Evening star., 1918-08-13
HERE ISALETTER
FULL OF WAR "PEP'
Capt.. CoIburn, Whose Men
Fought at vaux, Tells
About 1t.
NO .ENNUI WHERE HE is

Capt Alvin Colburn. recently re-
ported seriously wounded In action.
had the honor of commanding one
of the two American companies
in the capture Of vaux and La Roche
and his company captured
machine guns. 100 prisoners
and a great amount Of ammunition.
For gallantry in action he has rec
several Of his command
for decorations. and says of his
men: T would go anywhere with
them"
In appreciation of the fact that his
stopped the Hun rush on
Paris. the company commanders were
Petain. Capt. Colburn got pipe and
q knife. Capt. Colburn's command is
In the 9Th Infantry, National Army.
Spanish-American Veteran.
Capt. Colburn is a veteran Of the
Spanish war and served in
the Philippines and in the Canal
Zone. In Washington he was en-
ployed in the general land Office. He
received his commission for active
service at the first officers training
camp at Fort Myer, and was sent I'M
to France on account Of
his previous military experience. He
has been in the thick of the fray ever
since.
In a letter to his old chief. Clay
Tallman. commissioner Of the gen.
eral land office, he describes the serv-
xvixr Nd frc
several sovenirs. He refers also to
two other men from the land office
now serving in the auditing division
Of the Quartermaster Corps In Paris.
His letter follows:
Capt. Colburn's Letter.
you undoubtedly have read in the
along about the 4th of
July about the capture of vaux and
the La Roche woods by our forces. Ny
company took a very prominent part
in the attack and captured thirteen
machine guns and 100 or more prison.
ers. We had two companies of this
battalion in the assault line. one OF
which was mine.
I'VE had a magnificent artillery
preparation, and when the zero hour
arrived We followed our barrage as
closely as we could. and for the most
part were on top of the boche before
he could get his machine guns to
work. While we were formed W.
zero hour to arrive we surely
caught hell from his trench mortars
and artillery. Although we had a
number of casualties. the boche lost
three to our one. which is a pretty
good average.
IT had several narrow escapes, as
did every one else who got through.
A splinter from a trench mortar
lodged in my spectacle case in my
pocket after penetrating the case and
bursting my glasses. This case saved
me a nasty flesh wound, and am still
carrying it for souvenr, as the shell
other good-sized piece of shell from
an air burst landed on top of my
pack. fortunately doing no harm.
Men Behaved Bravely.
Ny men behaved magnificently and
I have recomme nded several for dec
orations. After we hit the woods we
had some trouble with their machine
guns, but l sent bombing squads
rifle grenades on them from the front,
SO they were either killed or sur
rounded. During the advance a bunch
of them in a ravine put up a little
scrap, but were soon eNterminated.
My runner got one at this place with
his rifle and got one with my pistol
1t took two shots for me- to get him.
however. which is pretty rotten
shooting for me. although just his
head and rife were showing above
an embankment twenty-five yards
away. 1 got him right between the
eyes.
The objective of this company was
along a railroad track and as soon as
weOeached it we sent up the proper
signal and dug in to beat the band
in order to get cover for the boche
counter attack. They never fail to
launch a counter attack after being
driven from a position. Sometimes It
times as late as forty-eight hours
after the first fight, but 1t always
comes.
'In our case they got such a lick
ing that they did not attack for eight
hours after they lost the town and
much and was easily repulsed. We
used their own machine guns and am
to repulse their counter at
tack and hold our new line.
Made Guns Sing.
Some of my men took to these guns
like a duck does to water and GER
tainly made them sing. In addition to
a large number of prisoners and the
machine guns above men
toned my company captured motor
cycle machine gun, divisional signal
and telephone outfit, field glasses,
rifles, pistols. grenade throwers. gre
nades and an immense amount of am
munition. After the capture and dur
ing our occupation I used a rock cave
as my post of command, or p. C. as ii
Is termed. My orderly and myself
captured two officers and five men in
this cave.
"I am writing this on paper found
in the cave and inclosing it in an en-
velope found in the same place. I am
souvenir of the occasion a shoulder
strap from an officers oyercoat, which
one of my prisoners left. The number
'402' thereon indicates the infantry
regiment which formerly occupied
this sector. All our prisoners were
from this regiment A few snapshots
found in the cave are also inclosed.
We secured barrels of documents, let
ters, etc, for our intelligence service.
"Proud as Peacocks."
'It was the most successful opera
ton ever pulled of by the American
force, and all who par
ticipated are as proud as peacocks.
days prior to the attack and despite
the fact that we were dirty and lousy
our morale was and Is yet of the
highest order, as the result of the
attack plainly shows.
"After we consolidated our new line
we were shelled continuously by the
Huns. They tried their hardest to
H.. 10 n