The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1918-09-06
WARD NARIS TELLS
OF HISTORIC BATTLES
Thrilling Letter Received BY Glenn
Maris From His Cousin, Who Is
Field Artillery Lieutenant

/ ne tGltO"Ing lGllSA VI lIlLSliSG In |
| tclsst was recently received by Glenn
I Maris from his cousin, Lieutenant
Ward Mar:s. who is in tie thick OF
! the feht over in France
At the Front,
July Il. 1918.
It was the fourteenth, q day men,
/ orable i, French history. The last
! a of a July sun play golden on the
( s~hell-yashed hills that rolled away in
! pillows and fell gently toward the
Narne. Long shafts of light shot up
through the brooding atmosphere,
heavy with odors of the battlefield
and tinseled a murky eastern sky with
purple and subdued gold. Darkening
twilight gave way to deeper shadows.
4. crescent moon hung low in the
southern sky, sitting in and out
through a bunch OF scurrying clouds
and cast its mellow rays down on a
terrain alive with boys in olive drab,
i'll at ease and as anxious to go as the
fierv footed barb that pounds the
pampas. For three days a portentous
in%describable influence had possessed
them: no one seemed able to analyze
it, but everyone ominously sens, d it.
Presently it c~rystallized and quickly
found expression when a flock of
aeroplanes circled high above them
and the northern sky flashed with a
lurid murderous red and roared with
deafening intonations. Orders were
flashed to turn on the juice. The boys
in olive drab fairly jumped to it and
you may take it from me that a thou
sand super hells broke loose. The
multitude of multiplied thousands Of
brazen threats that had been groomed
and trained began a battle chorus
that would have made the panderlo-
mum of the neither region sound like
a musical whisper from Memnon's
statue. 1t was absolutely incompre-
hensible.
The earth rocked and trembled with
agony. The sky was aglow with
wicked streams of deadly murderous
fire and swarming with bowling
screeching shells and intensive lights.
Aeroplanes were active and every
where; one daredevil came so low
! that he barely skirted the treetops
above our heads. For obvious rea-
sons it is useless to say that neither
he nor his machine will ever pull off
another stunt like that. Some way
/ our chaps have a way of making such
! things discouragingly unhealthy for
I ! Fritz. Terrific as was their fire, our
boys gave them shell for shell and
placed a barrage so accurate and
deadly that it literally slaughtered
/ multiplied thousands as they attempt
ed to cross the river and now, three
days after, that river is choked with
the dead and the terrain adjacent is
piled high with the bodies of the men
that once constituted the flower of
the crown princes army.
E;rb+ ho,rc IF tho ipforpo poccod
and when the German barrage lifted
the battle was a hand-to-hand encoun.
ter with ~bayonets and g%renades. Upor
. u right the French retreated AND
= left one Of our batteries exposed, but
our gallant boys stayed right with
ic- their job until their ammunition was
an exhausted, then destroyed their guns
and came over to us. The dim gray
of light of the dawning day revealed the
or fight taking place perilously near oul
lie, guns.
am Our boys could not be made to SCI
me why they should retreat when the,
&C. had come 5000 miles for just sucl
r. a job, so they organized a counter
On attack and rushed the dumbfoundet
Hun hordes back behind the RAILROAD
paralleling the river, took a little res
an and in the afternoon pushed then
Inc clear back on the other side of tn,
ler river. We now feel like POGO afte,
lnu yet n Fritz has got to keep going
- We had anticipated this fourth Ger
man drive and for three days hat
mauled and pounded the sector wher'
'' we knew that they were massing TO.
mt attack. Prisoners taken, informed u
tbe that we had played havoc with thei
nv ammunition dumps and massed artil
!. lery.
True to form they undertook thei
old game Of sending men across il
the confusion and under the cover O
darkness, dressed in French uniform
They did not escape the Yankee ar
gus eye. Condemning evidence wa
found on some of them. Your imap
nation may complete the story.
This was our first baptism of fir
. and u boys behaved like the heroe
that they are. They are wonderful
u fighters; alert, strong, aggressive
|A quick, resourceful, and fearless an,
|W man for man his adversary is in n
'W way his equal, excepting in expert
W ence. The French are electrified a
y their conduct and it seems a req
elixir to them. For SOM reason tn
shell fire was especially concentrate
on our sector; probably because j
was throttling their path to Paris, an
I'D boys put up a fight that will g
down in history. The battle is still
in progress, but is slowing down a lit
tie and we have been able to get
little much needed rest. Already W
- have Fritz's number. We have sho
an, the fear of God into his heart, an,
= vaccinated the certain knowledge O
a the wrath of coming day into hi
anatomy with Furnished steel, and w
lor are going to see that he relishes il
Our casualties were very light, con
lat' the battle. We lost some of GU
horses, but have picked up enough
strays to take their place and W
ers have received a few men from a re
;es placement camp and they fully cove
al, III our losses and we are going RICH
a = along.