In this second of a three part series called “Over the Top with the 80th” Ashe County, NC private Rush Young finally reaches France to fight the Germans in World War I, but discovers that he’ll have other battles before he reaches the front line trenches.
Fresh-faced and ready to fight, Young and his friends were shocked as they witnessed a company of shot up and battle weary British troops returning from the front lines, with ragged uniforms and 1,000-yard stares.
These mountain boys were also introduced to what they called, “The Cooties” from some of these battle-weary soldiers. Cooties was another name for lice. They would battle these tiny enemies during the rest of their stay in country.
These Blue Ridge boys also didn’t mix well with the snooty Londoners from the British forces. The Brits would say, “My dear lad, you do not speak proper English!” To which Young and his compatriots would respond, “Hell no we don’t speak English, we speak United States!” Fists flew between the hillbillies and the Limeys.
The Brits had imported Chinese laborers to dig their trenches and one night a German bomb struck the Chinese worker encampment killing several. The next morning several Chinese broke into the compound holding German prisoners of war and exacted their revenge man for man.
A month later Young and his fellow troops experienced their first direct artillery shell attack or what they called the Germans delivering “iron rations.” Their faces went beet red and they wondered if they would be blown to bits before they ever faced the enemy that they had traveled 3,000 miles to fight.
As they headed to battle a message from the high command rallied their spirits. The note stated: “No enemy can withstand the 80th Division. Go at them with a yell and regardless of obstacles or fatigue, accomplish your mission. Make the enemy know that the 80th Division is here. Make them understand that resistance is useless.”
As they dug in, Young said that never had the ground and dirt meant so much to him as they pressed their bodies into Mother Earth’s shell-scarred bosom, their only friend and protector.
A 21 mile march with his pack and a rifle did wonders for Young’s appetite! The boiled beans, sow belly and slumgullion (or watered down stew) was a gourmet treat!
Traveling through many small French towns for days on end, Young mentioned he never saw a funeral. “These old French farmers apparently never die. They just get their jug of wine and black bread and work in the fields all day, every day.”
One night early on, Young was at his machine gun post and he was overcome with melancholy as the soft moonlight and stars illuminated the no-man’s land between the German and Allied forces. He said, “God commanded us not to kill so I wonder at Judgement day who will pay? Us or the people who started this war?
As the acidic smoke from the big artillery guns put a bitter taste in their mouths, Young prayed. Not for himself, but for his Division because he knew that many of them were on the brink of eternity. He often repeated the Bible’s 23rd Psalm, “…Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me…” because Young could think of nothing more fitting.
In the final episode of Over the Top with the 80th, World War I escalates toward the finale but Young doesn’t emerge unscathed…please like, comment and share your memories in the section below, thanks again for reading Appalachian Moments!