Perth Amboy evening news., 1918-10-26
Allan Jones Tells of
Fight at st. Mihiel


Allan Northey Jones. son OF Rev.
and Mrs. w. Northey Jones. OF Rec
tor street, has written a very lucid
and startling account of his partici-
patton in the fight for the reduction
Of the st. .Mihiei salient. The letter
follows:
Dear Mother:
The latter part of this past week
we have bee pretty busy. You have
been reading all about il in the pa
pers as the papers are featuring IL as
a major American operation. 1t GER
tainly was a great stroke and execut-
ed in a remarkable short time. OF
course, we can't write much OF the
details. just a few general things.
Our battalion was in support of the
infantry. The evening of the attack
we drove up to what had been the
line in our machines, got out and
started on a forced march following
in support of our infantry who were
close on the heels of fleeing Fritz. In
fact more surrendered than fed.
Such a march as we had that night
we have never before had the equal.
Full packs and machine u equip
ment and the march was long and
the pace pretty fast. Just how far
we marched 1 suppose we can't say
but we did our part of the work,
meeting in the morning the cavalry
which came through from the south
east. We beat the other infantry to
the objective. Our infantry of course
bea the other infantry by a consider
able margin. and captured many pris-
oners and much material. When we
went toward our objective we passed
on our left a town which the outfit
following went into and caught $50
prisoners. We could have had them
just as well as not. only we kept to
the right instead of going into the
town. AS IL was we picked up four
Austrians who surrendered to some
of our fellows as they were coming
along. The prisoners and materials
which were captured by the division
were
l never have seen such a sight as
when in the early morning we got
out of the woods and saw the land
and plains spread out below us and
six or seven villages burning there in
the early morning darkness. But
even with the burning there was
much material left. We for instance
acquired two good big auto trucks.
A number of outfits got trucks. Saw
one American officer riding around in
a little a of a German officer. An
other fellow had a German motor
~ NA1E wv IL SV Ao3A AAAN
lose their autos they are going pretty
fast. There was a good German am
bulance in the town which was our
objective. They got a bunch of Ger
man rolling kitchens. some with the
cooks, horses, soup hot n ready.
That meant breakfast for some of the
fellows. l didn't wait around for any
breakfast, however. The first thing
l did was to get some sleep. There
pyarn Into re voo1hKna I,n nm I4ttIo
carts. We threw the guns on the
ground and o the carts to use for
ourselves. As for guns, bayonets.
gas masks, helmets, etc, they wero
there In abundance and the souvenir
hunters had a great time of ii. Per-
sonally 1 can't see the use in collect
ing a lot of heavy junk which is no
good anyway. I used to collect pos
tails but since I lost them all In July
I've stopped. 1t looks to me as IL
this were going to be more and more
a war of movement and whom one is
continually on the o 1t is impossi-
BILE to carry or have any extra equip
ment. l ever came near throwing
my extra clothing on this last
trip.
There were lots of interesting
things which happened in the opera
At n point a German officer
dIONG tight lnlO our lines IN q ma
chine without knowing 1t; then there
was the getting of the breakfast from
the rolling kitchens, the taking OF
officers and STATS. In n town there
was a German moving picture theatre
and they got the movie machine and
everything untouched so / suppos
our troops that will be there In the
future will have entertainments.
Now we have drawn back and are
camping In what a week ago was no
mans land. a pleasant little valley
from which we can look up and see
used to be the German trenches
one side and the allied trenches
on the other hill.
Some second class mail has iust
in. A package from London
Wanamaker's from father.
and they are mighty good
and fresh and taste fine. Thank you
a lot.
Yesterday a French aeroplane had
make a forced landing right near
us on account OF motor trouble. The
did q wonderful piece of
work in making the landing as this
is very hiily and difficult. The
Is a Spad, one of the best
lighting planes.
While we were up we saw a lot of
operated tanks and saw
one of the fellows who was in our
outfit n who had transferred to the
service. The personnel of our
is rapidly changing and one
Will soon have to be able to speak
italian to make oneself understood.
| am the only N of the class of 1T
from college left now.
Must close for the present. Thank
a lot for the chocolates.