The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1919-04-25

Former New York Architect Takes III
Yanl<s, Leads Way In Dark Along
Railway Track and obtain In
| formation Of Great Importance to
| Americans, Which Later Got Whit
tlesey Out Of His Death RavIne.
How Capt. Bradley Delehanty Of the
Three Hundred and Eighth "gOt
through to Whittlesey" when that now
famous battalion commander was cut
off In the Argonne forest is a story
that ranks with the heroic defense Of
Whittlesey itself.
Like Whittlesey, Delehanty is q
city man, a New Yorker. He is q
dapper little architect. But he comes
Of fighting blood. He Is a son Of the
late Capt. Daniel Delehanty of the
navy. who hoped down from the
bridge of his gunboat off Matanzas,
Cuba, in 1898, and himself pointed the
gun that sent the last Spanish flag
topping Off the battlements Of the
old forts there. He Is a nephew Of
Supreme Court Justice Francis B. Del
ehanty of New York.
Before the war he had studied In
Paris, so when he arrived In France
his knowledge of the language soon
landed him on the regimental STAFF as
intelligence officer.
But during that fierce month Of
lighting up through the gun-blasted
Argonne, as Delehanty says, revert
ing to the .snavy, "it was a case Of
all hands and the cook" and so 1t
was that on the night of this par
ticular exploit he was in command of
q company Of the Three Hundred and
Eighth Infantry Of the Seventy-seventh
division. the draft division Of New
York city. E.,.
DeIehanty Ordered Up.
Whittlesey, in command of his i'm
mortal battalion. was leading the ad-
vance. With. his grim jaw set and
his shoulders hunched he was form
ing the tough spearhead of the Amer
lean advance to the west Of the
Mouse. He had got orders to 60 ahead
and he had done 1t. He had done II
better than anyone thought he could
and he had been surrounded. A
dozen Intellectual attempts had been
made to pierce the screen of German
machine guns and trench mortars that
had filtered in behind him. When
night fell the colonel of the Three
Hundred and Eighth sent for Dele
hanty.
go up to the support" he said.
Take command of X company and
get Into touch with Whittlesey.
We're getting nothing but a pigeon
message from him now"
ITS tough country, that Argonne,"
Dslehanty told the story later "It's
hard country to get through in the
daytime. It's worse at night. And
whom ! got up to X company, ma.
chine gun bullets were flying like
locusts, and whizz-bangs out Of those
trench mortars were Hopping over
every 30 seconds and blowing boys
to smithereens when they hit.
sent out half dozen runners But
none Of them ever came back.
with orders to reach Whittlesey by
different routes. Then / reported to
the colonel. Anything else meant
moving the whole company, and I
had to ask him about that.
"Then every half hour or so he'd
call on the telephone and ask me IL
I'd heard from these patrols. Finally,
about midnight, he couldn't stand II
any longer.
DeIehanty Got There.
Delehanty,' he said, you've got a
hundred and seventy-seven men there
with you. You take them ALL You
60 up through the woods until you
connect with Whittlesey and you keep
Mt 1t until you do get him, IL you
only have seven men left when you
get there"
And Delehanty got there-not
with seven. but with the whole hun
dred and seventy-seven. But he frank
ly admits he was scared.
well" he said, turning with a grin
to Lieutenant Scott, General Scott's
son, who was with him. "This is good
by, old kid"
YEAH" replied Scott, at looks like
good-by."
Delehanty called the company
round him. He told them what the
orders were. Not q man fiinched.
There's one chance of getting ND
there" said the young captain.
IF we 60 through the woods wen
get lost and shot. But there's q rail-
road track running up that way. II
We follow that we may get shot-but
we won't get lost. It's single file and
every man keep hand on the man
ahead Of him. Come on"
And Delehanty led the file. A tiny
radio compass gave him the direction.
The railroad embankment had been
shelled and machine-gunned for
hours. BY strange streak Of luck
the Boche had decided to let II alone
for q few minutes. And X company
sneaked up that track between bursts,
fha whole III NJ fbop,