The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1918-05-10
THRILLING STORY
OF HA|G RETREAT
Illinois Officer Relates Experience
of Hun Attack on the
British.
ten DIVISIONS AGAINST ONE
Despite Overwhelming Number of En-
envy, His Losses Were Great
Miraculous Escape From Bap-
tism Of Shell Fire.

First Lieutenant Roswell T. Petit
M. OR. c., of Ottawa, Ill.,, in a lettel
to his father, DR.. ]. w. Petit of tn,
Ottawa tuberculosis colony, and pub
hshed in the Chicago Tribune, relate:
the thrilling story of the great battle
In Picardy. The American officer wa.
In the thickest of the fighting for nine
days, during the retreat of the British
| Fifth army from before St. Quentin
Lieutenant Pettit's account of the bat
tie thrills with the stress Of the con
fiict, as it was written Immediately
after he had passed through the ire,
mendous experiences and before his
impressions had been in any way dulled
by time. His letter follows:
Lieutenant Pettit's Letter.
March 80.
Dear Father: Now that the show is
over for me for the time being, and /
have time to breathe and sleep and eat
and write, I'll try and tell you about
the battle. Before ,ou receive this
you will have had the whole story from
the papers, but L know you will be
interested in knowing what did in the
affair. @
OF course, the things saw were but
| an, infnitesimai part of a gigantic
whole and it would be impossible for
me to give correct description of the
battle. And as write this, I do it
with no. knowledge whatever of what
has been going on even few miles
from me.
have not seen paper in eight days;
l 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 rumors: 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
whelming numbers, in places ten divi-
sions 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 10 miles in straight line
For week before the battle started
we had been expecting it; we were
ready to move on 80 minutes no
tice. had been out with combatant
as 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 a. M,
March q, with the heaviest barrage I
have ever heard. "Stand to-" was
sounded, we turned out dressed, and
had all our equipment packed in 80
minutes. Then we sat down and
waited for orders to move. The bar
rage kept up continuously, sometimes
heavier and then of less intensity,
sometimes it seemed to be to the north
of us and then suddenly it switched to 1
the south
Our balloons were up as soon as it
was light and the airplanes were buz-.
zing over our heads. The ground mist
gradually cleared and the Germans
put hail of shrapnel on our camp
and we all took cover, but three men
were hit. Why 1t is fellow always
feels safer with roof over his head,
even If he knows bullets and shrapnel
and pieces of shell will go through
boards and corrugated iron just like
paper.
Ordered to Move.
Our orders to move finally came and
re marched off to the brigade assem-
oily point several miles away. This as
sembly point was in little bunch of |
trees about the size Of Allen park and |
behind and separated from a larger
wood in front. In the larger wood |
there was battery of heavy artillery
and shells were dropping in there two |
or three to minute, and it was heavy
stuff, too.
Sometimes they overshot the big
wood and shells were landing in the |
open around the little wood where my
brigade had its assembly point. AS
we approached our little copse we
could make all this out from some dis
lance away and. it wasn't pleasant
sensation to feel that we were march
ing straight into it.
All the battalions arrived and in that
little copse there must have been at
east two thousand men. What a
chance if the Germans only knew! But
he shells continued to drop in front of
Is and on either side, but none landed
among us, and after waiting there for
.hree hours, expecting to be blown to
bits any second, we finally moved for
ward. Just as we left the copse, from
behind us, up over a ridge, came a
stream Of galloping horses.
ITS the cavalry" someone shouted.
tut soon made out limbers and field
,uns.
They galloped past us, going like
mad, took up position to our right,
wung into position, unlimbered, and