. ' Such a one fin ished my pauvre capitalne and six man with him. Bon chance, Mon Cap- fy^une. Bon jour!” "Cheerfulr bird, wasn’t he?” re marked the captain. "Wdnder If that thing I stepped on just outside this hole was his captain? John, before It gets good daylight, don’t you want to take a look-see at this Kssen trench? Take whoever you want and see how the land lies.” The Essen trench had been very active when the companies were being posted; staccato bursts of machine- gun fire had ripped across the Inter vening dark, and 'Jtprlhgfields had an swered. There had been some bomb ing around traverses In the boyaux. But when in thq creeping grayness of the dawn, the lieutenant from the Forty-ninth ventured across to It with hls orderly and a sergeant; he found the Boche retiring. Filing quickly through the communication trenches, the battalion occupied It without diffi culty, and, looking around them, were very glad they hadn’t had to take it by storm. And the captain understood why the French lieutenant had said it couldn’t he stormed. The French had tried the evening before to cross the scant dis tance and get into It. Most of those who had charged lay as the Roche Maxima had cut them down. In one place, between two boyaux that formed Vlth the op|»oaed lines a rough square of perhaps one hundi -d yards, he counted eighty-three dead French men. Lying very thick near the Up of their own trench, the bodies formed a sort of wedge, thinning to ward the-point as they had been deci mated. and that point was one great bearded Frenchman, hls body all a mats of bloody rags, who lay with hls eyes fiercely open to the enemy and hls out brunt bayonet almost In the emplacement where the Boche guns had been. The company, which had learned ita own hitter lesson In frontal attacks on machine-guns.-gave pusslng^trlhute. “Them Frogs, they eat machine-guns up, Flghtln’ sons o’ guns, they are. Wonder If any chow Is coinin' up t«*day?” They made themselves com fortable among the dead and walled the next move with equanimity. * “Two hundred and thirty-one men. air," reported the second-in-command, sliding into the ahallnw dugout where the captain waa holed up. “Mighty lucky, so far. Lm goln’ to sleep. There’s some shellin’, especially to ward the left, hut most of the outfit la pretty well under rover." Oouraud’s battle roared on to the left with swelling tumult. The Amer icans. In their sector, passed the day In ominous quiet. They wondered what the dflay was. speculated on the strategy of attack—which la a matter always sealed from the men who de liver the attack—and wrtre through to the evening of October 2. At dark, food came up In marmlte cans—beef and potatoes and a little coffee. “Put ours on that moss-tin there.” directed the second-in-command, as hls orderly slid in with hls and the captain’s ra tions. The captain sat up In hls cor ner a little later, when the attack orders came up.. There was a brief penciled order from the major, and maps. The two offlcM-s bent over them eagerly. “Run ner—Platoon commanders report right away—” ... “What do you make of Jt, John? Looks like Oeneral Le- jeune was goln’ to split hls division and reunite It on the field. . . . Hmmm 1 Ain’t that the stunt you claim only Robert E. Lee and Napo leon could get away with? . . . All here? Oet around—the map’s about oriented— "Here we are, in the Essen trench —seems that the marines move down to the left to here-^-and the Ninth and Twenty-third move to the right—to here. These pencil lines show the di rection of attaek-*-then we Jump off, angling a little to the right, compass bearing—and the infantry ■ outfits point about as much to the left. That brings us together up here about three kilometers, and we go «n straight, a little west of north from there, to Blanc~Moht—” The morning of October 3 (1918) came gray and misty. Frem midnight until dawn the front had been qolet st thst point—comparatively. Then all the French and American guns opened with one world-shaking crash. From the Essen trench the ground fell away gently, then rose In a long •lope, along which coaid be made oat the zigzags of the German trenches saw all this .ground swept by a hur ricane of shell-fire. “Move down the trench to the left,” came the order. The battalion moved, filing around the traverses .with Judi cious Intervals between men, so that