The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1918-05-02

in several hundred yards away. The
cannon fire ceased, the machine guns
settled down to an occasional titful
burst and it was midday Of beautiful
| spring day.
A couple Of partridge few over me.
| What did they know or care about all
this noise and racket and men getting
up in line and killing each other?
Along about three o'clock things be-
gan to liven up again. In the mean
/ time headquarters had been establish
ed in a sunken road with banks about
fifteen feet high on either side Oater
! this cut was half filled with dead).
My aid post was In a dugout near by
md gradually things got hotter and
! hotter.
Our men had dug themselves in
and were popping away with their
| rifles. The field batteries behind us
We're putting up barrage, airplanes
were circling overhead, both ours and
! the Germans. The Germans put up a
counter-barrage the machine guns
were going like mad. ! was standing
with the colonel on little rise Of
ground above the sunken road when
the Germans broke through about a
mile to the north of us They could
be plainly seen pouring over the ridge
in close formation.
Tanks Get Into Action.
Then the tanks came up. and you
should have seen them run Just like
rabbits The tanks retired; this
Boches reformed and came at II
again. They tell me that at certain
places our men withStood fifteen sue
cesSive attacks and that the Germans
went down in thousands. One Welsh
man told me that his gun accounted
for 70 in three minutes during one
wave.
Machine gun bullets were nlpping
around me, the shell fire was getting
hotter and even though II was won
derful sight TO watch | decided "dls-
or something like that, and got down
IN my dugout.
was sitting there smoking n Gig
arctic when my orderly came down
and said was being relieved and was
to go back and work with the nmbu-
lance. Fifteen hours later the man
that relieved me was captured. But
/ am getting ahead OF my story.
| went back 10 the advanced dress
ing station through the hottest shell
fire ever experienced. More than
once | went down on my face when
shell burst and the pieces went whz-
zng over my head. l spent the night
in mined village where the advanced
dressing station was located, and all
night they shelled II to bazeS. 1t was
remarkable how few casualties we
had
About eleven o'clock the morning OF
the third day a shell blew In the side
Of our post, but luckily no one was
hurt We stuck to II until about four
In the afternoon when we saw our
men retiring over a ridge in front OF
MS keeping up a continuous machine
gun and rife fire, and we beat II back
TO another village and opened anoth-
er post
Tho 6egrimed Lord.
About ten O'Clock on the morning Of
the fourth day Lord Thyme, my col
onel when ! was with the battalion,
stumbled into the shack where | was
sitting He looked like a ghost. He
had lost his hat, his face was covered
with four days beard the sweat
had traced tracks in the dust from his
forehead to his chin. His sleeve was
torn and bloody and he had a cash in
his arm where he had been struck by
a piece of flying shell case.
my God, doc, are you here" he
said you got out just in time The
battalion is all gone. The sunken road
is filled with dead-mostly Huns,
damn EN-. The line broke on the
right: we were surrounded and at
the last we were fighting back and
back. only thirty OF us got away"
SO we knew the Boche had broken
through to our right and our left, and
It was a question Of how long II would
be before we. too, were surrounded.
but we wanted to stick it out as long
MS we could
But not more than an hour later a
medical officer rushed In from one OF
the battalions and between gasps for
breath told us the Germans were on
the edge Of the village. had shot him
through the sleeve with machine
gun bullet Quickly that was ALL, and
for us TO beat It.
The ninth day, sitting around the
fire In our mess after the best dinner
we had had in days, the commanding
| officer handed me some papers and
said, Here is something that will in
tercst you, Petit, | want to say we
shall be sorry TO lose YOU
And this is what it was: Lieut.
Roswell r. Petit, NJ n. c., Is relieved
from duty with the British army and
will proceed to the A. L.. r., whore he
will report FOR duty"
| leave for Paris in the morning.
This hns been long tale, but the halt
Of It hasn't been told hope haven't
strung II out too much.
have just been Informed that all
my KIT had to be burned to prevent II
| falling into the hands OF the enemy.
| shall probably want you to send me
some things from home, but will see
what | can get here first. Your son.
ROSWELL.
/ stands for. And so, as somebody's