The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-06-27

1 However, young men without depend-
 ents not engaged in an essential indus l try will be placed at the bottom of class 1 1 and as the men now in that class soon will be exhausted, they undoubted- | lv will be called within a few months. | Those placed in the deferred classes are 1 not likely to be called at afl, certainly not for sometime to come.
 Ia report that there were number of
 American wounded in a shell hole Tn
 No Mans Land 1t was daytime, and l the fight ot it's worst Nevertheless
 10 boys, all from Watertown, Mass,
 erawIed out. They found the wounded
 and were bringing them back, when ! a barrage forced them into another lcrater. They stayed there several hours, caring for the wounded When
 the firing slackeped, they came back
 another hundred yards, when q second barrage cut them off. Again they hid | in shell hole, and it was not until
 o'clock in the morning that the medi- cal unit brought the wounded into Dr. iDudley's post. Everyone in it was ex- {, hausted, but the lives of the wounded men were saved
 l No less heroic was the act of the 1 Rev Father J. B. DeValle of New Bedford, Mass. He had refused to stay l behind when the men went into the
 battle, saying that whatever spiritual aid he could give would be given in ithe trenches. Besides encouraging the men, he had opportunities for distrib- uting coffee and cigarettes and assist lig the medical corps.
 In one of the hand hand encoun- iters an American soldier was seen to i fall in No Mans Land. It was pre- sumed that he was wounded and un- able to drag himself into shell hole l or back to the trenches where he
 would be safe from the enemy fire. Our back and there being no one in the trenches, Padre Devalle climbed over
 the parapet, came up to the wounded man and carried him on his shoulder back over the parapet and to relief 1post. l These are all incidents in which there | is some special nuance of fine action, of self sacrifice, of human glory But we
 have them also in the straight and steady fighting which. made up most of the four days. The Germans had prepared for victory by at least 10 days of smelling,
 intensified the last days, so that the American front line trenches were almost
 leveled, being merely shallow ditches
 without protection. Captain Comedy of l Wakefield, Mass, was in command of one
 of our wings. In the 24 hours whic. i included the crisis of the battle Cap
 tain Comedy was asked by the French
 regiment on his wing to make two coun- i ter attacks. Captain Comedy made
 them. He was entirely successful in
 each. His men told me why
 FIRST MAN OVER
 | Captain Comedy was the first man
 over in both attacks z they said God,
 but it was a great sight when he gave
 the word and then started out ahead of us. We couldn't help it. We just had | to shout The Yankees are coming 1 someone cried out, and we all took it
 up as we came along behind Captain 1 Comedy. ssfsys
 Then in the second counter attack we did the same thngs at inspired us to see Captain Comedy lNlFng the way, and 1 know there isn't a man in the company now who wouldn't give his
 chance for his life for him, or any of- ficer like him."
 Lieutenant Wilcox got 19 German pris-
 oners and Lieutenant Edwards former
 Boston newspaper man, got Il. They had report that German squad had en-
 tered the deserted and shattered front line. The lieutenants got their men to- gether and advanced on gthe Hanks of the trench. Lieutenatn Edwards and his
 men came upon the Il who surrendered without protest &
 Lieutenant Wilcox passed several dug outs which he believed contained Ger mans He therefore left two men at
 
 get their Boches or throw grenades into the dugouts if the Germans refused to surrender.
 He advanced alone, armed with an au- tomatic. and came upon 1s
 Hands up, Fritzr' he commanded. Then he began calling to the men he had left behind, no more than half dozen in all.
 The Germans believing he was sum moning at least a platoon. held up their hands. Lieutenant Wilcox signaled for them to advance singly, and as they passed him he searched each one for arms, ordered him down the trench, and kept his pistol covering the others This exploit sets the American record for single handed captures. s@
 There are more incidents of like great nature Many more. Those have mentioned have verified. one was told me by the general commenting the dl- vision, who has asked General Pershins | to award the officer and have talked to several of the heroic members of this heroic unit.
 The official communicate covering the action which have tried to Illustrate was extraordinarily long. It consisted of more than 20 words. But the off cial communicate at it's best is blood less and cold and colorless and imper- sonal as black. desert night. and what does it know of the man who gave his life for another and the suffering and heroism, the moments ur glory and ex- altation and the fierce splendor which has crowned many a pale American boy in this hell of battle? It tells you merely | the resulting fact. But next time you read: An enemy attack against our lines on a front of kilometres broke down l with heavy losses think of Poster and | Day, Ferguson Flesher. Connety, Dud- 1 I,1 Think others whose names no one remembers l Think of those who did as much and did not live to gain an earthly reward
 A hundred gestures of nobility have marked this fight. The sons of Ireland and Italy and Russia and the sons of | the Plymouth Fathers-the sons of Lex mgton today--have shown the world how America fights when she fights l again for freedom. Copyright. 1918. by Edward Marshalp | KinU and Queen Of England |