Their ranks were getting woefully thin and pale; wave after wave came up
in a bull-headed effort to keep the line, and, finally, to assist the
fainting Prussians, a regiment of Brandenburgers jumped to their help,
and again they came. By this time the trench was literally filled with
dead, dying and wounded men. Over the Brandenburgers came, one thousand
strong, right in the teeth of our barrage; in mass formation they
charged, and it was impossible for a bullet to miss its billet in that
line. They fell like flies on a tanglefoot sheet, and back they wavered
into the trench. But there was no shelter for them there, as it had
ceased to be an abiding place, because their dead and wounded comrades
were piled in it clear up to the brink, and there was no place for them
to stoop or crouch to escape the rain of death.
Our O.C. paused awhile to see what Fritz would do further, but--nothing
stirring! So, over our fellows went. The corpse-filled trench offering
no attraction for shelter, the wave rolled on to the seventh line,
taking it and putting up there for the night.
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