The Elk Mountain pilot., 1918-05-09
RETREAT OF HA|G
VIVID WORD PICTURE PAINTED
BY AN ILLINOIS OFFICER IN
THE GREAT BATTLE.
BRITISH IN HERcuLEAN TASK

Ten to One. Slaughter Of Germans
Was Terrifle-ThriiIino Details by
Lieut.. Roswell T. Petit
Details of the Haig retreat in the
famous battle in >Picardy. are most.
Interestingly told by First Lieutenant
Roswell T. Petit. NJ. OR. c.. Of OF
tnwa. Ill.,, in letter to his father.
DR.. ]. W. Petit of the Ottawa tuber-
culOsis colony and published In the
Chicago Tribune. The American off,
GER endured nine days of the horrors
and was In the thickest of the fighting
during the retreat of the British Fifth
army from st. Quentin. Lieutenant
Pettit.s report Of the battle thrills. and
the stress of the great conflict are
given before his impressions had In any
way been duiled by time. written i'm
mediately after his experience. His
letter follows:
Lieutenant Pettit's Letter.
March 80.
Dear Father: Now that the show is
over for me for the time being and l
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 / know you will be
interested in knowing what did in the
AFFAIR. &.
OF course, the things saw were but
an infinitesimnl part of gigantic
whole and 1t would be impossible for
me to give a correct description of the
battle. And as I write this. do 1t
with no knowledge whatever of what
has been going on even a few miles
from me.
have not seen papar In eight days;
I have received no mali. 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 Amer-
cans have taken Ostend, and are on
their way to Zeebrugge. and n great
naval battle has been fought in the
North sea.
All know Is that on this part Of the
front the Germans 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 Is miles in a straight line.
For a week before the battle started
ready to move on 80 minutes no
tice. had been out with combatant
as well 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 Boche opened up on US at 5 a. M,
March p, with the heaviest barrage l
have ever heard. "Stand to-" was
sounded. we turned out dressed. and
had all our equipment packed In 80
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 1t 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 buzz
xing over our heads. The ground mist
gradually cleared and the Germans
put a hail of shrapnel on our camp
and we all took cover. but three men
were hit. Why 1t is a fellow always
feels safer with a roof over his head.
even IL 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 OF 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 a battery of heavy artillery
and shells were dropping in there two
or three to a minute, and 1t was heavy
stun, 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 a 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
chance If the Germans only knew! But
the shells continued to drop in front OF
US and on either side, but none landed
among US. and after waiting there for