At 10.30 we dug in--the attack just died out. I found a hole or old
trench and when I was flat on my back I got some protection. Holcomb was
next to me; Wilmer some way off. We then tried to get reports. Two
companies we never could get in touch with. Lloyd came in and reported
he was holding some trenches near a mill with six men. Cates, with his
trousers blown off, said he had sixteen men of various companies;
another officer on the right reported he had and could see forty men,
all told. That, with the headquarters, was all we could find out about
the battalion of nearly 800. Of the twenty company officers who went in,
three came out, and one, Cates, was slightly wounded.
From then on to about 8 P. M. life was a chance and mighty
uncomfortable. It was hot as a furnace, no water, and they had our range
to a "T." Three men lying in a shallow trench near me were blown to
bits.
I went to the left of the line and found eight wounded men in a shell
hole. I went back to Cates' hole and three shells landed near them. We
thought they were killed, but they were not hit. You could hear men
calling for help in the wheat fields. Their cries would get weaker and
weaker and die out. The German planes were thick in the air; they were
in groups of from three to twenty. They would look us over and then we
would get a pounding.
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