The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-09-11
20 ARMY TRACTORS
LOST AFTER PARADE
Get Separated Trying to Get
to Brooklyn and Wander
for Hours.
REAL "LosT BATTALION"
Finally Trail Mule Team to
Base, While Commander
Scours City.

The drivers and crews Of twenty-five
motor tractors of the First Battalion,
Fifth Field Artillery, dog tired from be-
ing on the go since early Monday MORN
ing. getting ready for the big parade,
and the tedious process OF getting through
an unknown city to get into the parade,
lost themselves for two hours at the
Brooklyn side of the Williamsburg
Bridge yesterday afternoon, and were
the subject of a general police alarm.
The battalion. under the command Of
Capt. NJ. w. Upper, had trundled down
Fifth avenue in the midst Of the long
line of Pershing heroes, reaching WASH
ington Square at $3.50. Capt. Upper
turned the slow moving machines east
ward Into Ninth street, trailing the gun
carriages. intending to make the army
base at the foot of Fifth-eighth street.
South Brooklyn, before chow time.
Traffic was heavy, and despite the
clearance given them by police orders.
1t was just when the head of the
column with Capt. Upper started up
the bridge grade. Behind him the trac-
tors. a line OF seventy all told. were
doing their best in their only possible
speed, which is something between a
snail crawl and a tortoise hop to keep
up with him. Capt. Turner was the
only member of the outfit who knew
how to get about in Brooklyn.
Vehicles Cut Through Column.
II all the drivers had been able to
keep him in sight the entire battalion
| would have reached the army base in
a single crawling line. Delaney street
interefed. 1t was packed with We
| hicles which insisted on breaking the
tractor column and making tracks as
rapidly as possible over the bridge.
| Motors and motor trucks pushed in
! ahead of the gray army tractors
/ Wherever possible.
When Capt. Upper reached the
| Brooklyn side of the bridge he looked
| back and saw what looked like the bulk
of his command following. He headed
in the direction of the army base and
reached 1t about 6 o'clock. One by one
the tractors rumbled into the yard after
| him-all but the last twenty-five. Capt.
4 Upper went out to look down the road,
but there seemed to be no more coming.
Then he got out an automobile and
started back along the course. He had
no intention of permitting a section of
his command to go A. w. o. L. in Brook
Ign. but 1t looked very much as II It
| had. He sighted along every street
| In the hope that he would sight his miss
ing troopers, but in vain. Then he
| hoped out and sent an alarm to Police
| Headquarters
| I've lost about half OF my command"
he shouted over the wire. And we
| have got to be ready to start tonight
for Washington. Where do you suppose
my tractors are?'
Police Send Out Alarm.
The police could not help him out,
but they sent out an alarm. Capt. Tup-
per continued his lonely cruise of Brook
Ign. motoring back to the Williamsburg
| Bridge and trying to take up the trail
| from there, but the tractors hadn't
tracked He finally ran over in person
to Manhattan Police Headquarters to
learn IL any report had come in, and
at s o'clock word came from the army
base that the first of the missing twenty
hve was Just rolling into the corral.
A few minutes later all twenty-five had
| been sighted and were soon locked
Capt. Topper was a very much relieved
officer. He wasn't much concerned With
the way the men finally got to their
| destination. but he learned that they
had picked UP a caravan of mule teams
which had also been in the parade, and
| followed them by a slow and cautious
route to the base. The tractors could
have made better time than the mules,
but they simply didn't dare in a great
strange city.
| Capt Upper climbed with relief into
his car and headed for Ninth street,
where one Of the tractors had been
stalled He obtained a policeman to
watch the machine over night and then
headed for Brooklyn. He said he hadn't
had any sleep since Sunday, and he was
quite certain parading was more formid-
able an achievement than a st. Mihiel
drive.