The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-07-18
BEGGED TO Die
Shattered Men in Crater Pit
Pleaded To Be Killed.
Officer Delivers Mercy Shot
With Hand Grenade.
HARVARD man, FROM vERDUh
Won Medal for Bravery IN
Rescuing Wounded.
Shell Torn Field Piled High
With Dead and Wounded.

Winchester. Mass, July 18.-John
Sheehan. Harvard II, back from the
Verdun front with a medal of honor
for courageous work as an ambulance
driver in the American legion, TO-DAY
told the United Press this story OF the
battlefield as it was related to MN py
a French captain of ZouaVeS, VINO lay
mortally wounded in a base hospital:
Following one of the terrific charges
by the Boches up a shell swept slope
held by the French, the field was
strewn with dead and dying. lnces-
SAINT artillery fire for three days be-
fore the final charge had pitted the
hillside with huge shell-craters and
had driven the French first lire in
fantry back to the crest of the knoll.
Then came the Germans, pouring
out of their network of trenches,
stumbling up the steep slopes and go
ing down before the rifle fire of the
French zouaves. Three times the
Boches attempted to gain the crest,
and each time they were moved down
by hail of lead, falling back to their
lines in scattered groups.
Dead Covered Battle Field.
When night came on and the Ger
man charge had been stayed, No Man
Land, between the French lines on the
of the hill and the Teutons' position
on the plain below was piled high
with dead and wounded; and the huge
holes torn by the German shells were
filled nearly level full with bodies.
Captain x. had been in command
of one of the first line trenches and
his company had fallen back just be-
fore the charge, leaving many wound
ed behind. Among the latter was a
lieutenant, a brother-in-law of the
captains, with whom he had taken
the oath of allegiance when their COM
pany was called to the colors.
as the bravest man in his company,
the captain told him he intended
creeping down the bloody slope under
cover of darkness, in the hope that he
might rescue his comrade and asked
the man to accompany him.
AS they made their way down, inch
by inch, for incendiary shells scream
ing overhead lit up the sky from time
to time, making them clear targets
for the German guns, the captain and
his man passed hundreds of moaning,
dying comrades and Germans: and
when they reached the trench they
had once held.
Found the Wounded Lieutenant.
There, nearly dead from thirst and
wounds, they found the lieutenant
half way up the side of a great hole
torn by 16-inch shell. In the dark
ness the captains fIashIight lit up the
tened to pass his comrade up to the
Zouave, dimming his ears to the
groans of the wounded all about him
AS he himself started to ascend the
slope hand clutched his ankle and
voice in German begged:
xiii Us, kill uSi''
Turning his flashlight toward the
crater's bottom, Captain x saw there
more than a dozen frightfully wound.
| ed Germans, gasping for water anG
| several already dead from their suf
| ferings.
Trying to draw away, he answered
| the German captain who had called tt
| him, saying that he did not wish t.
| kill them, that he could not do it il
cold blood.
Then the Teuton captain, his RICH
arm hanging in shreds, chung to hin
| in desperation. He must kill them
in Gods mercy he must. The hole II
which they lay was not exposed to tn
fire of the combatants, but the Ger
mans would never again attempt tn
desperate charge in which they ha,
lost so heavily the afternoon before
and the French could not move iron
their impregnable position. 1t mean
that he and all his men would Ii
there until they died from thirst O
their wounds.
Death Came as Mercy.
Captain X mopped the clamm
sweat from his brow and thought c
the awful torture these men, enemie
though they were, must endure, an
then, deciding instantly, ordered hi
man to carry the lieutenant on hi
back to the French lines and retur
with as many hand grenades as h
could carry.
For nearly an hour he lay besid
the top of the crater, with only tn
occasional scream of a shell overhea
to drown out the groans of the Ger
mans.
Then the Zouave returned, and wit
a muttered prayer they threw tn
grenades down into the heap of Gen
mans until the last cries were stiIIeC
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