The Western outlook. [volume] (San Francisco, Cal.) 1894-1928, 1915-09-04
AMERICAN BOY IN
FOREIGN LEGION
WRITES Of WAR
Takes Part In Terrific Fighting at
la Targette, Near
S0ucheZ.
HIS COMPANY BADLY CUT UP
Walks 10 Miles Every Night to Dig
Trenches Only $50 Yards From
the German LInes-Says War
10 AsinIne Waste.

New York.-When Russell Kelly,
twenty-five years old. son Of 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 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 bad bruise on the FORE
head caused by the vacuum of a great
shell which passed 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 were reorganized. 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 one who was killed. The
one we lost was very game man;
he led US without a sword or any side
arms, using only his swagger stick.
Our new captain Is Swede. Many
German prisoners have passed us late
ly; one day as many as 800 went by;
they looked well. By strange coinct-
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, l
guess 1t is all over with him; 1t should
be.
"You remember In my letter from
Lyon I spoke about three brothers
from Argentine, and how inseparable
they were? 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 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
bullet through the heart. No con-
vulsive tossing of the arms one reads
about or sees in the movies; he just
sank down and 1t was all over Soon
after we left this position, his chum,
the other Italian, was shot through the
leg. There was absolutely no illfeel-
ing between us on account Of our
scrap.
Regular Ty Cobb Slide.
1--WE advance by sections. When the
order comes we jump up and, carrying
the sack as shield, run about 100
feet, and talk about Ty Cobb sliding
into second base, it isn't circum-
stance to the way l hit the grit, and
what a strain to the nerves, waiting
for our turn to advance again, fellows
all around being hit In 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
second bullet hit him and he made for
the rear on all tours, crying like
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; 1t 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
trenched, but were on the watch all
night.
THE next day their artillery opened
on US and their infantry started an
attack, but we stood firm and smeared
them"
German Trenches Well Built.
In letter dated June 10 he says:
The German trenches are built
much better than ours. Some of the
huts in which the men lived were 20
feet underground. They used great
number of dirt sacks. There must be
shortage of material in Germany as
these sacks were made from every
thing, mostly from cheap. light calico,
hardly strong enough to hold the
earth.
"They had an extensive system of
mines and we made the attack MAY
81 just in time, as Pavelka and / in
vestigated the saps with the aid of
candle They we're all loaded and
wired ready to be set of. One had
been exploded; the Germans, In dig
ging, must have lost their bearings,
because the hole was actually nearer
their own line than ours. They used
tremendous charge and the explosion
must have been terrific, for the result