The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1918-10-18
Hospital Interview With Norman
Clarke.


lowing interview with Norman Clarke
in French hospital.
: The voice of every corner of America
tells this story. This is simple trans
cription of the words of Yankee boys
on the cots OF an American hospital
near Paris. It's their story. They
speak for the American contingent
which made part OF the marvellous
army of General Mangin, stuck its
vicious fangs into the German Crown
Princes right flank up above scissors
and hung on and shook and shook and
hung on and snapped from one fierce
grip to another, until the Crown
Princes main forces came tumbling
back in pain off the Vesle, across the
Aispe, and beyond. There, at Juvigny
and beyond, the brotherhood of arms
between the Americans and the French
was sealed as never before
Listen to Sergt. Norman Clarke of
80 1st St., Edgerton, Wis. He speaks
the way they all do. He says:
''Now get this right. Don't let any
one think we Americans are asking too
much credit. Of course, no American
unit has fallen down on the job. Give
'em an objective-and they get it. And
I'll tell the world fair that this fighting
for Gen. Mangin is all the same as
fighting for an American general. He
hops into battle to go through. And
he goes through. No, sir, he doesn't
waste any men, but he gets what he
sets out to get. The bit he assigned
us to get," and here grin spread over
the sergeant's lean jaws, ''the bit he
assigned us was Juvigny." And the
grin broadened as he pointed to the
American line at Laffaux, good five
miles beyond Juvigny, as it showed on
the map on the hospital wall. "We'd
been on the Vesle," he went on rem.
iniscently, "and we'd had some hard
fighting. We lost lot of good men.
But Juvigny was our toughest nut, so
far. | guess maybe Berlin will be
harder. Machine guns were what made
it tough. They had 'em everywhere.
And we had to go through 'em before
we could really begin to fight. But
say, when we hit the streets of that
town we did fight. They had machine
guns in every attic and every cellar.
I've read it when you newspaper guys
talk about rain of lead / saw it
that day at Juvigny. Say, the air was
foggy with machine gun bullets. But
the boys went through it. 1t was a
quick duck around corner, into a
doorway, up stairs or down, and good
bye to the machine gun crew-with the
bayonet. 1t was too close for grenades.
And these Germans were game. They
took the cold steel before they quit. :"
cav, get out!' came grunt of pro-
test from the next cot. ''When you
get home, Sarg, you'll outlie the G. A.
This from one Private Fermin Goertz
of Butter Ranch, N. M. He was not
in the platoon with Sergt. Clarke. He
had different times with his Germans.
E'This open warfare is the dope. We
all got tired of trenches. So when they
gave us the word to go up and at 'em,
you can bet our crowd shook a leg.
Sure, it was tough going to get in and
through that town, and to put all the
ferries to sleep there. But we did it
and went on beyond. Of course, they
finally slipped me pill-a machine gun
bullet in the leg here, but, believe me,
they paid for it in advance. handed
several Germans more than pill in the
leg with that old Rosalie bayonet of
mine. But / had to stop when they
hit me in the leg. Cause why? Cause
you gotta keep on running to fight
those Germans. You gotta run through
their machine gun fire, and then when
you get to the machine guns the Jer
rles quit and start running for them
selves until we catch up with EN-
'They don't like the American bay
onet," sagely remarked Private Joseph
P. Kelly of Elmira, N. Y, because
the Yanks know how to use them, too!
Gosh, [ used to cuss bayonet drill back
in the States when they'd get us to
jabbing sand bags and bundles of wood
and things. But | guess it was the
right dope. The Germans won't stand
it.. Yes, you can credit their machine
gun crews with half courage. But the
rest of 'em-w hee! towards when they
see the Yank bayonets coming, They
beat it.
The stories being told by war CORES
pondents of the capture of Juvigny on
August 80 and 81, where many of our
Edgerton boys in the 32nd division suf-
fered causalties, depicts the engage
ment as one of glory for the Yankees.
One dispatch says: "About O'Clock
part of the American line moved for
ward. Juvigny was believed to have
been cleared, for the artillery was in
structed to concentrate their fire on the
village and positions near by and for
an hour it had hurled tons of high ex-
plosives and shrapnel into the little
town. An aviator reported four COM
panies of Germans seen evacuating and
no sign of the enemy. But the Ger
mans were still there and met the
Yankees with hail of machine gun
bullets. Then the Americans worked
their way around the village and took
it from the rear" 1t was here that
Norman Clarke received his death
I'M