New Britain herald., 1918-06-26
SEES l6O GERMANS
 DEAD AT SE|CHEPREY
Corp. Gerald Crean Writes Of
 American Victory in France

Corporal Gerald P. Crean of Com pany I, 102d U. s. Infantry, in a letter to his mother, Mrs. M. T. Crean, tells of the Battle of Seicheprey and says that his company alone assisted in the burial of 160 dead Germans after the fight. He writes of the cludes by telling of 8 rare treat, being taken behind the lines by his lieuten- ant to hear Elsie Janis, the vaude- ville star, sing for the soldiers. His letter follows:
 May 30, 1918. My Dear Mother:-
 You may well guess that I am all right by the time 1 am writing this letter, and have been for some time past. I received your letter and was glad to hear from you but was rather sorry to read that you had sold the old place, because since it was our home for so long 1t will seem strange to return to some other place than 515 Main street. I don't even know how to address your letter as I don't know if you have moved or not.
 The Battle of Seicheprey.
 "You worry absolutely too much about me. When my name appeared on the casualty list I know you must have had shock, but my name was among the slighly wounded and it only took a short time for me to be on my feet again. As for the regi- ment-the men at Bunker Hill didn't
 
 scrap than our boys over here. Two companies of little more than 400 men stood up against over 1,400 big Prus- sians, the travelling circus and they sure put said travelling circus on the bum. The fight started at exactly 2:45 on Saturday morning and then there were some fireworks. Fritz gave us everything he had-gas and plenty of it; shrapnel, high explosive and everything else to try and scare us off, but nothing doing! The boys in the front line gave slam for slam. Fritz was all drunk with some kind of drink worse than 'nigger gin and he brought all sorts of playthings with him-harmless looking little boxes and other. devices which exploded the minute they were touched, and he was crazy.
 Some of the boys say they (Fritz) were beating on tin pans and yelling, initiating the 101 Ranch Wild West but when the scrap came off they didn't feel much like anything except running to beat the band. We'll, they came so quickly that one part of our lines fell back to the town of Seiche- prey, but that was all. The rest of it held like a stone wall The Ger mans rushed into Seicheprey thinking they had gained something, but there they met those who had fallen back from the front line, and after 1 or 20 minutes our boys started to charge and before that bunch of Tanks, Fritz fled. He jumped into our front line and was pretty strong there They couldn't hold Seicheprey, so our bunch decided the best place for Fritz was where he came from. So over the top went the 1O2d again and I guess Fritz didn't run. But that wasn't all for on the way back they landed on the most unmerciful bar rage you could ever see. It landed right on their heads. How many of them ever got back is more than I know, but we buried 16O of their dead and there were many more who were buried by another outfit. The Ger mans claimed that the Americans were practically wiped out, but they are fast becoming professionals in the art of throwing the camoufage and if you could only see the 102d just it is today I guess you'd say they could stand a few more scraps like the Seicheprey affair. That stuff about the N. B. boys having their legs and arms shot off and their eyes out is some more camouf1age. There isn't one in our company but who could hop a dinky from N. B. to Hartford with the grace of Annette Kellerman
 By the way, I had quite treat the other night. Took an autom obile ride with Lieut.. Lovett to hear Elsie Janis, the vaudeville star. She sang and danced and told jokes and before she stopped she had many of us home sick for the bright lights of r T,afavette O