Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-09-29
ONE YEAR AGO
Anniversary Story by Major Frank c. Mahn of the Harrs
Recruiting Office, Who Saw Service in France

were up in rear of the assaulting troops
getting ready to relieve them as soon
as an opportunity presented itself. But
our success had been so phenomenal,
considering the difficulties under which
the attacking troops had been laboring,
that the high command did not want TO
relieve any of the asSaulting units as
long as they still retained any power for
attack AS this was to be such vital
and tremendous offensive, scheduled to
last an indefinite period. it was neces-
sary to get. the last ounce of driving
power out of division before "a fresh
division took its. place. So again on
the 29th the shattered, exhausted divi-
siors tried to push forward and in places
succeeded. BY that night the advance
had, in places, reached depth of about
nine miles and was up against the
strongly fortified Kriemhilde Stellung.
By that night some of the new divisions
had reached such a stage of exhaus-
ton that many of the men had passed
beyond the limit of endurance, and were
snealdng back from the front to get
out of the awful fire. AS a colored
soldier said who had been up to the
front, dat amt no place for no man"
\ Year Ago To-day
The 9th had been bad enough, the
2sth worse. but the goth, a year ago
to-day, was beyond description. The
Boche by that time actually outnum-
bered our boys; they had several thou
sand guns up there, with their lines of
communications untouched and actually
shortened by our advance. Their supply
OF shells came up in an unbroken stream
and l. can assure you they kept right
on moving, through the gun and over
| into our positions Our guns were up
| in nOSitiOn all RIGHT bnt with tho
haul over awful roads it was impos-
sible to get enough shells"up to give the
! Boche one-tenth of what they were
giving us. And in addition our troops
on the east bank of the river had not
advanced any great distance, so the
Boche artillery from that side of the
river were shooting us up from the
right. 1t is bad enough to get it from
| the front but when you are being shot
ption.
| In the area in which our boys fought
on the 29th there were no trenches and
very few dugoutS. The men lay in she'll
holes waiting and hoping their relief
would come up before they all died.
Machine gun bullets knocked the dirt
in on top of them. shells burst all
around, it had become impossible to ad-
vance. most of them were too proud to
| go TO Lne rear, SOaLnePe lley lay, lluIlSry,
cold and wet, waiting, waiting for they
knew not what. a -
And during all of those days just past
everyone was busy, too. busy to pay at
| tention or think of anything but his
own particular job. For instance, no
one had time to bury the dead; Boche
and American lay as they had fallen
throughout the length and breadth of
the battle field. The weather was cold.
| so there was no imperative need of i'm
| mediate interment and 1t was diff
| cult enough to look out for and take
care of the living without spending more
lives trying to take care of the dead
| Not for one minute was anyone dis
paraging the heroes who had given their
ALL but in such a vast and vital affair
as that great battle, everyone got IL
new viewpoint of life and death. Those
who had died We're beyond our help,
those who were living might die II we
| failed them. or hesitated, or allowed our
efforts to be diverted. to anything but
the winning of the battle and the war.
And if those who had died could have
talked, they would have told us not to
mind them but to fight on and finish
| the war. That they really would have
felt this way 1 know because we, who
| still lived, often spoke of 1t and of how
wise and right it was to work for the
| living and for success. We all felt
| that when our turn came we would be
only too glad to lie unheeded where
we fell until such time as the stress of
| events allowed burial detachments to
get to work. 1t was through no lack
of respect through no lack of sorrow
for the fallen, that they were allowed
to lie unburied for days. 1t was to save
! the living that we left. undisturbed
| those who had died. H'.- ..
| How the Men Suffered
1t was about the 29th that the doctors
started putting two entries on every
wounded mans diagnosis card. The
| two entries were the nature and place
of the wound and the other was the
phrase acute exhaustion. Everyone,
be he general or colonel, private, cor
poral, or captain got those words acute
| exhaustion The diagnosis card was
regular baggage tag with, various print
| ed lines to fill in. The tag when filled
| in was tied in a buttonhole of the
wounded mans, coat and accompanied
him clear back to the hospital All
| treatments and dressings given him
were entered on the tag. Up near the
| front you could always tell the wounded
at distance for they had their coats
open, a white tag fluttering on their
breasts as they llmped painfully to the
saw up front the most cheerful were the
wounded They knew they were legi-
timately getting out of it all for weeks,
maybe for months For the first time
in many, many moons they were going
to be clean, have three hot meals day,
and rest in a bed with two real honest
to-goodness sheets on 1t, and though you
nav not realize 1t, those considerations
were we'll worth a bullet through the
arm or leg.
II you could have seen the exhausted
troops coming out. after being relieved.
YOU would better be able to realize how
| lucky the wounded were, especially, the
slightly wounded. And on the 29th the
reliefs were being made of some of the
new divisions The first ones to be re-
lieved were the 10th and 35th, both of
which had suffered very heavily. The
1st (Regular) relieved the 35th and the
ard (Regular) the 10th. 1t was a sight
to. see those men coming out of their
four. five, six or more days of lighting
clothes in rags, plastered with mud from
head to foot. week or moro growth
of, beard, eyes sunlSen, cheek bones as
prominent as Indians, cheeks sunken.
thin Tipped, with an awful look of strain
and suffering on their faces They
slowly tramped along in absolute sill
ence Fresh troops going in would
pass them without remarks or the usual
Jokes. If anyone spoke it would be
at most a low voiced How 1t is,
Buddy? and a muttered It's Hen'
would be the only answer.