Weekly journal-miner., 1918-11-27
RALPH BELL TELLS 0F
 PERSH|NG'S SMASH 0N
 THE ST.M|H|EL SALIENT
Prescott Doughboy Who Participated In Brilliant Task Of Cutting The Metz
 Line, Paints Graphic Word Picture
(From Saturdays Daily)


 Ralph Bell, one of the Prescott boys who is now with Pershing's for ces, has written a most interesting letter to Prescott friends, telling Of the big smash that was launched against ;he groggy Huns in the St. NIihiel sector on Pershing's birthday, September l2th. Ralph, who was right in the midst of the hottest fighting, happily had the faculty of noting and describing the most dramatic phases of the big fight, and through the courtesy of the lady who received the letter, the Journal-Miner IS permitted to copy extracts from the letter, which was written from some unnamed spot in France under the date of September Fist:
 Lots of things have been happen ing the last week or ten days. We celebrated General Pershing's birthday September 18th, by launching big drive against the Hun. It was cer- tainly wonderful experience. We took our place in the trenches late the night before and after a bonn bardment of about four hours we went over the top at about daylight The barragc fire was a dandy. Guns of every known caliber broke loose all at once and kept up a con tinuous hammering. As far as we could see 10 the right and left the horizon was ablaze with bursting shells. The enemy began sending up showers of flares and rockets to light up the country.
 Tt was a great sight to see on every side long strings of soldiers coming out of the trenches with bayonets fixed and ready for busi- ness. Our protecting barrage kept falling right in front of us and we had to be careful not to go too fast and get hit by our own shells. We knew just how fast we could ad- vance, but the Dutch didn't know 1t and they kept themselves below ground out Of danger We got up to them before they got out of their dugouts. Their machine gunners kept up a steady 'ping, ping" right over our heads and several of our men fell. but it ;s surprising how many bullets can be shot without hitting a man.
 "Kamarad, Kamaradr
 We kept a. steady advance on them, lodging the bullets as best we could. As they would sweep the gun around over the slope we could hear the stream of lead coming from it just like water from a hose. When the wave would go past we would until the next wave went by. Most of the machine gunners would quit their posts when they were rushed a little Some of them, however, stuck right by their guns until a grenade put an end to their career It was a great sight to see long strings Of Heines coming out of the trenches trying to reach the clouds with both hands. and yelling "Kamarad'' to the top of their voices. They were sure
 
 they were so greatly outnumbered They were hustled to the rear in short order and they seemed glad to get out of shell fire Most of them seem- ed to think that there was little hope Of Germany winning the war now that the Americans were in it.
 Huns Feared to Come Out.
 "When We got back into the woods where the dugouts were, we found them full of men who either were afraid to come out or were just wait ing to see if the smelling was over. The first dugout l came to had a bunch in it. I could see their feet down at the foot of the stairway tried on them what fragments Of the German language 1 had left from a short course of it in High School, but they didn't seem to get the idea that I wanted them to come out. l raised my rifle and shot down into the midst of the feet and the result was astonishing. There were six Of them all told, including one sergeant. The others were men ovr forty and boys under twenty.
 Much Booty Captured
 Our men drove on and on from one trench to another until night. It was just like a game Of football, only more thrilling. We took possession of three towns that were on our mar TOW sector, hundreds of prisoners, several large field pieces and lots of machine guns. Besides these things, We got sevral miles Of railroad, sev- etal trairloads of ammunition and several warehouses full of supplies. One of the towns, think, was a sort of supply town for large sector on the German front and 1t looks like We took the stuff they had been planning to use to winter on. They had fine dupouts. bombproof. and