At last, we got the signal and the barrage and bombardment started.
I have read of bombardments and I have seen them described pretty
vividly, but no description or imagination could make anyone realize
what they are really like. Every thing we had, opened up at the same
second--silent batteries that had been there for weeks without firing
a shot, just waiting for this event to be pulled off. It seemed as if
the very earth was swaying. But don't think we had it all our own way.
For Fritz had quite a number of iron foundries he wanted to get rid of,
and he started up almost as soon as we did.
We found out afterwards, that they knew we were "going over." In
fact, their officers had been officially warned to be prepared for an
attack at 4 A.M. So I guess they had their anxious wait as
well as we. Fritz's fireworks' display was simply wonderful. Rockets
and flare-lights of every color and description went up, but I didn't
stop to admire it. I was too busy and scarcely in the mood to admire
anything. Everything had to be done by signals. The noise was so
deafening that even if you shouted at the top of your voice you
couldn't be heard.
The first wave went over at 4:25 A.M. Everything possible in
what they call modern warfare was used--liquid fire, oil, tanks and a
dozen different things to get Fritz's wind up. And believe me, we did
get it up! For thirty minutes after we went "over" we had them on the
run. All I am sorry about is that we could not keep them going _until
they reached Berlin_.
Believe me, old man, it was some fight! Some of the things I saw
myself, I would not have believed if I hadn't seen them with my own
eyes. Some of the fellows just went crazy. One fellow was fighting
away with only half a rifle in his hand, and yet there was dozens of
good ones lying around if he had only taken a moment to pick one up.
Others were throwing bombs just like bricks. You know the bombs we
use out here mostly are the kind we saw at that New York Red Cross
bazaar--perhaps you remember them. Before they explode you have to pull
the safety pin out, and then they burst four seconds later. Well, some
of the guys didn't pull the pins out; they just used them like bricks.
Gee, it put me in mind of a good old Summer Lane scrap, but anyhow it
was enough to get them on the hustle.
There were many other little incidents, some that I saw myself, and
others that I heard coming down on the hospital train. One of our
fellows took two prisoners only armed with a lighted candle. This
happened after we had been occupying Fritz's front line several hours.
Leaving his rifle at the top, he went down into one of Fritz's saps
"looking for souvenirs, I guess." Well, he lit his candle and there
in the corner were two great hulking fellows. I guess they were more
scared than he was. Up went their hands with the same old cry: "Not
me, Mister, Mercy, Kamerad." We had a laugh afterwards for the guy
who brought them up, looked as if he had been scared stiff. I'll bet
he never goes down a strange sap again unarmed. Later on they caught
another five in one of the other saps.
There were dozens of little incidents like this. So far so good--but
the worst had yet to come. We had captured three villages and the
famous hill. When I say there had been five previous attempts to get
the hill alone, for he had occupied it for two and a half years,
you will see that it was some accomplishment. They put over ten
counter-attacks. I didn't count them. I was too interested and busy
with other things to bother about counting anything. They came over in
the old massed formation style. It seems a crazy style to me, for their
losses must have been enormous. Every time they came over they got
smashed, and were glad to beat it back, or at least as many of them as
were able to. That continued practically all day.