Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-10-22

Wallower, attached to the Sound
Ranging Service. Twenty Ninth En-
gineers. serving in France. witness
ed the Huns on the rum" as we'll as
different and more pathetic sights,
such as hysterical. joyous and CRATE
full old men, women and children. re-
patriated by the Yankees, giving
thanks on their knees TO their de-
liverers from Hun misrule. The let
ter from Wallower. who participat-
ed in the American First Army
drive which wiped out the st. Mi
hiel salient September IL. to his
father. E. 4. wallower. Of 2101 North
Front street. dated September %,
tells of these and other interesting
things about that part of the war in
which he is engaged. The letter
follows:
September %, 1918.
Dear Family:
Il am sending the last copy of the
Stars and Stripes to father. which
can be passed around 50 that every
ore can see ju st how our great liz
tie push was carried out and have
an idea of the thrilling and inter
esting ten days which we have just
gone through. I missed out on the
Chateau Thierry push, but I have
qulle Hldu0 II up 10 my ~1blSlilCllCH
for tie fun l have just had in seeing
the Hun on the rum actually. for
l saw the Bcche garrison OF Il small
town drop guns and everything and
beat it as fast as they could. But,
to their sorrow. they could rot run
as fast as our immortal doughboys.
who rounded them up like sheep and
started them back toward our lines.
several hundred of them with an es-
cort of only two Americans, ore at
the front and the other at the rear
of the column. and the boy az TIM
front marching along with smilS
on his face and a dent in his tin hat,
and the proudest and happiest
youngster in the world. I met sew
eral punches of Boches coming hack
with no escort at all, and il they
had been guaranteed a safe return
to their lines they wouldn't have
considered the proposition. The war
was over for them and they were
jolly we'll glad of it, too. especially
when they saw fresh meat and white
bread for the first time. probably, in
years. 4 great many of them gave
themselves up without a struggle.
but there were many faces which
gave gruesome evidence of hard
fighting and stubborn resistance. and
the dead Boches always outnumber-
ed the Americans. Several days aft
er the show began at one of our for
ward posts close to the new front
line we had the unpleasant job OF
putting under the sod several Boches
who were making their presence
particularly Objectionable, and even
yet there are some lying out in front
who have not yet been picked up by
patrols at night.
The events of the past ten days
have seemed like a kaleidoscope
swiftly passing. and the day crowd
ed with scenes and experiences |
will never forget. Interesting stor-
les I can tell by the dozen, a great
many of which are so ably related
in Stars and Stripes better than l
could attempt to tell them, and all
perfectly true.
''It seems quite impossible that
am sitting over here in Boche land,
where we have been gazing in an
ticipation for months and which has
almost seemed like the coveted but
forbidden promised land. 1t was
such a peculiar sensation to stroll
brazenly over crests of hills and ride
over roads disused for years, where
formerly il would have been worth
your life to expose yourself. 1t has
been very interesting to see the en-
we had located and see the results
of our counter-battery fire, which
we had directed One old position
which used to shell MS got all that
was coming to It, and we gloated
over it.
1T was a pathetic sight and one
which made our efforts seem well
worth while, to see the inhabitants.
old men. women and children, of the
captured villages, falling on their
knees, in thanks. that they had been
at last repatriated, and welcoming
the Americans with smiles and
tears. who had freed them after four
years of German rule. I think this
has made the deepest impression
upon me than anything I have seen
so far in this sorrow stricken coun-
try. Can YOU imagine what il meant
to those poor souls. after thinking
everything had been lost, to sudden
ly find themselves rejoined to coun- .
try and family and friends? They
had been told that France was beat /
en-, and nothing at all about the
Americans, and so were perfectly
astonished to learn the real state of I
affairs.
"Of course, we had known for
quite a while that a push was eX-
pected, so were more or less pre-
pared: but we were even amazed at ,
the number of guns of all sizes that /
were massed for the attack, and +
when the artillery preparation COM !
menced II was like the gradually !
swelling roar of a mighty inferno. /
When zero hour approached and the !
drum fire of the barrage, under /,
which the infantry went over the
top. joined with the roar of the
heavies, the ground fairly trembled,
the low-lying clouds rejecting the
gun flashes, glowed and scintillated,
and at certain intervals, when guns
happened to fire in sequence, the
lights played back and forth like
sheet lightning along the front line,
rockets of every description, star
shells and incendiary shells were
adding their contribution to the dis
play. At zero hour the crescendo
reached it's highest pitch. and it
seemed as though hell itself had
broken loose. I was standing on top
of a high hill, from which l could
see the front for miles, and 1t was
the most awe-inspiring sight | have
ever seen. II man can let loose such
mighty powers of death and destruc-
tion, what fear Of God in His wrath
should we have were it directed on
u.s.
The barrage lifted and our in
fantry swept across No Mans Land
and the enemy first line. which was
almost obliterated by our shell fire.
How anything living could have
survived that torrent of steel is more