A Typical Day in the Trenches

By Patrick R. McLaughlin

The day dawned cloudy which Was rather a disappointment to those of us who had intentions of giving ourselves a fine coat of tan. It was chilly, so we put on our sweaters a11d other warm clothes. Today the men were not running around as usual in their trunks, with bare feet and bare backs, baking under the hot sun. The trunks of the olive trees were cold and their leaves sweaty.

As the day passed with light exchange of rifle fire, a few dark clouds bilanketed their huge shadows over us. On -a few occasions when it attempted to rain, comrades who were extra rprecautious threw towels or pieces of rags around the rifle bolts to keep them dry.

The Fascists across the way were ‘particularly quiet, a fact which created in many of us an increased feeling of a gathering storm. But We felt certain that We could meet the enemy under any conditions and defeat him.

Eat, sleep, watch! When is all this going to end? Why don’t the bast~~ ards come out and fight? We felt as if we were being cheated out of our just due.

Some of us returned to our dugouts and waited, others sat around talking and joking. All of us failed to notice the formation of a particular- ly dark cloud almost directly overhead. A sudden pearl of thunder, follow- ed by heavy rain—drop=s sent everyone scurrying for shelter. It was almost malicious fun to sit in our safe rain—proof dugouts a11d watch the food detail making their way back i11 the midst of such bedlalm. With food cans in their hands, they ran splashing themselves with water and mud, slipping here and there, cursing when a bullet whizzed by their ears, and finally upon arrlival at the dugouts, sliding down the watery earthen Stairways. One comrade made a perfect two point landing on his back, and held the precious food high in the air to prevent it from spilling.

As we began to eat, the familiar sound of fast increasing mlusketry and machine-gun fire came to our cars. Sure enough it was an attack.

From our trenches We Were able to see that some Fascists were charg- ing, but because we met them with a terrific barrage, they retreated. They floundered back into their trenches; some Fascists Were killed, and their wounded were left to die in ’N~o-Man’s—Land’.

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