Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1919-02-12
SOLDIEReBOY TELLS OF EXPERT.
ENCES ON BATTLEFIELD

/ ton is given OF the battle of Argone
Hill as it appeared from the firing
line. Mulvehill is member of Co.
A. $40 Inf. His mother received tele.
! gram from the War Department that
he was missing in action since October
10th but she has since received letters
written by him dated October 18th and
18th and learns he is in base hos
pital recovering from mustard gas.
The following letter was written to
his home friend.
We'll, old boy, l promised to tell
you about the battle that I was about
to go into just after l wrote that last
letter to you.
IT'S a long story, AL, and will take
more paper than can get hold of to
tell you all about it, so will be brief.
"On September 25,. about o'clock
| p. M, we came out of our hiding hole,
woods about two miles west Of Yer
dun. That was about seven or eight
miles from the front SO We started to
hike towards the line and arrived in
the trenches about 2::30 a. m. Our
front line was right on the east side
of the famous Hill No 304, where the
Crown Prince lost 100000 men in his
attempt to take Verdun.
Anyway, We took our position in
the trench. Two platoons from each
company were to take the first wave
in the attack. Our platoon was
among the first. OF course lad to
be first. And $50 a. m. was to be
zero hour. At Sis we were told to
fix bayonets and wait for word when
we were told to get ready.
al, never had such a queer feel
ing come over me. l was as game as
the next and l knew my chance Of go
ing through was as good as the next
You know l am a Mick, AL, 50 I sid
one Of those old Irish prayers learn
ed from my dad After I finished
didn't give damn for anything.
AT exactly $50 our barrage started
and everybody was on his toes. We
bid each other goodby and then we
got the order: Over and get them
boys
Hell, AL, 1 forgot everything and
the rest Of the boys felt the same, l
know. We climbed over AID started
to yell and charged bayonets toward
Fritz's first line. There were only
few Germans there, and they surren-
dered without firing shot. We let
the moppers handle them and we went
r;uht ohood ohs,uu;pU our ho,.ouo
which was sure some heavy one We
advanced about a kilometer before
we started to hit the machine gun nest.
Then the real work started. and we
knew it. We started to slide along
on our bellies, and heads towards Ger
many. 1t didn't take us, long to clean
the first machine gun nests up and we
didn't lose very many doing it, either,
but believe me. AL, it sure is hell to
face those boche machine guns That's
about the only thing they can do good
work with. 7 Init was not for those,
Al, truthfully believe our doughboys
alone could put the Huns back across
the Rhine in one weeks time.
I'VE had pretty sailing for the next
three or four kilometers. We hit a
machine gun nest every here and
there, but it didn't stop our marathon.
That's what It was. !rs nh yur NC
Jt9Our objective was the Meuse, River,
seven miles from our starting point,
here was woods about two miles this
side of the river. and we were told we
would have to battle to take it. 1t was
full of machine guns. All we could
hear when we got near the woods was
ondxgit was about three
hundred Of those 'tuts' coming from
each Of the machine guns every min
ute. 10. .
Eve kept going until it got too hot,
Then our artillery ;gotrlbusy on them.
They made aPcouple, OF good hits.
Theneyou should have seen the rush
If Germans from the woods with
hands up yelling: Mercy, kamarad!'
There was about 200, of them But
hat wasn't all OF. them. The woods
still held a. bunch of them. and with
machine guns. But we had the edge
If the woods pretty we'll cleared out
md that gave us foot hold. So we
started to charge and the boches start
ID to run. 1T took us just about 20
minutes to clean the woods of every
Outchman.. nc
Some of the prisoners we took told
IS there was 900 Prussian Guards in
he woods before the drive started.
,ut they made their getaway ahead of
,ur barrage.T They made the Bavari-
ms stick. That's what one of the
prisoners told us
Right on the other side of the woods
lere was beautiful little town. 1t
vas set down in little valley. A "a
,rettier place you never saw. A rail
Dad station was located at the end
If the town. Maybe it didn't look
inc. But anyway, AL. when we got
through the wood and the town got to
our sight the first things we saw was
, train leaving the station. 1t had
about Is or 20 cars and was full OF
Germans. We made a grand dash for
t. but the thing got away. On ano-
her track was whole train of big
shells. We go them. We were too
ar away from our big guns at this
place to have barrage. We still had
| couple of miles to go before we
would gain our objective. 1t was
ust 1890 a. m, so we were ordered to
lig in. Jerry's artillery was start
ng to give US hell. We finished our
# us got little rest.