We occupied the captured positions, and soon the night came. After two days’ of uninterrupted fighting we felt pretty tired and fell asleep in the more sheltered nooks; the sergeant, who realized our exhaustion, our hunger and thirst, said he would himself keep watch. We fell asleep to the music of big guns which made deep craters a short distance ahead of us. The German marmits pop over somewhat higher, but shrapnel bursts right over our heads and the leaden bullets dig themselves into the wet soil. Our seventy-fives answer; their sharp barks seem to come right from the rear of us, for our light artillery is now located in the front lines captured yesterday. After hours of this noise comparative quiet ensues and only the sharp shooter disturbs the night now and then.
Morning comes and the Boches are counter-attacking. Sergeant M. . . . calls to his men, but they are sound asleep and do not hear him, while the enemy is coming at a run. For a time he alone is defending our position and then he hears his comrade Kratina sing his favorite song, “The Czech soldiers are the best”; and Kratina with the gas mask thrown back, looking like a hermit with two weeks’ growth of beard, fondles several bombs, and then casts the first one true to aim, as the cries of wounded Germans testify. The noise wakes the other boys, they pick up rifles and grenades and the fun is on again. The Boches soon give up and there is a chance to rest.
The second machine gun company, among them a number of good Czech hustlers, got as far as the edge of a small wood, or rather what was left of it; for only smashed stumps were left of the big oaks and birches. A German battery was concealed here. The boys found it out and made sure that the enemy would make an attempt to drag it away, as soon as it was dark. Vašek S. arranged his mitralleuse so as to cover the spot and sat down beside it watchful like a cat in front of the mousehole. Darkness came and with it the sound of clinking horseshoes. He stood up and could make out the Boches, as they hurriedly harnessed the horses to the guns. With asmile of pleasure, he put in a belt of ammunition. Now the Germans whip up the horses, confident that the worst is over, probably looking forward to iron crosses from their Prussian king. At that moment the machine gun starts to growl, and the entire battery, men, horses and guns, are in the dust. Not one piece got away. Vašek’s face glowed with joy, as he told us about it. “I earned my five sous today”, was the way he looked at his accomplishment. He was cited in the orders of the day.
We remained here eight days, and a tough experience it was. Rations that we took with us lasted just two days, and “ravitaillement” did not function at all. The last couple of days the boys in the first line got something good once in awhile, as opportunity offered, a quarter liter of wine, or a bit of canned meat, or some cold rice, but very little of everything. The hunger and thirst was awful. Why, the men fought for drops of rain water that was gathered in the broken pieces of big shells.
The losses of our regiment were great. What wonder, since we had to attack one position four times in the same day; the tirailleurs who were assigned to hold the position retreated every time the Germans counterattacked.
We Bohemians got off fairly well, but our ever dwindling ranks were once more thinned out. The boys that were lost to us will be long remembered.
Current Topics.
MASARYK AMONG RUSSIAN PROFESSORS
The Association of Russian university professors held a meeting on May 30 in honor of Albert Thomas, member of French cabinet. There was a large attendance, and Minister Thomas spoke at length on the relations of free Russia to France. At the close of the speech Prof N. J. Karejev, of the executive committee of the Association, called the attention of those present to the fact that they had among them a representative of an allied people, the well-known Bohemian statesman Prof. Masaryk.
All rose and acclaimed Massaryk with loud applause. A cry of “Hurrah for the Czecho-Slovak state” was received with many signs of approval. Profesor Masaryk thanked the Association for their enthusiastic welcome. He explained that he understood the democratic and humanitarian principles to mean the recognition of the rights of the weakest individual and the smallest nation. The Russian democracy has so expressed itself. He is persuaded that this war is fought for the protection of the smaller nations and that it will end only, when the rights of these nations are fully guaranteed; and among them are the Czecho-Slovaks.
After Masaryk arose P. N. Miljukov, former minister of foreign affairs. He said: “Is it necessary to speak of the great importance of the principle that each nation must be allowed to determine for itself what government it wants, and that the present war is fought to enforce that principle? Do we have to speak of it, when close to me sits my noble friend, the teacher of all youth of Western and Southern Slavdom? The very name Masaryk reminds us of our task to liberate the Czecho-Slovaks together with the Slovenians. And that is what all the Allies told President Wilson to be one of their war aims at the end of December of last year.”
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