Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THURSDAY, MARCH S1ST, 1927. THE BARNWELL PEOPLE-SENTINEL. BARNWELL, SOUTH CAROLINA FIX BAYONETS! Tht WartiO—tl iDmHUiimmMt- ’•f thaMsrkm Capt JOHN V. THOMASON, Jr. SYNOPSIS CHAPTER i;—-Tb® author deacrthaa Haw tha First battaltoa of tha Fifth marinaa ara quartered near Marlgny during tha flrat part of June, 1911, whan they ara auddenly aent up norjth , to raliava tha Flrat dlvtaion, bearing tha brunt of a tidal wave of Oermana Juat breaking through for a great ot- fenaive. Part of tha Fifth wraat HIU 141 from the enemy and watt there for tha Qarman counter off anal ve they oan aaa forming. While they lie pep pering tha Boche a, detachment of Second anginaera cornea f£ their aa- slatance. CHAPTER If.—A tefYttlo German at tack aoon developa, wreaking fearful havoc among the marlnea, but not dia- lodging them. In the immediate vicin ity other fierce encountera are reduo- lag the American troopa and forcing the neceaaity of replacamenta which arrive praaently. On the atxth of June tha Fifth runa into bitter fight- lag In tha vicinity of Chatnpliloa . . for houra they try to ouat the Boche from hla atronghold In the wooda aad auccead commendably, but at great coat CHAPTER III.—TMa narrative cea- • tra about the activity of the marlnea It really atanda aa a croea section of I] the fighting done by Americana. After acquitting themselves marvel ously at tha Bola de BeMeau and HIU 141 early in June. lilt, the Flrat re ceived replacements to cover horrible lessea, fight aoma more and then are relieved., ’ aomewhht 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 forthcoming. CHAPTER TV—Respite behind the lines Is soon crushed by new orders to proceed far to the north In tha ffolasona sector, where the Germans ara 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 lato touch with the Moroccan division fight- . lag with the French forces. CHAPTER V—On the morning af July It. after a barrage froth' every French and American gun procurable, the American forces, with the Sen egalese and the French Foreign Le gion, go forward. All enemy poaltlons ere taken, as ordered, though at fear ful cost, and the Flrat battalion of the Fifth marlnea are withdrawn for rest and replacements, going bark to a well-earned rest over the ground they had taken from the enemy In the hard fighting of two days before OHAPTER VI—After a short rest behind the Champagne front, the marines are again advanced, to assist Ike French In a terrific drive against ilia heights of BlancOdont After receiv ing final orders the regiment marches up to the hattle line. On their way, while passing a cross mad. a German five-inch shell screams down' luaCUpy. 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 castlalfy/a machine-gunner, being recorded CHAPTER VII—The objective now Is the famous Essen Hook, one of the strongest of the enemy positions. Here victory Is attained at a heavy coat, but the regimental commanders con sider themselves lucky to remove their men without further loss. Once estab lished near the dread Kssen Hook the order Is given to attack—Instructions being Issued for the Fifth marlnea to act aa support troops for tha Sixth. ■ ji- ho are aiming to seise Blanc Mont ^self. After a day's furious fighting lurd come* l>s< k that the Sixth has attained Its objective, while the Fifth la to register an attack on a different tangent that same night. - CHAPTER VIII—The capture of St.- TCttenne is the next task assigned the marinaa, and the depleted ranks go forward, the enemy shrinking from the slaughter wrought by the Ameri can bayonets.' Fierce counter attacks hv' the Germans are twice repulsed, and the marlnea. dig In. holding alT positions gained. Then the shrunken battalion Is ordered back of the battle front for a rest in billets, that of ne cessity la to be all too abort for the war-worn men. boll the *af*r jn with It,” h« decided. “There Isn’t so much of It, you know. We’ll taste It more.” And he at^ded the contents of a little muslin sack— heavy beet-sugar that looked Hke sand. His face was pale and some what troubled, and his week’s beard was straggling and unwholesome. He was not an out-of-doors man—and he was battalion scout officer. A gen tlemen over-sensitive for the rude business of war, he would continue to function until he broke—and one Sensed that he would suffer while about It. . . . “I don’t Hke monkey-tmeat. Before this smell”—he,waved his spoon petu lantly—“got Into my nose I never eould eat It. But now you can’t smell but one