“Six German wounded.”

Bringing in prisoners

I believed them.

I detailed Platoon Sergeant O’Harper to go into the trench and see what could be done for the wounded.

I got a shock right afterward. It was O’Harper’s cry:

“The damned dogs have stabbed me!”

So ten of us followed O’Harper into the dug-out and “cleaned up.” There were nine Germans down there and none of them had a scratch until we got at them.

I am afraid I ceased thinking of Germans as human beings from that time. I may as well frankly admit that through all my experiences in trench fighting since then, my habit became that of calling into a dug-out:

“How many men are down there?”