The Monmouth herald., August 17, 1917, Image 2

SERGEANT MsOLINTOCK.
iZ -' i
No. 5. Wounded
In Action.
By Serjeant Aleiander McClintock,
D. C. M 87tb Overseas Batt..
Canadian Gren. Guards
Copyright, 1917, by tin Dell Syn
dicate, Inc.
Sergeant McClintock, an American
bog of Lexington Kg., hat icen tervice
in France, tca decorated for bravery,
wounded and invulitlcd home. Be it
telling hit ttory, a thrilling one, and
thii it the fifth article of the terict. In
the preceding onet he ieicribcd how he
reached the front, fighting in Belgium,
and then the great preparation! for the
Snmme battle. In thii inttallmeni he
tellt of conditioni and detcribct firti
hand the fighting in that greateit of all
battht.
OL'It high command apparently
meant to make a sure thing of
the generu.1 assault upon the He
glna trench, lu which we were to par
ticipate. Three times the order to "go
over the top" was cotinlermiimled. The
assault was first planned for Oct 1!).
Then the (late was changed to the 20th.
Finally, at 12:10 noon of Oct. 21, we
went. It was the first general assault
we had taken part In. and we were In
It Setmad Almo.t C.rtain Death to
Start Over' In Daylight.
a highly nervous state. I'll admit
that.
It seemed almost certain death to
start over lu broad daylight, yet, as
It turned out. the crossing of No Man's
Land was accomplished rnther more
easily thnn In our night raids. Our
battalion was on the extreme right of
the line, and that added materially to
our dlllleiiltlos, first by compelling us
to advance through mud so deep that
some of our men sank to their hips In
It and, second, by giving us the hottest
little spot In France to hold Inter.
I was In charge of the second
"wave." or assault line. This Is called
the "mopping up" wave, because the
business of the men composing It Is
thoroughly to bomb out a position
crossed by the first wave, to capture
or kill all ot the enemy reninlnlng and
to put the trench In a condition to be
defended anulnst a counterattack by
reversing the fire steps and throwing
up parapets.
Our artillery had given the (iermans
such a batttrlng and the curtain fire
which our ti..;ns dropped Just thirty to
forty yards ahead of us was so pow
erful that e lost comparatively few
men going over-only those who were
knocked do.va by shells which the Ger
mans landed among us through our
tarruge. Tney never caught us with
their mncbl.ie gun sweeping until we
neured their trenches Then a good
many of our men liegan to drop, but
we were In their front trench before
they cih'Ii! rv us i" sn' where near
M,ii. . ,,'!' ". 'ii" nei ' ;i' v'rir'
'Willi
The Thrill and (he Hell of
the Trenches, Described
by an American Boy.
Serjeant Alexander McClintock of Lex
lngton, Xy, and the Canadian Army Has
Gripping Tale That Ivery American Will
fteai, For He Tells the Facta TJnador.
ed. Wounded, a Distinguished Conduct
Medal Kan, He Was Inralided Home,
but It Going "Out There" Again to Fight
For Undo Earn and Hit Allies. As In
spiring, Interesting, Personal Farratire,.
Full of the Spirit and Atmosphere of the
Trenches it France.
by shell fragments on trie band and
leg. but the wound were not severe
enough to atop me. In fact. I did not
know that I had been wounded until
1 felt blood running into my iW
Then I discovered the cut In my leg,
but aw that it wa quite ahallow and
that no artery of Importance had been
damaged. 8t I went on.
I bud the funilllur feeling of nervous
newt aud physical shrinking and nouses
at the beginning of this fight, but by
the time we were halfway across No
Man's Land I had my nerve back.
