Short Stories of the New America: Interpreting the America of this age to high school boys and girls
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Short Stories of the New America: Interpreting the America of this age to high school boys and girls
Short stories; World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
Just as he finished speaking, the welcome “pup-pup” of a machine gun in
their rear rang out, and the front line of the onrushing Germans seemed
to melt away. They wavered, but once again came rushing onward. Down
went their second line. The machine gun was taking an awful toll of
lives. Then again they tried to advance, but the machine gun mowed them
down. Dropping their rifles and bombs, they broke and fled in a wild
rush back to their trench, amid the cheers of “D” Company. They were
forming again for another attempt, when in the rear of “D” Company came
a mighty cheer. The ammunition had arrived and with it a battalion of
Scotch to reinforce them. They were saved. The unknown machine gunner
had come to the rescue in the nick of time.
With the reinforcements, it was an easy task to take the third German
line.
After the attack was over, the Captain and three of his non-commissioned
officers, wended their way back to the position where the machine gun
had done its deadly work. He wanted to thank the gunner in the name of
“D” Company for his magnificent deed. They arrived at the gun, and an
awful sight met their eyes.
Lloyd had reached the front line trench, after his Company had left it.
A strange company was nimbly crawling up the trench ladders. They were
reinforcements going over. They were Scotties, and they made a
magnificent sight in their brightly colored kilts and bare knees.
Jumping over the trench, Lloyd raced across “No Man’s Land,” unheeding
the rain of bullets, leaping over dark forms on the ground, some of
which lay still, while others called out to him as he speeded past.
He came to the German front line, but it was deserted, except for heaps
of dead and wounded—a grim tribute to the work of _his_ Company, good
old “D” Company. Leaping trenches, and gasping for breath, Lloyd could
see right ahead of him _his_ Company in a dead-ended sap of a
communication trench, and across the open, away in front of them, a mass
of Germans preparing for a charge. Why didn’t “D” Company fire on them?
Why were they so strangely silent? What were they waiting for? Then he
knew—their ammunition was exhausted.
But what was that on his right? A machine gun. Why didn’t it open fire
and save them? He would make that gun’s crew do their duty. Rushing over
to the gun, he saw why it had not opened fire. Scattered around its base
lay six still forms. They had brought their gun to consolidate the
captured position, but a German machine gun had decreed they would never
fire again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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