Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, October 3, 1918, Page 5

— (CHAPTER VI. Fritz Does a Little “Strafeing.” My outfit was one of those that saw the Germans place women and .chil- dren in front of them as shields against our fire, More than a third of ovr men, I should say, had been pretty tough criminals in their-own countries. ‘They always traded their pay against a handful of cards-or a roll of the bones whenever ‘they got a chance. ‘They had been in most of ‘the dirty parts of the world. This war was not such a much to them; just one more job in the list. They could call God and the saints and the human body more things than any boss stevedore that ever lived. \ Yet they were réligious in away. Some 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 thé toughest bunch I ever saw. After they saw the Germans using the Belgian women ‘the way they did, almost every man in my company took some kind o{ a vow or other, and most of them kept their vows, too, I believe. And those that were religious got more so after ‘that. Our chaplain had always been very friendly with the men, and while I think they liked him they were so tough they would never admit it, and some of them claimed he was a Jonah, or jinx, or bad luck of some kind. But ie How We Givd 'Em the Butt. they all told him theiy vows as soon as they made them and le was sup- posed to be a sort of referee as to whether they kept them or not. During my second stunt in the front lines things got pretty bad. The Ger- mans were five to our one and they kept pushing back parts of the line and cleaning out others. And the weather was as bad jas it could be and the food did not always.come reg- alarly. Now, before they took their vows, every last mam in the bunch would have been kicking and growling all the time, but, as it was, the only time they growled was when the Ger- mans pushed us back. Things kept getting worse and. you could see that the men talked to the chaplain more and quite a few of them zot real chuminy. with him, One morning Fritz started in bright an@ early to begin his strafe. The lieutenant was walking up and down the trench to see that the sentries vere propefly pested and were on the Job, A shell whizzed over his head and landed just behind the parados_ and the dirt spouted up like I imagine 1 Yellowstone geyser looks. Another officer came up to the Heu- tenant—a new one who had. only loined 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 one came, There were three in less than five minutes, directly over their heads, Then a shell landed on the left side of the trench and a poilu yelled that four men had got it. They were all wounded apd three died later. The lieutenant went over to them and just after he passed me a Jad got it square not far from me and was knocked over to where I was lying. The lieutenant »eame back and helped me with tbe first-aid rojl and then the Germans began using shrap- nel, The leutenant was swearing hard about the shrapnel and the Ger- mans and everything else. Farther to the right.a shell had just struck near the parados and made a big crater and across frpm it, against the parapet, was a young chap with ® deep gash in. his head, sitting on the fire step and next to him a fellow nursing the place where his arm*had been blown off. Our bread ration lay all about the trench and some.of the Pollus were fishing it ‘out of the mud and water and wiping the biscuits off on their.sleeves or eating as fast as ‘they could. Only someof the biscuits had fallen in bloody water and they did not eat. these. A young fellow, hardly more than a ‘boy, stumbled over the parados and fell into the ‘trench right near the leutenant and ‘the lieutenant dressed his Wounds himself. I think he was some relation of the boy. The lieutenant Asked him how jhe felt, but the boy only asked for water and smiled. But you could see he was in great pain. Tyen the boy said: “Oh, the pain is awful. I am going to die” , “You are all right, old man,” the Meutenant aid. ‘You will be home soon. -The,stretcher bearers are com- ing.” ‘So we passed the word for the streteher bearers. - Then he-took the water ‘bottle from the-boy's side and sat him up and gave him some water. He Jeft the water bottle ‘with the chap. and went to hurry the stretcher bearers along. When he got around the corner of the ~trench the boy was slipping back and the water bottle had fallen down. So I went over to him and propped him up again and gave him some more water. | The lieutenant came back with the stretcher bearers and he asked one of them, so the boy could not hear him, if the boy would live. ‘The stretcher bearer said: “I don’t think so. One through his chest and right leg broken.” a The boy had kept quiet for a while, but all of a sudden he yelled, “Give me a cigarette!” I handed him a ciga- rette butt that I had found in the dug- out. We were all out of’ cigarettes, Sorthey-lit-it for him and he ‘kept- quiet. Asesoon as they could they got around the corner of the fire bay with him and through a communication trench to a field hospital. The lieu- tenant and I walked a little way with him and he began to thank us, and ‘he told the leutenant, “Old man, you have been a father and a mother to me,” We 3 And the Heutenant said to him: “You have done -well, old’ boy. You have .done more than your share.” When they started into the commu- nication trench the boy began -to scream again. And the lieutenant acted like a wild man. He ttook out his cigarette case, but there were ino cigarettes in it, and then he.swore and put it back again. But ina few min- utes he had the case out again and was swearing svorse than ever and talking to himself. “The boy isn’t dying like a gentle- man,” he said. “Why couldn’t he keep quiet.” I do not think he meant iit. He was all mervows and exeited and kept taking.out his cigarette case and putting it back again. 