Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-09-03
HARRISBURG LIEUT..
HOME FROM FRONT
.[Continucd from First Pagc.l

4
many of the boys being from Har-
risburg and the Central Pennsylvn-
ala region.
Baptism of Fire
I'VE got our baptism of fire OH
August IA and 49," said the Lieu
tenant, where south of the Marine
in the region of Chateau Thierry we
were under German bombardment
for twenty hours consecutively.
Under this fire my company lost
two men killed and about eighty
wounded. Nose of the casualties
were from shrapnel. high explosives
per cent. of those sent back to the
hospital recovered. Indeed, the
death rate is exceptionally low for
the number of men laid out.
when the Marines had gone
through Chateau Thierry we were
ordered in to take up the drive
against the Germans and up to the
time / left we had driven them back
for thirty-tive miles, taking immense
numbers of prisoners, about 34'OoV
in all for our division alone, hun
dreds of guns and millions of rounds
of ammunition of all kinds, which
many as four and five stories under
ground. Our ammunition wagons
bring up our own AMMUNITION and
take back the captured German
stuff. A significant fact is that much
of this German ammunition was
marked 1918" indicating small
reserve supply in the enemy's hands
when our boys went into the
open fighting beyond Chateau Thier
ry it was like hunting rabbits. We
went right after them and we were
so close at places that we could hear
their bodies fall as the men OF ouf
division shot them down. TheS
fought mostly wits artillery and ma
chine guns, in an effort to save the
retreating infantry and stores, htil
we were so close on their heels thai
many time we captured their SOUP
still hot, where they had been pre-
pairing their dinners.
German Morale Broken
THE men at the machine guns
kept up their fire from the nests pre-
pared from them in advance and after
they had shot as many Americans as
they could, attempted to surrender,
but in many cases the Americans hau
bayoneted them before they had time
to signify their Willingness to quit
The Americans were taking no
chances.
I'VE found them in depressions and
in trees and not a few Huns were
brought down like squirrels from the
topmost branches. One German Of
fcer of artillery I found near his
gun. He was dead and his body was
still warm. A half-finished letter to
his friends back home told the tale
He had been assigned to defend the
| retreating Germans to the last breath
| and said he knew his time was near
| The army had no meat except the
! artillery horses killed by French
| shells, he said. and he had had
quantity of French wheat, which ht
found growing in the fields covered
by the German thrust, threshed anc
was sending it back to his family
| in Germany.
"One of the American regiment:
found three women in uniform in one
| of the captured French trenches
| Whether they were fighting or not
| do not know. But generally speaking
1 believe the German manpower j:
| running low and / am certain the
morale of the troops is breaking.
| know the Germans were driven BY
| their own men with machine gun:
| across to our side of the Marine ant
! | know that those we did not Kill
were captured. None of them evel
! got back and most of them seemed
/ glad to be out of it. They believe
that the cause of Germany is hopeles.
and they now understand that they
have been deceived by their officers
who told them there was but on'
American brigade in France and tha