The Elbert County tribune., 1918-05-10
Illinois Officer Relates Experience
of Hun Attack on the
British.
ten DIVISIONS AGAINST One
Despite Overwhelming Number Of En-
envy, His Losses Were Great
Miraculous Escape From Bap-
tism Of Shell Fire.

l..
NJ OR. c.. Of Ottawa, H., In letter
to his father, DIR. ]. W. Petit of the
Ottnwa tuberculosis colony. ard pub
lished in the Chicago Tribune. relates
the thrilling story of the great bettle
In Picardy. The American officer was
in the thiekest of the fighting for nine
days, during the retreat Of the British
Fifth army from before st. Quentin.
Lieutenant Pettit's account of the bat
tie thrills with the stress of the con-
f1ict. as 1t was written Immediately
after he had passed through the ire
mendous experiences and before his
Impressions had been In any way dulled
by time. His letter follows:
Lieutenant Pettlts Letter.
March 80.
Dear Father: Now that the show is
have time to breathe and sleep and eat
and write, I'll try and tell you about
the battle. Before you receive this
you will have had the whole story from
the papers. but l know you will be
interested in knowing what did in the
affair.
OF course, the things saw were but
an infinitesimal part of gigantic
whole and 1t would be impossible for
me to give a correct description of tie
battle. And as l write this, do 1t
with no knowledge whatever of what
has been going on even few miles
from me.
Ihave not seen paper in eight days;
a Il.
information we have received has been
by word of mouth, and mos. of what
we hear must be wild rumors. For ex-
ample: The French have advanced
20 miles at yerdun, the Ameri-
cans have taken Ostend, and are on
their way to Zeebrugge, and a great
naval battle has been fought in the
North sea.
All know is that on this part of the
front the Germans attacked us in over
whelming numbers. in places ten divi-
sions to our one; that they suffered
terrible losses, but finally broke
through our lines of defense, one after
Another, and sighting for the most part,
a rear guard action, we have retired
about IS miles in straight line.
For week before the battle started
we had been expecting 1T; we were
ready to move on 80 minutes no
tice. / had been out with combatant
as well as medical officers on tours of
reconnaissance, definite methods of
evacuation Of the wounded had been
Ntteck been made. After four or five
dag of waiting. the storm finally
brakN
The Boche opened up on us. at a. M,
March 21, with the heaviest barrage 1
have ever heard. "Stand to-" was
sounded, we turned out dressed, and
had all our equipment packed in 80
minutes. Then we sat down and
waited for orders to move. The bar
rage kept up continuously, sometimes
heavier and then of less intensity.
sometimes 1t seemed to be to the north
Of US and then suddenly it switched to
the south.
Our balloons were up as soon as 1t
was light and the airplanes were buzz
zlng over our heads. The ground mist
gradually cleared and the Germans
put hail of shrapnel on our camp
and we all took cover. but three men
were hit. Why 1t is fellow alweys
feels safer with roof over his head,
even II he knows bullets and shrapnel
and pieces of shell will go through
boards and corrugated iron just Ike
paper.
Ordered to Move.
Our orders to move finally cane and
we marched off to the brigade assem-
bly, point several miles away. This as
sembly point was in little bunch of
trees about the size of Allen park and
behind and separated from a larger
wood in front In the larger wood
there was . battery of heavy artillery
and shells were dropping in there two
or three to minute, and it was heavy
stun, too.
Sometimes they overshot the big
wood and shells were landing in the
open around the little wood where my
brigade had Its assembly point. As
we approached our little copse we
could make all this out from some dis
lance away and it wasn't pleasant
sensation to feel that we were march
ing straight into 1t.
All the battalions arrived and in that
little copse there must have been at
least two thousand men. What a
chance IL the Germans only knew But
the shells continued to drop in front of
US and on either side, but none landed
among us. and after waiting there for
three hours, expecting to be blown to
bits any second. we finally moved for
ward. Just rs we left the copse. from
behind us, up over n ridge. came a
stream of galloping horses
''It's the cavalry" someone shouted.