Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-09-10

when at 11.35 o clock the fury of n
concentrated enemy barrage fell
without previous warning upon
those defenders.
There were exploding shells of
gas and shrapnel, machine gun
spray and smoke bombs, with air.
planes overhead dropping their tor
pedoes and occasionally swooping
down and sweeping the trenches
with their machine guns.
Then came the overwhelming rush
of German infantry. Still the
Americans held on. Here 1 will
| quote from our official report of the
| fight:
Spy Urges Men to Surrender
| During the attack of the enemy
some one in American uniform ran
among our troops shouting that fur
I ther resistance was useless and that
one of our officers advised every
! body to surrender. Out of our troops
engaged only two officers and about
thirty men retreated, fighting and
hring, and reached the northern
bank of the river"
The soldier who spread the report
is believed to have been a German
| in American uniform.
! Just before the attack a German
soldier named Max Kauv, of the
46Sd German infantry, was shot and
mortally wounded by our men far
inside our lines. He had lived many
years in the United States. He was
we'll stocked with food. 1t is alto
Sether probable that the man who
shouted Surrender" in Fismette
was another German soldier spy.
Surrender! Not This Yankee
Surrender, hell, l should say not, "
said Lieutenant Turner to his men.
I'VE will fight it out" he added.
This was in the dim night of early
day and the dense smoke of burst
ing shells Again and again the
enemy was driven off.
Along about 8 o'clock, Lieutenant
Turner, finding himself and his men
at the peak of the salient and al
most surrounded, began to drop
back, fighting from house to house,
in the streets, behind barricades and
other shelter toward the river bank,
and at last. at o'clock, reached a
dismantled, roofless dwelling, less
than 800 feet from the shattered
bridge to Fismes. Inside this dwell
ing from the windows, doors and
wall he kept up a blaze of fire.
! With him were Sergeant Richard
Moore and William Fileshifter,
both of Ridgway, Pa; Privates
Frank S. Incoushi. Port Carbon. Pa. /;
o. H. Hunt, Rogan, w. Va; Moses
Wallace, Boise City, Okla; Ralph
E. Lesser, Ridgway, Pa; Douglas
Hunt, Factoryville, Pa, and Stanley
Savage, Pottsville, Pa.
II is best to permit Lesser to tell
about what next happened. He was
Turner's orderly, and he said:
The lieutenant told us to stick to
it until re-enforcements came across
the river. Because of the heavy
German barrage upon the opposite
bank none came. In an adjoining
building one of our machine guns
managed for a time to keep going
At 1890 a big shell destroyed that
building and all within.
Lieutenant Turner kept walking
up and down with us, telling every
body to keep cool and avoid I'M
necessary exposure. While we held
the Germans at distance with our
two automatic guns and three
Springfields, men from other
platoons were trying to get 10 the
south shore, some swimming. some
crossing the bridge and jumping
the broken parts.
About 11.30. seeing that it was
impossible for aid to get to us, Lieu
tenant Turner said: You men clear
out; 1 will stay here and follow
later None of us would go. So he
started with us. making a big bluff.
AT the river edge he wrote his
wife's address upon piece oi
paper and gave it to me. saying:
Beat it with the rest, boy. l am go.
ing back into that house to fire q
couple of shots to make the beggar:
think we are still there.
Fought Aione-Thcn Escaped I'm,
hurt
"All of us reached the other bank
We could hear the lieutenant shoot.
ling first one rifle and then another
Enemy bullets and shells were drop
ping into the water. as well as or
both sides of the river.
"As the last of us got over Lieu
tenant Turner ceased firing. Ter
minutes later he was with us again
directing us how to make our way
through Fismes into the American
dugouts, from which we later re-
crossed the Nesle and recapturet
Fismette."
All that Lieutenant Turner had Il
say was, Keep me out of it; all
bdid was my duty