_42nd Division, 117th Field Battalion, Signal Corps_
Before daylight on the morning of March 17, 1918, while constructing
communication lines in the vicinity of Fort de Manonviller, France,
Captain Smith conducted his men to a place of safety, and while the
fire was still intense returned and carried a wounded soldier to the
dugout, where he fell exhausted.]
They left the trench for a charge, under a withering fire, but they
pressed forward, and came to the enemy’s trench and leaped in. He saw
four Germans trying to escape on the further side. “I did not fire,
intending to make them prisoners. But the only thing I took was a great
blow on the side of my head, and away went my prisoners.” That night
he was one of twenty of his comrades who volunteered to attempt the
recovery of four field guns the English had lost. They joined men
from the Tenth and Sixteenth Battalions. They were to storm the wood
where the guns were. There were forty yards of open ground to traverse.
The Germans worked havoc among them, but the remnant made the wood. In
the darkness it was almost impossible to distinguish foe from friend.
“I ran in and out among the trees and asked every one I met who he was.
I came upon one big fellow. My mouth opened to ask him who he was, when
his fist shot out and took me between the eyes. I went down for the
count, but I knew who he was—he was a German. I got up as quickly as I
could, you may be sure, and swung my rifle to hit him in the head, but
the stock struck a tree and splintered. I thought I had broken all my
fingers.
“I found three wounded men, French, I thought they were, in that gloom.
So I carried them into our trench. As I brought in the last one, the
officer said, ‘You are doing good work, Houle.’ I asked him why he
thought so, and he answered: ‘You have brought in three wounded men
and when we put the light on them we found they were Germans.’ Well, I
am glad I saved them. I would have done so anyhow, had I known their
nationality. For we were all trained to give a wounded man help,
whether he were friend or foe.