A soldier of the Legion . , with chambers opening toright and left; bedrooms, furnishedwith bedsteads, washstands, tables,and chairs; elaborate mess-rooms, somefitted with pianos and were kitchens, too, and evenbathrooms. So complex was the laby- 37 A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION rinth that three days after the attackGermans were found stowed away inthe lateral galleries. The passages werechoked with dead. Hundreds of Ger-mans who had survived the bombard-ment were torn to pieces deep beneaththe ground by French hand-grenades,and buried where they lay. In rifles,munitions, and equip
A soldier of the Legion . , with chambers opening toright and left; bedrooms, furnishedwith bedsteads, washstands, tables,and chairs; elaborate mess-rooms, somefitted with pianos and were kitchens, too, and evenbathrooms. So complex was the laby- 37 A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION rinth that three days after the attackGermans were found stowed away inthe lateral galleries. The passages werechoked with dead. Hundreds of Ger-mans who had survived the bombard-ment were torn to pieces deep beneaththe ground by French hand-grenades,and buried where they lay. In rifles,munitions, and equipment the bootywas immense. We left the subterranean combatraging underneath us and continuedon. As we passed over the main trench,we were enfiladed by cannon placed inarmored turrets at the end of each sec-tion of trench. The danger was formid-able, but it, too, had been foreseen. Ina few moments these guns were si-lenced by hand-grenades shoved point-blank through the gun-ports. Justthen, I remember, I looked back and 38. J5 o — ?o 1 % I A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION saw Pala down on his hands and turned and ran over to help him was quite dead, killed in the act ofrising from the ground. His grotesqueposture struck me at the time as funny,and I could not help smiling. I supposeI was nervous. Our line was wearing thin. Halfwayto the third trench we were reinforcedby Battalion E coming from ground in our rear was coveredwith our men. All at once came a change. The Ger-man artillery in front ceased firing,and the next second we saw the reasonwhy. In the trench ahead, the Germantroops in black masses were pouringout and advancing toward us at a it a counter-attack? Tantmieux, said a man near me; another,of a different race, said, We 11 show 39 A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION them I Then as suddenly our own ar-tillery ceased firing, and the mysterybecame plain. The Germans were ap-proaching in colmnns of fours, officersto the front, hands held in the air, and
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectworldwar19141918
