New Britain herald., 1918-12-23
RETURNED SOLDIER
 TELLS ABOUT lO2ND
Private Livingston Says Conn.
 Men Were Wonderful Fighters

Private Walter Livingston of Plain vile and q, member of Company I of this city, talked to his toWnspeoplc yesterday afternoon and told them that the work of the 102d Infantry in France was wonderful. He told of the heroism of the dead the sa crifice of the living and their horrible suffer- ingS during the whole conflict. Mod estly, he told not of the part he played in the fighting, not of the fact that he went for many months un- wounded and fighting hard with his few remaining comrades He told only of the glory of his brother fight CTS and he praised to the skies the di- vision the fighting 26, known as the pet" division by the French and also given the exclusive tile of "Yankee'' division. It was with a feeling of pride that Private Livingston said he was glad to be able to say that he was a member of the division. Ho said that the 26th division was cited for bravery and fighting in every bat tie and on every front it fought on in France. Company I of New Britain was q part of the diviSin being in the 102d Regiment.
 ''The trouble which the officers had over across, Livingston said Twas that when tho men went over the top they were unable to hold them They ploughed on regardless of dangers. Why the very first day he went over. the men were seven lilometers ahead of their place assincd. They were to be there about seven in the evening and they reached thir objective a little after five o'clock. They ran right through their own barragc in their haste to get at the Huns. There WAS that wonderful spirit among the men that they just could not help doing
 what they did. He also told of Pri- vate Francis Barnes being killed on the afternoon of April 22, at ; o'clock when he and a companion in an ad- | vance listening post were struck by a l high explosive shell. He paid a tri- l bute to the dead soldier.
 Wounded in Action.
 The occasion was the dedication of 1 the honor roll of the town of Plain l vile. Private Livingston arrived l home Saturday night from the Walter ! Reed hospital in Washington, D. C.,
 where he has been since arriving in l this country on Thanksgiving day. He l has been all over France and England l and has been in many of the hospitals 1 in both these countries. He was sent 1 back to this country, as he said, ito make room for the fellows who got it
 worse than I did He tried to con- 1 vince the people that he had done l nothing and laughed when he thought 1 "of that foolish thing I did when I got in the way of that German shell.' His left leg is stiff and will probably remain that way permanently. He 1. was hit by shrapnel which in letter he wrote to his people, he said, twas either crazy or wild for it did all kinds of circus tricks in my leg" The shrapnel entered below the knee, went upward, spun around two or three times and then went out on the opposite side and above the knee. It cracked a knee cap which causes tht permanent stiffness. His tone showed emotion also when he said that when he left the boys they were still "car rying on'' and at the present time the | good old 18th division is really in 1 Germany and is across the Rhine as l a part of the army of occupation.
 Private Livingston gave a detailed | account of the trip to France telling of | stealing out of New Haven like thieves in the night. They left from Winchester's yard and went to Mon treal where they boarded ship and went to Halifax. There they waited several days for the rest of the ships and when they left for France they had as companions many Canadians. They were protected by the l.. $. navy but the protection then was not as good as later. They arrived in Liver pool and went across England and waited at Southampton for a. good dark night to cross the channel. The night came at last and they crossed l and landed in the harbor of IIe Havre in France, the first National Guard l troops from this country to set foot on French soil. They were sent to a rest camp outside Le Havre and re- mained only for few days when they were sent further into the interior and into training. They remained there until February of 1918 when they were sent into the Soissons sec tor, which Livingston said was a "uuiet sector', meaning by quiet that the Roche only shelled them three or four times a day. It was here that