AMERICA IN THE TRENCHES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 109, 25 January 1918, Page 5

AMERICA IN THE TRENCHES

"SAMMY'S FIRST NIGHT OUT"

AND THE FIRST SHELL

The "Army Edition" published in Paris of the Chicago "Tribune" gives the following account of the Americans entry into the French front-hne trenches:— ' The United States units at the front are completely equipped, and composed of. all branches\of the military service. The infantry and artillery had been moving toward the front from their camps in France for several days. Hie first units reached their billets directly behind the lines shortly after noon. They stopped only for a short time and began moving into the trenches in the dusk. They were wearing their gas masks and steel helmets. The held kitchens and other paraphernalia wore unlimbered behind the front-line trenches and set up for a long, busi-ness-like stay. , • There was no moon ,and only a lew stars peeped from behind the great billowy clouds which darkened the sky. A slight drizzling mist was falling, but it did not dampen ,tho ardour of the American soldiers. They were so anxious, so fearful that something at the last minute would deny .themjna privilege of entering the trenches, U-at they were exceedingly nervous, ihey smoked dozens of cigarettes, the. lights of which glowed and gleamed in the wet darkness. Star shells became visible long before the troops leached tho edge of No Man's Land, but it only speeded up their onward marcn. At last they arrived and spread cut along the walled ditch in which they are to receive their first baptism of nre on the greatest battlefield the world has ever seen. Some of the Frenc-i poilus withdrew to make room for the Americans. French and American officers passed along the trenches instructing the men, who had an inordinate desire to crane their necks over the parapet and look on No Man's Land across which they must rush to drive the ucrmans from France.

Too Tall for the Trench, It was soon discovered that there was a big different in the height or, the Americans and the Irencn. Jhe former are so much taller than their French Allies that it will bo necessary to die the trenches deeper so that tne men will not have to maintain a continual stooping posture. The American soldiers, however, received most of todr instochou from the French poilus. The l'rench podus described to their new Allies the meaninn of the shells passing overhead. Thev would motion the American soldier to listen. Suddenly a pecuhar whine, rising and' rising rapidb, gen suddenly dying away an tl ddmg into the ground, was. called by the poilus "Arrive,'' W the particular shell had been fired by the Germans. The land of noise that started with a bang and then whined away slowly into the d.stanco was described by the poilus as Depart. The bottom of the trenches was wet, in some places much water had gathered There was no local noise during most of the night except the creakg of hand-pumps.. The men swished by each other in their wet slickers and were in constant motion, despite the repeated orders ,of their officers to X'nwlSle the artillery had tab. its allotted positions. There were several battalions, and there was much Sir between the different batteries as to the firing of the first shot agams 'the Germans. Here, for instance, was Battery A, in command of * man who only a short timo ago was in civilian life The- commander pushed his men to-perform the digging m _of their pieees in accordance with the United. Slates Armv regulations. All the batand even the officers hung anxiously on the heels of the men. . . ~ As dawn appeared a roar shook the ground, and the first United States artillery shell burst a few seconds, after six o'clock far within the berman lines.' It was fired by a certain Battery C. There was considerable debate in the artillery as to flio disposition of the shell-case. Some commanders thought it should be encased in add, uut the <l uesb ? n finall - Y T 1 ? settled when a general commanded that the shell-case be properly engraved and forwarded to President Wilson, which is being done. A member of the American Army arrived in Paris with a-' story of the birth of a baby girl in one of the little ruined villages behind the sector occupied by thfe American soldiers during the night thev occupied the trenches. There was present a, major-general in the United States Army. It was conveyed to him that the mother desired him to assure the future of the little girl who had been bom. The majorgeneral assured the young, woman that he would interest himself in the new daughter of France.