South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-01-19

dlcations point 10 an early return
home. The sixth division is not in
the army of occupation and I think
we are now taking preliminary steps
homeward bound.
The emblem OF the sixth division
Is a six-pointed star. And 1 think
we are to get ribbons for having
taken part in the Argonne drive, and
a gold bar for six months service in
France. So when / come home
certain places. In some places the
roads were in such condition that we
had 10 plod along over muddy fields.
We were always up TO our shoe-tops
i'm mud, and we slept in our pup
tents on these muddy fields. 1 saw
many dead Germans. You have
seen pictures OF battledleds with the
dead lying as they Cell. Dead horses
and smashed-up implements Of war.
Well. 1 passed over fields of just
such description. The stretch that
comes from a days old battlefield is
awful. l have seen crows as thick
as a swarm Of bees. We have even
bivouaced on or near such places.
In one place while on the march
we were about 10 be attacked by
seven enemy planes when two Amer
lean birds arrived on the scene and
made il so hot for the F'ritzies that
they could not give us their atten-
ton. There was a regular battle
over our heads, all kinds of fancy
stunts, and machine guns were
popping About Is minutes after
the battle started about 10 Ameri-
can planes appeared in sight and the
Huns made for home.
BOvOuaced On Open Plain.
On the evening of Nov. the en-
tire division bivouaced on an open
plane, the Germans were reported
about 10 miles away and Germany
\ bound. Everyone i'm the entire divi-
sion picked up a lot OF nerve and
! built bonfires. 1t was a cold night,
and about every four or five fellows
/ had a bonfire. Can you imagine the
sight? A few thousand bonfires on
an open plain. A better target the
German aviatOrs never had. They
! took advantage of il and a regular
air raid took place over our camp.
1t was not over two minutes and
every fire was stamped out. But we
paid the price for our folly. A
major and one private were killed
and seven men wounded. We chased
the Germans as far as Artese. and
received some welcome from the few
civilians that were left in the lib
Grated villages. The village of Ar
! tese is about 10 miles from the
/ Mouse river, and it was a race be-
tween our division and that Of the
! Rainbow division. the 42nd, TO see
which would get there first They
were veterans in the game and bet
ter equipped then we were. so they
| beat US out by a close margin. The
night of the Sth 1 slept in Artese in
an improvised bed that had been
occupied the night before by a Ger
man and on the bed I found a Ger
man newspaper dated Oct. Goth
The Berlin Tagblatt. It contained
some articles that were very inter-
esting to us That night we received
! information that the line was short
| SheU dtOuS the Mouse rlNefs ana the
English and French having closed
in and crowded our division out OF
possession on the front, and we re-
ceived orders to make bee line for
the Verdun sector. It was when we
were three days on our way for this
front that we received word that the
armistice had been signed. No. we
] did nor CHAR apd r,olrn n e. w
were too tired and all in. That was
for you all back home. We arrived
on the Verdun sector about eight
miles north OF that fortress on the
18th of November, and relieved the
26th division at a place called Beau
mont which was once upon a time a
village. 1t is worse than a ruin