The sun., 1918-10-20

was reported in August in n letter sent
by one OF his comrades who helped bury
the body to the fhther Of the marine Of
ficer. J. NJ. Overton Of Nashville. Tenn.
Johnny overton was one Of the best
amateur runners this country has pro-
duced. He established the record for
1000 yards at minutes Is and 2-b Sec
onds in 1915, and In 1915 he won the
intercollegiate cross country champion
ship. He enlisted in the Marine Corps
soon after the United States got into the
war and speedily won commission
"a man near me was cut in two, Others
when hit would stand. It seemed. an
hour then fall In n heap. l yelled to
Wilmer that each gun in the barrage
worked from right TO left: then rabbit
ran ahead and watched him. wonder
ing IL he would get hit. Good rabbit
It took my mind or the carnage. Looked
for Hughes way over to the right; told
Wilmer that I had hundred dollars
and be sure to get It. You think Of all
kinds OF things
about sixty Germans jumped up out
OF a trench and tried to surrender, but
their machine guns opened up; we hIed
back; they ran and our left company
took after them. That made gap
one OF his to do the Job. then shell lit
cleaned 1t out completely.
Few Left Out of 500.
AT 1880 We dug in--tke attack just
died out. I found n hole or old trench
and when I was fiat on my back I got
some protection. Holcomb was next me |;
Wilmer some way Off. We then tried to
get reports. Two companies we never
could get in touch with. Lloyd came in
and reported he was holding some
trenches near a mill with six men,
| Gates, with his trousers blown of,
said he had sixteen men of various COM
panies; another officer on the right re-
ported he had and could see some forty
men, all told. That. with the headquar-
tiers. was all we could find out about the
battalion of nearly 500. OF the twenty
company officers who went In three
came out and one. Gates, was slightly
BOUNDED.
From then on to about s p. ID life
was n chance and mighty uncomfortable.
1t was hot as furnace. no water. and
they had our range to a 1T" Three
| men lying in a shallow trench near me
| were blown to bits.
81 went to the left OF the line and
found eight wounded men In n shell hole.
| went back to Cates's hole and three
shells landed near them. We thought
they were killed. but they were not hit.
You could hear men calling for help In
the wheat fields. Their cries would get
weaker and weaker and die out. The
German planes were thick In the air
they were In groups of from three to
twenty. They would look us over and
then we would get pounding. One of
our planes got shot DOWN he fell about
1000 feet like an arrow and hit in the
! field back OF us. The tank exploded
and nothing was left
| I'VE had a machine gun officer with
| us and at o'clock a runner came up
and reported that Sumner was killed.
He commanded the machine gun COM
pany with US. He was hit early in the
| fight, by a bullet. bear; can get no
details. At the start he remarked: This
looks easy-they do not seem to have
much art Hughes's headquarters were
all shot up. Turner lost leg.
We'll, we just lay there all through
the hot afternoon 1t was great--a shell
would land nearby and you would
bounce in your hole As twilight came
we sent out water parties for the relief
of the wounded. Then we wondered II
we would get relieved. At 3 o'clock we
got q message congratulating US and
saying the Algerians would take over a,
midnight. We then began to collect our
wounded. Some had been evacuated
during the day. but at that we soon
hsd about twenty on the field near us
A man who had been blinded wanted
me to hold one OF his hands. Another
wounded in the back. wanted his head
patted and so 1t went; one man goi