The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1918-07-12
YANKEES RETAkE PRISONERS
GAINED BY HUNS AT HAMEL


With the British Army In France
July lin the German counter at
lacks against the new Positions gain
ed by the Australians and Americans
around Hamel two Americans and five
Australians We're captured by the enc
my. Volunteers we're called for and
an American party brought back the
| captured men and a German officer.
while ~ Australians brought The rum
Der of German prisoners to 90. The
story of this incident as told by an
| American officer who took part in the
fighting follows:
The boches did not bother us until
Thursday night when they mad" their
| counter attack which ives repulsed.
| They did succeed In the III, rash,
however. in gettIae bold OF TWO Aners-
cans and five Australians whom they
carried back.
We Immediately called for volunteers
to go out after these captured lads and
all our men at once began yelling for
the chance, Cop, Raymond Powell
was first up and re mas given a a1uad
of men for the cork.
The guns nad put down sstvy
barrage, but the corporal led AIS ..l;aos
straight through t,is fierce fire and
charged hotfoot after the retIea;ing
enemy. The Gernans retired 10
strong point, but the Corporal With
the other Yankees went in after them.
Take Fifty Prisoners.
Our two boys were retaken along
with the five ALs.r7liaLs and the Cor
poral and his party also Sai;tui ed a
boche officer. in The meantime - Au-
stralians had circled around and joined
the American oarty, with he result
that so German DrisoEers weea brought
back.
That night n bochs sniper eau sed "A
lot of trouble from a nest in III. Fl ont
line and one of my men went out
across No Mans Land alone after him.
The Yankee got him and left him dead
on the field.
the grit Of an American Corporal. the
officer continued;
An Australian officer was telling me
about one of our Corporals who did
what was considered fine piece of
work. This lad had charge of ma
chine gun squad. Early in the push
all Of his comrades were knocked out
by shell fire and he was left alone
with the gun.
He knew that the gun was needed.
so he started forward with 1t himself
1t was no light job, but he kept setting
1t UP and working it until he got thru
to the final objective and made his III
nal stand. He was pumping away re-
ligiously at tine boohes, and the Aus
tralian officer was watching him with
interest, for he knew he was green
man and admired the way he was car
rying on.
Suddenly the Corporal raised him
self up and then Topped 10 his knee
again with his head hanging.
What's the matter, Yalk? Are You
hit? called the officer.
No sir, replied the CORPORAL quickly, |
but do you know this darned thing
don't kick at all.
After fighting magnificently with his |
gun for so long the Corporal had just
made that big discovery and he simply
stopped firing for a moment to inspect |
the gun with new interest. The oft
Ger was delighted with the soldiers ac-
ton and told the story to us later
We were surprised. the officer added |
at some of the prisoners taken. Most |
of them were strapping fellows and |
there were lot of them who. while 4
big. were very young. The boche put |
over some gas at one time, but IL was /
only mighty good experience for our !
men. as they were equipped with the
masks.
want to say here that those Aus
tralians are magnificent fighters va
have been learning the game FIR, 4
them Our fellows watched the vet
Grams closely and il was case of i'm
ltation without second lesson
Rewarded With Mail.
During the evening of the day the
spent with the Ameri-
cans big bunch of mail arrived from
home and there was great jubilatio7
among the men to have letters from
The folks as a reward for their work
IN the trenches. One young fellow
,ame tearing around waving a torn
dollar bill which he had just found in
l letter
got it, l got it. he yelled with de-
light.
Five francs kid. laughed an officer
who was standing by.
1t amt It's dollar and it's from
home. and the boy was off with his
treasure.
All the Americans are anxious to get
nto the fight again and are watching
eagerly for the next call