The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-07-31
AMERICAN BOY IN
FOREIGN LEGION
WRITES OF WAR
Takes Part in Terrific Fighting at
La Targette, Near
Souchez.
HIS COMPANY BADLY CUT UP
Walks ia Miles Every Night to Dig
Trenches Only $50 Yards From
the German Lines-says War
Is Asinlne Waste.

New .York.-When Russell Kelly,
twenty-five years old, son of a New
York attorney and for a while a stu
dent at Virginia Military institute, got
the war fever last fall he took a job
on a cattle boat. worked his way to
Bordeaux and enlisted in the famous
French Foreign Legion.
In recent letters home he tells of
taking part in terrific fighting at La
Targette, near Souchez and not far
from the celebrated labyrinth. His
company was badly cut up, but he es-
capped with a bad bruise on the fore
head caused by the u of a great
shell which passed a few inches from
his head. Under date of May 20, he
writes:
After our attack of May $40 we
went to the rear about ten miles from
the front, and we're r~eorganized. We
needed it, as ! understand more than
half of the regiment were either killed
or wounded. The general reviewed us
and distributed five military medals,
Captain Was Killed.
THE recruits came up from Val
bonnie and Lyon, SO we are ready to
go back. We have a new captain In
place of the n who was killed. The
one we lost was a very game man;
he led us without a sword or any side
arms, using only his swagger stick,
Our new captain is a Swede. Many
German prisoners have passed US late
ly; n day as many as 500 went by;
they looked well. By a strange coinci.
dence the same Bavarian troops who
faced US in Champagne are against us
here, and yesterday we recognized
among the prisoners a man who de-
serted from us in Champagne,
guess it is all over with him; it should
be.
You remember in my letter from
Lyon | spoke about three brothers
from Argentine, and how ~inseparable
they we're? Well, they are inseparable
in death. as they were killed side by
side.
No Commissions.
After leaving our trenches and
crossing the Germans. which were
battered to pieces by the lombard
ment, our first stop was in the shelter
of a road. Here the good-looking Ital.
ian, the fellow who hit me with the
brick in the scrap | wrote about, be.
came reckless and tried to survey the
landscape. He was killed instantly by
e bullet through the heart. No con.
vulsive tossing of the arms one reads
about or sees in the movies; he just
sank down and it was all over. Soon
after we left this position, his chum,
the other Italian. was shot through the
leg. There was absolutely no ill-feel
ing between US on account of our
scrap.
Regular Ty Cobb Slide.
I'VE advance by sections. When the
order comes we jump up and, carrying
the sack as a shield, run about 10O
feet. and talk about Ty Cobb sliding
into second base, II isn't a circum.
stance to the way | hit the grit, and
what a strain to the nerves. waiting
for our turn to advance again, fellows
all around being hit. In a couple OF
cases / have seen men lifted from the
ground, so hard were they hit. One
fellow very near me got hit and be-
gan to squeal. Almost Immediately O
second bullet hit him and he made for
the rear on all fours. crying like a
baby.
Field was full Of such sights; but
compared to the shells the bullets are
nothing; give me most anything but
an artillery bombardment- Shortly
after we gained the crest of the hill
their artillery came up and began FIR
ing ON us; it was terrible. The way
those shells would tear by and dig a
hole five feet deep was enough for the
most solid nerves. At nightfall we in