The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-11-15

for what she has done in the last
four years. Neither you or the rest
of the good people will know, for one
must view these scenes of devasta-
ton before they can realize fully how
absolutely brutal, inhuman, and de-
structive the Germans have been.
81 have had sixteen months in
which to view these crimes, and each
time l go to the front and see evil
dence of some new crime, / think
it surely must be the height of their
brutality, but it isn't. 1t sometimes
seems that We are not fighting hui
man beings but savages, anyhow not
brave men, for brave men would not
commit the crimes against old men,
women and children that they do,
and most certainly wouldn't use the
they use.
Their willingness TO accept Presi-
dent Wilson's demand to evacuate all
allied territory doesn't surprise me,
for they are afraid to face the whip
ping that they will receive if they
don't
81 have been rambling along tel
ling you about the war and almost
forgot to tell you where l am wound
ed. l was hit in the left shoulder
by machine gun bullet, which went
down my arm, and came out about
half way to my elbow. 1t happened
one morning when we went over
about an hour before daybreak, and
it was about the hardest fight we
ever faced. The enemy was Smelling
us quite heavily, and there were more
machine guns than usual. The
country was quite billy, and it was
hard for us to advance, as swift as
We were used to.
81 had charge of an automatic
rifle section and also had one my
self. My battalion was in The first
wave, and it was hard to keep to-
gether ard follow our course as we
had never been over in the dark be-
fore. There were shells bursting all
around, and many flares presenting
very beautiful sight 1t reminded
me very much of a Fourth of July
fire works display at night in the
United States. The noise was so
great that one could hardly hear
themselves speak. We progressed
very nicely, putting machine gun
nest out OF commission here and
there, of course, and losing a man or
two here and there until about ten
o'clock
'We gained the top of a hill, and
down in the valley was a little town,
and it seemed that every door and
window held machine gun. 1t was
rather tough job to face but We
went right to it.
81 took my gun and helper and
Another guner and his helper, and
we managed to get about half way
down the hill into little clump OF
bushes. My duty was to silence as
many guns as possible, and to at
tract attention and draw fire, while
the other boys flanked the place. I
carried out my mission, silencing three
guns that l know OF, and drawing a
heavy fire. The boys were going in
to the town when-plunk-tha bull
let hit me. l didn't care so much
about being hit, but l did hate to
be put out of the fight just when we
were gaining a nice little victory.
One Of the boys with me split my
sleeve open and tied up my arm, and
after seeing that we had taken the
town l went on back to the aid sta
ton, and here l am in the hospital.
''It will be only matter of few
days until | am back with my COM
pany again. The arm is getting
along very nicely, and 1 am up and
about every day! One of the best
things of all is that 1 am rid of the
coolies for awhile anyway, and that
surely is a relief to a soldier over
here. 1 am afraid that / must close
for this time, for it is almost supper
time, and that appetite of mine must
be satisfied"