thing, and, after all, you’ve got to eat.” “What th’ Hell, John r—sniff- sniff! “Has that dead Boche on the other side of you b^gun to announce htaselfT'' PhewI^’Tfce second-in-com mand rose from the letter he 'was writing by the stub'of a candle and sniffed busily—sniff-—snnnn—“Damna tion! Captain, It’s our supper!” With averted face he presented‘the grayish chunks of beef that reposed on the mess-tin. “Urggg—throw It out!” He disappeared up the crumbled steps to the entrance of the hole. A few minutes later he slid dowu again, followed In a shower of dust and clods by a battalion runner. “All the beef was bad, El Capttan! What the young men are saying about the battalion supply would make your hair curl!—And here’s our attack orders.” Troops lay In the wood now; a bat : tallon of the Sixth and two companies of the Fifth regiment outfit, half of which was still In line on the flank of the Bols de Belleau. These com panies had come out at dawn, attend ed by shell-fire; they had plunged Into the wood and slept where they halted. unawnktned — except the wounded—by the methodical shelling to which the Boche treated the place every day. Now, In tht evening, they were awake and hungry. They squat ted. each man In Ills hole, and did what they could about It. A savage looking lot. in battered helmet* and dirty uniforms. But you saw them cleaning their rlfles % T?ie ficout officer, with his hand out to lift away the coffee which was. In hla Judgment, boiled, heard: “Mr. Braxton? Teh, he’s np that away, with the loottnanL*'~'Tley, yuh dog- robbln* battalion runner, you—what*e up? Hey?" "Scout officer? Over yon der, him wit* the green blouse—" and • soiled tMRtallon runner, identified 4>y bis red bra surd and hla air of on* laden with vital Information, clumped up and Minted sketchily. "Sir, the major wants to at* the battalion scout officer at battalion headquarters. The major Mid: Right away, sir."* The scent officer swore, inexpertly, for be was not • profane fellow, but with infinite feeling. "Good God, I hope It ain’t—If you can keep my cof fee hot. Tommy—be right back aa soon as I can. Save my alum. Don't let anything happen to my alum—" (CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK) CHAPTER IX Monkey-Meat. In a mangled place called the Wood Northwest of Lucy-le-Bocage two lieu tenants of the Marine brigade squat ted by a hole the size of a coffin and regarded with attention certain cook ing operations. The older, and per haps the dirtier of the two, was In tent upon a fire-blackened mess-klt. which was balanced on two stones and two German bayonets over a can ^of solidified alcohol. In the mess-klt was simmering a grayish and unat tractive matter with doubtful yellow ish lumps, into which the lieutenant fed, discriminatingly, bits of hard bread and frayed tomatoes from a can. “Do what you will with It,” he ob served, “monkey-meat Is monkey- meat. It’s a greab plty v that damn Tompkins had to get himself bumped last night when we came out. He d a~ way with monkey-meat, the kid Id—hell! I never have any luck with orderlies !** , The other waited on two canteen rupa stilted precariously over a pale- lavender flame. The water In them began to boll, and he supplied coffee —the coarseqpnaund, pale coffee of the Froga—with a spoon that shook s lit- lit He considnred: “ S'pqse i’d better To £ •Old Boche. Hairnet Made an Excel- lent Cooking Pot. beet-sugar on it and have a real deli cacy. Filling, too. As he goes about this domestic labor, be la humming "Carry Me Back to Ole Vlrglnny." But the flies In the background are at tracted by the smell—not the song. He ate half the mesa, with scrupu lous exactness, and drank his coffee. He put the lid ou the mess-klt, and covered Jim’s coffee, now getting cold. He smoked a cigarette and talked shop with bis platoon sergeant He gave some very hard words and hla last candle-eud to a pale private whoj seven feet, and shot tha German admitted blistered heels, and then I through the throat Tha scout officer, leading, had out hla canteen and wet hit dry month. HO was Acutely conscious of hla amply stomach. Hla mind dwelt yearningly on the mess-klt freighted nobly with monkey-meat and tomatoea, awaiting him In tha dependable Tommy’* mu sette. A hundred meters forward the last shells burst and ha saw new dirt Ahead, a spot darker than the dark; he went np tw it Awty on the right n lare soared, and something gleamed dull' In the black hole at his feet—a round, deep helmet with the pale blur of ja face under It; a click, and the shadow of a movement