The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1918-10-11
This Bird Answers to Worth.
more" but Look What
He Did.
DISAPPOINTED IN THIS war
Here Of One Of Hottest Actions Of
War Complains Because He
VA Wounded Early in
the Fight.
BY e. A. eATchELoR.

Paris.-When they named that boy
Northmore. fate must have laughed
loudly. It's so unlike him. The name
does not suggest the deeds this par
tlcular NOrthmOre has done recently
In France. He should have been
called Mike.
Northmore Hamill is his full name
and he lives In Detroit, Mich. when
he is home. A little over two years
ago he vas In the senior class at high
school, q smallish. bashful youngster
with an engaging smile. Now he is
Private Hamill. United States marine
corps, cOnvalescent from two wounds,
one Of the many heroes of n Of the
hottest actions Of the war. u finished
4h%ard-boiled" soldier.
Private Hamill has been a little
disappointed in this war. 1t has some
good points. of course, but he feels
that he was cheated because. as he
expresses 1t, he didn't see much OF
the fight"
Twice wounded and still he didn't
e much Of a certain fight!
Here Is Private Hamills story as ne
told 1t bashfully, even alphabetically
after ! had given him a cigarette OF
a popular brand. a cigarette that has
been hard to get In France:
Northmore Had Hard Luck.
Yes. 1t was a good fight. that 1T
tie affair at Belleau Woods. I missed
the best part of 1t because I had the
rotten luck to be wounded early. but
the rest Of the boys had a busy time.
1--WE advanced in broad daylight
through u wheat field with the Hun
machine gun bullets reaping the grain
around his as nicely as though 1t had
been done with a scythe. Then we
got into the woods where they had
plenty Of guns and plenty of cover.
My platoon was q little in advance OF
the rest of the company, and we had
almost reached the clearing on the
far side Of the woods when we ran
Into q nest Of machine guns.
1--WE had no hand grenades with us
50 all there was to do was to try to
pick Off the gunners with our rifles.
"All Of a sudden. something e
ploded right among four of us thar
were lying near a rock. l felt some
thing like a needle stab in each leg
and knew that l had been hit. Billy,
one Of my pals. got n piece OF the
find grenade. for hat Is what had
gone of, through the steel helmet. II
went into his skull and he groaned q
couple Of times and wns gone. Two
ether men had been wounded, too.
lnnking four casualties for one m Easily
little hand grenade. Did you ever
hear Of such luck?
I'VE had to use Bflly's body as a
kind Of breast-wOrk. for things were
getting pretty hot about then and the
roor fellow vas gone and there WIS
no use Of the rest Of us being ex-
posed.
II could still work my rife. for the
pieces Of metal In my legs weren't
very big and they didn't hurt very
much. Finally oil my ammunition was
gene and I had to roll Billy W and
use his cartridges. I hated to do IT,
1t gave me the creeps-but what else
was there to do when I was all out of
shells3
Navy Man Cool.
FINALLY we got orders to fall back
to the advanced dressing station.
which was behind a big rock. and the
bullets pinging around and chipping
on pieces Of stone all the time. There
was a hospital IA from the navy
there and he certainly was q cool one.
He bandaged rs up as calmly as II
there was not such . thing as q war
going On.
Then another fellow and I started
a-s.-