7 The other officer had gone on to in- spect the sentriés when the boy rolled * into ‘the trench and a poilu came up to tell us that the officer had been hit. We walked back to where I had been and there was the officer, If I had ‘been ‘there I would -have got it :too, T guess. He was an awfulymess. The | veins were sticking out of ‘his neck and one side of him was blown -off. Also, his foot was wounded, That is what shrapnel does to you. As I crawled past him I happened to touch his foot and he cursed me.all over the place. But when I tried to say I was sorry I could not, for then he apolo- gized and died. a moment‘ater. | “There was a silver cigarette case sticking out of the rags where his side had been blown away and the lieutenant crossed himself and reached in and took out/the case. But when he pried open the case he found that it had_been bent and cracked and all the cigarettes were soaked With blood. He swore worse than ever, then, and threw his own case away, putting-the other officer's case in his pocket. At this point our own artillery be- gan shelling and we received the order to stand to with fixed beyonets. When we got the order to advance some of the men were aiready over the para- pet and the whole bunch after them, and, belleve me, I was as pale as a sheet, Just scared to death. I think every man is when he goes over for the first time—every time for that -toatter, But I was glad we were going to get some action, because ft is hard to sit around in a trench under fire and have nothing to do. I had all I could do to hold my ifle, We ran across No Man's Land. I cannot remember much about it. But when we got to the German trench T fell on top of a young fellow and my bayonet went right throuch = | was a crime to get him, at that. He Was as delicate as a pencil. |~ When I got back ‘to our trenches after my first charge I could not for a long time afterward, for remem- bering what that f z )Agar. me: ering wi t plow: locas ant I had. to |and how my bayonet slipped into him and how he screamed when he fell. |He had-his legs and his neck twisted under him after he got it. I thought about it a lot and it got to be almost /® habit that whenever I was going to sleep £ would think about him and jthen all hope of sleeping was gone. that time and along with another company four hundred prisoners, We had to retire because the men on our sides did- not get through and we | Were being flanked. But we lost a lot | of men doing it. ‘ When we returned to our trenches |our-outfit was simply all in and we were lying around in the front line, like a bunch of old rags in a narrow alley. None of us showed any signs of life except a working party that was digging with picks and shovels at some bodies that had been frozen into the mud of the trench. I used to think all the Germans were big and fat and strong, and, of course, some of the grenadier regiments are, but lots of the Boches I saw were little and weak like this fellow I “got” in my first charge. It was a good piece of work to take the prisoners and a novelty for me to look them in the face—the fellows I had been fighting. Because, when you look a Hun in the face, you can see the yellow streak, Even if you are their prisoner you can tell that the Huns.are yellow. Maybe you have heard pigs being butchered. It sounded like that when we got to them. When they attacked ous they yelled to beat the band. I guess they thought they could scare us. But you cannot scare machine guns nor the foreign legion either. So when they could not scare us they were up against it and had to fight. I will admit, though, that the first time Fritz came over and began yell- Ing I thought the whole German army was after me, at that, and Kaiser Bill playing the drum. And how they hate a bayonet! sit in a ditch and pot you. I admit I am not crazy about bayo- net fighting myself, as a general prop- osition, but I will.say that there have been times when I was serving a gun behind ‘the front Unes when I wishe(l for a rifle and a bayonet in my hands and a chance at Fritz man to man. It was in this charge that our chap- As we were lined up, waiting to climb on to'the fire step and then over the par- apet, this chaplain came down the line speaking to each man as he went. lain was put.out of commission. He would not say mueh,~but just a few words, and then make the sign of He was:in a black cassock. He? was just one man from me as ‘we got: the word and-stpod up. on the; 5; fire step. He was not armed with as much as a pin, but he jumped up on the cross. i f f ‘Stuck ‘His ‘Head.Over the Parapet ani Got It Square. the step and stuck his head over the parapet and got it square, landing right beside me. I