The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1918-12-13
Describes St.
Mihiel Drive

periences of one American soldier in
the flaming NAV of war through
which the all-American forces fought
victoriously in the famous st. Mihiel
drive, is given in letter just receive
ed from Private S. L. Powell, 96th
company, Sixth U. 8. marines, by his
sister-in-law, Mrs. M. L. Powell, 2190
Lake Street, Salt Lake City.
Private Powell Is a Salt Lake boy,
an denlisted in the marines in this
city April 20, 1917, after having SER
we'd on the Mexican border with the
Utah troops. He was with the ma
rines through the Chateau Thierry
drive, where he was gassed with
mustard gas and sent to the hos
pital. He went through the St.
Mihiel drive unscathed, and was la
ter in the battle of the Argonne,
where both arms were pierced by
machine gun bullets which sent him
to base hospital in Paris, where
he was when he wrote his letter,
dated October rs. Since it is learn
ed that he was discharged from the
hospital November 1 and has again
joined his company.
Private Powell's description of
the st. Mihiel drive is a remarkably
vivid closeup of war as 1t is in
a major offensive, and is replete with
intimate details such as only SOL
ider who has been thru it can give.
Go Forward in Dark.
His letter, which is probably the
first detailed description Of the. drive
written by soldier in the action to
be published here, says:
Starting Labor day, we commen-
ced moving up toward the front,
hiking in the dark and sleeping in
the woods in the daytime. The
morning Of the 18th we were on the
last lap, having reached, at last, the
trenches we were to start from just
before dawn. That night had been
a nightmare to us, rain and wind
with stops every few rods to let
other outfits by. The roads were
packed with infantry, artillery,
tanks, ammunition trains and every
thing it takes to make an army.
"At 1 o'clock the night of the II,
my battalion was marching serenely
along the road when the nights still
ness was split with deafening
crash, which seemed to come from
right where we stood. 1t was the
first shot of one of the greatest bar
RACES of this war, and was fired
from fourteen-inch gun about fifty
yards from where I stood. Then
hell broke loose.
In No Mans Land.
"You see, at that time / was in
what is called the back area, or
with the 'heavies.' From that time
on we kept moving forward, passing
the 'heavies,' the heavy field artil-
lery and then the light field artillery
until finally we were between two
lines of fire, the German on our
front an dour own in our rear. That's
where we jumped off into No Mans
Land, a no-man's land that had, with
only a few kilometers' variation,
been the same since 1914.
That's the way we started off.
That barrage was one we had whis-
pered of for months previous in the
hospitals or in billets wherever we
happened to be. 1t reached from
the Swiss border to Verdun, and was
to cost, as the different stories ran,
from $5O,000,000 to $150,000,00O.
1T was a bedlam of noise. Can
mons in front Of us; cannOns in the
rear, all sizes Of projectiles whining
and screaming thru the night, with
shrapnel breaking in the air and the
thunder of high explosive as the
shells burst.
Glare of Gunfire
Behind us in the glare of gunfire
in front the dull, angry red glow of