The Khaki Boys at the Front; or, Shoulder to Shoulder in the TrenchesChase, Josephine
General
The Khaki Boys at the Front; or, Shoulder to Shoulder in the Trenches
Chase, Josephine
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- France -- Juvenile fiction
All day sharpshooters on both sides were busy picking off each other's
men as they labored at re-establishing their front-line defenses. As
the Sammies were by far the better marksmen, they did considerably
more damage. The Boche infantrymen are anything but good rifle shots.
It is generally conceded that the Americans have the best gunners and
sharpshooters in the world.
American machine guns also did good work through the day. So well did
their gunners succeed in harassing the Boches that when night at last
fell, they made little effort to go out onto No Man's Land to take in
their dead and wounded. Their losses had been too heavy to risk further
casualties. The constant sending up of American star shells warned them
that the Sammies were keeping a sharp look-out, ready to mow them down
at the first opportunity.
The night passed without any attempt by the Huns to renew the conflict.
Sammies detailed to listening post duty came back with reports that
Fritz was hard at work repairing his badly demolished fire trench.
They also reported that many wounded Germans still lay neglected
and suffering in No Man's Land. The all-glorious Fatherland was not
concerning itself over these helpless, bleeding husks.
For four more days the Khaki Boys continued on duty in the front-line
trench. During that time no more heavy bombardments were directed
against them by the Boches. Plenty of shrapnel shells continued to come
over. Most of them directed against the communication trenches, or
against points behind the American lines. A favorite sport of Fritz is
the shelling of ambulances, carrying wounded men to hospital.
Those days of blessed peace saw the fire trench completely restored and
everything running along again as smoothly as matters ever run in such
a danger spot. It was believed that the Germans were getting ready for
another big raid. Scouting aircraft reported the daily arrival of fresh
troops and large quantities of ammunition and supplies to the German
lines.
During this lull in hostilities, Bob, Ignace, Jimmy and Roger were
rarely idle long. As non-coms they always found plenty to do. The
vacancies in their squads had been filled by men who had lost squad
leaders and squad comrades in the recent bombardment.
All four were exceedingly gloomy over the loss of Schnitzel. The
uncertainty of his fate weighed heavily upon them. Jimmy continued to
maintain his belief that Schnitz was not dead. He had a fixed idea that
his bunkie was a prisoner. This in itself was signally depressing. The
four Brothers would far rather have believed Schnitzel to be dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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