The Mankato free press., 1919-01-31
GASSED AND MADE SPEECH.
LESS FOR MONTHS
STORY OF GUNNER SMITH
Was In Canadian Service Nearly
Four Years; Passed Through
He'll Fire

i the world war, who is'Spending some
time in the city visiting at the home
of his sister, Mrs. Mabel Anderson,
SOS South Front street, is one of
those young men who enlisted to
engage in the gigantic struggle dur
ing the first call for Canadian VOL
unteers. and has returned home after
three years, eight months and half
of seviCe. having taken part in some
of the fiercest engagements of the
war. At one time he was wounded
by a shrapnel, but after an hour in
the first dressing station back of the
lines he was rushed to the front
again. Ir April 1917, he was badly
gassed ard has been unfit for active
military duty since that time. For
many months he was rendered
Speechless from the effects of the
gas, ard did not recover the use of
his voice until about four months
ago. 1t was also feared that he might
lose his eyesiSht, as his eyes were
badly affected, but they are now out
of danger, and are quite normal
again. Gunner Smith wears the uni
form of the Imperial Flying column,
to which he was attached for some
time.
Enlisted in Canada
Before the war he was a we'll
known young man of this city, being
the son of Mrs. George Teeter of
Jackson street ard a brother of Fay
Smith, who is a fireman on the Oma-
ha railroad. He enlisted May l, 1915,
with the Forty sixth South Saskat-
al. lx.,. H. ~ce.
battalion formed in that province of
Carada, and was attached to the
machine gun section. They sailed
October l, 1915, and arrived in Eng
land on October Is, where he was
transferred to the machine gun
, school. On April l, 1916 he was sent
with reinforcements to France, where
: he served with the Tenth Machine
Gun company until April 10, 1917.
, Six weeks were spent on the old
, Ypres salient, and then the company
!, was sert with the reinfocements to
Hooge, where they had three days
action before that part of the front
became quite again. On October 5,
; 1916, they were sent to the Somme,
and or October % took part in the
big advance ard the taking of the
Regina trench, which was their OBJ
jective. Although gunner Smith had
experienced considerable real war
action at HoOge, the taking Of the
Regina trench was the hardest en-
gagement he had been in so far This
trench had been taken three times
by the Canadians and retaken by the
Germans. Gunner Smiths division
took the trench on the morning of
October 25 and held it.
The use of tarks in such advances
were comparatively new at that
time," said Mr.. Smith in an interview
, with The Free Press today. This
, advance was along a twenty mile
front ard about twenty tarks took
I part. There were many men lost. In
our machine gun section there were
, sixty tow mer, and orly twelve camc
out of the engagement alive and my
; chum, MILFORD Johnson, a Canadian
, boy, and myself were among that
twelve. | received slight snrapnel
wound during this engagement, but
after about an hour durign which the
, wound was dressed at the first dress
ing station | was sent back to the
front.
An Amusing InCioent
"One amusing Incident which
!, Witnessed during this engagement
, was when company of Germans.
! numbering about $50 men, attempted
, to board ard capture Canadian
[ tank, which had been disabled and
was left out iE No Mans land. But
the tanks crew was in action if the
| tank was not. The crew consisted of
an officer and seven men, and they
J annihilated the Germans who tried
, TO take the tark with no other assist
2 ance than their rifles. AS the Ger
, mans surrounded the tank the men
inside shot them down, the tank ac-
ing as their fort
at was down on this front that /
lost my chum. We had been detailed
one right to go for ammunition for
the guns. 1t was a wet fOggy night.
and we had to go about half a mile
to the dump to get the ammunition.
Coming back we lost our way in the
e dark, and after carrying the heavy
2 ammunition for an hour were obliged
( to leave it. We started out again
;, ard thought we were returning to
r our positions, but there was no light,
nothing to guide us. Finally we
wandered iEto swampy ground, and
4 when We got out we laid down in a
E shell hole to rest. The fog had be-
l gun to dispense, and we noticed star
shells falling both in front OF us and
TO our rear. Their we realized that
we were in No Mans Land.
Started to Investigate
my chum was certain that our
; line was TO our right, ard l was cer-
tain that our line was to our left. We
started to investigate. He went to
the right and. to the left and we
arranged to signal each other as
2 soon as we found our line We
agreed to return to the shell hole as
soon as our lire was located. That
was the last ever saw of my chum.
thirk he must have been made
prisoner, although it was never so
, reported didn't hear a shot or a
noise from the direction in which he
vanished l found our line, and
when near distinguished English
voices, so l advanced and gave the
countersign. We organized a scout
ing party and went out to look for
my chum, but although we went
! 49,, tn tho Carp,on w;,a