New-York tribune., 1918-04-29
Fifty Pershing
Veterans Here
70 Sell Bonds
Continued from page 1

jobs that her sons are performing
and are soon expected to perform on an
incomparably larger scale.
Plain ordinary men the veterans
were before they went across to battle
for civilization: The youngest of the
bour, of Chatham, Va, a mere boy of
seventeen. was present in the trenches
when Enright, Gresham and Hays, the
first three Americans to be killed in
action, fell when the Germans made
their initial raid on merican defences.
Corporal Gresham collapsed into Bar
bour's arms when a Teuton bullet
near the Swiss border.
Let Barbour tell his story. 81 hal
been in the trenches about three hours,
he said, "and it was about / 80 in the
morning. Three hundred Germans
rushed into the trench after they ia 1
laid down a barrage. There were only
forty Americans. The section was only
about fifty to sixty feet long and the
Germans had thirty-fvc batteries cen
tired on that little space. There was {.
terrific fight with hand grenades, pistols
and knives.
II think they wanted most of all to
capture prisoners. Enright fought des-
perately and killed some Germans
don't know how many But they cut
his head off. l was standing right by
Gresham when he looked over the edge
of the trench and German shot him
in the head. He fell hack in my arms
~ was near Lieutenant Mclaughlin
IN communication trench when a big
she'll exploded close to him and knocke |
him senseless. He is suffering from
! shell shock yet and has been brought to
1 the States, | think"
Old 69th Rcnresentcd
Barbour, in recounting the results
of the first dramatic tusslc with the
agents of Kaiserism, said the Ger
mans killed three. wounded five and
captured twelve in the raid. A man
| named GivenS, who was in listening
post, he said, had bullet go straight
through his body, yet he lived. Later
Barbour himself was hit in the leg by
a piece of shrapnel and was forced to
spend a month in hospital.
California and Virginia did not mo-
nopollze the glory among the fifty vet
Grams, who were selected to return
home for q stay because of their gal
lantry and the fullness of their expert
ence. New York is represented in the
group by three men. Sergeant E. A..
McNiff, Corporal NJ. H. Plant and Pri-
vate John f. Mccormick all members
of the old Goth, are in the party, and
that will be dear to New Workers.
| hearts.
The old 69th arrived near the "fron-
tier of freedom on November 10 last.
and was Immediately dispatched to a
training camp in the Mons sector,
where they remained until January
undergoing genuinely intensive train
ing. In January they entered French
trenches near Luneville, and action
started without delay. There we're
casualties on the first day.
Early in March ninety French and
American soldiers were chosen to
train for a raiding party. For two
weeks they prepared for raid at a
spot ten miles behind the lines. Prac-
tlce IN sprnting was not unim-
portant part of the drill.
Actor Soldier Describes Attack
Corporal Plant told Of the training
yesterday. He was a vaudeville actor
before he enlisted, and lived at S76
eve were kept on the jump all the
time," the corporal said. "Of course,
we knew just where we were going
to strike and what we were to do when
we got into the German first line
trenches: Our object was to bring
back prisoners and get any miscel-
laneous information we could about
.ne PeISoilnel Oh tnc units occupying
the trenches opposite US.
"Of course, all of us in the raidnp
party were volunteers. Our zero hour
was set for 7:4O in the evening. (
guess everybody felt sort of nervous
during those last few minutes before
barragc opened up.
The signal came at 1887. Two hun
dred light and heavy pieces Of artillery
and 200 machine guns opened up on a
n a.
top at 7:4O, and Immediately star shells
began to shoot from Fritz's side, zoe
yards away. | don't know how long it
took us to go over to Fritzs bailiwick.
We certainly did hop it.
The damage was something awful
The trenches were all torn to pieces
Sixteen foot holes were followed out.
was groaning and cursing all around
us. should have said before that we
did not have much trouble in getting
through the wire. A scouting party
had been out the night before and cut
INTO 1T pretty WELL and our barragc did
the lest.
Some of Germans Fled
d. "Thc Germans put barragc right on
their own front line trenches no sooner
than we got there. We found out later
that about 400 men had occupied tho
terrain which we invaded. About 800
Of these were killed by our barrage.
Most of them were half buried in the
ground. The Germans kept sending
star she'll after star shell and it was
as light as day. Sergeant McNifr and
fought side by side. We kept empty
ing our automatics into the struggling
mass of men that tried to organize
themselves into some sort of a defen-
give fighting unit
about fifty Of the Germans had run
away and there were about an equal
number left to oppose us. These were
reinforced by Prussian Guardsmen. bic
husky fellows, who will never give in
and who die fighting, The rcscuing
party must have come right up through
their own barragc
we had intended to STAY in No Mans
| Land and in the German trenches to
get prisoners. The barragc that the
enemy put down was so hot and
kept us 80 long that it was five hours
and half after the time we went
over the top before we got back in on,
own dugouts During this time W.
crcpt from shell hole to shell hole AID
| gained what little protection we could
from the cratcrs.
y suQDosv that our entire stay in