thought he was killed, but when we got back we found he was only wounded. The men who saw It were over the parapet before the order was given and then_the whole bunch after them, because they, too, thought he wds killed and figured he never would know how they came out about their vows, Al the men/in the company were glad when they found,he was only wounded. While half of us were on the firlng step throughout the day or night the other*half would be in the dugouts or sitting around in the bottom of the trench, playing little games, or mend- ing clothes or sleeping or cooking or doing a thousand and one things, The men were always in good humor .at such times and it seemed to me even more so when the enemy fire was heavy. If a man was slightly wounded down would come the rifies to order arms, and some poilu was sure to shout, “Right this way. One franc.” It was a standing joke and they always diihit. The poilu who did it most was a Swiss and he was always playing a joke on somebody or’ imitating some one of us or making faces. We were all sorry when this Swiss’ “went west,” as the Limeys say, and we tried to keep up his jokes and say the same things and so forth. But they lid not go very well after he was *|in which the ehapia Our company took a German trench | They would much rather ad. Me got his in the same charge | cvwyld not tell. h was wounded. We eobear Pap ich that charged fore the given, when the chaplain ‘got ittind ‘running pretty ‘until we ‘got to the Boche to get through, though must of it was cut up by artil- : ‘ery fire, but he must have jumped ft, for when I looked up he was twenty or thirty paces ahead of me. We got to the Germans; about that time and I was pretty busy/for a while. But soon I.saw ‘him again.. He was pulling his bayonet out of a Boche when an- other made a jab at him and stuck him in the arm. ‘Then the Boche made a swing at him with his rifle, but the Swiss dropped on one knee and dodged |his rifle, but there was another Ger- man on him by this time and he could not get up. corporal of our squad came up just about that time, but he was too late, because one of the Boches got to the Swiss with his bay- onet. He did not have time to with- draw it before our corporal stuck him, Dhe other-German made a pass at the corporal, but he «was too late. The corporal beat him: to it and felled him with a terrific blow from his rifle butt. The Huns were pretty thick around there just as another fellow and my- self came up. A Boche swung his rifie at the corporal and when he dodged it the Boche almost got me. The swing took him off his feet and then the cor- poral did as pretty a bit of work as f ever saw. He jumped for the Boche, who had fallen, Ianded on his face with both feet and gave it to the next one with his bayonet all at the same time. He was the quickest man I ever saa, There were a Couple of well-known savate men in the next company and { saw one of them get under Fritz’s guard with his foot and, believe me, there was some force in that kick. He must have driven the German's ehin clear through the back of his neck. We thought it was pretty tough luck to lose both the chaplain and the vil- lage wit in the-same charge, along with half of our officers, and then have to give up the trench. Every man in the bunch was sore as a boil. when we got back, Bap , CHAPTER Vil. Stopping the Huns at Dixmude. J was standing in a communication trench that conmected one of our front- line trenches witha crater caused by the explosion of.a mine. All around me_men of the third line were coming ap, climbing around, digging, hammer- ing, shifting planks, moving sandbags ap and down, bringing up new timbers, ceels of barbed wire, ladders, cases of ammunition, machine guns, trench smortars—all the things that make an army look like,ageneral store on legs. The noise of the guns was just deaf- ming. above our heads, so close were the enetny trenches, and the explosions ‘vere so-near and so violent that when you rested your rifle butt on something solid, like a rock, you could feel it shake and hum .every time a shell landed. Bearias Our first line was just.on the out- skirts of the town, in trenches that had been won-and lost by both sides many times.. Ouf second Ine was in the streets and ‘the third line was almost at the south end of the town. ‘| The Huns were hard at it, shelling the battered remaihs of Dixmude, and to the-right stretcher bearers were working in lines so close that they ‘ooked like two parades passing each other. But the bearers from the com- pany near me had :not returned from the emergency dressing station and the wounded were piling up, waiting tor them. 3 |. A-company of the 2me Legion Etran- gere had just come up to take their stations in the crater, under the para- pet of sandbags. A-shell Janded among them just before they entered the cra- ter and sent almost a whole squad west, besides wounding several others, Almost .before they occupied the crater the wires were laid and reached oack jto us, and the order came for us to remain where’ we were until further | orders, Then we got the complete orders. We were to make no noise butwere all to be ready in ‘ten minutes. ‘We (put on goggles and .respivators. In jten minutes the bombers were to,leave the trenches, ‘Three, mines were to ¢x- plode and then we -were to take and hold a certain .portion of the enemy trenches not far,.off. “We sere all ready to start up the ladders when they moved Nig’s.section over to ours and he sneaked up to me and whis- pered behind his hand, “Be a sport, Doc; make it fifty-fifty and gimme a chance.” 