DIGGING IN
Sergeant Phil was a year older than Corporal Tim. The latter, unbeknown
to anybody except himself and his parents, had entered the Marine
Service in not the most regular manner, but it was real patriotism that
had caused him to misrepresent his age, which was the only bar to his
eligibility. A wait of eight months longer would have put him “over the
top” in this respect but he decided not to wait. He looked 18 years old,
and boldly declared this to be his age, and, as some of his slangy boy
friends would have said, he got away with it. When his Philadelphia
father learned of his enlistment, the bullet-headed youngster was
already on his way for probation at the Paris Island, South Carolina,
recruit depot.
Then Mr. Turner thought twice and decided not to interfere. He was
thoroughly patriotic and concluded that if his son had put over anything
on anybody it was on the kaiser.
Phil was a more regular sort of fellow in such matters. He would never
have misrepresented his age in order to gain admittance into Uncle Sam’s
fighting force. If he had not been able to pass all the tests on merit,
he would have sought to aid the government in some other branch of
service. This is not intended, by contrast, as a serious reflection on
Tim. The latter was different. He saw no particular harm in adding a
year on his age if thereby he might help to shorten the reign of the
Prussian despot.
Tim kept his secret religiously, fearing lest he be sent home or
assigned to disgrace service if it should come to the knowledge of his
superior officers.
Phil and Tim were disappointed in their expectation that they would move
early in the morning following their arrival at the deserted farm to a
position in the front line. But they were not disappointed in their
anticipation of thrilling activities before the close of the day. Until
late in the afternoon the entire battalion was busy perfecting
arrangements for relieving the Frenchies in this sector.
The excitement of the day came at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The
firing at the front was heavy, but not of intensity such as they had
witnessed at Verdun. But it seemed to grow hotter and nearer, so that
the only conclusion the Americans could draw was that the boches were
driving the French back through the woods.
Suddenly the company to which Phil and Tim belonged was thrown into
confusion by the bursting of a shell on the roof of the barn in which
they had sought shelter. This would have been a poor place for them if
they had been under constant fire from the enemy. But it had served well
enough against injury from shrapnel, and still better from flying debris
heaved in all directions by the explosion of bombs dropped from hostile
aeroplanes. That the wrecking of the roof of the barn was effected by
the bursting of a cannon shell was evidenced by the shriek that
immediately preceded the explosion.
None of those in the barn was killed or injured so severely that he had
to be taken to the rear for surgical treatment, but the lieutenant was
severely cut on his right arm. Phil sprang to his assistance and helped
him to bandage the limb; then they rushed out after the rest of the
company. The wounded officer now gave order for all to take to the woods
and dig in.
The Marines thus deprived of a shelter rushed back into the roofless
building, grabbed up a supply of entrenching tools and then made a dash
for the woods. Most of them had snatched up their guns before making
their hurried exit. About halfway between the barn and the woods another
shell burst in their midst, killing five and severely wounding a score
of others. Almost as if by magic a corps of stretcher-bearers were on
the scene. The uninjured scarcely hesitated, and almost in less time
than is required to tell it the order to “dig in” was being obeyed with
the skill and speed of long practiced teamwork.
The digging-in process was a simple though strenuous task. All of the
members of the company not seriously injured by the bursting of the
shell were presently spading in the earth for dear life a short distance
within the timber. They worked as if according to a systematic,
prearranged schedule. If they had been going through a drill
performance, under instruction from manual and teacher, their work could
hardly have been more nearly true to military form.
Each of these Marines quickly scratched off a rectangular plot about
three by five feet and then began to dig. Phil and Tim, who always
endeavored to keep as near together as possible in all emergencies where
they might be able to aid each other, “dug in” a few feet apart. After
they had cut roots and scooped the dirt out to a depth of three or four
feet, they dashed about here and there in the immediate vicinity and
gathered dead limbs and brushwood with which each built a shelter at one
end of his funk hole, or “stub trench.” These shelters were rendered
more stable and impervious to rain by heaping on them mounds of loose
earth that had been shoveled out of the trenches.
But the disastrous explosion of the two shells seemed to have served as
a false alarm as to what ought to be expected for some time thereafter.
The fact of the matter is, “nothing happened.” Three days they remained
“dug in” and not another shell or bomb struck within two hundred yards
of any point of the sheltered “stub trenches” of the recently bombarded
regiment.
On the evening of the third day they received an order to make a quick
march to a shell-shattered village on the front line.
“Now we’re going to see some real fighting,” Tim prophesied to his
friend, as they prepared to obey the order.
He was not mistaken.