Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-12-21
SOLDIERS HORSE
BLOWNTOPIECE
-,
Philadelphia Sergeant
Awoke in Hospital With
Broken Vertebra
WITH DECORATION
Bayoneted and Cassed, He
Wears Cross for Capturing
German Officers

A shell exploded on the hcrss =
Sergeant o h +. Blaich was riding M X
the Argonne Forest battle. When he
recovered consciousness twenty-fcur
hours later he had a fractured verte-
bra.
Sergeant Blaich is home today on a
furlough from Walter Reed Hospital. u.
Washington, to spend Christmas WITH
his wife and baby and father at 7os
West Venango street.
Telling of his experiences. the wounded
lad, who wears the Distinguished servioe
Cross for capturing two German officers
single-handed, said he was lucky to ns
alive.
In the Chateau-Thierryr drive n Ger-a
man soldier ran him through the abdo- y,
men with a bayonet. II looked like the I
thd or the war for him then, he said m
put ne recovered and went back to hiaea
unit' company A, First Engineers, rogue
lar army.
AT Cantigny on September 3 n piece -
OF shrapnel struck him in The leg, b,t. n,
ne refused to go to the hospital. He leeif'
II go with the first-aid treatment. s
Gassed Three Days Later
lhree lays later, south of scissors.
ne was gassed and sent on his second
"Trip to the hospital. When he was dis
charged this time he was listed as phvs-es
ically UNIT for service as a sergeant ,irrTp
charge of a company, so he was made 4 4
dispatch rider. sc
1t was while in this service that bSes
mace ms third and last trip from the
battlefield on a stretcher.
AMa
Going into the Argonne forest" he
SAID "a 47-millimeter shell struck INV
morse IN the breast. IT exploded inside
him and hurled me into the air. Thar.
Is the last l remember until I woke
up IN a hospital twenty-four hours
later. A nurse was trying to give me Z
hourlshment when I was revived. She
told me my spine was fractured. II
But my experience was nothing COM
pared to that Of the boys in the infantrv =
ana other organizations that fought In
the great battle of the Argonne forest. 4
which forced the Germans to give up.
Many From Pennsylvania
The sacrifices of these men should
never be forgotten by the people OF
Philadelphia, because a great many Of IS
the men in that battle were PennsyIyal
mans 1t was the most bloody battle
of the war.
Il believe Pennsylvania has suffered
the greatest casualties OF any State In
the nation"
Sergeant Blaich smiled broadly when
he told of the capture of two German
.lie~utenants that won him the distin-
guished service cross. The incident had
its humorous side.
81 found some Germans in n d,,xn,.4
near Cherry Chateau. south of the Vesf1--
l went to the entrance and asked how
many were in there. &TT'
"'Nein,' was the answer l got. and
at the time / thought he meant there |
were nine. Later l learned that he waa
trying to tell me there was nobody there4@
We'll, here. divide these among YOU
l shouted and began to toss in hassdk3
g~renades. When ! thought they were ans
dead l stopped, 1t seems, though, ttaafr
they had hidden in a little hole, and were
not hurt. In a few minute they came
out with their hands up, and I took them
to headquarters. They gave conslderable
valuable information, and I got a DtS-
.tinguished Service Cross" -
Was r. r.. r. Fireman
Sergeant Blaich is twenty-five years
old. His father, Fred +. Blaich, IA ythspT
Oldest newspaper route carrier in etffa,t
city. Fifty-two years ago the elder Y,
Blaich formed the organization of morulX
ing newspaper carriers that now exfstsd q
BlaiCh was a fireman for the Penn
sylvania Railroad when he enlisted In.
the Engineers on March 4, 1918. Be-
fore the war he served an enlistment in
tho navy.
He will go back to the hospital next
Friday for an operation which he thinks
will repair his injured spine.
And. say" he added, when he had
finished telling his experiences, 'donSts"
forget to tell them I said to help the
Red Cross"