Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-09-29

to fight TO the death, that if we broke
through it must mean disaster utter
disaster for the Vaterland, and the
warning proved true for it did. That
knows who participated in the battle
and it is also proven by the fact that
we only took 1000 prisoners. most of
them the first two days before the de-
fense became so desperate. There were
several times as many dead Boche on
the battle field as there were live ones
in the prisoners cages. And that we
were paying too, is shown by $780, 900
casualties. What the German losses
were has never been made public; they
probably don't know themselves as their
dead were mostly in our hands. as we
were steadily advancing.
First Big Gain
1t was the first day, September 2S,
that we made the big gain. Some divi-
sions made as much as six miles that
day, across No Mans Land and
through Boche barbed Wire and trenches
in an area of inconceivable desola ton
The Germans knew we would attack
sooner or later on the Nerdun Front,
but who, other than Americans would
dream of putting over a big attack
of I divisons-the st. Mihiel-on Sep
tember 18th and then two weeks later
10 day starting another attack, which
probably would be the turning point of
the war. OF course it was impossible
to swing the veteran divisions from the
st. Mihiel to the Verdun Front in time
for the attack. The best that could
be done was get number of them into
reserve ana one, the 4th (Regular), got
into line for the attack. OF the nine di-
visions which went over the top the
morning of the 26th, the 4th, 2Sth and
nth were veteran troops who had at
tackled before. The 33th and 37th had
been in the trenches two months or more
in quiet sectors, but had never made an
attack. The 33rd, 10Th, s0th and 91st
were all Just in. None of them had been
in the trenches more than a few days
and really had not even learned what to
do in a quiet sector yet, much less to
participate in a great attack. Forum
ately. the attack which came out of
the dawn that morning preceded by an
intense rolling barrage and covered by
tremendous bombardment, caught the
Boche mapping. After the first few
minutes of excitement and fear those
green troops settled down to the game
OF chasing Boche out of trenches and
dugouts. then thickets and woods, and
finally from shattered villages.
AS the attack progressed it became
rather good fun. everything was going
our way, we were winning hands down,
and the boys were beginning to think
that this going over the top wasn't
half as bad as it was made out to be-
OF course it wasn't any place for a
mothers darling baby boy who objected
to getting muddy and was afraid of
getting scratched or his panties torn
on nasty barbed wire, but for a boy who
liked 4 bit of excitement and who wasn't
particular about leaving pieces of his
hide on the barbs, it was fine pic!xings
Why it was lots better than hunting
rabbits, rabbits just tried to run or
hide whereas these rabbits shot back
at you quite frequently so that it made
the game much more of an even break
and also much more exciting. Besides
when one stopped to think of it. these
dirty, gray rabbits you were hunting
out of their warrcps were the same
baby-killing. -raping swine who
had laid Belgium and Northern France
waste.
why damn it all. it is these birds
who caused us all to leave our girls and
come over here to hike, TO sleep in mud
travel in cattle cars, to be wet and
cold for days at time"
Thus thought these attacking Yanks
and they proceeded to give the Boche
what war is supposed to be. Along
towards evening that beautiful rolling
barrage which had kept the Boche so
busy hunting cover began to dwindle
away and peter out. Even the heavier
guns didn't seem to be doing very much
of anything to help out. OF course not.
because the sweet little rs that had
been laying down our barrage in the
morning won't shoot much over six
miles and not much over Ave miles
with sufficient accuracy to barrage for
us. In other words. that first day the
boys ran out of range of most of our
artillery and as soon as we did that the
whole aspect of things changed. The
Boche began to come to life; their ma
chine gunners didn't have to duck into
a dugout to avoid our barrage. and
their artillery wasn't having itself shot
to pieces by our guns. So the Boche
machine gunners perked UP and gave
us fits and the Boche artillery gave us