South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-10-31
TELLS Of START
Of BIC BATTLE
Sergt. w. A. Binary Writes of
Experiences at St. Mihiel,
Where YankS Fought.

sergt. William A. Binary OF South
Bend. who is with the American
marines in France and who was
wounded in the ST. MihieI battle.
writes TO Louis MoInar from the hos
pital where ne is recovering from
his wounds. Of his experiences in
battle His letter follows:
Now that I am back in the hos
pital and nothing else TO do I Will
write you more about that fight az
St. MihieI OF which you have no
doubt read. Il certainly was a won
derful piece Of work. To just goes
70 show that If the Hun is taken by
surprise he can't even defend him
self I am going to try to describe
certain phases Of a battle OF mod
ern warfare. or at least how f.
looked 90 me at ST. Mihiel. Ii was
unlike all the other fronts 7 have
been on where ve take mp our pO-
sitions days in advance OF the drive
wing in shell holes or holes we dug
ourselves. and with no barbed wire
in front 10 interfere with you. on
the contrary, we Just got up TO the
lines i'm time 20 ego over" And that
is saying a good deal when you con-
slider the traffic and the rain COM
ing down like from buckets. No rest
AT an but TO go right over.
1T was ON the evening Of Sept.
H. We were I'm the woods few Kill
ometers behind the lines when sud
denly we got orders 20 pack mp and
move forward immediately. Our cap
tain assem- bled all or rs non-coms
and told ms our mission in the COM
ing battle. which appeared rather
easy We started of toward the main
road. 10 was almost dark We met
the tanks and artillery Of all caliber
going forward Looking toward the
front we could see two of our planes
circling over the bOche lines look
ing things over for the last time
before the battle. the autj-aircraft
guns peppering at them all the time.
Lying down a while and then NOV
ing ahead q short distance we had
an awful time getting over the deep
shell holes and deleted by CEN
sOr) Every few feet one would step
into "a shell hole fun of water Oc-
casionaIly We would pass battery
setting their guns with the aid Of
flashlights. Some were rather care
less with the light but it was such
rotten weather that the enemy
Il
any observation. Anyhow there
wasn't shot fired by either side
until 7 O'Clock in the morning. We
learned from an artillery officer that
they were going 10 open up at that
time. as sure enough. as we were
sitting by the roadside looking at
our watches-bang, goes the bat
terry nearest us and then all along
the line exactly at 1 o'clock. I've
been under fire before. but. believe
me. L certainly felt lucky I wasn't
a German in the trenches under our
fire. We had 20 hurry. as we still
had TO 20 several kilometers and
didn't want 20 cause any delay. 1t
was hard going but we got there
Just in time The infantry was all
ready standing by. Before the at
tack we gave them little gas Then
suddenly our barrage lifted and
over we went along the line, Then
the boche machine guns started
That is the few that had survived
sur barrage They started shooting
up red flares calling for their bar
rage. which never came, as most Of
their ammunition dumps were blown
mp with a good many of their bat
teries and evidently they were pre-
pairing 20 retreat instead of putting
up a counter barrage Their men in
the trenches seeing this and us ap-
preaching. they soon quit firing and
just waited for MS 90 come and take
them prisoners. Anyway, when we
got i'm their trenches they all greet
ed us with 'lamerad' right OF the
reel Many of them were lying
around dead or wounded We
gathered up all their wounded and
carried them back TO our dressing
station At present there are many
Of them being taken care of i'm our
hospital getting the same treatment
and fcod that we get"