Grants Pass daily courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1919-1931, 1919-01-16
MAN TELLS
OF WORK Of 91ST DIV.

The following story Of the 91st di-
vision is told in the oregonian by
Lieutenant John Clark Burgard, for
merly a member of the 91st and a
resident of Portland:
Those boys of the 91st? Are they
fighters?"
Lieutenant John Clark Burgard,
late of Company H, 362 Infantry,
Just home from France after fight
ing through the Argonne and Flan-
ders with the famous division, laugh
ed as he repeated the query.
THE only difficulty we had with
them" he made answer. was in
holding them back. They plunged
ahead too fast. They wouldn't keep
under cover. They had seen their
'buddies' fall and they wanted a
hand to hand argument with the
Germans"
I'VE were in the Argonne ten days
before the drive started" recited
Lieutenant Burgard last night. "All
that time we were subjected to heavy
shell fire and gassing. The order
to go into action came on September
26th.
you see, the French had been
holding the Hun in that Argonne
district for four years. 1t was a.
tough proposition. All the open
places we're woven into devils nests
OF barbed wire. The only place
where troops could advance was
through the thick wood. And the
woods were the cloak for hundreds
OF German machine gun nests. Well,
We went in.
1--WE drove so fast in that first
rush that in few days we got ahead
of our own artillery and had to slow
up and wait for the guns. The artil-
llery support was wonderful. / do
not believe that in any sector any
where during the entire war there
was a greater concentration of artil-
llery.
"Our casualties from the very
: first were heavy. 1t was guerilla
warfare, mostly-a stiff and continu-
, Gus proposition of surrounding and
wiping out the machine gun nests
And the Germans fought to finish
I They had their orders. When the
4 boys had them surrounded, however
= it was the usual thing for the enem!
to throw up their hands and vel
'Kamerad!'
"At such times it was difficult t.
restrain the men. They had seer
e their 'buddies' drop and they wanted
n payment. There isn't anything hu
I man about the typical German sol
. dier, anyhow. With his little rount
cap and steel helmet, his vacant eye
i and his general air Of abject ignor
Ii ance, he is repulsive spectacle. NJ
70 initiative, no spirit, absolutely brut
T. ish. These were the fellows VIII,
J., had been potting our boys.
II talked with many of the Ger
man prisoners. Some Of them wer
intelligent men. The most astound
ing thing was to be told by then
10 that they expect, in many cases, +
come to America and settle down a
soon as peace is declared. The
's seem to have absolutely no concep
g, tion Of the feeling their acts mus
ID have engendered.
r "Our heaviest casualties were O
% September 20, when we took tn
town Of Gesnes. That's where Lieu
% tenant Spec Hurlburt, son OF Shei
D. III Hurlburt. was killed by a ma
chine gun bullett. He was secon
Id in command Of X company, the 362
4, at the time.
1--WE took Gesnes that night, at
:. vanced to high hill beyond it an
"a dug in. But we'd hardly made oul
TO selves snug when we received order
W to withdraw, as the outfits on tn
"a right and left of us hadn't come u
with us and our flanks were expose,