The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1918-05-10

4
in my dugout.
I went back to the advanced dress
ing station through the hottest shell
fire / ever experienced. More than
once / went down on my face when a
shell burst and the pieces went whiz-
zing over my head. / spent the night
in a mined village where the advanced
dressing station was located, and all
night they shelled it to blazes. 1t was
remarkable how few casualties we
had.
About eleven O'Clock the morning of
the third day shell blew in the side
of our post, but luckily no one was
hurt. We stuck to, it until about four
| in the afternoon, when we saw our
men retiring over ridge in front of
us, keeping up a continuous machine
| gun and rifle fire, and we beat it back
| to another village and opened anoth-
er post.
The Begrimed Lord
| About ten o'clock on tn. morning of
the fourth day Lord Thyme, my col
onel when l was with the battalion,
| stumbled into the shack where 1 was
| sitting. He looked like a ghost. He
had lost his hat, his face was covered
| with a four days beard, the sweat
| had traced tracks in the dust from his
forehead to his chin. His sleeve was
| torn and bloody and he had a cash in
his arm where he had been struck by
piece of flying shell case.
my God, doc, are you here?' he
said. "You got out just in time. The
battalion is all gone. The sunken road
is filled with dead-mostly Huns,
damn 'em. The line broke on the
right; we were surrounded and at
the last we were fighting back and
back. Only thirty of us got away"
So we knew the Boche had broken
through to our right and our left. and
it was question of how long it would
be before we, too, were surrounded,
but we wanted to stick 1t out az long
as we could.
But not more than an hour later
medical officer rushed in from one Of
the battalions and between gasps for
breath told us the Germans were on
the edge of the village, had shot him
through the sleeve with a machine
gun bullet luckily that was alD, and
for US to beat it.
Let me tell you we did. I threw
my knapsack and made the first hun
dred yards in nothing fiat and then
settled down to a walk because I was
so out of breath couldn't run any
more.
The incessant scream and crash and
bang of the shells kept up and the
rat-tat-tat of the machine guns never
ceased. The village Immediately be-
hind us was seething mass of brick
dust, smoke, flame, and bursting
shells. We were told on our way
back that a stand was to be made
behind this village, SO we circled
around it and took up a position
about half mile behind it at a cross
roads.
Unfortunately for us, a six inch bat
terry came into action about fifty yards
from US and, aside from the harassing
effect of the terrific noise, batteries
are always unpleasant neighbors, as
they invite shell fire. We stopped
here until about 40 o'clock at night.
when we were ordered to retire.
There was no way of getting out |
the wounded that we had collected, so
the stretcher bearers carried them on
their stretchers for six or seven miles. |
In fact, we all helped, and when we |
arrived at our destination at o'clock |
in the morning of the fifth day we |
were all in.
l could hardly move, but after two !
big bowls Of hot tea and some hard |
tack / turned in on the floor and slept |
like log. for four hours, when we
moved to another place and opened
dressing station.
Hun Plane Crashes.
On the way German airplane came
down and crashed near the road, but
neither the pilot nor observer were
hurt. They were a couple of rather
neat looking lads about 10 years old
And so it went for three days more,
open dressing station, retire (some-
times on the run), long marches, very
little to eat except what we foraged
from abandoned camps and dumps,
dog tired, sleeping when and where we
could, and finally the division was re-
lieved. We now saw our first civilians,
and last night slept in a bed 1t
wasn't much of bed, and the mattress
was full of humps, but to get my
boots off my sore and aching feet, to
stretch out, and know / wouldn't be
routed out in fifteen minutes-well,
you couldn't have bought that bed
from me for 500.
Did you ever read Robert w. Serv-
ce's description of the retreat from
Mons? Well, that's the way felt:
Tramp, tramp, the grim road the road
from Mons to Wipers;
I've 'ammered out this ditty with me !.
bruised and bleeding feet;
Tramp, tramp, the dim road
We didn't ave no pipers-
All bellies that were 'oller was the |
drums we lad to beat
The ninth day, sitting around the
ire in our mess after the best dinner
We had had in days, the commanding
,ficer handed me some papers and
aid, "Here is something that will in
crest you, Petit I want to say we
hall be sorry to lose you"
And this is what it was: Lieut..
Roswell T. Petit, M. r. c., is relieved
rom duty with the British army and
will proceed to the A. e. f., where he
will report for duty"
leave for Paris In the morning.
This has been long tale, but the half
f 1t hasn't been told. / hope haven't
trung it out too much.
I have Just been informed that all