, 1918-05-09
HhoIs officer Relates Experience
of Hun Attack on the
British.
|1EN DIVISIONS AGAINST One
Despite Overwhelming Number Of En-.
envy, His Lossss Were Great
Miraculous Escape From Bap-
tIsm Of Shell Fire.

First Lieutenant Roswell T. Petit,
Y. OR. G.. Of Ottawa, Ill.,, in a letter
10 his father, DR.. J. W. Petit Of the
lbtawa tuberculosis colony, and pub
lshsd in the Chicago Tribune, relates
he thrilling story Of the great battle
IA Picardy. The American officer was
ID tho thickest Of the fighting for nine
iays, during the retreat of the British
kfth army from before st. Quentin.
Lieutenant Pettit's account Of the bat
10 thrills with the stress Of the con-
tot, az 1t was written Immediately
lfter he had passed through the ire
nsndous experiences and before his
Impressions had been In any way dulled
By time. His letter follows:
Lieutenant Petite Letter.
March 80.
Dear Father: Now that the show IL
ever for me for the time being, and I
have time to breathe and sleep and eat
and write, I'll try and tell you about
he battle. Before you receive this
you will have had the whole story from
he papers, but I know you will be
Interested in knowing what I did in the
lfair.
OF course, the things I saw were but
an ininitesimal part Of q gigantic
whole and it would be impossible for
me to give q correct description Of the
battle. And as / write this, I do 1t
with no knowledge whatever Of what
has been going on even q few miles
from me.
Ihave not seen q paper in eight days;
have received no mail, and the only
Information we have received has been
BY word Of mouth, and most Of what
We hear must be wild rumor For ex-
ample: The French have advanced
20 miles at Verdun, the Ameri-
cans have taken Ostend, and are on
their way to Zeebrugge, and a great
naval battle has been fought In the
North sea.
All I know is that on this part Of the
front the Germans attacked us In over
whslming numbers, in places ten divi-
lions to our one; that they suffered
terrible losses, but finally broke
through our lines of defense, one after
another, and fighting for the most part,
rear guard action, we have retired
about IS miles In a straight line.
For a week before the battle started
we had been expecting It; we were
ready to move on 80 minutes no
tee. I had been out with combatant
Is well as medical officers on tours of
reconnaissance, definite methods Of
evacuation of the wounded had been
worked out, and our plans of counter
attack been made. After four or five
days Of waiting, the storm finally
broke.
The Boche opened up on us at s a. m,
March 81, with the heaviest barrage I
have ever heard. "Stand to-" was
sounded, we turned out dressed. and
had all our equipment packed in 30
minutes. Then we sat down and
waited for orders to love. The bar
hge kept up continuously, sometimes
heavier and then Of less. intensity,
iometimes 1t seemed to be to the north
Of us and her suddenly 1t switched to
the south.
Our balloons were up as soon as It.
was light and the airplanes were buzz
ding over BUR heads. The ground mist
gradually cleared and the Germans
put a hail of shrapnel on our camp
and we all took cover, but three men
were hit. Why 1t is a fellow always
feels safer with q ROOT over his head,
even If he knows bullets and shrapnel
and pieces of shell will 60 through
boards and corrugated iron just like
paper.
Ordered to Move.
Our orders to move finally came and
We marched off to the brigade assem-
ply point several miles away. This as
,snbly point was In a little bunch Of
uess about the size Of Allen park and
behind and separated from a larger
wood in front. In the larger wood
and shells were dropping in there two
VI three to a minute. and 1t was heavy
STUFF, too.
Sometimes they overshot the big
wood and shells were landing In the
epen around the little wood where my
efigade had its assembly point. AS
We approached our little copse we
could make all this out from some dis
@hce away and 1t wasn't a pleasant
,ensation to feel that we were march
@s straight into 1t.
Al the %battalions arrived and in that
atie copse there must have been at
vast two thousand men. What a
nance If the Germans only knewl But
us shells continued to drop in front of
" and on either side, but none landed
among us, and after waiting there for
uree hours, expecting to be blown to
"e any second, we finally moved for
ssrd' Just MS we left the copse. from
behind us, up over a ridge, came a
eIebm OF %RallopinR horses.