1 did not have any ..idea what he meant and he had to get back to his squad. Then the bombers came up to the ladders, masked and with loaded sacks on their left arms. “One min- ute now,” said the officers, getting on their own ladders ‘and drawing their revolyers—though most of the officers of the Legion charged with rifle and bayonet like their’ men. Then—Boom! Slam! the mines went off. © * “Allez!” and then the parapet was filled with bayonets and men scram- bling and erawling and falling and get- ting up again, The smoke drifted back onus, and then our own machine guns began ahead of us. Up toward the front the bombers were fishing-in their bags and throw- ing, just lke boys after a rat along the docks. The black smoke from the “Jack Johnsons” rolled over us and probably there Was gas, too, but you ‘ Bang !—and it. He. kept defending himself with | Our,ownshells passed not far “yy | ‘hie front lines had taken their trenches and gone on and you could see them, when you stood on @ para- pet, running about like hounds through the enemy communication, trenches, bombing out dugouts, disarming pris- oners—very scary-looking in their masks and goggles. The wounded were coming back slowly. Then we got busy with our work in thé dugouts ‘too. and communication trenches and fire bays, with bayonets and bombs, dig- ging the Boches out and sending them “west.” And every once in a while a Fritz on one side would step out and yell,“Kamerad,” while, like as not, on the other side, his pal would pot you with a revolver when you started to pick him up, thinking he was wounded. Then we stood aside at the entrance to a dugout and some Boches came out in single file, shouting “Kamerad” The Bombers Were Fishing in Their Bag and Throwing. for all they were worth. One of them had his mask and face blown off; yet he was trying to talk, with the tears rolling down over the raw flesh. He died five minutes later. | One night, while I was lying back in | the trench trying not to think of any- thing and go to sleep the bombs began to get pretty thick around there, end when I could not stand it any longer | I rushed out into the bay of the fire trench and right up against the para- pet, where it was safer. | Hundreds of star shells were being | sent up by both sides and the field and the trenches were as bright as day. Ail up and down the trenches our men were dodging about, keeping out of the way of the hombs that | were, being thrown in our faces. id not Seem he if there was any place where it was possible to get cover. Most of the time I was picking dirt out of my eyes that explosions had driven | into"them. If you went into a dugout the men already in there would shout, “Don’t | stick in a*bunch—spread out!” ‘While | you were in a dugout you kept expect- ing to be buried alive and when you | went outside you thought the Boches | were aiming at you direct—and there was no place at all where yon felt safe. | But the fire bay looked better than | the other places to me. I had not been there more than a few minutes when a big one dropped in and that bay was just one mess. .Out of the 24 men jn the bay only eight escaped. When the stretcher bearers got there | they did not have much to do in the | way of rescue—it was more pallbear- er's work. A stretcher bearer was picking up | one,of the boys, when a grenade land- ed alongside of him and you could not find -a fragment of either of them. That made two that landed within twelve feet of me; yet I was not even scratched. When I got so that I could move I went over to where the captain was Standing, looking through a periscope * over the parapet. I was very nervous and excited and was afraid to speak to him, but somehow I thought I ought to ask for orders. But I could not say a word. Finally a shell whizzed over our heads—just missed us, it seemed like, and I brake out: “What did you.see? What's all of the news?” and so cn. I guess I chattered ke a monkey, Then he yelled: “You're the gunner officer, You're just in time—I've lo- cated their mortar batterfes.” I surely wished: I was the gunner officer, I would have enjoyed it more if I could have got back at Fritz somehow. But I was not the gunner officer and I told him so, I had to shout at him quite & while before he would believe me. Then he~-wanted me to find the gunner officer, but I did not know-where to find hini. If I G )Woolworth's. five-and-ten ;, everywhe the matter with himself, cursing the Germans from here to Helgoland. and putting in a word for the bombs every once in a while. All up and down the trenches you could hear our men cursing the Germans in all kinds of languages. Believe me, I did my bit and I could hear somebody else using good old United States cuss words, It certainly did not make me feel any better, but it gave me something to do. I think that was why all of us cursed so much then, though we were pretty handy with language at any time. But when you are under heavy fire like that and cannot give it back as good as you