Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-11-16
KEYSTONE MEN
ADVANCE ON FOE
Continued from First Page.1


The letter, dated October 10, is
full of thrills and the fire of ad-
venture. 1t follows:
MY Dear Mother:
Now since have the opportunity
will tell you about the two weeks
battle that we have been in. After
our short rest when we came out of
Fismes, we hiked to the front, north
west of Verdun, and one dark night
we took over the trenches from the
French.
Over the Top
The next morning we were to go
| over the top. The Germans were not
aware of the presence of Americans
at this point of the line, although
they did expect an attack. AS we
entered the communicating trenches
and wound our way toward the front
| line, past the reserves and support
trenches, saw for the first time how
complete everything was. Although
I the trenches had been there and
used since 1915, and were rather
weather. beaten, they illustrated to
me very clearly all the stories had
read of the trenches, of the she'll
proof dugouts, and how much easier
trench warfare is than this semi
open kind of war that we are fore
ing on the Germans by our aggres-
siveness.
when we arrived in the front
line we put our guns into position.
AT this time there opened up one
of he most furious carriages that l
hpor1 a1 al -
guns in the A. e. +. were throwing
iron rations over to Jerry The bar
rage continued all night, but 1t did
not keep me from getting n few
winks of sleep shortly before day
break.
The Tanks Proceed
I'VE put over n machine gun bar
rage, and then followed the infantry
over. The tanks had preceded and
tore gaps in the barbed wire for us
to pass through. When we reached
the Boche front lines, under cover of
a smoke screen, we found them de-
serted. 1t was here that saw what
havoc our barrage had done. The
trenches were caved in, dugouts were
closed up, in many instances en-
tombing the occupants. Many Boches
were killed by the barrage, and many
ObliSl MSIS Cut OlL ny lllS
fire and We're taken prisoners.
When we got to the Boche sec
ond line snipers and machine gun
ners started to play on us. We rest
ed between the second and third
line for the night. In the morning
we advanced again and took posi-
tions at the edge of a woods. The
infantry kept on ahead wiping out
machine gun nests and hunting
snipers who were left behind to de-
lay our progress.
1T was very interesting to watch
the tanks which worked with. the
doughboys. Nothing stopped them.
They went headlong over trenches,
through woods and over rough fields,
and were a great help in cleaning
out machin gun nests.
Hun Lines Damaged
''N hile we were at rest once I
found a big dugout that had been
caved in by a direct hit, and the
Boches who were in it had tumbled
out just a few hours previously. But
the hole was so small that they had
to leave their equipment behind, and
some of us got down in the dugout
and found many souvenirs in the
Heinies' packs. I got a large pistol
Will 81 SlOSh dNldNlllllSllI oO ia. / IL
could be used as a rifle, several 'Gott
nit uns' belt buckles, and many
other ornaments from their cloth
ing.
II was talking to prisoner. He
was Prussian Guard. He said that
we would have pitied them If we
| had known how severe our artillery
| barrage was. He had been in the
German army for three years, and
said that there were only 100000
| Americans over here. He sure was
misinformed. Our aviators are try
ing to wise up these fellows by drop
ping papers. l have seen many avia-
| tors dump a load of papers in the
German lines.
Hot Meals Always
"The next morning we advanced
and made our eight kilos before We
met any resistance. This was in the
! form of heavy machine gun fire
which came from a wooded hill, and
this hill was polluted with machine
gun nests, and it took some hard
| fighting to dislodge these fellows.
! We were advancing along a road
with our heavy equipment one day,
when our mess came up. We had
! hot meals all through the mixup.
| But this time the mail came along.
| got eight letters and I sure did
have an exciting time reading them
with a sniper taking shots srery
time 1 put my head up too high.
| We took this hill and the fighting
| continued through a heavily wooded
section of hills and valleys. Every
where could be seen dead German
! soldiers, and there was lots of NUM-
! tions captured, also many field guns.
Early in the fight we captured a
complete railroad train loaded with
ammunition and several engines. The
| big guns of the six-inch variety,
| which were too big to get back on
the muddy road, were blown up by
the Boches. But the IT'S" about
three-inch, which were not dam
aged, were turned around and used
against the Boche. In this way some
of the immense amount of captured
ammunition was used.
Fighting in Mud
"The day before we were relieved
we had quite an exciting time. Bull
let's came as close to me as I ever
want them to. was lying in shall
| low ditch in the mud and the bullets
were knocking the dirt into my face,
and were coming from all sides. I
| did not care how muddy it was when
! those pills began to sing, and when
/ the mud meant shelter. For you
know 1 believe in being careful as
we'll as brave.
THE last night we were on the
front line with the infantry and
shippers were all around us, we could
hear them talking. These snipers
stay behind when the main body