Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-05-10

hours. 1t was warm and bright. !
could look out of my shelter and see
our support lines digging themselves
in several hundred yards away. The
cannon fire ceased, the machine guns
settled down to an occasional fitfu
burst and it was midday of a beautiful
spring day.
A couple of partridge flew over me.
What did they know or care about all
this noise and racket and men getting
up in line and killing each other?
Along about three o'clock things be-
gan to liven up again. In the mean
time headquarters had been establish
ed in a sunken road with banks about |
fifteen feet high on either side Qater |
this cut was half filed with dead). |
My aid post was in dugout near by |
and gradually things got hotter and |
hotter.
Our men had dug themselves in |
and were popping away with their
rifles. The field batteries behind us
were putting up a barrage, airplanes
were circling overhead, both ours and
the Germans. The Germans put up a
counter-barrage the machine guns
We're going like mad. was standing
with the colonel on little rise of
| ground above the sunken road when
the Germans broke through about a
mile to the north of US. They could
be plainly seen pouring over the ridge
| in close formation.
Tanks Get Into Action.
] IN
should have seen them run! Just like
rabbits The tanks retired; the
Boches reformed and came at it
again. They tell me that at certain
places our men withstood fifteen sue
cessive attacks and that the Germans
went down in thousands. One Welsh
man told me that his gun accounted
for 70 in three minutes during one
wave
Machine-gun bullets were nipping
around me, the shell fire was getting
hotter and even though it was won
derful sight to watch 1 decided "dis-
cretion was the better part of valor,"
or something like that, and got down
in my dugout.
|
arctic when my orderly came down
and said 1 was being relieved and was
to go back and work with the ambu-
lance. Fifteen hours later the man
that relieved me was captured. But
am getting ahead of my story.
I went back to the advanced dress
ing station through the hottest shell
fire 1 ever experienced. More than
once I went down on my face when a
shell burst and the pieces went whiz-
zing over my head. I spent the night
in mined village where the advanced
dressing station was located, and all
night they shelled it to blazes. 1t was
remarkable how few casualties we
had.
About eleven o'clock the morning of
the third day shell blew in the side
of our post, but luckily no one was
! hurt. We stuck to it until about four
in the afternoon, when we saw our
men retiring over a ridge in front OF
US, keeping up continuous machine
gun and rifle fire, and we beat it back
to another village and opened anoth
er post.
The Begrimed Lord.
: About ten o'clock on the morning Of
the fourth day Lord Thyme, my col
onel when / was with the battalion
stumbled into the shack where 1 wa:
sitting. He looked like ghost. He
had lost his hat, his face was covered
with q four days beard, the sweat
had traced tracks in the dust from hi:
forehead to his chin. His sleeve wa:
his arm where he had been struck b!
a piece of flying shell case.
my God, doc, are you here?" HI
said. 'You got out just in time. Thu
! battalion is all gone. The sunken roat
is filled with dead-mostly Huns
!, damn em. The line broke on th'
right; we were surrounded, and a
the last we were fighting back ant
back. Only thirty of us got away"
> So we knew the Boche had broker
" through to our right and our left, an,
it was a question of how long it woult
!, be before we, too, were surrounded
!, but we wanted to stick it out as loni
as we could.
: But not more than an hour later
! medical officer rushed in from one o
:, the battalions and between gasps TO
;, breath told us the Germans were OF
n the edge of the village, had shot hin
n through the sleeve with a machin
! gun bullet luckily that was alD, an,
|, for US to beat it.
O. The ninth day, sitting around tn
r fire in our mess after the best Dime
we had had in days, the commandin
officer handed me some papers an
said, "Here is something that will in
terest you, Petit. l want to say W
y shall be sorry to lose you"
= And this is what it was: Lieu
Roswell 7. Petit, NJ. r. c., is relieve
a from duty with the British army an
# will proceed to the A. E. f., where h
n will report for duty"
o 1 leave for Paris in the morning
II This has been long tale, but the hal
10 of it hasn't been told. hope I haven
strung it out too much.
d 1 have just been informed that a
r my kit had to be burned to prevent
IN falling into the hands of the enem.
d 1 shall probably want you to send n
a some things from home, but will sc
Il what can get here first Your son,
w ROSWELL,