Mexico Missouri message., 1918-05-16

in several hundred yards away. The
cannon fire ceased, the machine guns
settled down to an occasional fitful
burst and 1t was midday of beautiful
spring day.
A couple of partridge few over me.
What did they know or care about all
this noise and racket and men getting
up in line and killing each other7
Along about three o'clock things be-
gan n llven up again. In the mean
time headquarters had been establish
ed in sunken road with banks about
fifteen feet high on either side (later
this cut was half filled with dead).
Ny aid post was In a dugout near by
and gradually things got hotter and
hotter.
Our men had dug themselves In
and were popping away with their
rifles. The field batteries behind us
were putting up barrage, airplanes
were circllng overhead, both ours and
the Germans. The Germans put up a
counter-barrage, the machine guns
were going like mad. was standing
with the colonel on n little rise OF
ground above the sunken road when
the Germans broke through about a
mile 10 the north of us. They could
be plainly seen pouring over the ridge
in close formation.
Tanks Get Into Action.
Then the tanks came up, and you
should have seen them run Just like
rabbits! The tanks retired; the
Boehes reformed and came at 1t
again. They tell me that at certain
places our men wlthstood fifteen sue
cessive attacks and that the Germans
went. down IN thousands. One Welsh
man told me that his gun accounted
for IS in three minutes during one
wave.
Machine-gupa bullets were nip2ing
around me, the shell fire was getting
hotter, and even though It was a won
derful sight to watch l decided "dls-
erection was the better part of valor,"
or something like that, and got down
in my dugOut.
was sitting there smoking a Gig
arctic when my orderly came down
and said was being relieved and was
to go back and work with the ambu-
lance. Fifteen hours later the man
that relieved ME was captured. But
/ am getting ahead Of my story.
went back to the advanced dress
ing station through the hottest shell
fire ever experienced. More than
once I went down on my face when
shell burst and the pieces went whiz-
zing over my head. l spent the night
in mined village where the advanced
dressing station was located, and all
night they shelled it to blazes. It was
remarkable how few casualties we
had
About eleven o'clock the morning Of
the third day a shell blew in the side
of our post, but luckily no one was
hurt. We stuck to it until about. four
in the afternoon, when we saw our
men retiring over q ridge In front Of
us, keeping up continuous machine
gun and rifle fire, and we beat 1t back
to another village and opened anoth-
er post.
Tho Beurimed Lord.
About ten o'clock on the morning Of
the fourth day Lord Thyme, my col
onel when / was with the battalion,
stumbled into the shack where was
sitting. He looked like a ghost. He
had lost his hat, his face was covered
with q four days beard, the sweat
had traced tracks in the dust from his
forehead to his chin. His sleeve was
torn and bloody and he had o cash in
his arm where he had been struck by
piece of flying shell case.
"My God, doc, are you here?" he
said. "You got out just in time. The
battalion is all gone. The sunken road
is filled with dead-mostly Huns,
damn 'em. The line broke on the
right; we were surrounded. and at
the last we were fighting back and
back. Only thirty of US got away"
So we knew the Boche had broken
through to our right and our left, and
1t was a question Of how long 1t would
be before we, too, were surrounded
but we wanted to stick 1t out as long
us we could.
But not more than an hour later a
medical officer rushed in from one OF
|
the battalions and between gasps for
breath told us the Germans were on
the edge of the village, had shot him
through the sleeve with a machine
gun bullet luckily that was ally, and
for us to beat 1t.
The ninth day, sitting around the
fire in our mess after the best dinner
we had had in days, the commanding
officer handed me some papers and
said, "Here Is something that will In
terest you, Petit. want to say We
shall be sorry to lose you"
And this is what 1t was: Lieut.
Roswell T. Petit, NJ. r. c., is relieved
from duty with the British army ant
will proceed to the A. Il. F., where hi
will report for duty"
i l leave for Paris In the morning
This has been long tale, but the hal
of 1t hasn't been told. hope haven