The Washington herald., 1918-07-20
YANK COLONEL
DIDN'T STAND
HUNS TEASING
Artillery Blew Up Foe $
Headquarters When Too
Many Shells Came.
By c. c. LYON.


(washington Herald Reporter with
Gen. Pershing's Army.)
In the American Trenches in France.
July 1s-For, several days in success
sion, Just about sundown, German
artillery had been dropping one. soii-
tary. high explosive shell in a little
French village Immediately back of
the American lines: where an Ameri-
can colonel had his headquarters.
(. Less than three miles away, behind
the German lines. was another little
village, where German colonel had
his headquarters.
Just as the German artillery had the
exact range of our town, SO our ar
tillery was likewise prepared, on a
seconds notice, to shell theirs.
Both Sides Held on.
French instructors attached to our
outfit insisted to our colonel there
must be some mistake about thcse
German shells that kept annoying us.
I'VE never shell each others head
quarters towns" the French officer
explained. They did in the early
ddyS VI tuC war Dul DOIn Sizes SOOIi
found 1t didn't pay. So we leave er.ch
other alone. These stray shells are
mistakes in ranges or something like
that"
Then the German gunners had bet
ter be little more careful. becausc
I'm getting awfully tired of II. I've
never made any agreement to leave
any German headquarters village
alone"
The next evening. sure enough. an
other shell dropped in on us, and this
time there were a few casualties.
The Colonel Ragged.
Our colonel was furious. He
stormed and >raved and threatened
the most terrible revenge.
The very next shell they put in
this town is going to be the death
warrant of that whole -Boche out
fit over there" he declared. I'll
wipe their whole damned town of
the map"
The next German shell came
along, teasingly. the next evening.
Our colonel took down his tele-
phone and got the artillery COM
mander on the line.
Give them everything you've got,
where that German colonel has his
headquarters" he commanded. "Af-
ter that clean out the whole town"
Our artillery firing lasted nearly
four hours and when IL ended our
colonel got this message over the
phone:
Colonel. the jobs done. We put
the chateau out of business in 10
minutes. and the rest of the town
won't be of any use to the enemy
because every building is down."
Then They Got Out.
Our colonel got up and put on his
coat and said to those about him:
Now, let's all get out of here.
They'll level this town within 4 few
minutes
We withdrew from the village In
hasty fashion; most on foot, but a
few on horses and in autos
During our bombardment Of the
German headquarters town the enemy
had feebly replied with an occasional
shell into our town, but as soon as
our guns quit firing the Germans evil
IDENTIFY came out Of their dusouts and
went to their artillery, because before
we were outside the village shells
tegan raining on us in torrents.
We withdrew to another village
farther back. and there the colonel
re-established headquarters.
Not Much Town Left.
saw our town the next day. and
1 had to hunt around for what was
left of the building that had housed
our colonel and his headquarters.
Only one wall was left standing. In
the mass of debris that had fallen
into the cellar I noticed several IA
mi.iar articles, one of them a crippled
chair that the colonel had been wont
to use, and about two-thirds of a
pair Of breeches that had once been
my own. You see, I had been visiting
the colonel when all this happened.
Every other building in our town
was down and the entire military
population had left. Only a stray cat
o. two and a lot of rats had stayed
behind.
This action on the part of our col
onel-that is. putting the German
headquarters town out Of business
completely, even at the cost of hav-
ing his own town razed-was evident
ly a shocking reminder to the Ger
mans that we Americans don't pro-
pose to play the game according to
any unofficial rules, but that when
they hit us on one cheek we're going
to paste them back on both.
Germans Were Vexed.
The Germans were so peeved with
US, over the loss of the beautiful cha
teau that had housed their colonel,
that they brought up their long range
guns and put shells into French viii
lagos far back of our lines, that had
never been bothered before. German
airplanes had found that American re-
serve troops were in these places.
In addition. the German planes have
been bombing us nights and in other
ways making life disagreeable for u.s.
Never mind says our, colonel.
There never was game that two
couldn't play at
We're all wondering what he'll
spring on them next