After 1 had been hit 1 remember feel
lug relieved that I badfl't been hurt
enough to keep me from going on with
the men. I'm not trying to make my
self out a hero. I'm Just trying to tell
you how uu ordinary man's mind
works undor the stress of fighting and
the danger of sudden death. There
are Home queer things In the psycholo
gy of battle. For Instance, when we
had got Into the German trench and
were holding It against the most
vigorous counterattacks the thought
which was persistently uppermost in
my mind was that I had lost the ad
dress of a girl In Loudon along with
some papers which I had thrown away
Just before we started over and which
I should certainly never be able to find
again
Hold Regina Trench at last.
The ItcgluH trend) had been taken
and lost three times by the British.
Wc took It that duy and held it. We
went into action with 1,500 men of all
ranks und came out with COO.
I have said that because we were on
the extreme right of the line we bud
the hottest little spot lu France to
hold for awhile. You see, we hud to
Institute a double defensive, as we
had the (iermans on our front and on
our flank, the whole length of the
trench to the right of us being still
held by the Germans. There we hud
to form a "block." massing our bomb
ers behind a barricade which was only
fifteen yurds from the barricade be
hind which the (iermans were fighting.
Our flank and the German think were
lu contact as fiery as that of two live
wire euds. And meanwhile the Frltzca
tried to rush us on our front with nine
separate counterattacks. Only one of
them got up close to us, and we went
out and stopped that with the bayonet.
Behind our block barricade there was
the nearest approach to uu actual light
ing hell that I had seen.
And yet a man who was In the midst
of It from beginning to cud came out
without a scratch. He was a tall chap
named Hunter. For twenty-four hours,
without Interruption, be threw German
"eggshell" bombs from a Vosltlon at
the center of our barricade. He never
stopped except to light a cigarette or
yell for some one to bring him more
bombs from Fritz's captured store
house, lie projected a regular curtalu
of fire of his own. I've no doubt the
Germans reported he was a couplo of
platoons, working In alternate reliefs.
He was awarded the l C. M. for bis
services In that fight, and. though, as
I said, be was un wounded, half the
men around him were killed, and his
nerves finished In such condition that
he had to be sent back to England.
The Big Blunder and What It Cost.
One of tljo great tragedies of the war
resulted from a bit of carelessness
when a couple of days later the effort
was made to extend our grip beyond
the spot which we took In that first
fight. Plans had been made for the
Forty-fourth battallou of the Tenth
Canadian brigade to take by assault
the trench section extending to the
right from the point where we had es
tablished the "block" on our tlauk. The
hour for the attack had boon fixed
Then headquarters Rent out a counter
manding order. Something wasn't
quite ready.
The orders were sent by runners, as
all confidential orders must lie. Tele
phones are of no avail any more, as
both our people and the Germans have
rii apparatus which needs only to be
attached to a metal spike In the ground
to "pick up" every telephone message
within a radius of three miles. When
telephones are used for anything Im
portant messages are sent In cod?.
But for any vitally Important commu
nication which might -ost serious
losses. If ml-fiti'derstoo'l old st' le rr).
tiers are us,-d. Jui as they were In the
days when the lielj telephone was un
heard of. It Is the rule to d'spatch two
or three runners by different routes
that one at h ast will lie i-ertaln to ar
rive. In the case of the countermand
ing of the order for the Fourty-fourth
battalion to assault the German posi
tion on our flnuk some officer at bead
quarters thought that one messenger
to the lieutenant colonel commanding
the Forty-fourth would be sufficient
The messenger was killed by a cbanii
shot, and bis message was undelivered.
The Forty-fourth, m Ignorance of the
change of plan, "went over." There
was no barrage fire to protect tbem,
and their valiant effort was simply
wholesale suicide. Six hundred out of
800 men were on the ground In two
and a half minutes. The battalion wa
simply wiped out. Several officers
were court martlnled as a result of
this terrible blunder.