the Boche ^shells might not Include tgo many In their radios of death. - For Helnle was beginning to shoot back. He had the range of hls vacated trench perfectly, and, holding the high ground, he could see what he was shooting at Shells began to crash down< ^ivong_ the companies, whole squads were blotted out,, and men chokad and coughed as the reek of high explosive caught at their wind pipes. y . "Lordy, ain’t,, we ever golfi’ to get outa this dam’ place an’ get at ’em—” A shell with a driving-band loose came with a banshee' scream, ani men and. pieces of men were blown fn the air. “That was In the first pla toon,” said the second-ln-comtuand, shaking the dirt off his gas-mask. “Something ought to be done about . that gunner, El Capltan!" Another landed In the opposite lip of the trench where the* two officers crouched, half-burying them both. “My God, cap’n! You killed?” "Hell, ho! Are you?” —--~- “Far enough to the left,” the major sent word._, ita will-wait here. The Sixth leads—we’re the last battalion In support today." Coming from the maze of trenches In the rear, the assault regiment began to pass through ^he Fifth, bat- Pushed Their Way Onward. talton following battalion at !SO(V yard distant*. A number of French “Baby" tanks started with the assault ing waves, but It waa an evil plan- for tanka. Tank traps, trenches so wide that the little fellows went nose- down into them and stuck, and direct lire from Boche artillery stop;ied the most of them. ’ The battalion was out of the trench now. and going forward regulating Its pace on the battalion ahead. All at once there was a snapping and crack ling in the air—a corporal spun round and collapsed limply, while hls blouse turned red under hls gas mask—the man l»eside him stumbled and went down, swearing through grayish lips at a shattered knee—the men flat tened and all faces turned toward the flank. . ’.Machine-guns on the left!”—“Hell! It’s that Essen hook we’ve got to pass —thank God. It’s long range! Come on, you birds.” And the battalion went on. enduring grimly. Finally, when well past its front, which ran diagon ally to the line of advance, the Seven teenth company, that had the left, turned savagely on the Essen hook and got a foothold In its rear. A one- Irounder from the regimental head quarters company was rushed up to as sist them, and the men yelled with de light as the vicious little cannon got In direct hits bn the Boche emplace ments. Hopelessly cut off, the large body of Germans In this formidable work surrendered a her a few sharp and bloody minutes, and the Seven teenth. sending back Its prisoners, re joined' the battalion. Prisoners began to stream hack from the front of the attack, telling of the success of the Sixth. Wounded came with them, some walking, some carried on improvised stretchers by the Boche “kamarads.” Most of them were grinning. “Goln* fine up there, boys, goln’ fine!” “lAJokit, fellers! Got a bon bllghty—Well give ’em your re gards In Paris!” For awhile now fhe battalion halt ed, keeping its distance from the unit ahead. The men lay on their rifles 'and-expriFSsed unreasonable yearnings for^fdttd. “Eat? Eat? Hell! Shock troops ain't supposed to eat!” Officers cast anxkfiSs glances toward the utter ly exposed left. The French attack had failed to keep abreast of the American. The left company, the Seventeenth, was In a cover of scrubby trees. The other companies were likewise con cealed. Only thy Forty-ninth lay per force in the open, f on a bleak, shell- pocked slope. A high-flying Boche plane spotted Its platoon columns, asprawl eighty or a hundred yards aparj on the chalky ground. "No good,” said the second-in-command, cocking hls head gander-wise In hls flat helmet,-"is goln’ to come of that dam’ thing—guess all our noble avia tors have gone heme to loncp.” . The plane, high fnd small and ahtnlng In the sky, circled slowly above them. Far beck of the Roche lines there wss a railroad gun that took a wire less from the wheeling vulture. “Listen," sold the captain, "listen to There were lots of shells passing ow—the long tearing whine of the 75s, the coarser voices of the Boche 77s replying, and heavy stuff, but moet of It was breaking behind or in front of the battalion, into thla roof of sound came a deeper note—a far- off rumble that mounted to' ap en*or- mous shattering roar, like a