Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-05-20
YALE PROUD OF Him
Senior Enters German Army and
Wins Iron Cross.
Refuses to Discuss His Exploits, But
Tells Interesting Story of How
He Forced Way Into the
Ranks.

proud of Karl Llewelyn, the senior
who has just returned to college after
being wounded and winning the Iron
Cross.
When Llewelyn arrived in New York
several weeks ago he refused to dis
cuss his exploits at all, and he still is
silent about the deed of heroism which
ended in his lying wounded on the bat
tlef1eld for many hours, and being
picked up little better than dead. He
has, however, just been induced to
describe the method by which he
forced himself into the German army.
He said:
1T was August when we drew up
on the German frontier. Instead of
the customs officers whom one usually
finds, there were ladies serving hot
coffee and sandwiches to the passen-
gers aboard the incoming trains Most
of these passengers were refugees
from England who were being vel
coined back to the fatherland
81 got off at every stop the train
made and tried to enlist, but they told
me they were full and would have
to go on. I finally found place where
they would accept me and we were
sent 10 the drill ground. The peace
sergeauts,' who had retired from ten to
twenty years before, were in charge
of the drill.
''The class of soldiers we met at the
Cfo NJ of h.
than the ordinary regulars. Nine
weeks later we were at the front. l
failed to get the full nine weeks train
ing, however for at the end of six
weeks my commandant came to me
and informed me that because of a
communication from the state depart
ment of the United States | was
bounced. l sent in a protest to the
kaiser, but it never got there.
But l waited l went down to the
station with about five hundred girls
to see my company off when 1t en-
trained. 1 tried to get through the
gates, but couldn't, so l went down
the track and hoped the train as it
came by. My comrades were glad to
see me and would do anything for me.
You can have my boots said one.
Take this coat said another. l took
them, and with that disguise l man
aged to elude the officers.
when we got well into France,
however, l 'fessed up to the captain,
and he called me down in about the
prettiest fashion you ever saw. He
spent ten minutes at it, reminding me
Of the responsibility 1 had placed upon
him. 1 felt smaller and smaller. 1
really had not been considerable, but
cad. If l got hit with bullet l would
sue him and force him to pay me ali
mony.
He really was tickled with the
proposition of my being there, though.
He let me march in the column with
the men when we went forward. Soon
a man became footsick. ! took his
pack. In the villages we went through
everyone thought l was a prisoner.
You know the first thing a soldier
makes a prisoner do is to carry his
baggage, and l was doing that in a
civilians suit. The difficulty with this
prisoner was that he sang their own
songs with them.
Finally they let me enlist. l wore
a pair of French work-trousers. A
sergeant was killed and got his coat,
and it fitted me admirably. Equipment
soon became easy to obtain, but it
was not so before any were killed.
81 want to say something about
atrocities, of which you have heard
so much won't say there were none,
for there were atrocities on both sides.
You've all heard of the cathedral at
Reims and the way the barbarians
shot it to pieces. | was there at the
time We were not shooting at the
cathedral and the French got into this.
They put a battery in Cathedral
square, where they thought it would
not be hit. A German flier spotted 1t
soon and the Germans bombarded the
square and incidentally hit the
cathedral.
1--WE lay at Reims for five weeks.
Every afternoon between five and six
the French let loose-sort of an after
noon tea The French shells gave
warning, however, and you soon got
over lodging except when they were
coming near you. Since l was wound
ed the American shells have begun to
arrive. The old French shells didn't
worry the Germans bit, but the
American shells gave them the sur
prise of their lives. The American
shells break and scatter along the
ground, going much farther. In addi-
ton, of the French shells about one in
three explodes, while with the Ameri-
can shells there is an explosion with
about nine out Of ten"