The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1918-08-29
HOW The MARINES
FIGHT The HUNS
Description Of the Fighting
on the West Front by
One Who Took a
Hand In 1t.
kENOsHlN WRITES HOME
Sees Two Of His Comrades and
Especial Pals Shot Down Be
fore Him While Chasing
the Germans.
.kENOsHAN WRITES HOME

up Will SH0llS OF plCh6u UA WfbH 1AuA
bullets, then you surely want to fight, =
says private Howard M. Robinson, Of
the 81st company, Sixth M. G. Battal-
ion, United States marines, Keno
sha county boy now with the American
Expeditionary Forces overseas, in a
letter to relatives of Pleasant Prairie.
It was his division that won such a
signal victory on the west front recent
| ly and made the crack Prussian guards
retreat for the first time in three years.
Here is letter in full:
June 80, 1918.
| Dear Folks:-
wish could get word to you quick
er than by letter, know you worry.
The marines have been SO very active
since the last German drive on the
French front, over a month ago. /
just came in from the front lines after
% days of pretty strenuous and at
times fierce fighting. Haven't got a
scratch, though wish could say that
for many others. Dave and Gun were
| both killed, I IN so very sorry to say,
thank God it was instantly in both
cases. | haven't heard how Earl is yet
and am little. worried. His company
did some fine work. It sure knocked
the starch out of me when heard about
Dave and Gun. Finer men never lived.
Your mail, in fact, everything sent
me comes promptly now. It is brought
out to the lines to US at night.
Today we all went to the river and
had scrubbing. The first in over four
weeks. In that time only shaved
twice. Absolutely impossible to do. so
in some cases, especially in advanced
Joints. One is lucky to get water to
drink. We have no trenches here -
doging around in the woods, gulleys
and darkness. For seven days our gun
crew lay concealed under culvert,
coming out only at night. We stole a
march on the Dutch sneaked up close
and concealed ourselves. The infantry
dug holes in a wheat field and road
bank and then covered them up. We
were protecting a flank That was
after those towns were taken, men
toned in those clippings you sent ne
from the Tribune. We were IN that
push, in fact our gun was the first one
in one of those towns. Then for about
ten days, Fritz sure entertained us -
night attacks, shells, big and little, gas,
snipers, everything they could think of,
but the marines were too much for him.
We simply licked the day lights out Of
him.
! wish / could tell you how it was,
the boys fought like wild men. The
Germans got SO they would fire few
wild shots and run-those that were
not chained to their positions, or else
throw up their hands yelling Kane
rad We captured more than our
own numbers. They call US Devil-Dogs
and threw the Prussian Guard on our
front and they retreated for the first
time since 1915, they say. General Per
shing says the marines are the best he
has General Foch has cited us for a
decoration by the French government.
1he rumor is We are to be decorated
soon but it not a certainty. Every man
in the outfit receives it. This sounds
exaggerated but it is not. In short
short this is what the boys did-met a
German drive stopped them and then
kept driving them back. Every day
or night it was attack or beat off an
attack, somewhere, never giving up an
inch themselves. The widest of the
French papers say they saved Paris but
of course that is overreaching, but they
sure raised ~. But the losses -
when you see your own pals blown up
with shells, or picked off with bullets
and shell pieces and all, by G-you
want to fight them if you never did. I
thought I saw war in the trenches but
we didn It.
Now few of my personal expert
ences: Much to my disgust and dismay
the y put a hole through my mess pan
and cut my knife, fork and spoon in
tWo-just piece Of shell was ALT
was in my pack on my back. A
couple of days later picked shrapnel
out of my hard tack, that was in nv
pack too, good old paekl Got rather
mussed up with dust and dirt from
shells few times. You can't keen
your hair parted to save your soull was
firing the gun one night and bullet
hit it head on, tearing the flash con-
cealer all to pieces. But my own ex-
lperiences are nothing compared to most
of them. was there with the rest of
them, that's enough. You couldn t get
me into another branch Of the service
with the whole Dutch army.
sometimes wonder before we came
over where the marines got the repu-
tation, but now 7 know. They We a