What Outfit, Buddy?Kelly, T. Howard (Thomas Howard)
History
What Outfit, Buddy?
Kelly, T. Howard (Thomas Howard)
Soldiers -- Fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
“Beauvardis, or just beyond it a few kilos, is where Cap. Davis got it.
We was ’way up close to the front lines there. Had us in front of the
light pieces. There was a regiment of seventy-fives right behind us. We
went into position in a place where the Boches must have had a gun
position, as the place was littered up with their equipment and
_beaucoup_ dead Germans. I didn’t get in until late in the night, right
in the middle of a barrage that the seventy-fives was puttin’ up. The
woods was ringin’ with a noise that sounded as if the devils themselves
was shoutin’ and yellin’ down in hell and we was gettin’ a loud echo of
it. Before us the whole country was lit up by a big fire from a burnin’
German ammunition dump. Sure was weird in them woods. I asked where I
was to _cushay_, and Frank Reynolds, top-kick, says, ‘Anywhere ’round
here.’ Bickford and I drops our load, spread the blankets, and tried to
_cushay_. No human bein’ could sleep much in that place. But we managed
to cork off a little now and then. The woods smelled rotten.
“When daylight came I looked over my head and saw an arm pointin’ right
down at me. There wasn’t no head or body. Just that one arm. I got up
quick as hell. Found out I had been restin’ my head against a dead Boche
all night. Felt like runnin’, but was afraid I might run right into the
German lines. They was only a few yards away over a little hill.
“That mornin’ we got more movin’ orders. Our doughboys had already been
relieved by the Forty-second Division infantry, as they were all shot to
hell. I’ll bet that there wasn’t a full battalion left in any regiment.
The Rainbow doughboys can fight, now, buddy, I ain’t jokin’. They made
us artillery hump to keep up with ’em, too. But guess we did, as most of
’em said our barrages was as good to go over under as an umbrella is in
the rain. There ain’t much use tellin’ much more. Course, as I said,
Cap. Davis got picked near Beauvardis. He was steppin’ out of his P. C.
when a shell fragment knocked him cold. Funny how all good men get it so
quick. He was only a kid, but, believe me, he had guts and could handle
a battery.
“We got up to Sergy Plateau and cleaned the Germans off that place and
they relieved us. We had been in the drive from July fifteenth to August
fourth—that’s a long time to battle, O. D. Accordin’ to reports, we
gained ’bout twenty-five kilometers against the Boches. Not bad, eh?”
concluded Jimmy, starting to stretch.
“Gee! you had some war experience, Jimmy. They sure must have given you
a long rest and furlough after all that time at the front.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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