The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-05-18
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g OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
BRIDGING THE soMME.

Sergeant Werner r. Watson. of Co. ID,
| Sixth Engineers, a Pensacola boy who
enlisted in May. 1917. has taken an ac-
tive part in some of the hardest fight
ing over there and In one Of his letters,
written to relatives IN this city speaks
very interestingly of rhe part played by
MS company In the Great German CT
.ensive In the spring of 1918. He says:
Last year at this time companies B and
were called on to help stop the adj
vance of the armies after the Fifth
British army lines were broken. I shall
never forget the great battle of Picardy.
We Were among the first, II not the first
americans to do real fighting. We held
our trenches for eight days In mud and
water knee deep.
We also did our part in starting them
back across the Marine. We were later
sent to st. Michel but I believe the
worst OF all was in the Argonne Wood
"nere every inch OF ground gained was
paid for with good American blood.
How the Sixth Engineers bridged the
Somme river and how Amiens was saved
by these Yanks fighting abreast with
their British comrades is told by a cor
respondent OF The Pioneer published at
IOchtendung, Germany, as follows:
When the first cold snap OF spFfnR
1919 broke on war stricken Europe be-
fore the year had seen any carnage. a
small detachment OF Yank engineers in
tro0ueed themselves to our British conn
rades on the Somme and behind the Ia
nous Cambrai-St. Quentin defense
of the war
Little significance is given to the
never ceasing and ever strenuous WORK
THIS battalion of the Sixth u. S. En-
glneers did in the region OF Peroone.
Early in February, scattered from Doingt
to Reissl. this handful of American en-
sheeFs set to work ON what little over
a month laSsr proved one of the biggest |
functions in tbs great Summe defensive |
Laboring day and night with never tir-
ing energy, they had constructed about /
80 heavy steel bridges over the SoHame I
river and the Canal du Nord. During |
TINS period, the long train of British |
transportation steadily poured to and |
Irom the lines. going I'D loaded with /
snsAs and rations, coming back light |
loaded with wounded Tommies reminded
the boysthat there actually was war i
IN close The distant rumble OF ar
tillery and the nocturnal air-rafds did not
signify much to these green Yanks who
had little realization of the dreadful /
menace of actual warfare at the time
March came around with its rain ana
tnaw and the tense expectations of the
spring drive was the main topic of thsi
uay- Were We to take the offensive |
IRENE confidence was the picture shown /
on the faces Of every Briton. LET l
Jerry try to come through they would |
remark; Our artillery Is hub to hub ana /
machine guns between the spokes The
Germans couldn't penetrate that wonder /
IuI defense with a concentrated attack I
With every available Hun. gun and tank
on the other side of the Hindenburg
Inc. Their calm confidence and happy /
spirit meant a lot to the Yanks and the I
BURDEN OF the. work appeared so much Il
lighter, knowing that every span across L
these streams meant 80 lnnch mora for