get, you go crazy unless you have something to do. Cussing is the best thing we could think of. Up the trench the third bay was simply smashed in and the Germans were placing bomb after bomb right in it and in ours. The captain yelled out that he was going up to the next bay to examine it, but no more had he got there than he had his head taken clean off his shoulders. At daybreak our trenches were all pounded in and most of our dugouts were filled up. Then Fritz opened up with his artillery fire right on us. We thought they were going to charge and we figured their barrage would lift and we could see them come over. We received orders to stand to with fixed bayonets. Then the man at the periscope shouted, “They come!” A battery directly behind us went into action first and then they all joined In and inside of five minutes about eight hundred guns were raising Cain with Fritz. The Boches were caught square in No Man’s Land and our rifles and machine guns sluaply mowed them down. Many of them came half way across, then dropped their guns and ran for our trenches to give themselves up. They could not have got back to their own trenches. It was a shame to waste a shell on these poor fish. If they had been civ- vies the law would prevent you from hitting them—you know the Ind. They could hardly drag themselves along. ‘That is the way they look when you have got them. But when they have got you—kicks, cuffs, bayonet jabs— there is nothing they will not do to add to your misery. They seem to think that it boosts their own courage. An artillery fire like ours was great fun for the gunners, but it was not much fun for Fritz or for us in the trenches. We got under cover almost as much.as Fritz and held thumbs for the gunners to get through in a hurry. Then the fire died down and it was so quiet it made you jump. We thought our parapet was busted up a deal, but when we looked through the periscoBe we saw what had happened to Fritz’ trenches and, believe me, they were practically ruined. Out in No Man’s Land it looked like |were gray uniforms, with tincups ard accouterments that belonged to the Germans before our artillery and ma- chine guns -got to them. Our stretcher bearers were busy, carrying the wounded back to first-ald dressing station, for, of course, we had suffered too. From there the blesses were shipped to the clearing station. The dead lay in the trenches all day and at night they were carried out by working parties to “Stiff park,” as’ [ called it, A man with anything on his mind ought not to go to the front-line trenches. He will be crazy inside of a month. The best way is not to rare whether it rains or snows: there are plenty of important things to worry about. CHAPTER VII, 4 On Runner Service. One night a man named Bartel and { were detailed for runner service and were instructed to go to Dixmude and deliver certain dispatches to a man whom I will call the burgomaster and report to the branch staff headquar- ters thet had been secretly located in another part of town. We were to travel in an automobile and keep a sharp watch as we went, for Dixmude was-being contested hotly at that time and German patrols were in the neigh- bothood. No ene knew exactly where they would break out next. So we started out from the third- | line trenches, but very shortly one of our outposts stopped us. Bartel car- tled the dispatches and drove the car too, so it was up to me to explain things to the sentries. They were convinced after a bit of arguing. Just as we were leaving a message came over the phone from our commander, telling them to hold us when we came. {t was lucky they stopped us, for oth- erwise we wotlld have been out of reach*by the time his message came. The commander told me, over the tele- phone, that if a French flag flew over the town the coast would be clear; if a | Belgian, that our forces were either could have got to our guns I guegs I ‘Im control or were about to take over would have had another medal for working overtime, but I missed the chance there. About this time another bomb came over and clouted out the best friend I had in my company. Before the war he had been one of the finest sing- ers.in the Paris opera houses. When ~he was with us he used to say that the only difference between him and , Caruso was $2,500 a night, A poilu and I dragged him into a dugout, but it was too late. One side ;of his face was blown off; the whole right side of him was stripped off and four fingers of the right hand ; Were gone. | I stuck my head out of the dugout and there was the cantain discussin= the Largest Paper in Central Wyoming, Carries the Latest N y the place but that Germans patrols were near. After this we started again. When we had passed the last post we kept a sharp lookout for the flag on the pole of the old fish market, for by this we would get our bearings— and perhaps, if it should be a German fag, a timely warning. But after we were down the road a bit and had got clear we saw a Belgian flag whipping around in a good, strong breeze, But while that showed that our troops or the "British »were about to take over the place it also indicated that the Germans were somewhere near by. Which was not 6o-cheerful, As we went through the suburbs along the canal which runs on the J Me a Page Five