River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1918-05-09
illinois Officer Relates Experience
of Hun Attack on the
British.
TEN DIVISIONS AGAINST ONE
Despite Overwhelming Number of En-
envy, His Losses Were Great
Miraculous Escape From Bap-
tisn of Shell Fire.

M. OR. g., or Ottawa, ILL.,, IN letter
to his father, DIR. J. W. Petit of the
Ottawa tuberculosis colony, and pub
lished in the Chicago Tribune, relates
the thrilling story of the great battle
in Picardy. The American officer was
in the thickest of the fighting for nine
days, during the retreat of the British
Fifth army from before st. Quentin.
Lieutenant Pettit's account of the bat
tie thrills with the stress of the con-
fiict, as it was written Immediately
after he had passed through the ire
mendous experiences and before his
impressions had been in any way dulled
by time. His letter follows:
Lieutenant Pettit's Letter.
March 80.
Dear Father: Now that the show is
over for me for the time being, and
have time to breathe and sleep and eat
and write, I'll try and tell you about
the battle. Before you receive this
you will have had the whole story from
the papers, but / know you will be
interested in knowing what / did in the
affair.
Of course, the things / saw were but
an infinitesimal part of a gigantic
whole and it would be impossible for
me to give a correct description Of the
battle. And as 1 write this, do it
with no knowledge whatever of what
has been going on even a few miles
from me.
I have not seen a paper in eight days;
] have received no mail, and the only
information we have received has been
by word Of mouth, and most of what
we hear must be wild rumors. For ex-
ample: The French have advanced
20 miles at Verdun, the Ameri-
cans have taken Ostend and are on
their way to Zeebrugge, and great
naval battle has been fought in the
North sea.
All know is that on this part of the
front the Germans attacked us mover
whelming numbers, in places ten divi-
sions to our one; that they suffered
terrible losses, but finally broke
through our lines of defense, one after
another, and fighting for the most part,
a rear guard action, we have retired
about Is miles in a straight line.
For a week before the battle started
we had been expecting it; we were
ready to move on 80 minutes no.
tice. l had been out with cOmbatant
as well as medical officers on tours of
reconnaissance, definite methods of
evacuation of the wounded had been
worked out, and our plans of counter
attack been made. After -four or five
days of waiting, the storm finally
broke.
The Boche opened up on us at a. M,
March 81, with the heaviest barrage /
have ever heard. "Stand to-" was
sounded, we turned out dressed, and
had all our equipment packed in 80
minutes. Then we sat down and
waited for orders to move. The bar
rage kept up continuously, sometimes
heavier and then of less intensity,
sometimes 1t seemed to be to the north
of us and then suddenly it switched to
the south.
Our balloons were up as soon as 1t
was light and the airplanes were buz-
xing over our heads. The ground mist
gradually cleared and the Germans
put q hail of shrapnel on our camp
and we all took cover, but three men
were hit. Why it is a fellow always
feels safer with a roof over his head,
even If he knows bullets and shrapnel
and pieces of shell will go through
boards and corrugated iron just like
paper.
Ordered to Move.
Our orders to move finally came and
we marched off to the brigade assem-
bly, point several miles away. This as
4embly point was in little bunch of
trees about the size of Allen park and
behind and separated from a larger
wood in front. In the larger wood
there was battery of heavy artillery
and shells were dropping in there two
or three to minute, and it was heavy
stuff, too.
Sometimes they overshot the big
wood and shells were landing in the
open around the little wood where my
DEIkaUG Idu It's ASSEMBLY, point. AS
we approached our little copse we
could make all this out from some dis
tance away and it wasn't a pleasant
sensation to feel that we were march
Ing straight into it.
All the battalionS arrived and in that
little copse there must have been at
least two thousand men. What a
chance if the Germans only knew! But
the shells continued to drop in front of
us and on either side, but none landed
among US, and after waiting there for
three hours, expecting to be blown to
bits any second, we finally moved for
ward. Just as we left the copse, from
behind US, up over a ridge, came a
stream of galloping horses.
Its the cavalry" someone shouted,
but soon made out limbers and field
guns.
They gaaloped past us, going like
mad, took up a position to our right,
swung into position, numbered. and