South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-12-24

Nf~ o.. j. ItOessler. 1888 Van
Buren, So. received a letter Monday
from her son. Pvt George j. Roess-
Ter. q member of the 91st infantry.
in which he says in part as fol-
lows. we were in reserve during
the ST. Mih.el drive iu August and
after this we We're moved To- place
between Nerduu and Metz. We were
about half mile from the front
line and could SEQ plenty of air
battles We went over the top Sept
20 Our artillery had been sheiiing
for several hours and Fritz sent
some over but they went over our
heads After we went over the toy
we got into the woods and here we
found many dead Germans. In CO.
ing through the woods we encoun--
tered machine gun nest
we kept up this fighting for sew.
eraI days and oct. ] was hit by
piece OF -hrapnel They took me
20 the hospital and I was in bed
until Nov. The following clipping
cut from the Stars and Stripes
and tells you better how things were
c-er here than ! can
Here l. the story
The story referred to is as fol-
lows
When the last job in Flanders was
given one American division-just 90
capture Audenarde and vicinity and.
later three kiIometers of Spitaals
bosscheu Ga wood. that's am. they
romped into the thing with shrus
of the shoulders and the air OF doing
settiug-up exercise. And they re-
fuse 90 talk about IT,
They refer YOU instead 20 the Ar
Goune. Their record there is known
Green from training camps. never
having heard the screech Of "A shell.
tLev fought through forest under
20 ovth thick with machine guns and
held by the kaiser's best-through
seven kuometers Of il i'm one day.
That night the First Prussian
Guards drawing off with "a duh
headache had the hazy impression
that Americas greatest metropolis
was not New York. as had been sup
Iosed but a certain Powder river.
Tor that was the Yanks' war CRY
Powder River And as they
went up and over they added with
"a whoop. Let 'er buck" The insin-
uaUon that this slogan was invented
by real estate man is untrue. 1t
was the chance answer of a small
boy at the head Of the column when
he was asked what place the diyi-
sion had reached ON % training hike.
From that evening, through Amer
ica 90 France 90 Belgium. the mem
Icrs of this OUTFIT told the folks back
home they were stationed nc Pow
der river" One way Of putting it
ever ON the censor.
Mile Wide and am Inch Deep"
Powder river. mile wide and
au inch deep" means the 91st divi
sion. It's members come mainly from
california Oregon Washington. Ne
vaJa. Idaho. Nontana-and then
add California again because half
are from that state
Soitaalshosschen is q section of
cOuutrys with scattered groves.
patches of farms. and sprinkling
of squatty farm buildings. 1t was
held by machine gun nests cleverly
paced. These. the Yankees discov-
cred. were Co Doe found generally I'm
three locations. az crossroads. be-
hind HAY stacks and I'm house roofs.
often the gums were SO close to-
Eether that. IN Hankine one the
anks would run into a neighboring
nest NOT noticed before.
The boche had planned we'll His
h.v stack fortress consisted Of
-eui-circ1llar trench behind ana
partly under thc stack i'm which the
several occupants could move TO the
TANKS 90 observe and retire TO the
center 20 man the Gun I'm the middle
OF TIE stack itself The straw af-
iurded good protection
Th, house roof position was held
as rUic by merely one soldier.
sometimes 20 boy. while another
would be ON the lookout to give di-
rections. The gun was anchored.
aimed n. set vantage point. i.s
nose iu POSITION where one tile had