there, and a little flicker; a matter of split seconds; the scOut officer bed • bay onet in hts stomach, almost*—Feld- rltter Kurt Idea. Company Six of the Margrave of Brandenburg . regiment (this established later by brigade In telligence, on examination of the pay- book of the deceased), bring on front post with hla squad, heard a noise hard on the cessation of the shelling, and put out his neck. Dear God. shoot I Shoot I quickly I The scout officer was conscious of a monstrous surge of temper. He gathered hla feet under him. and hla hands crooked Jtl hurled himself. In the same breath there was a Jong, bright flash right nnder hla arm, and the mad crack of a Springfield. The disillusioned ser geant had estimated tha situation, loosed off from the hip at perhaps stood over the man while he tallowed hla noisome socks. He Interviewed bis chaut-chaut gunners, and sent them off to beg new dips from the battalion quartermaster sergeant It grew Into the long French twilight; Boche planes were about, and all the anti aircraft stuff In the neighborhood was furiously In action. Toward dark the Boche began to slam 77s and 150a Into the wood northwest of Lucy. It became a place of horror, with stark cries In the night between the rending crashes of the sheila About an hour before mid night the word was passed and the two companies got oat and went up across the pestilential wheat-fields and Into the Bols de Belleau. That same afternoon an nnasslgned colonel had come up to brigade head quarters Wanted to go to Faria, he did, and the brigade commander Mid that the only way to get there was to bring in a prisoner. One prisoner; seven days' leava Be glad to get a prisoner. Intelligence bad word of a new division or so moved la over there last night; identicatlon not yet positive. This colonel took steps He was a man of parts and very desirous of the flesh pots of the Place de I’Opers There was an elegant French captain attached to brigade for no very evi dent reason—Just attached — spoke English and knew vintages Said to be an expert on raids Th* colonel put It up to him Id such and such a way: would he go? Tea, but certainly •’* m - 0 Just a small raid. My Colonel? Oh, The words trailed In the air as he a ^ Now „ ^ artU . went swiftly off. buckling hla pistol- |*ry support—a map was broken out belt The battalion commander was Brigade artillery officer-chap the that kind of an officer. colonel knew out on the Asiatic ata- Th* lieutenant growled In sym- tlon-bappened in. How about It- pathy: -Somebody’s always takin’ tha j Jugt about half „ much /tnff a> yoa Joy out of Ufs Jim, b*’« hungry as . follows wasted on the Tartar wall I am. an’ that’s aa hungry as a bitch that time-eb? Sure: It could be ar- wolf. That a th* trouble with this , ranged. Ten minutes’ Intensive; My war stuff; man misses too many , ^ battery; mhere you wlint u? ^ meals No trilln* what the old man wants Glad I ain't a scout officer. This war's hard on Jim—ha takes It too serious Fll wait, though.” Ab sently be drank the tomato Juice left in the can. He tried hl« coffee, and burned hla mouth. "Wl.. s od the man here that Invented *iis h. w inra canteen cup I Time the damn cup’s cool enough so you won’t burn the hide off jo* lip, the coffee's atone cold." Then, later: "Not boiled enough Jim, he’s used to bein' waited on—never make a rustler, ha won’t . . . "Well, he*a long In cornin’. Old man aent him forward to make a map or something, most prob’ly.” He tasted the slum. "That Tompkins I Why the hbll he had to atop one—only man I ever know that could make this mon key-meat taste like anything! And he goes and geta bumped off. Belli That’s the way with these kids This needs an onion." The old Boche helmet made an ex cellent thing to cook with. Too Jabbed a few holes in It with a bayo net, ao'a to have a draft, and a mess- klt fitted over It beautifully. When you could get It, strips of high ex plosive, picked up aroundLa 155-mra. gun position, made the best fuel, giv ing you a flue, hot, smokeless flr& Smoke was not desirable on the front This chap Is frying hard bread In Jump-off Is from Terry’s battalion— about here—be has two companies here. Six hundred yards to go; keep the Bols well away—well starboard, aa you Leathernecks say; come back the aarne route. Wheat Little gully here. Craters Just beyond. Main line at least a hundred meters back. Good I Let’s call up Terry and see If hell give you the men. . , , Terry would give him twenty-five men and two chaut-chauts and not a marine more. Who wanted a raid, anyway? Sending