The Dolores star. [volume] (Dolores, Montezuma County, Colo.) 1901-current, 1916-11-03
Officer Of Oeccan Horse Tell
How Mounted Men Got
Into Action.
But Eight Germans Who Threw Away
Their Rifles and Called "Pity"
Were Taken Alive-Un-
der Fierce Fire.


Vi the war cavalry played no part In
the great battles fought on the west
ern front. The men of this arm of the
service were used In the trenches 10 re-
enforce the infantry. Recently, how
ever. the cavalry got Its chance and
how well the mounted arm responded
is Indicated In letter written by IN
officer of the famous Deccan Horse Of
the British army to his wife In Ire
land. The letter reads:
AT go we started our famous ride
into the enemy country. every now and
then coming under heavy shell fire
shrapnel and high explosive. No one
can believe. without seeing. what
state the ground Is in; there Is not
room for n table cloth on any part Of
the ground there. without some part Of
1t touching shell hole. SO you can
imagine the regiment galloping over
1t ut full gallop. barbed-wire-wellc cut
by shell fire-old trenches. dead bodies,
and every sort of debris lying In every
direction. Words fail me to describe 1t.
Bring Down Balloon.
That was for ubOut three miles |;
then full tilt down n steep bank like
the Haggnrd field. but sleeper, into q
very famous valley. where the shrap-
mel got worse, us we were spotted by
one of their sausage balloons. This was
soon driven down by the fire of our
batteries. which just smothered 1t with
shrapnel. On we went, past the re-
mains Of guns and everything-tonso Of
ammunition and abandoned material
| and dead Germans everywhere; and
| we passed here an enormous gun they
had left behind, so really I suppose It
was us that took 1t. We were under
cover here for half mile. but sudden
ly. coming out Of the valley. we had to
turn sharp to the right up another lit
tie valley. and here we came under
terrific, but rather inaccurate. machine
gun fire from two directions.
ut was now about Z 80 In the eve.
ming. and there were "a aeroplanei
lowering over us. and one monOplane
came down to about 200 feet and fired
his machine guns on the Germans just
over us-going round and round-the
| SiSut hHNe ever Seeu. we'll
we moved out under heavy fire and
got on about hnlf mile. During this
advance we rounded up eight prison.
ers. while between us and the British
regiment. I suppose. we stuck with
sword and lance about forty Of them
a glorious sight.
"Our men were splendid anr didn't
| On xaIr 81 k.,e
eight had chucked away their arms
so we couldn't very well do them in
They were simply terrified. and one
chung on to my leg and kept calling
'Pityl Pity his eyes starting out Of
his head. Poor devil. pitied him
and we sent him back to the regiment
We dismounted In little hollow ther
and went on on foot through a goot
crop Of wheat full Of shell holes ant
dead Germans. or course. we wer,
creeping all the way, as the fire wal
very hot. At last, after going a quar-
ter Of a mile, we got to the fat top o.
the hill. driving them before US. Her,
we had to stop. as the ground was be
ing swept by rife and machine gul
fire, and they were now Smelling Vi
heavily. We got our Hotchkiss gum
into action and set to work.
Not Healthy Spot.
by crawling slowly forward we go
field of fire, and could see the Ger
mans plainly and battery about hal
mile ahead. We plugged a few here
and then 1t happened to get dark, ant
we had to retire about 300 yards to ,
better position and dig in for the night
This we did all right, the German
making feeble charge as we did II
l was along ut the time with a mes
sage, so l let fly six rounds at then
with my revolver, and they all Ia!
down. However. 1t was not health,
spot, and l had to crawl back. and re
Joined the squadron. We got oul
horses, and came back and rejoinet
the regiment. One shell landed In tn,
middle Of us as we mounted. Thes,
tin hats are good. especially for shrap
mel.
swell, we got back and dug in lik,
blazes. They made two weak attacks
during the night, and shelled Us all tn,
time. We hung on there until f0ul
o'clock, put up wire in front of us. ant
our battery helped us well. Infantr,
relieved us then; they had just got mp
"You see our job was TO push OF
as far as we could, and hold the lin,
to give the feet time to get up. 81
we did our job all right. We thel
rode back-'but not the CO.,"