The Irish standard., 1919-02-01
COT THROUGH TO
WHITTLESEY, But
HE WAS SCARED
De!ehanty Sent to Support Fa.
nous Lost Battalion.
IS GIVEN PERIL0US MISSION


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, Dclehanty is
city man, q New Yorker. He is
dapper little architect But he comes
of fighting blood. He is Il son of the
late Capt. Daniel Delehanty of the
navy, who hoped down from tire
bridge of his gunboat off MatanZas,
Cuba, in 1898, and himself pointed the
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
| fighting up through the gun-blasted
! Argonne, as Delahanty says, revert
ing to the navy, at was Il case of
| all hands and the cook" and so it
| was that on the night of this par
ticular exploit he was in command Of
| a company of the Three Hundred and
| Eighth infantry of the Seventy-sevcnth
| division, the draft division of New
York city.
DcIehanty Ordered Up.
Whittlesey, in command of his i'm
mortal battalion, was leading the adj
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 go ahead
and he had done 1t. He had done it
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.
stake command Of X company and
get into touch with Whittlesey.
We're getting nothing but pigeon
| message from him now"
Its tough country, that Argonne,"
Delehanty told the story later. ''It's
hard country to get through in the
daytime. It's worse at night. And
when I 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 smithercens when they hit.
sent out half dozen runners. But
none Of them ever came back.
| Finally sent out two whole patrols
with orders to reach Whittlesey by
different routes. Then l reported to
the colonel. Anything else meant
moving the whole company, and
had to ask him about that.
"Then every half hour or so he'd
call on the telephone and ask me If
I'd heard from these patrols. Finally,
about midnight, he couldn't stand 1t
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
so up through the woods until you
connect with Whittlesey and you keep
at 1t until you do get him. if you
only have seven men left when YOU
get theres"
And Delehanty got there-not
with seven, but with the whole hun
dred and seventy-seven. But he frank
~ 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 man flinched.
There's one chance Of getting up
there" said the young captain.
"1f we go through the woods we'll
| get lost and shot. But there's rail-
road track running up that way. If
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
shellcd and machine-gunned for
hours. BY strange streak of luck
the Boche had decided to let 1t alone
for few minutes. And X company
sneaked up that track between bursts,
the whole TT of them.
Suddenly Dnlotrelntv humnod intn