Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-11-04
PHILADELPHIA BOY HOME:
LONE SURVIVOR OF SHELL
Private AtSer Bears Sirteen-Tnch
Scar as Souvenir of German
Cunnery
Five Companions Who Shared
Shelter Of Crater Lost Their
Lires

1--WE Philadelphia boys and French
= sergeant who was leading them took
refuge in a shell crater in No Mans
Land on the Lorraine front the night of
June 81. A German high explosive
shell fell in their midst. and all but one
were killed
Private Samuel Atzer Is the lone sur
vivor of the party ard he is home now
on a furlough, visiting his mother, Mrs.
Rebecca Atzer, 1915 South Sixth street.
AS souvenir of that nights action
Private Atzer has a scar sixteen inches
long across his abdomen. How he es-
capped death has been n marvel to both
French and American surgeons. lie was
in two hospitals three months in all.
The Philadelphia boys In the party
who were killed were Corporal Simcoe
and Prlvates Wiess. Wilson and Kro-
sonsky. They have all appeared in the
casualty lists. All but Wilson were
killed outright, and he died the next
day in the hospital beside Atzcr.
Five of us volunteered" said Atzer.
ito go as a raiding party. ahead of a
patrol A French sergeant led us. We
had gone about fifty yards when the
Germans opened up with machine guns
We dropped into a shell hole for shell
ter. Then the shell came. / heard 1t
move. I don't remember hearing it cx-
plcde. j don't remember anything until
I woke up some time later with an
empty feeling in my stomach. l didn't
know what was the matter, but I put
my hand down into a big hole in my
stomach. Then l knew / was wounded
IL didn't have any water with me-.
We all left our canteens back in the
trench so we could carry more grenades.
l threw eight grenades and 1 know we
got some Germans, because we threw
the grenades right among them.
Il called for help and a little later
a patrol party was passing without see
ing me. I called to the sergeant but
he couldn't stop. I reached out and
took Private Mellow, of Boston, a friend
of mine, by the leg. He stopped and
the sergeant ordered him to go ahead.
All this time shells were falling thick
all around. Mellow went and got Pri-
vate Pascale, of New York, and they
carried me fifty yards over the exposed
ground to our front trench. Shells were
falling very near
Then I was put on a stretcher and
| carried two more miles to an ambu-
| lance. 1t was morning when they got
me there and I had been wounded at
about 80 the night before. / don't
know how long was unconscious
Atzer was drafted January and sent
| to Camp Meade. Three weeks later he
volunteered to fill up the ranks of the
regular army and was assigned to Gem
| pany NJ SiXty-tirst Infantry. He got
| to Franco in April and went to the Tou
| front the next month. He participated
| in q drive there on June 8 and c, but
escaped without IL scratch. He was
| moved to- the Lorraine sector June =.
Going over to France Atzer's convo!
was attacked by three submarines sixty
miles off the coast of France. All the
soldiers on board were in the lifeboats
ready to be lowered. when the war.
ships came back with word that one
submarine had been sunk.
Atzer praised the American convo!