Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1916-11-04
CAVALRY CHARGE
VERY THRILLING
Officer of DecCan Hose Tells
How Mounted Mer, Got
into Action.
DID NOT WANT PRISONERS
But Eight Germans Who Threw Away
Their Rifles and callsi "Pity"
Were Taken 'AliVe--Un-
der Fierce Fire.

London.-During the fret two years
OF the war cavalry playeS 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 to re-
enforce the infantry. Recently, how
ever, the cavalry got its chance and
how well the mounted arm responded
is indicated in "A letter a.ritten by an
officer of the famous Dectan Horse of
the British army to his wife in Ire
land. The letter reads:
AT 6 30 we started our famous ride
into the enemy country every now and
then coming under heavy shell fire
shrapne! and high explosive. No one
can believe, without seeing. what
state the ground is in; there is not
room for table cloth on any part of
the ground there, without some part of
it touching a shell hole, so you can
imagine the regiment galloping over
it mt full gallop, barbed-wire-well cut
by shell fire-old trenches, dead bodies,
and every sort of debris lying in every
direction. Words fail me to describe it.
Bring Down Balloon.
THAT was for about three miles !;
then full tilt down g9eep bank like
the Haggard field, but sleeper. into a
very famous valley, where the shrap-
mel got worse, as 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-tons Of
ammunition and abandoned material
and dead Germans everywhere; and
we passed here an enormous gun they
had left behind so really | suppose 1t
was us that took it. Ne were under
cover here for half a mite, 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.
at was now about Z 80 in the eve
ming, and there were "A aerOplanes
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
! finest sight | have ever seen. Well,
| we moved out under heavy fire and
| got on about half a mile. During this
! advance we rounded up eight prison
ers. while between us and the British
regiment, suppose, we stuck with
sword and lance about forty Of them,
a glorious sight
Our men were splendid an6 didn't
want to take any prisoners, but these
/ 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,
Pity! Pity his eyes starting out Of
| his head Poor devil, l pitied him,
and we sent him back to the regiment.
We dismounted in a little hollow then
and went on on foot through a good
crop of wheat full of shell holes and
| dead Germans OF course, we were
creeping all the way, as the fire was
very hot At last after going a quar-
the hill. driving them before us. Here
we had to stop, as the ground was be
/ ing swept by rife and machine gun
fire, and they were now Smelling us
/ heavily. We got our IIotchkiss guns
/ into action and set to work
Not Healthy Spot.
''By crawling slowly forward we got
| a field of fire, and could see the Ger
mans plainly ana n battery about half
| a mile ahead We plugged a few here,
and then 1t happened TO get dark, and
we had to retire about 300 yards to "a
| better position and dig In for the night.
| This we did all right, the Germans
making a feeble charge as we did 1t.
| | was along at the time with q mes
| sage. so | let fly six rounds at them
with my revolver, and they all lay
down. However, II was not q healthy
! spot. and / had TO crawl back, and re-
/ Joined the squadron. We got our
/ horses, and came back and rejoined
/ the regiment One shell landed in the
middle of US as we mounted. These
tin hats are good, especially for shrap-
/ mel.
well, we got back and dug in like
blazes. They made two weak attacks
during the night. and shelled US all the
time. We hung on there until four
o'clock. put up wire in front of rs, and
our battery helped us we'll Infantry
relieved us then; they had just got up.
you see our job was to push on
MS far as we could, and hold the line
10 give the feet time to get up. SO
we did our job all right We then
rode back-'but not the COO"
One Appendix in Family.