Judsonia weekly advance., 1918-05-08
Storm of Shell Fire Described by
 Illinois Officer.
HUN SLAUGHTER WAS GREAT
First Lieutenant Petit of Ottawa. In Letter to His Father Gives Details of Battle in Which British
 Fought at Great Odds.

 treat in the terrific battle in Picardy is most interestingly detailed by First Lieutenant Roswell T. Petit, NJ. O. R C., of Ottawa. H., in a letter to his father, Dr. J. w. Petit of the Ottawa tuberculosis colony and published in the Chicago Tribune. For nine days the American officer was in the thick est of the fighting, and during the re- treat of the British Fifth army from before St. Quentin. His account of the battle thrills with the stress of the herculean conflict, as 1t was detailed immediately after he had passed through the terrible experience and be- fore his impressions had been dulled by time. His letter:
 Lieutenant Pettits Letter.
 March 30.
 Dear Father: Now that the show is over for me for the time being and 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 I know you will be interested in knowing what did in the affair.
 Of course the things I saw were but an infinitesimal part of a gigantic whole and it would be impossible for me to give a correct description of the battle. And as I write this, I do it with no knowledge whatever of what has been going on even few miles from me.
 l have not seen a paper in eight days; ] have received no mail, and the only information we have received has been by word of mouth, and most of what we hear must be wild rumors. For ex- ample: The French have advanced 20 miles at verdun, the Ameri- cans have taken Ostend, and are on their way to Zeebrugge, and great naval battle has been fought in the North sea.
 All know is that on this part of the front the Germs:3 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 fighting for the most part, a rear guard action. we have retired about 15 miles in straight line.
 For week before the battle started we had been expecting it; we were ready to move on 30 minutes no- tice. had been out with combatant as we'll as medical officers on tours of reconnaissance, definite methods of evacuation of the wounded had been worked out, and our plans of counter attack been made. After four or five days of waiting, the storm finally broke.
 The Roche opened up on us at a. m.. March 21. with the heaviest barrage have ever heard. Stand to-" was sounded, we turned out dressed, and had all our equipment packed in 30 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 it seemed to be to the north of us and then suddenly 1t switched to the south.
 Our balloons were up as soon as 1t was light and the airplanes were buz- zing 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 it is a fellow always feels safer with a roof over his head, even if he knows bullets and shrapnel and pieces of shell will go through boards and corrugated iron just like paper.
 Ordered to Move.
 Our orders to move finally came 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 a minute, and 1t was heavy stuff, 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 tance 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