The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1918-08-27
,bELLEAU HEROES
/ DISAPPROVED BY
ARMY INSPECTOR
Methods Of the Fighting
Men Criticised by a
Hen-Minded Official;
Used Too Many Cart
!, ridges; Soiled Stretch
|. ers in Trenches.
(By Herbert Corevl

"iiH lHE AM EhlCAN AMRY-
Fighting men are usually good ma.
tured when off duty. This is odd
/ put 1t is fact. Most Of the men who
TOR month were blown up by. high
explosives and burned by gas and
tpotted at by machine guns in Belleau
WOOD are as clipper as grigs-what-
ever may be grig-now that thew
are at last out of it. But this morn
ing 4 encountered one fighting man
VINO was not running true to form.
He was peevish.
Several Kinds of Fool
y So-an-So," said he, naming the
man, lis several sorts Of fool"
The person unhappily described is
an inspector of parts. There comes
time in the life of every man who
mas PERSISTED in the vocation of in
specting when he is unable to see the
mountain for the trees. It was his
job to look over the accounts and
conditions Of the heroes of the Bois
deBelleau.
Some of the company officers
used too much ammunition" he re-
ported.
The fighting man am not quoting
because he became unquotable asked
what the inspector knew of condi-
ton in Belleau wood. A certain unit
winch the rules of the censor NAV
no longer be named had been sent in |
there to hold the wood. Nothing had
been said about the financial limit |
On the expenditure of shells It was
simply told to hold the wood. Incl
1entally, 1t took a holy lot of Boche
Machine guns and several million
million is the word-rounds Of cart
'ldges and used some of them
lgalnst the Boche. They might be
untitled to credit for this, but thew
lidn't get it.
Stretchers Were Bloody
And he said our stretchers we're
loody," said the fighting man. ~ |,
stop and think what that charge
mounts to. The men who have been .
ght1ng in Belleau wood were at it {
Or close on to a month-with one !
REF break of rest. They felt them :
Elves mighty lucky to have stretch =
IS at all. Every wounded man who =
,uld walk out of the wood did so. i
ne stretcher gearers carried the
'hers at the great risk of their lives. y
rlnklng water was carried to Bel 4
au wood and to the nearby ruins in :,
hlch first aid posts were established y
canteens. No one had time or n
ater-or the disposition-to stop in :,
e midst of the bloodiest and most n
fighting in which Amer =
IN troops have yet been engaged in
'ance to wash up the stretchers. .,
The Inspectors Duty ~
He was not to blame" the censor W.
IL say. know as well as tho I On
'eady heard him just what the CEN ~,
VIII say. He will explain to me m
It 1t was the duty Of the inspector o.
inspect, and that under the system ~
had no option but to state facts h.
ne FOUND them. So that the men III
o took Belleau wood at a loss-I MI
the military jargon here-"not 70,
proportionate to the objective OBJ %,
ned must stop in the Job of get Oh oh
rested up and cleaned IN and N
citing their nerves to explain WHY. "
20 many bullets were used in kiiIss -
Boche. ~, ~,
Why they did not pause in the III,
, Oh carrying out the wounded to tor
N the blood from the stretchers. roi
SHOULD Send Them Home ~;
ONE OF those stretchers ought tio'
er TO be washed. They ought to nos u
PACK home just as they are, hard nr ra
black and magnificent with nc nc
"a that has clotted and glazed, so cIe s
Americans might realize how ba ne
IA they are Of the men who bled co az
dled upon them. There is moth WIN