New-York tribune., 1918-07-07


soldiers was Chicago lad who had
p Geen shot in the leg after gallant
''ght. He was blue-eye round-faced
youhgster who looked strangely out of
rlacc among the older veterans. He
aaid ne was twenty years old, but he
was ., nothing more than ikeable boy
WIN WIN winning but at the moment some
;. Mnat wlstful smile. The correspondent
nn,,r,o!duced himself and told the little
soldier how proud everybody was Of
t tne Americans. The boys lips tremblcd,
out his eyes frightened.
cr;aa arc you from America, too?" he
@nb "1,ho "a. as ne eagerly put out hand.
re was lonely, homesick and hurt
ana ana wanted comfort from somebody
VINO came from home. A friendly chat
pegan and the soldier clung desper-
aeeiy 10y 70 the correspondence hand. Sud-
uenly ms eyes fastened on the corre-
sPondehts British uniform and a look
u disappointment came to his face.
iou re not Yankee. are you? ?" he
asked with quivering voice, and his
eyes were moist The correspondent
assured him to the contrary. Instantly
'ne boy frightened, and throwing his
arm over the correspondents shoulder
ne exclaimed:
I'm mighty glad of that. I'm glad
Then he told the story of his mart
IN the battle and here is the way it
iran: way ~
1--WE all were very anxious to do VOL,
ana an we were ready to fight to finish
we knew there was trouble for us over
there IN No Mans Land. None of our
noys cared for that, but the day before
'he attack all the men of my COMPANY
goC together and shook hands and said
!ooooy Tor, you see, we did not know
IL we should meet again.
had worked very hard to learn
70 70 oe good soldier. for I wanted to
be credit to the folks back
nome. guess I must have learned
something, for my commander gave
me tWenty-four of our chaps to lead
ever the top as corporal. And my men
fought Welt" =
He paused, his face glowing with
honest pride, and then continued:
AT midnight Wednesday We went
forward and lay out in the open wait
ing tor the signal to advance. Then
apout daylight came the barragc. 1t
was pretty big thing. the biggest VIC
ever heard. 1t was Just like real
ourth of July celebration. The time
came for the charge and we pushed
out.
"A few of our boys were too anxious
and they got so close to the barrage that
they were hurt. My pal was struck by
shell beside me-"
Again he stopped and this time there
we're tears IN his eyes and big lump
was working in his throat. There was
silence for a moment and abruptlv he
went on; "
I'VE were advancing toward Hamel
village and had to go over one slope.
then down into a little valley and IN
another hill. We got along all right.
but down in the valley there was lot
OF barbed wire that held us up some.
l Know | got caught, but not for ycrv
long. y
Our men were fighting like any,
thing and killing a lot of Boches who
were IN the trenches and shell holes.
yelling Kamerad!' and surrendering.
| too. e'
Two OF the Boches came running. IN
TO me with their hands over their
heads | didn't know what to do with
them, but an officer came along and
sent them to the rear.
lhen We went on and had about
| reached our objective when something
MT me in the leg and ! went down.
tired to get up, but my leg wouldn't
let me and | was dizzy. While I was
on my knees I saw two Boches cbarr, p9
ing at me with fixed bayonets. | had
the butt of my rifle resting on the
ground, my finger on the trigger, and
hred when they were about ten wards
away. One of them fell over dead. but
the other kept on coming and was on
me before l could throw in a fre.h
cartridge.
Then knew had to fight him with
.he oayonet like man. So I got to
my feet somehow and as he jabbed at
me with his bayonet, l parried it with
my rihe and then swung the rifle to
his head as hard as | could. The blow
broke his skull and he went down
That's all I remember until | woke nm
and found chum beside me. He had
gone out and brought me back"
Just across the way was another
Chicago corporal who had been wound
ed three times in the fighting about
Vaire and Hamel Woods To compen-
safe for his hurts he himself had
killed seven Boches in fair fighting.
his platoon drove up toward the
woods from the south. The ground
was bad and there was some wire Oh
structing the way. They pushed for
ward, however, until they came up
against q German machine gun nest
camoufiaged in a wheat field. This
post was spraying the advancing troops
vlciously with bullets
About this time the corporal was
wounded in the leg, but despite his in
Jurles he kept going. The machine
gun fire became too hot and the cor
poral deliberately charged the nest
with bombs Here he killed four Ger
mans with his explosives and silenced
the rapid frer
Just beyond he saw a German run
ming into a dugout and he followed
the enemy under ground. 1t was dark.
but he got his man with the bayonet,
AS the corporal was returning up the
stairway he was attacked by another
German. This one also was finished
with the bayonet after the corporal
himself had been wounded again.
little later he accounted for his
seventh German and then, having sus-
tanned another bullet wound. he fell
uInconsclous. The corporal said, as the
others had, that the Americans fought
fiercely and we'll. Their only fault
seemed to be that they were too anx-
lous to get forward quickly and few
entered the barrage as a penalty.
German prisoners taken yesterday
and at other times recently have been
much surprised to learn of the number
OF Americans on this side. The Ger
man higher command has been spread
ing reports that the overseas troops
were not arriving in such numbers as
Entente capitals claim.