Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1918-05-10

Was Terrlfe-Thrlillng Details by
Lieut.. Roswell T. Petit
Details Of the Haig retreat in the
famous battle In Picardy, are most
Interestingly told by First Lieutenant
Roswell T. Petit, NJ. OR. O., OF OF
tawa, ILL.,, In a letter to his father,
DR.. j.. W. Petit of the Ottawa tuber-
culosIs colony and published in the
Chicago Tribune. The American Off
Ger endured nine days of the horrors
and was in the thlckest Of the fighting
during the retreat of the British Fifth
army from st. Quentin. Lieutenant
Pettit.s report Of the battle thrills, and
the stress of the great conflict are
given before his Impressions had in any
way been dulled by time, written i'm
medlately after his experience. His
letter follows:
Lieutenant Pettlt's Letter.
. March 80.
Dear Father: Now that the show Is
over for me for the time being, and l
have time to breathe and sleep and eat
and write, I'll try and tell you about
, the battle. Before you 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 I saw were but
an ~infinitesimal part Of a gigantic
whole and 1t would be impossible for
me to give a correct description of the
battle. And as I write this, l do 1t
with no knowledge whatever of what
has been going on even a few miles
from me.
/ have not seen a paper In eight days /;
/ have received no mall, 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 1 know is that on this part Of the
front the Germans attacked us in over
whelmlng numbers, in places ten dlvi-
slons to our ne; that they suffered
terrible losses, but finally broke
through our lines Of defense, one after
another, and fighting for the most part,
a rear guard action, we have retired
about IS miles In a straight line.
For a week before the battle started
we had been expecting it; we were
ready to move on 80 minutes no
tice. 1 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 8 a. M,
March q, with the heaviest barrage
have ever heard. "Stand to-" was
sounded, we turned out dressed, and
had all our equipment packed in 30
minutes. Then we sat down and
waited for orders to 10Y The bar
age kept up continuously, sometimes
heavier and then of less intensity,
sometimes 1t seemed to be to the north
of US and Their suddenly 1t switched to
the south.
Our balloons were up as soon as II
was light and the alrplanes were buz'
zing over our heads. The ground mist
gradually cleared and the Germans
put a hail Of shrapnel on our camp
and we all took cover, but three men
were hit. Why 1t Is a fellow always
feels safer with a roof over his head
even II he knows bullets and shrapne
and pieces Of shell will go through
boards and corrugated iron just like
paper.
Ordered to Move.
Our orders to move finally came anC
we marched of to the brigade assem-
bly, point several miles away. This as
sembly point was in a little bunch o.
trees about the size of Allen park ant
behind and separated from q large
wood In front. In the larger Woo
there was a battery of heavy a%rtiller!
and shells were dropping in there TIVE
or three to a minute, and it was heav,
stuff. too.
Sometimes they overshot the bil
wood and shells were landing In tn.
open around the little wood where m.
brigade had its assembly point. A
we approached our little copse W
could make all this out from some dis
lance away and It wasn't a pleasan
sensation to feel that we were march
ing straight into it.
All the battaliOns arrived and In tina
little cOpse there must have been a
least two thousand men. What
chance II the Germans only knew! Blu
the shells continued to drop In front o
US and on either side, but none lande
among us. and after waiting there TO