World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
In a very short time after the capture of new territory not only do the
infantry and the artillery move up to maintain the new position, but the
first-aid dressing stations take their places on the newly captured
ground also.]
Out there tonight there are wealthy land owners standing knee deep in
mud and water, side by side with their own stable boys and treating them
on an absolute equality with themselves. It's a matter of life and death
out there, and after all when it gets down to that very little else
counts. A stable boy's bullet from the enemy's lines will pick off the
wealthy magnate as quick as any other's, and the rich man's usefulness
is no greater than his servant's, in the trenches. So they realize this
fact and act as though it were true. The only place in all the world
today where we have a real Brotherhood of Man is in the Allies' trenches
on the Western front. Men display heroism there; but they don't know it.
Men are brave out there; but they don't think of it. It never enters a
man's head that he has been a hero, it's all duty, all just natural;
they couldn't do otherwise. As the wounded Frenchman said about the
worse wounded Paul, "I couldn't let that poor wounded fellow bleed to
death." There was duty. It had to be done. "So I took my socks and
pulled them on his feet. What else could I do?"
After all, heroism and heroes are not always shouted from the housetops
and oftener they pass by unmentioned. But Someone knows.
CHAPTER XXI
THE TREACHEROUS "GERMAN SOUVENIR"
The word "souvenir" means a remembrance. The Huns have certainly left a
number of things which will be remembrances of them for a long time to
come. At one of the battles near S---- after a successful charge in
which the French had succeeded in capturing the first and second line
German trenches, the boys found some of these souvenirs. One of them, a
lad of twenty-two, picked up a fountain pen which had apparently been
dropped by some soldier in the hasty retreat. The young poilu started to
examine the pen and in doing so unscrewed the cap from it. Just as he
had it about off, an awful explosion occurred and the fellow's face was
blown half off, and his right hand was torn to pieces. We carried him to
the hospital where he was treated by the surgeons but he hardly came to
consciousness and the next day died in horrible agony.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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