Polytechnic High School - Caerulea Yearbook (Long Beach, CA)

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v1cToRY ' ' ' 19 tomatoes, and beans. One night the cook got reckless and decided to have a real feed. Preparations for supper had scarcely begun when Zip! Bang! a shell struck just ahead of us. The smoke had disclosed our location to the ever watchful Heinie. Dousel went our glim and we disappeared under the shelter of the friendly culverts. A second shell came even nearer and a third one tnok' kitchen, supper wagon-everything. No supper that night! After what seemed hours one of our American boys crawled out from under the shelter, thinking he might discover the location of the hostile gun. Sure enough, he soon detected a puff of smoke from an adjacent forest covered hill. E Without stopping to consult the officer in command, five boys started out on a voyage of discovery. As noiselessly as possible we aproached the hill and crawled toward the spot from which the smoke had seemed to come. For a long time we discovered no signs of life and we were about to give up in despair, but the kid who had seen the smoke said, I know it was here, so we kept up the search. Suddenly we saw just in front of us a gm sticking up about eight inches from the surface of the ground. We had nearly crawled into a hidden gun pit and eight German gunners, It didn't take us long to get back to headquarters to make our report to the French officer. Our number augmented to twelve, we again came in on each side of the trail which the Germans had dug to'the gun pit, and we just walked right in on them. The sergeant called out, Rause mit em! The Huns put up no show of fight, but simply lined up, hands up, and the sergeant disabled the gun. Then we marched our pris- oners to headquarters and delivered them over to the officer as if they had been a parcel. ' A week or ten days later a dispatch rider delivered a little boa. to the French major, who requested us five fellows to step forward while the rest of the company stood at attention. We didn't' know what was going to happen to us. I thought perhaps we were going 1

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5 .H ...QQ 18 CAERULEA '19 lish, French, arithmetic-in fact, anything which is called for. At the end of the day I go shopping. Buy me some post-cards -not scenery, but the kind a feller sends to a girl, you know. Since I don't know the girl and don't know the feller very well, these orders make me somewhat nervous but I do my best. My reward is the name many of them call me, Sunshine . It makes me happy every time I hear it, for I feel that at last I'm really needed some- where and missed when I'm not there. Sincerely, Eleanor Thayer Hugo Hihn has received- the distinguished decoration of the Croix cle Guerre, the greatest honor bestowed by the French govern- ment. The officers of highest rank salute the recipient of the Croix de Guerre. Mr. Hihn is so extremely modest that it was with much difficulty he was induced to give the story to Caerulea. We have since learned that he received two other decorations for distinguish-ed bravery. Hugo's story follows. I was a member of the lst Division 5th field artillery. As we were shock troops I managed to get into the thick of things. Ten' days after we had landed in France we were on our way to Chateau Thierry. We were also at Argonne Forest, at Metz, at St. Mihiel, and at Ponto Messon. Twenty-five of our boys were detailed for reconnoitering in map- making with a French troop. My buddy was a Los Angeles boy whom we named Sister because of his blonde hair and pink-and- white complexion. We traveled only at night. There were no lights in France at night for fear that Heinie would discover us from his air planes, The food on such trips consisted of hard-tack, canned

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20 CAERULEA '19 to get a grand bawling out for leaving camp without permision. But the officer drew from the box five crosses. Then in a most dignified manner he made a speech something like this: Whereas, , , , , , hav- ing of their own free will undertaken to discover a certain gun, and having succeeded in finding it, the government of France. presents these soldiers with the Croix de Guerref' It was my fate to blaze the trail for the other four. As the major called my name I stepped for- ward and saluted. I-Ie pinned the cross on my coat and quicker than a flash kissed me a resounding smack on either cheek. Then he shook hands with me. My salute to him finished the ceremony as far as I was concerned. Hugo Hihn TO MY UNIFORM Bud Gerner '16 Old togs, I like the feel of you And all you mean to me. I've sure seen a deal of you Since Uncle Sam enlisted me. So long, togs, I'm shoving off, Homeward bound again. Leaving this man's navy, Leaving the life on the main. But, old togs, you meant the doing Of the one big thing to do, And all my life I'll be reviewing How we put the war clean thru.