Morris tribune., 1919-08-29
WAS WITH LAWRENCE
FLATNER in BATTLE
Henry Erickson of Hancock Was
Only One Not Wounded of Squad
Sent After Machine Gun

.. L
able thru the story of an eye wit
ness, Henry Erickson, Of Hancock,
a member of the same squad that at
tackled a machine gun nest in the
Champagne. The following is Erick-
sons story, as told in last weeks
Hancock Record
Coming through fight after fight
on the stormiest of all the battle
fronts with scarcely a scratch, Henry
Erickson, who served in the shock
troops of the 23rd Infantry of the
famous End Division, arrived safely
at home last Friday. Henry left in
September of 1917 for Camp Dodge,
was later on transferred to Camp
Pike and then to Camp Merritt and
from there went across to old Eng
land and to France. The trip over
was uneventful, not a submarine be-
ing sighted by any one of the nine
troop ships in the convoy. There was
a bit of excitement in crossing the
English channel and the subs made
desperate attempts to get at the troop
ships but the destroyers were too
wide awake and the boys landed in
safety. Henry went with his regi-
ment for final training to the Marbre
sector, a quiet sector at the time
but later went into the big drive
when the St. MihieI angle was wiped
out, and from there went to the very
active fronts at Champagne and the
Mouse Argonne. Henry saw some of
the hottest fighting on the Cham
payne front and twice had bullets go
through his Ieggins so close to his
legs that the bullets fairly burned
the skin and after the fight found
bullet holes in his pack carrier.
He was corporal Of Squad 1 of
his company, G, and Lawrence
Flatner, of Morris, was in Squad 2.
One Sunday morning at Champagne,
ten of the men, including Henry and
Lawrence were ordered to go ahead
a bit and clean out machine gun
nest. Six of the men circled the
nest to the left and four, including
Henry and Lawrence circled it to the
right and just before they jumped
into the nest Lawrence was shot
through the throat, one of the others
through the chest from side to side
and the third man square in the fore
head, while Henry stood alone OF the
four who had gone to the right.
Several of the Germans were killed in
the nest and the rest, who had
sneaked out through a trench to the
later caught in the open where the
trench ended and but one or two of
the whole outfit succeeded in getting
to safety. Lawrence lived but three
minutes after being hit, the bullet
really cutting his throat from side
to side. The casualties of the End
Division were awful and in one fight
G company went in with ESQ men
and came out with so and but one
regular officer and two nOn-commis-
stoned officers,
During one phase Of the advance
the regiment worked to the front
always by night, in company forma-
ton, by squads or by platoons and
one night so dark you could not see
your hand before your face the men
laid down beside road to rest for a
few hours No talk in the ranks was
permitted, no lights Of any kind, not
even a match for a smoke and in the
morning as day was breaking they
discovered a lot of German soldiers
on the other side of the road and
+b o,o x,,oo tho bo++oc+ hind of q ccTino-
mage in two minutes you ever saw
until Fritz beat it for the rear. On
another occasion a squad stealing for
ward in the dark and practically lost,
ran on to a German sentry. He chal-
lenged and a Sammy who understood
and could talk German answered him,
saying it was the relief. The Ger
mans were expecting relief troops
and before the sentry discovered his
mistake he was a prisoner. They
took him along to the next sentry,
captured him and finally came to the
German captains dug-out, where he
was called out, made prisoner and
then made to call out his whole
command, who we're sent to the rear
as prisoners as soon as it was light
enough to find the road back, though
a few escaped in the darkness as the
company was first lined up from their
dug-outs.
after the armistice was in effect
Henry's regiment started on the long
hike to Germany, being part of the
army of occupation and at the end
of the hike they were stationed for
three months at Valender, and then
served on outpost duty until ordered
home and he arrived in the United
States on August 3rd, after an abb
sence of fourteen months. Henry
says it was no fun at times and espe-
cially in the big drives it was diff
cult to get supplies to the boys at the
front so that many time they were
pretty hungry but at that he is glad
he was in it all and it is an ex-
,oor;oroo bo would mot have POreoOnc