Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1918-05-03

N"PhSAt AhSo usSAnS themselves
in several hundred yards away. The
cannon fire cePsed. the machine guns
settled down to an occasional fitful
burst and it was midday OF beautifu.
spring day
A couple Of partridge few over me-.
What did they knoS or care about ell
this noise and racket and men getting
up in line and killing each other?
Along about three o'clock things be-
gan TO 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 flled with dead.
My aid post was In 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 a barrage. airplanes
We're circling overhead. both ours and
the Germans. The Germans put up
counter-barrage. the machine guns
were going like mad. was standing
with the colonel on a little rise of
ground above the sunken road when
the Germans broke through about
Emile to 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 rum Just like
rabbitsl The tanks retired; the
Boches reformed and came at It
again. They tell me that at certain
places our men withstood fifteen sue
cessive attacks and that the Germans
went down in thousands. One Welsh
msu told me that his gun accounted
for 70 in three minutes during one
wave.
MachIne-gun bullets were nipping
around me, the shell fire was getting
hotter. and even though it was won
derful sight to watch l decided dis
erection was the better part of valor,"
or something like that, and got down
| In my dugout.
| l was sitting there smoking 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.
l went back to the advanced dress
ing station through the hottest shell
fire / ever experienced. More than
once l went down on my face when a
shell burst and the pieces went whiz-
zing over my head. spent the night
in a mined village where the advanced
dressing station was located, and all
night they shelled 1t to blazes. 1t was
remarkable how few casualties we
had.
About eleven O'Clock the morning Of
the third day 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 Cur
men retiring over ridge in front Of
US. keeping up continuous machine
| gun and rifle fire, and we beat 1t back
to another village and opened anoth-
err post.
The BeerImed Lord.
About ten o'clock on the morning Of
the fourth day Lord Thyme. my coli
| onel when / was with the battalion,
1 stumbled irtO the shack where / was
/ sitting. He looked like a ghost He
| had lost his hat, his face was covered
with a 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 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 filed with dead--mostly Huns,
damn 'em. The line broke or the
right; we were surrounded. aad at
| the last we were fighting back and
back. Only thirty of us got awaS."
SO we knew the Boche had broken
through to our right and our left, and
| it was a question of how long It would
be before we, too. were surrounded,
| but we wanted to stick 1t out as long
rs we could.
/
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 machine
gun bullet luckily that was ally, and
| for us to beat ii.
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 and
viii proceed to the A. E. F., where he
will report for duty"
leave for Paris in the morning.
This has been a long tale, but the half
of If hasn't been told. hope | haven't