edge of the fown we found that all the houses were battered up. We tried to hail severe! heads that stuck themselves out of the spaces between buildings and stuck themselves back just as quickly, but we could not get ~ an answer. Finally we got hold of a man Who came out from a little cafe. He told us that the Germans had been through the town and had shot it up_ considerably, killing and wound- ing a few inhabitants, but that shortly afterward a small force of Belgian cavalry had arrived and driven the Bocies out. The Germans were ex- pected either to return or begin a bom- burdment at any moment and all the inhabitants who sported cellars were hiding in them. The rest were trying Ao get out of town with their belong- ings as best they could. On reaching our objective we made streizht for the Hotel de Ville, where we were admitted and after a short Wait taken to the burgomaster. We questioned him as to news, for we had buen instructed to pick up any infor- mation he might have as to conditions. But we did not get much, for le could not get about because of the Germans, who had made it a policy to terrorize the people of the téwn. We had just got into the car and were about to start when the burgo- master himself came running out. He ordered us to leave the car there and said he would direct us where to go. He insisted that we go on foot, but I could not understand when he tried to explain why. We soon’ saw the probable reason for the burgomaster'’s refusa! to ride in the car. All sround for about a mile the roads were heavily mined and small red flags on fron staves were stuck between the cobblestones, as warnings not to put in much time nround those places. Also, there were notices stuck up all areund warning people of the mines and forbidding heavy carts to p: When we got oft the road I breathed again! After a great deal of questioning we finally reached our destination and made our report to the local command- ant. We told him all we could and in turn received various information from him. We were then taken over to the hotel. Here we read a few Paris newspapers, that were several weeks old, until about eight, when we had dinner, and a fine dinner it was, too. After we had eaten all we could, and wished for more room in the hold, we went out into the garden and yarned a while with some gendarmes, and then went to bed. We had a big room on the third floor front. We had just turned in, and were all set for a good night's rest, when there was.an explo- sion of a different kind from any I had heard before, and we and the bed rocked about, like a canoe in the wake of a stern-wheeler. i ua Rbere were seven more explosions, and then they stopped, though we ‘could hear the rattle of 1 machine gun at some distance away. Bartel said it must be the forts, and after some argu- ment I agreed with him. He said that the Germans must have tried an ad- vance under cover of a bombardment, and that as soon as the forts got into action the Germans breezed. We were | not worried much, so we did not get out of bed. A few minutes later we heard foot- | steps on the roof, and then a woman |in a window across the street, asking a gendarme whether it was safe to go back to bed. Then I got up and took |4 look into the street. There were a lot of people standing around talking, but it was not interesting enough, to keep ja tired man up, so into the hays } It seemed about the middle of the !night when. Bartel called me, but he said it was time to get out and get to work, We found he had made a poor guess, for when we were half dressed he looked at his watch and it was only a quarter past seven, but we decided to stay up, since we were that far along, and then go down and cruise for a breakfagt. When we got downstairs and found some of the hotel people it took them a long time to get it through our heads that there had been some real excite- ment during the night. were those of hombs dropped by a Zeppelin, which had sailed over the city. ‘The first bomb had fallen less than two hundred yards from where we slept. No wonder the bed rocked! It had struck a narrow three-story house around the corner from the hotel, and had blown it to bits. Ten people had been killed outright, and a number died later. The bomb tore a fine hole and hurled pieces o% itself several hun- dred yards. The street itself was Gite with rocks, and a number of houses were down, and others wreck- ed. When we got out into the street and talked with some army men we found that even they were surprised by the force of the explosion, We learned that the Zepp had sailed not more than five hundred feet above the town. Its motor had been stopped just before the first bomb was let go, and it had slid along perfectly silent and with all lights out. The purr that we had thought was machine guns, after the eighth explosion, was the starting of the motor, as the Zepp got out of range ofthe guns that were be- ing set for the attack, ‘The last bomb had struck in a large Square. It tore a hole in the coble- stone pavement about thirty feet square and five feet deep. Every win- dow on the square was smashed. The fronts of the houses were riddled with various sized holes. All the crockery and china and mirrors in ‘the house were in fragments, TO BE CONTINUED The explosions , ews | BD;