Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-12-20
Sam CARRIER
Took Part In
/, Cantigny Fight
At One Time Americans and Germans,
Fought With Bricks as They Ran
Out Of Ammunition, Letter Writer
Tells His Father. 4

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In a letter dated November "a sam
CARRIER of this city Informs his father,
NJ. M CARRIER, 06S Walnut street. that
he has taken part in some heavy
fighting, notably at the now famous
engagement at Cantigny and in Sep
TENDER at the st. Mihiel salient. which
Pershing's legions succeeded in flat
tening out. In one Of the fights, the
soldier says, both the americans and
the Germans a short of ammunition,
and so had to resort to brick throwing.
After telling that he was at Vichy
when>the armistice was signed, and de-
scribing incidents of the celebration Of
the French at that place. Private Car
Der reverts to former events Of the
war. and says hat he has been under
she'll fire for eleven months and .'over
the top" seven or eight times; he
wouldn't have missed the experience
for a million dollars. but, on the other
hand, he wouldn't go through it again
for that amount of money, he says.
was wounded. but the last time was
the worst" The incident took place
somewhere near Verdun, and CARRIER
describes it as follows:
The World on Fire."
The Germans were in the woods,
n we were in an open field lying in
shell holes dug in the ground by our
w hands; we could not see the Ger.
mans. but they could see us and our
task was to get them away. Well, we
had a b of a Job on our hands,
went over the top at 3 o'clock in the
morning of October 4; it was a moon.
lit night and clear; at $3.50 we got
word to be ready, and at 3 the zero
hour arrived. Our artillery. together
with that Of the French, opened fire.
and really it looked as though the
you the noise can best be done by say
ing that hell broke loose. Then a
flare went up-the signal to so over
. And. ellie me, it sure was a battle
and a half. fought for two hours.
when a shell from a German rs gun
exploded three feet from my head
Hun machine gunner. I did not know
was hit until l found my gun was
shot to pieces. and 1 had blood on my
left arm. Soon l was helped to a first
aid station and thence to a hospital,
where I was operated upon. The doc
tor told me that I had had a narrow
escape, and said I vas the luckiest
guy in the world to get hit with the
pieces he took out of my head and. not
get killed: he said they would have
killed an elephant. I told him that a
soldier just before going over the top
doesn't exactly feel human either, so
I stood just as good a chance as an
elephant. and Q know it is pretty
hard to kill an elephant with a small
shell from a German gun-a shell
weighing 40 pounds; at that, it's
called a baby she'll!
Americans Have Some Shell!
But don't you worry the U. S.
army has a baby shell, too, and the
Germans know it. The German pris-
oners tell me that every time an
American shell explodes they have to
shut their mouths tight so their teeth
won't fly out"
At Cantisny CARRIER helped "chase
the Germans into the town" He says
the Huns threw bricks at us. .and we
at them, as both sides ran short Of
ammunition, and we sure had some
bayonet fighting. too
Private CARRIER took part in the
American offensive at St. Mihiel. and
describes wildly incidents from that
historic fight.