Monday, November 12, 2018

Lt. Skipper of Lumberton Offers Honest Description of Combat on the Front in France, 1918

“Basil Skipper in a Big Attack” from The Robesonian, Lumberton, N.C., Nov. 11, 1918

Clerk of the Court C.B. Skipper received on the 4th an interesting letter from his son, First Lieut. C.B. (Basil) Skipper Jr., Co. F., 371st infantry, “Somewhere in France,” the letter dated Oct. 12. The following extracts from the letter tell of a big attack in which Lieut. Skipper took part:

I have just come out of a big attack, and it is only by the grace of God that I am alive today; for as I sit and look back on it now, I don’t see how it was possible for any human being to come through the terrible artillery barrage and withering machine gun fire that we did and come out alive and unwounded; and yet I and many others did that very thing, came through without a scratch. And after it was all over the Boche was many miles closer to Germany than he was when we started.
Of course we lost a good many officers and men in killed and wounded, most of them were only wounded, I am glad to say, but we gave the Boche a good licking and we will do him even worse the next time we go after him.

We captured a lot of Boches and material of all kinds, and drove them back a long way. All the Boches that we too seemed to be very happy to be prisoners and we did not have to put a very heavy guard on them to send them back to the rear. They all said that the morale of the German army is very low, and that they are all tired of the war, and are ready to quit. The Germans are wonderful soldiers though, and their equipment is very good, but we have them on the run now, and we all hope and believe that it will be only a matter of a few months before it will all be over, and we can hit the trail back to the good old U.S.A.

Let me say one thing right here, papa, and I think that any one who has ever been through a big battle will agree with me: when a man is in battle with the shells bursting all around him, and the bullets flying by, and his friends falling on all sides, he prays, and prays as he has never prayed before; and he prays whether he has ever prayed before or not. In his hour of greatest peril he turns to his Heavenly Father just as a frightened child turns to his earthly father for shelter and protection; and I have noticed that a lot of officers and men have been trying to live better lives since we came back from the battle.

I feel that it is a direct answer to prayer that I am alive tonight, for no one who has never been in a great battle can realize the extreme danger and horror of it. It looks utterly impossible for any one to come through alive, and yet a great many do.

Our men did fine, and the officials higher up were very much pleased with our work. I actually saw men joking with each other in the thickest of the fight. Sometimes a shell would fall in a line of men and kill three or four and sometimes more, and the remaining ones would simply close up the gaps and continue to move forward without ever pausing for one moment; and when the Boche saw what determined men he had in front of him, he did the only thing he could do, and that was to retreat and retreat fast.

I have seen so much blood and death that I am all nerves just at present, but in a few days I will be all right again, and then we may get another chance at the Hun, or we may not; one can never tell what is going to happen over here from day to day, and a rule we have, which I have found works very well is, never plan anything for tomorrow, but let tomorrow take care of itself.

I guess I will have to close now and go to bed. I haven’t had much sleep for the last three or four nights, and I made a long hike today, so I am pretty tired and sleepy.

I have been expecting to get a leave for some time, but so far haven’t been able to get one, but I am expecting to get one real soon now, and I sure do need one. I have been in the trenches for about four months now, and in one big attack, and I sure feel that I deserve one, for in all that time I haven’t had a real day’s rest.

Don’t worry about me any, for I am well and trusting God to bring me safely through, and I feel sure that He is going to do so.
--Basil

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