freight train on a down-grade. The company flattened against the ground like par? trldgee, and the world shook and reeled under them as a nine-inch shell crashed Into the earth fifty yards ahead, explbdlng with a cataclysmic detonation that rocked their senses. An appalling geyser of black smoke* and torn earth leaped skyward. Jagged splinters of stee^ whined away, and stones and clods showered down. Be fore the smoke had lifted from the monstrous crater the devastating, rum ble came again, and the second" shell roared down fifty yards to the rear. “Oh, Lordy! They’ve got us brack eted !" “I saw that one! I saw It—look right Where the next one’s gonna hit, an’—” “Look where It’s gonna hit! Lawd, If I just knew It wasn’t gonna hit me—ahh—!’ The third shell came, and men who risked an eye could see it—a dark, tremendous streak, shooting straight down to the quivering earth. A yawn ing hole opened with thunder fairly between two platoon columns, and the earth vomited. ... It was won derful shooting. All the shells that followed dropped between the columns of prone men—But not a man was hit! The heavy projectiles sank far Into the chalky soil, and the explosions sent the deadly fragments outward and over the company. More than a dozen shells were fired In all, the high sinister plane wheeling overhead the while. Then the company went -forward with the battalion, very glad to move. "Any one of those nine-inch babies would have blotted out twenty of us,” marveled a lieutenant, leading hls platoon around a thirty-foot crater that still smoked. “Or ripped the heart out of any concrete-and-steel fortification ever built—the good Lawd was certainly with us!" To the company commanders, gath ered at dark In a much disfigured Boche shelter In the Wood of Somme- Py. the major gave Information. “The Sixth took Btanc Mont, and they are holding It against heavy counter-at tacks. Prisoners say they were or dered to hold here at any costs— they’re fighting damned well, too! The Infantry regiments piped down the RoU de Vlpre, just as we did the Essen hook. The division It grouping around the ridge, but we’re pretty well Isolated from the Fremk. To night we are going on up and take the front line, and attack toward fit.- Etlenne-n-Amee—town north of the ridge and a little west. Get on up to Blanc Mont with your companies—P. C. will he there, along the road that runs across the ridge. (CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.) How Doctors Treat Golds and fhe Flu To break up a cold overnight oi to cut short an attack of grippe, in fluenza, sore throat or tonsillitis, phy sicians and druggists are now* recoin mending Calotabs, the purified am refined calomel compound tablet tha* gives you the effects of calomel am Sgfi.: combined, without the unpleas ant effects of either. One or two Calotabs at bed-tiu. % with a swallow of water,—that's a 1 No salts, no nausea nor the uiighte< interference with your eat'ng, wor or pleasure. Next morning your col> has vanished, your system is thor oughly purified and you arc feelim fine with a hearty appetite for break fast Eat what you please,—no dar ger. Get a family package, containin; full directions, only 35 cents. At am drug store. (aiv] -• V DTr aper May Be Better THAN YOUR TOWN, BUT YOUR TOWN IS RARELY BETTER THAN • YOUR NEWSPAPER. AND YOUR NEWSPAPER WILL DO MORE TO BUILD AND BETTER THE TOWN THAN ANY OTHER AGENCY. | HENCE, SUPPORTING YOUR * PAPER IS BUILDING YOUR TOWN. • ~ * - COUNTING THE VALUE OF SPACE DEVOTED TO UPBUILDING BARN WELL, THE PEOPLE-SENTINEL’S DO NATION TO THE PUBLIC GOOD IS MANY TIMES THAT OF ANY OF ITS GOOD CITIZENS KODAKERS! Send your films to us for develop ing and printing. One day service. „ Write for prices. Loll&r’s Studio - 1423 Main Street COLUMBIA SOUTH CAROLINA We sell Eastman Films 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 thie to thousands with Wonderful re sults. jThe prescription cost me noth ing. I ask nothing for it. I will mail 3 it if you will send me your address. A postal will bring t- Write today. PAUL CASE. Dept. 0-348, Hbrng bg PAUL CASE Dept 0-348 Brockton, Mhss. 66 6 is s Prescription for Colds, Grippe, Flu; Den gue; Bilious Fever and Malaria. It Kils the Geras THIS SERVICE IS RENDEREI CHEERFULLY. W EONLY ASK YCHJI . _ ' } GOOD WILL AND BUSINESS IN RE TURN. A , , • ’ - ta -A The Barnwell People-,