France. Armée. Légion étrangère; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
Two Moroccans stopped. One pulled off his vest and found a blackish red
bruise on his chest. His comrade said: “It is nothing, come along.” The
other fell over, dead. A Zouave, with back broken, or something, unable
to get up, eyes rolling into his head, twisted his body in agony. The
doctor, walking away, said: “No chance. Leave him; blood poison.”
The Germans had a sure range on the outlet. Wounded men, walking back in
the trench, were jostled and knocked about by strong, running men,
forcing themselves to the front. Shells were falling all around as we
ran into “No-Man’s-Land.” Machine guns were out on the slope,
“rat-tat-tat-tat,” a continuous noise. Men lying behind guns, rifle
shooting, working, cursing, digging trenches, throwing dirt, making
holes.
At every corner stood calm, square-faced, observing officers directing,
demanding, compelling. What are such men in civil life. Why do we never
see them?
In the open I stopped and took a quick look around. The only man I knew
was Crotti, an Italian. He spoke in English: “Where is the Legion?” The
officer overheard. His face changed. He did not like that alien tongue
just then, but understood, and smiling, said: “The Legion is there.”
They were crawling up a shallow trench, newly made in open ground, at an
angle of 45 degrees from us. We did not try to force our way back into
the trench against that crowd, so kept out on top and joined our
comrades, who laughed when they saw us running in from where the Boche
was supposed to be.
The man alongside puts on his bayonet as the order is passed down the
line to go over on command. The officers snap out: “Five minutes, three
minutes, one minute, En Avant!” The Colonials, the Moroccans and the
Legionnaires, all mixed up, arrive about the same time. Up, and over the
Boche line trench. Where is the wire? It has been blown away by
artillery. Instead of deep, open trenches, we find them covered over!
Swarming we go up on top the covered trenches then turn and throw bombs
in at the port-holes from which the Germans are shooting. Boches run out
at the entrances, climb from the dugouts, hands in air, crying,
“Kamarad.”
More grenades inside and more German prisoners. The first line men keep
going. German dead lie all about. German equipment is piled around; we
pass the wounded, meet the living enemy. A running Zouave met a Boche,
who goes down with the Zouave’s bayonet in his chest. The Zouave puts
his foot on the man, pulls out the bayonet, and keeps on his headlong
rush.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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