We had gone Into the German
trenches at a little after noon on Sat
urday. On Sunday night at about 10
o'clock we were relieved. The relief
force bad to come In overland, and
they Bad a good many casuafrlee eh
route. They found us as comfortable
a bugs in a rug except for the infer
nal aud continuous bombing at our
flank barricade. The Germans bad
concluded that It was useless to try to
drive u out About one-fourth of the
000 of us who were still on their feet
were holding the sentry posts, and the
remainder of the GK) were havbig
bauquets 111 the German dugouts, which
were stocked up like delicatessen shops
with sausages, Hue canned foods, cham
pagne aud beer. If we had ouly bud
a few ladles with us we could have
bad a real party.
I got so happily Interested In the
spread In our particular dugout that I
forgot about my wound until some one
reminded me that orders required me
to hunt up a dressing station and get
an antl-tetunus Injection. The Tom
mies like to take a German trench, be
cause If the FrlUes have to move
quickly, as they usually do, we always
find sausage, beer and champagne, a
welcome change from bully beef. I
could never learu to like their bread,
however.
After this fight I was sent, with
other slightly wounded men, for a
week's rest 'at the casualty station nt
Contay. I rejoined my battalion at
the end of the week. From Oct. 21 to
Nov. 18 we were lu rnd out of the
front trenches severul iimes for duty
tours of forty-eight hours eucli, but
were In uo Important action. At 0:10
ou the uioniing of Nov. 18, a bit
ter cold day, we "went over" to take
the Desire und also the Desire tmpimrt
trenches. These were the names given
these trenches. We started from the
left of our old position, and our ad
vance was between Thlcpval and
Pozicre. opposite Grnndecourt.
There was the usual artillery prep
aration aud careful organization for
the attack. I was again lu charge of
the "mopping up" wave, numbering
2o0 men aud consisting mostly of
bombers. It may seem strange to you
that u noncommissioned otllcer should
have so Important an assignment, but
sometimes lu this war privates bnve
beeu lu charge of companies number
ing 250 men, and 1 know of a case
where a lance corporal was temperari
ly lu command of an entire battalion.
It happened on this day that, while I
was lu charge of the second wave, I
did not go over with them. At the Inst
moment I was given a special duty by
Major Ji.hn Lewis, formerly manag
ing editor of the Montreal Star and
one of the bruvest soldiers I ever
knew, as well as the best beloved niau
In our battalion.
The Troublesome Machine Gun.
"McClintock." said he, "I don't wish
to send you to any special hazard, and,
so far as that goes, we're all going to
get more or less of a dusting, but I
want to put that machine gnu which
has been giving us so much trouble
out of action."
I knew very well the piachlne gun
he meant. It was In a concrete em
placement, walled and roofed, and the
devils In charge of It seemed to be de
scendants of William Tell and. tle
"This ie going to a bit hot, Mc
Clintock." after our conversation. Both he and
my pal Macfarttine were shot down
dead that moruhiB.
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Wneu tney called for volunteers to
go with me In discharge of Major Lew
Is' order the entire company responded.
I picked out twenty-Uve meu, twelve
bayonet meu aud thirteen bombers.
They agreed to my plan, which was
to get within twenty-five yards of the
gun empla. tnient before attacking, to
place no dependence on rllle Are. but
to bomb them cut and take the posi
tion with the bayonet We followed
that plan and took the emplacement
quicker than 'we had exported to do,
bnt thefe were only two of us left
when we got there Private Godsall.
.No. T7.0i3, and myself. All the rest
of the tweuty-flve were dead or down.
The emplacement was held by eleven
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prophet Isaiah. They always knew
what was coming and had their gun
accurately trained ou It before It came.
"If you are willing," said Major
Lewis, "I wish you to select twenty
five from the company and go after
that gun the minute the order comes
to advunce. Use your own judgment
about the men and the plan for taktug
the gun position. Will you go?"
"I sure will," I answered "I'll go
and pick out the men right away. 1
think we ran make those fellows abut
up shop over there." i
"Uood boy V be said. "You'll try. all
right"
I started away. lie called me back.
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