The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-02

out. They were so hot when the in
fantry captured them that the barrels
would burn your fingers. The machine
guns never stopped until their opera
tors were finished. This was part OF
the booty taken by one regiment in an
advance of slightly more than one mile.
To every man who went into the at
tack credit is due. 1t doesn't make
any difference whether they were
doughboys, artillery, engineers, hosp1-
tai corps men or litter bearers. None
of them could have gotten along with
out the other, and now, after it is over,
each branch admires the other, some
thing they didn't do before they went
into battle.
The work of the medical officers.
litter bearers and sanitary men will
never be forgotten by those who took
part in the battle. Capt. John +. How
ell, formerly Kansas City physician,
esta blished an advance dressing sta
ton at Chauaron farm and kept it in
operation until the troops had to fall
back. This was directly behind the
advancing lines. The boche seemed
| to take particular delight in Smelling
and casing dressing stations, as did
their aviators in shooting machine
gun bullets at them and dropping
grenades on them. Many of the
wounded were killed as result of this
work on the part of the boChe.
| Mai. E. w. Slusher, the regimental
surgeon, who brought with him the
sanitary detachment from Kansas
City, worked up in front until the last
| day, until he was forced to be carried
! back because of gas an.: exhaustion.
! Capt. Frank Hurwitt, who has COM
mand of the ambulance company or
ganized by Maj. w. L. Gist. Lieut..
Richard Speck, who>ha the Kansas
side company; Captain Broyles. who
came over the Major Slusher, and all
| the others in the front line dressing
| stations worked day and night, always
under fire.
you have got to give it to the litter
bearers" every doughboy will tell you.
Those are the boys who have the
nerve and do the work"
| Work Under Fire.
| You hear that expression on every
side For all the men are proud OF
the litter bearers, who worked con-
tinuously, day and night. always under
fire and in gas, carrying IN the
wounded.
IT saw four litter bearers carrying
a wounded man on a stretcher when a
i shell exploded in their midst, Cap
tain Howell told me. 1T killed three
Of the men and the one who was IN
| iured, and left the, fourth standing
! there holding a piece of the handle of
| the litter He wasn't wounded.
didn't have a scratch on him. but he
was so shaken up and SO frightened
that we had to send him IN
That Just shows the conditions UNI
der which the litter bearers worked.
Captain Hurwitt's dressing station
was shelled continuously for seven
hours one night with high explosive
shells and gas. One shell exploded in
| the dressing station. killing two men.
Another took the head off the gas
! guard, who was standing in the door
way.
| Another took off corner of the
roof, and any number exploded all
around the frame building.
One of the men. who had a leg
blown almost entirely off, made no eff
| fort to put on his gas mask. One of
the other boys reached over to help
him.
4 Never mind my gas mask" he fe-
piled. "Just throw that leg of mine
back on the litter. 1 don't like to see
give me a cigafet so I can die happy"
Which goes to show that the men
know how to die, as well as how to
fight
Calls Old Picture.
do you remember that picture of
Remington's, where lone Indian, rid
ing a horse, is silhouetted against the
sunset as he trails along the crest of a
hill,'' Heinie Schultz, regimental SER
geant major asked me- II saw that
same picture, only slightly. changed,
the fourth night of the battle. I was
sitting upon the crest of a hill. for
want of any other place to sit, when
l saw a lone figure on the next hill.
1t was a soldier. One leg had been
shattered. He had fixed crutch out
of a limb off a tree, and was trying
to hobble some place, evidently to
shelter. The sun was just going down.
and he was silhouetted perfectly
against the horizon, slowly and feebly
making his way along.
"A boche observation post evidently
saw him, because a boche cannon
opened fire upon him. Every two
minutes for half an hour that gun
dropped a shell along the crest of
THAT hill, trying to hit that wounded
soldier. But nothing seemed to touch
him. altho several of the shells ex-
ploded very close to him. He just
kept on hobbling along until he dis
appeared into a wood, when the can
non ceased firing. Who he was, or
where he was going. don't know. But
I'll never forget that as long as I live,
and some day, and I hope it will be
in the near future, some boche artil-
leryman is going to pay for the lit
tie bit of sport they had tina evening
shooting at that wounded soldier"