Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-11-25
HAM|L TON HOLT
TELLS HOW j. s.
TURNED WAR TIDE
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Mr. Holt said early in the summer, just
about the time the Germans started their
third drive conditions were very serious
among the Allies. He told of talking to
leading military authorities of both the
English and French armies, who told hum
that the taking Of Channel port or OF
Paris would mean that they would have
to sue for peace. At the beginning OF the
third German drive the British line had
been hit so hard that at one time there
was a 25-mile gap in the English line,
but the Germans thought it was a trick
and were afraid to go through. Then,
he said, the French in their faded blue
uniforms arrived and after them the Amer
leans and the reverscs started.
II thoroughly believe" stated the
speaker, that if one Of the Channel ports
or Paris had been taken, the war would
have been prolonged at least five years.
Do you know what stopped 1T? 1t was
10000 American boys landing on the
shores of France every day. The French
and the American soldiers saved the day
and then the Allies started drive on July
Il that has been going every day since.
He related how the Americans In their
first fighting held the lines against sea-
soned German shock troops and the Ger
mans could not get through again.
Mr.. Holt said he had travelled about
900 miles in q government automobile
through France near the front and about
800 miles in Italy The Belgian army, he
said, had actually been on the increase
every day since the war started and alter
four and half years the Belgian army IS
stronger under all handicaps than 1T was
at the start This means that the Bel
gians one way and another have been
getting over the Dutch border and join
ing their army to defend their country.
SMELLING OF DUNKIRK.
Mr.. Holt told of the destruction done
TO Dunkirk and of visiting Calais. In
Dunkirk there is hardly a building that
has not been struck and some have been
hit from submarines, airships and land
guns. While in Calais. he stated, every
night at sunset the whistle of shell prob
ablv 10 miles In the air fired by big
Bertha" could be heard going over the
town. This shell was directed at Dunkirk
and for weeks and weeks a shell from Big
Bertha. " more than 26 miles away, was
fired into Dunkirk. The soldiers in Calais
as the shell passed over each evening
would remark there goes the Dunkirk
express" When the approach OF the
shell was first heard it WIS flashed to
Dunkirk and it would give the inhabitants
of that city Just one minute and halt
to get to their cellars before the shell
would bit.
The speaker also told of seeing a wonder
| full air battle while he was at Calais. He
| said he and three others watched the tight
| and two minutes after 1t was over no one
| of them told the samethlng as Just what
-, ha "A 4
| looked as though three Boche machine.
were attacking one English plane HI
| thought he saw the English plane while
the other three were circling around il
stand on its tail make some other wonder
! full turns in the air and get one of the
| boche machines which dropped IN the
ocean and disappeared. The next day
he went to the English airdrome not fal
| away. and on meeting the commandant
expressed 3 desire to see the man who had
! charge of the machine that WAS in the
| fight and got one of the Germans. He
said when he was introduced to the man
he proved TO be 22-year-old Canadian
| lieutenant from Vancouver.
The lieutenant told him actually what
| did happen, which was entirely different
| from what either he or his three friends
| had thought they saw. He said the fight
was between two English and two Ger
| man machines and the one who had done
such spectacular flying was German and
not an English machine. This lieutenant,
whose name was Hickey, said he did get
the German who fell in the sea and that
he was especially glad to have gotten
him, because of what had happened the
previous week 1t made the third ma
chine that he had downed, although he
had really brought down six Others, but
as they fell behind the German lines they
could not be counted. The week befor.
he brought down a big German machin'