The sun., 1918-10-17
LOST BATTALION
lSAVER TELLS0F
WAR'SEXPLOIT'
Lieut.. Arthur McKeOgh Ar
rives Here With A Other
Pershing Heroes.
EX-"EvENING sun" MAN
His Tidings to Colonel Brought
4 Relief to Americans Who
s Were Trapped.

said recently 10 a German prisoner JUS
captured Mt st. Mfhiel--thc couvcrsa
ation between the Frenchmln and III,
sGerman being repeated yesterday at tn,
Fourth Liberty Loan headquarters b,
one OF a group OF Pershing's Officers
who arrived here direct from Franc,
yesterday at noon to help boost the lag
sging Liberty Loan. Tell me, do yoy
Germans still have faith in your motto
a'Gott nit Uns?"
Yes" answered the German prisoner
40 the Frenchman, a bit weakly. Blu,
you Frenchmen have the Americans with
you"
Some of the reasons why the Bochs
coupled Yankee help with even the leu
tonic version of personally owned
2''Gott" were easily apparent as one
ilistened to the scraps of tales that came
from the lips Of the offlcers-forty- five In
alias they smoked their cigars after
luncheon at the Bankers Club and
rested for moment before hurrying into
the streets to try by personal effort "a
top.
Just Out of Battle.
They had Just come out OF the 70, of
the fighting in France, one OF them NO
very recently that II might almost be
said he stepped directly from the ranks
of the magnificent Lost Battalion" on
sthe Island Of Manhattan. Seemingly Il
was only hours earlier that America had
LEARNED that the immortal battalion had
been lost, surrounded. in the gloom and
jungle OF the Forest OF Argonne ard
Hound again, yet here In Manhattan was
zone of the lost band, a wound stripe on
ibis arm, who a moment before had
stepped ashore here from the deck of one
of the speediest of ocean liners now in
e9overnment service.
And from his own lips, although he
did not say 80 in so many words, II was
learned that II was left to n one time
reporter on THE EVENING SUN 10 save
the Lost Battalion from humiliation.
The name of the lad--his years still
mako 1t possible to speak of him almost
as IL he were boy--is Arthur McKeoah
He lived at 81 East Ninety third street
and was youthful Newspaper man Mt
the time the nrst P1attsburg camp was
opened by Gen. Leonard Wood. Imme.
stately Mckeogh went into training at
sPiattsburg. When he entered the war
ne got commission as Second Lieuten,
amt Of Infantry and was sent to Camp
Upton. Last April ne sailed for France
as one Of the greater city's own Seventy
seventh Division.
& Hurried Back Into Fighting.
) He and his platoon for six weeks were
at Arras backing the British as reserves
end then were sent TO n sector of their
own in Lorraine. Next McKeogh was
Fighting near the Vesle and later on the
Aisne, and after almost five months of
hard service he and his brother youthful
VETERANS" were headed westward along
q French road happily toward merited
rest, when they were stopped in the
Roadway. ordered about face. and hur-
fied back into the lighting IN the
Argonne.
1t was there. in the last few days of
the month just passed, that the first OF
the shadows and almost impenetrab,e
underbrush OF the forest Happenings
came so fast Immediately after that on
an early day in the present month
young as October. 1918. still is-a SUI
perior American officer was feeding the
Vanished lad with wheat cakes, and
while hurrying of the saviors Of the
Lost Battalion" which the New York
boy had braved hell TO fetch, was slap
ping Mckeogh on the shoulder and say
ing, And now II you're able, or whether
you are or not. report this morning at
= prepared to leave Immediately for
home. Thanks and good luck to you.
SIR. and do what you can for the loan"
{ Yesterday Lieut.. McKeogh and the
Two score or more officers who had Just
arrived with him gave dozens OF words
60 praising the magnificent bravery and
nghting qualities Of what one of them
spoke or affectionately as the pants
makers and buttonhole workers" in New
sfork's own Seventy-seventh Division, to
one word they gave about their personal
exploits. But partly from McKeogh and
mostly from others in the group the
story was learned which told how the
~Lost Battalion" was found again.
Battalion Outstrips Division.
4 A part in the big twenty mile push
hrst was played by the Lost Battalion"
on the night of September 25. With
Major now Lieut.-CoL Charles W.
whittiesey urging the soldiers onward
the battalion advanced all day On the
z6th. bivouacking that night In a German
trench line known as the Tirpltz, and
heading onward and onward the next day
and the next and next. so fast did Whit
tlesey make them peg along through the
machine gun storm which the retreating
Germans sent back that the battalion
soon began to outstrip the American
division TO its left The Lost Battalion"
had reached and passed L'IIomme Mort,
the ravlne In which France first pro-
nounced the motto OF Verdun, '"They
shall not pass" and still went onward.
McKeogh, by this TINA a First Ian
tenant and adjutant. had stationed run
nerB at regular intervals along the line
10 keep In communication with the units
which the battalion so randy was out
stripping. But late one day, while try
Ing to get word from Major Whittlesey
back 10 his superiors Lieut.. McKeoRh
found that his Post No. 10, n cemetery,
on the line OF communication had been
wiped out.
On the morning OF September 20
Major Whittlesey told McKeogh TO take
hve French machine gun teams and try
10 restore the human break in the line
at Post No 10. McKeogf and his men
crawled TO the cemetery and tried to |
carry out their orders. but came so close
10 being overwhelmed by superior Ger
man forces that his doughty Major had |
10 call him or. BY now the roar and |
barking OF machine guns on the Lost |
Battalion's" left began TO convince them |
Tor the first time that they really were !
lost"
Selects Two Runners.
select two runners" Major white
sey said TO McKeoRh, land try to get
back through the German lines"
Wnereupon Lieut.. Mc;<eogh picked |
eut Manhattan garment worker named |