Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1918-06-05
PERSHING SOLDIER
TELLS EXPERIENCES.
Packed House Hears Guyette and
Talks on Savings Stamps
and Food Problem.


cry in action, one of so soldiers chos-
en- and sent back to America to relate
their experiences, told his story to a
crowd in Seaver's opera hall Tuesday
evening, which was packed to the
doors.
His story was one of the happen
ings to him and his company from
the time that he enlisted up to a
short time ago when he was sent
home with Pershing's men to tell
America what her boys are doing in
the war. He began his enlistment at
Waterbury, Conn, ten days after the
ing in Connecticut, and then Of the
passage overseas to England. Here
they were put in a rest camp, said
Guyette, then in the hold of small
evil-smelling boat for the trip across
the channel to France. Here, after
another brief stop in a rest camp,
they were pushed toward the front in
box cars, dirty, lousy and bad-smell-
ing, containing 40 men where there
! was barely room for 20. After trip
of three days and three nights, they
arrived at their training camp only to
find that their barracks were not yet
ready. Here they lived under ad-
verse conditions, hampered by cold,
snow, rain, and sleet, until they re-
ceived orders to get ready for the
! front.
Corporal Guyette then took his au-
dience with him on the hike of three
| days and nights to within 25 miles of
the front line and then on the three
hours march through the communi-
eating trench to the reserve line. This
| last march was made through mud
and water and under full equipment.
They finally arrived at their dugouts
| to find the conditions of the worst.
Rats, lice, cooties and other pests in
! tested these places that were to be
the homes of Guyette and his mates.
In spite of this and other difficulties
which they had encountered before
and were to encounter later, Corporal
Guyette impressed the fact on his au-
| dience that there was no grumbling
among the men and no manifestations
of dissatisfaction, except that they
wanted to get at the Germans quick
| er.
Up where Guyette now was No
Mans Land was constantly under
heavy shell fire. His platoon was
placed on outpost duty not far from
the German lines, where they had to
be constantly on the alert for gas
and infantry attacks. At this juno
ture the speaker described vividly
| the play of a mans imagination,
when in the still watches of the
night he was doing lonely guard
duty. A post in the enemy barbed
wire entanglements first rivets ones
attention, said the corporal. Then
this begins to move, to take on the
! shape of a man, and finally appears
to draw nearer and take the form of
German. In sheer desperation the
| L nd
soon as he does so he knows that his
| imagination has gotten the better of
him again and that he has fired at
post.
Finally, said Corporal Guyette, his
company which had the reputation of
being the best company over there,
was called to form a raiding party.
Thirty five, among whom was Guy
cite, volunteered, they were sent be-
hind the lines and trained and then
sent back to the trenches to go over.
Soon after this the enemy let down
a heavy barrage and the men retired
to their dugoutS knowing that as
soon as the barrage lifted they would
be called upon to go out and repel an
attack. Their own artillery answered
with a barrage and also let down bar
RACES from each side so that box
was formed. Three hundred men were
then sent into No Mans Land to
meet the anticipated advance of the
Huns. They found 500 picked shock
troops, "The Giant Blondes" none
under seven feet tall advancing. Out
of the 500 Germans, $50 were killed
and the Americans lost from their
800, three killed and seven wounded.
When the speaker made this an
nouncement the audience broke into
cheers and it was several minutes be-
fore they Gained down sufficiently
for Corporal Guyette to go on with
his recital. He said that one way in
which the Americans inflicted such
| heavy casualties on this occasion was
by the use of two hand grenades in
stead of one. They would strike two
together and then throw them. After
the fight the mems hands were raw
and almost barren Of skin because of
the friction of the grenades but there
was no grumbling.
He also cited few instances of the
atrocities of the Germans which sent
| a shudder through the audience.
/ The young Vermonter told of the
disappointments of life "Over there"
He said that one time after long
stretch in the trenches they were or
dered back for a protracted leave of
absence. They had no sooner gotten
behind the lines than they were or
dered back to the front and footsore
and weary they hiked back to their
work. Their food was lost en- route
so for several days they were sup
piled with edibles by the Red Cross.
They arrived at the new sector and
found nothing but swamp land, with
dugouts that were almost useless.
They made the best of it, however.
Corporal Guyette then came to the
point where he was chosen as one of
the men to return to the United
States. The colonel of his regiment
spoke to him before he left and told
him to tell the people at home that
the 1O2d had better reputation than