two support companies up to the Bols aa aoou as It’s dark. Looks interestin’ on the right . . . Good I All set Start your covering fire at 23 houra 1&' You Jump off at 23 hours 19. Take you six minutes to get over, huh? "All right colonel, bonne chance!" a Just before dark the colonel and Captain de Stegur were at battalion headquarters. "Whitehead ’will give you ypur men, and I’m sending my scout officer along. Needs that sort of thing. Be sure you come back where you went out Crabbe’s to the right of there. You know Crabbe. Shoots quick." "But My Colonel,’* represented Captain de Stegur, "one should ar range, one should explain, one should Instruct—In effect one should rw> bacon grease; he will sprinkle a little * iear8 ® * "Rehearse hell, sir! I*m due la Paris tomorrow night Where those marines, major? PU tell ’em what I want—" So It was that a wedge of men de bouched Into the wheat at 23 houra 19 minutes. It being sufficiently dark. That battalion scout officer and a disillusioned sergeant with bash- marks on hla sleeve, were the point The men were echeloned back, right and left with an automatic rifle on each flank. In the center* marched the colonel, smoking, to the horror of all, a cigar. Smoking was hot dona up there, after dark. With him was the elegant French captain, who appeared to be very gallantly resigned to It The story would, be reflected, amase and delight hla mess If he ever got back with Itl These droll Americans I He must remember Jost what this colonel said: a type, Norn da Dieu! j If only be had not worn hla hj hla w!f£ 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 wondeirful re sults. The prescription ooet me noth ing. I ask nothing for it I will mail 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, M Too late to stop himself, the scout officer went head first Into the crater, his hands locking on something wtt and hairy. Just the size to fill them; and presently he was at the bottom of the crator, dirt In hla month and a buzzing in hla head, strangling something that flopped and gurgled and made remarkable nolsea under hla hands There were explosions and people stepped hard on hla back and legs He became sane again and rea lized that whatever It was It wpa dead. He groped In his puttees for hie knife, and cut off Its shoulder-straps and a button or two. and looted Its bosom of such papers as there were those being details the complete scout officer must attend to. More explo sions, and voices bleating "Kamara deni"—terribly anxious voices—In hla tar.* The disillusioned sergeant, a prac tical man, had ducted Into the crater right behind the scout officer. Th* raiding party In his rear had Imme diately fired their weapons tn all di rections A great many rifles on for ward stabbed the dark with sharp flame, and some of these were very nesr. The sergeant tossed a grenade at the nearest; he had toted that Frog citron grenade around for quite a while, somewhat against his Judg ment; he now reflected that It was good business—“grenade#—I hop# to spit In yo* mess kit they are—ask tha man ^hat need one—" It was good business for It fell fair In tb# other crater, thirty feet away, where th# rest of .that front-post squad were beginning to react like the brave Ger man men they were. Two of these survived, much shaken, and scuttled Into the clever little tunnel that con nected them with the Feldiitter** crater, emerging with pacific cries at the sergeant’s'very feet Being a man not given to excitement, he accepted them alive, the while he dragged the scout officer^ standing. "We got oar prisoners, air. Let’s beat It," he sug gested. "Their lines Is wakln’ up, air. It’s gonna be bad Here—" The colonel, as gallant a man as ever lived, bat not fast, barked Into them. “Prisoners? Hey? How many? Two? Excellent, by God! Give ’em young man I" and be seized the Mila. From Armlntieres unhappy Boches by their collar* and shook them violently. "Thought you’d •tart something, hey? Thought you’d start something, hey?" (CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.) Newspaper May Be Better THAN YOUR TOWN, BUT YOUR TOWN IS RARELY BETTER THAN YOUR NEWSPAPER. Advertise in Th# People-Sentinel. form—th* Orth KODAKERS! Send your flints to ns for develop ing and printing. O99 0*7 nervkn. Write for prison. LoDar’s Studio The Barnwell 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- v \ NATION TO THE PUBLIC GOOD IS MANY TIMES THAT OF ANY OF ITS GOOD CITIZENS “ THIS SERVICE 1S RENDERED CHEERFULLY. W EONLY ASK YOUR GOOD WILL AND BUSINESS IN RE TURN.