The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1918-05-10
HAIG'S RETREAT IS
WILDLY PICTURED
Storm of Shell Fire Described by
Illinois Officer.
HUN SLAUGHTER WAS GREAT
First Lieutenant Petit Of Ottawa, In
Letter to His Father Gives Details
OF Battle in Which British
Fought at Great Odds.


The thrilling story of the Haig re
treat In the terrific battle in Picardy is
most interestingly detailed by First
Lieutenant Roswell L. Petit, NJ. o.
r. O., of Ottawa, Ill.,, In a letter to his
father, DR.. ]. W. Petit of the Ottawa
tuberculosis colony. and published in
the Chicago Tribune. For nine days
the American officer was In the thick
est Of the fighting. and during the re-
treat of the British Fifth army from
before st. quentin. His account of the
battle thrills with the stress of the
herculean conflict. as 1t was detailed
Immediately after he had passed
through the terrible experience and be-
fore his impressions had been dulIed
by time. His letter:
Lieutenant Pettit's Letter.
March 30
Dear Father: Now that the show is
over for me for the time being, and
have time to breathe and sleep and eat
ard write, I'll try and tell you about
TIE battle. Before you receive this
you will have had the whole story from
the papers, but know you will be
interested in knowing what l did in the
affair.
OF course, the things saw were but
an infnitesimal part of a gigantic
whole and it would be impossible for
me to give correct description of the
battle. And as write this, / do it
with no knowledge whatever of what
has been going on even a few miles
from me.
have not seen paper in eight days I;
i have received no mail. and the only
information we have received has been
by word of mouth, and most of what
we hear must be wild rumors. For ex-
ample: The French have advanced
20 miles at Verdun, the Ameri-
cans have taken Ostend, and are on
their way to Zeebrugge, and great
naval battle has been fought in the
North sea.
All know is that on this part Of the
front the Germans attacked us In over
whelming numbers, in places ten diyi
sions to our one; that they suffered
terrible losses, but finally broke
through our lines of defense. one after
another, and fighting for the most part
a rear guard action, we have retired
abont Is miles in straight line.
For week before the battle started
we had been expecting it; we wer'
ready to move on 80 minutes no
tice. I had been out with combatan
as well as medical officers on tours o
reconnaissance, definite methods o
evacuation of the wounded had beel
worked out and our plans of counter
attack been made. After four or fiv
days of waiting. the storm f1nall
broke.
The Boche opened up on us at ) a. m
March 81, with the heaviest barrage
have ever heard. "Stand to-" wa
sounded, we turned out dressed, an
had all our equipment packed in 8
minutes. Then we sat down an
waited for orders to move. The bal
rage kept up continuously, sometime
heavier and then of less intensit,
sometimes it seemed to be to the mort
Of us and then suddenly it switched
the south.
Our balloons were up as soon as
was light and the airplanes were bu
zing over our heads. The ground mi
gradually cleared and the German
put a hail of shrapnel on our can
and we all took cover, but three mt
were hit. Why it is a fellow alwa.
feels safer with a roof over his hea
even if he knows bullets and shrapn
and pieces of shell will go throu!
boards and corrugated iron just Ill
paper.
Ordered to Move.
Our orders to move finally came a
we marched off TO the brigade asse.
bly, point several miles away. This ;
sembly point was in little bunch
trees about the size of Allen park a
behind and separated from a larg
wood in front. In the larger wo
there was a battery Of heavy artille
and shells were dropping in there t
or three to minute, and 1t was hea
stuff, too.
Sometimes they overshot the
wood and shells were landing in
omen around the little wood where
brigade had its assembly point.
we approached our little copse
could make all this ont from some {
lance away and it wasn't pleas
sensation to feel that we were mar
Ing straight into it.
All the battalicns arrived and in q
little copse there must have been
least two thousand men. What