The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1918-12-05
.IIEUT. ". &. TIPT0N
DESCRIBES BATTLE
ONLY OFFICER LEFT AFTER
COMING OUT OF FIGHT

NONlNM Oll Ut E1au1
His Company Actually SHIPPED With
Artillery-NegrOes Fought BraveIy
After Officers Fell-In Battle Line
Six Days, and Lost IS Pounds.
Gen. John A. Upton has lately re-
ceiyed a very interesting letter from
his son, Lieut.. w. c. Upton, giving
his thrilling experience on the actual
fighting line. The young officer was
in some Of the fiercest fighting on
the western front, and we copy the
following from his letter with Gen.
Tipton's consent:
Friday, Oct. %, 1918.
Dear Dad-I guess you think that
/ have forgotten all about you be-
cause haven't written you before,
but | haven't at all. I've been in
tending to write for long time now,
but | Just never did do it. / haven't
hardly had time to turn around since
we came out Of the fight, though.
When we wound up ! was the only
officer left, and had about so men,
including two non-coms, so I've been
company commander, first sergeant,
and everything-almost kitchen po-
lice-since. / have a couple of offic-
ers now, though, so it is much easier
on me.
There's not much to tell about our
scran-the papers have been full Of
accounts of scraps just like it,
guess. The Boche had more machine
guns than Carter had oats; and as
for artillery-if anybody tells you
that Austria isn't in the war to
amount to anything, you call them
for me, viii you? That Austrian SO
is the awfulest thing in the world, /
guess. If there is anything in the
world / dislike more than facing them
/ don't know what it is, Their ma
chine guns were pretty bad. We
had no grenades, and the only way
we could put them out of action was
to flank them on both sides and
charge them. But those 88s caused
most of our losses. At one time
there was a bunch of them--three
batteries, or IL guns-on top Of
hill, in plain view, not 800 yards
from us, and they were shooting as
fast as they could. You may not
believe it, but they were actually snip
ing at us with artillery. We had
the satisfaction of taking five of the
guns and two officers and "a men,
though They didn't get them back
fast enough. / guess we did some
good, too-we advanced from south
of Ripont to within kilometer OF
Monthois, which is directly south Of
Vouziers, where they are fighting
now, aboRt eight kilometers in all. !
don't think that's bad at all for three
days Of actual fighting, when we
had no artillery support, no aviation,
nor anything except what the Lord
gave us to fight with. And our loss
es in killed and seriously wounded
were awfully light. Most of the cas-
ualties were either slightly wounded
or slightly gassed.
These negroes fought well, too. !
confess that / didn't think that they
would. But they couldn't have done
much better than they did do. Even
when their officers fell, they didn't
quit. They joined the nearest unit
that had an officer at the head Of it.
Considering the fact that we had had
absolutely no training in offensive
warfare, having just come out of the
trenches, think they did we'll. We
were recommended by the division
commander for citation in the or
ders of the army. | am pretty sure
that we won't get it, because that's
the same as giving us all the Croix
de Guerre, and CHIC seems to be a
bit skittish about allowing any Amer
leans to be decorated by the French
or British. And | don't care for all
the decorations whole skin is just
about as much decoration as / want.
guess I am mighty lucky to have
gone through all that without get
ting more than | did get-a ma
chine gun scratch on the wrist. Sew
eral times / was literally buried with |
shells, and one exploded within two
feet Of me, but fortunately the frag-
ments went the other way. And the
barrages that we went through were
simply hellish- that's the only way
know how to describe them.
didn't know that there were that
many shells in the world. But we
Kept on going, and when we finally |
stopped, It was only because we were |
right in front Of highly fortified |
md strongly defended town, and we
could get no artillery preparation on
t. With an hours artillery prepare
lion on it, we could have taken
Monthois.
guess looked like a scarecrow
when came out Of it, During the
.hree days that we actually fought,
and also the first three days after
We were put in support, which is
worse than actually in fighting, /
iidn't eat, sleep, drink, wash my face
II shave. lost IS pounds in that
Tx days. but I've about gained it back
sgain now.
rNnnur nrcHy VII TnuNrx7r