Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-10-20
FORMER D. c. bOY|N
BATTLE Of AM|ENS
Thomas Hungerford Tells of
Early Hour Advance of A.
lies, 20 Villages Taken.
WITH CANADIAN TROOPS

The following letter, written from
England September 9, just received
by Miss Edith Meloy of this city.
tells OF the recent experiences OF
Thomas Hungerford. former Wash
ington boy. who has been with the
Canadian forces in France since the
first year of the war:
Il am now in dear old Blighty and
am pinchIng myself to see IL it is
really SO. have also received COM
mission and am lieutenant attached
to the 18th Brigade. Canadian Field
Artillery. Milford Camp. Whitley. Eng
land.
Il wanted so much to go to Ireland,
but my hopes were blasted. Four
days leave was the most / could get,
so ! went to Wales to place called
Tyddyndeici. FIanfairpwell. Talk
about Indian names,
Il was gazetted August 9, but knew
nothing about it until August 81 and
in the meantime went through the
best scrap of the bunch. The Cana
dian corps made great name for
itself 1t captured 100 guns and
trench mortars. Obj prisoners, TWEEN
ty-nine villages and penetrated al
most fifteen miles into Fritz's line and
our casualties were less than the
prisoners taken. His dead were pretty
thick. so his wounded must have been
great in number.
Vast Army Moves Forward.
THE scrap was known as the bat
tie Of AmienS. We moved down there.
marching by night and sleeping in
the woods by day. We concentrated
in a huge woods near Villers Bre-
tonneux August 8. At zero hour. 4:30
am, every bit of artillery opened
up. and at the same moment as a
whole. the entire Canadian army, with
French on our right and Australians
and British on our left, moved
forward-infantry, machine gunners,
tanks, cavalry. artillery. airplanes-
we were $1,000 yards from where we
started and were extended over a
10,OOG-yard front. When we started
our front was 800 yards.
THE following day we pushed on
and our division took Rosieres. a
kilometers farther. where the line
rested when we left the front some
days later. Since then, of course.
that town has been lit far behind.
Ground Strewn With Wreckage.
81 wish you could have been in the
background to see it all. 1t was a
Sight he Cavalry, ldHhS anu OIL
planes did great work and did won
derful things to help the infantry and
us in clearing the way, to certain
extent. After we got through Fritz's
front support and reserve line, he had
practically no defenses, and 1t was
really open warfare.
The ground was strewn with all sorts
Of wreckage-rif1es, equipment and
overcoats which Fritz threw away in
his hurry to surrender; captured ma
hn or
alongside (his machine gunners put
up a real fighD; anti-tank guns;
few tanks which had come to grief;
an airplane here and there; in the
woods and ravineS whole batteries Of
German field and heavy guns, the ma
q nice pile Of shells alongside of them.
and our gunners about-turned the
guns and fired the shells back at him.
Cavalry Captures Three Trains.
The cavalry also captured three
whole trains. one with 500 reinforce
ments on it and another with an
eleven-inch gun. which he used to
lombard Amiens. At Rosieres we
captured one Of his canteens. The
fellows poured into it. There was q
good stock of chocolate and cigars Of
honey, not bad stuff, and some fierce
stun which was supposed to be mar
garine. The fellows carried away as
much as they could Of the three first
named. but a great deal of 1t got
chucked on the floor. and you can
imagine the mess when mixture Of
chocolate. honey and margarine was
well tramped upon.
THE surprise was so great that we
captured nearly all his guns and
there was little she'll fire for the hrst
few days. and we had only machine
guns and rife fire to contend with.
The machine~gun fire, though, was
fierce at times.
I'VE saw some thrilling air fights.
saw one of our fellows tackle two
FritZies and bring them both down
inside of three minutes-both in
flames The weather was fine and
we slept out in the open most of the
time. There was ripe growing wheat
In most places and we could easily