The Medina sentinel. [volume] (Medina, Ohio) 1888-1961, 1919-02-21
COL. JOHN McQUIGG
TALKS TO LOCAL CLUE

A very interesting event to Wlnyah
club members and their wives was the
visit to the club Wednesday night Of
Col. John McQuigg of Cleveland, who
recently returned from the seat of
war as commander of the 112th Eng.
Corps of the 37th Division. Col.
McQuigg came to Medina by invitation
of the club, to tell in brief way of
his experiences abroad. a..
Col. McQuigg began with descrip-
ton of the trip over after leaving
Hampton Roads. The vessel was
conveyed by twelve destroyers and one
battle ship, and from sanitary stand
point was such that he hilleted his
men on deck, to avoid the disagree
able and unhealthful odors below. 1t
was not an American vessel, however.
That he should have been reprimand
ed for the action he took for his men,
did not set very well with the Colonel.
Another criticism he offered was
the meager protection given the ves-
sci after at sea three or four days,
when all of the conveying vessels ex-
cept the battle ship headed for the
Azores to coal up, leaving the trans
ports practically at the mercy Of
German submarines should the latter
have appeared. There was sufficient
protection the last log into the port
of Brest, French conveys meeting the
vessel.
For mud and rain and general dis
agreeableness, Brest, says McQuigg,
is about the worst place imaginable.
The speaker vividly described the
scenes at Argonne forest, telling Of
the awful conditions that confronted
the American army in that fight. Not
only was the forest mass of under
brush, but miles of barbed wire was
interviewer, constructing seemingly
an impenetrable barrier. He esti-
mated that 100000 Americans partici-
pated in this drive, suffering severe
losses. Men were seen to stagger
and fall, who had not been bodily in
jured, but completely overwhelmed by
the terrific conclusions and shock.
Shells were bursting in such profus-
ion that it was no uncommon sight,
while conversing with soldier, to
see him almost instantly disappear
from being struck by high explosive
shell. 1t was here that American su-
periority in artillery was demonstrat-
ed, the American guns being in line
so close together that it was necessary
to lock wheels of the gun carriages.
While Col. McQuigg said that he
personally had never witnessed any
of the atrocities to women and chill
dren inflicted by the Germans, he had
seen many bodies piled away in dilap-
idated church buildings that unmis-
takably had been submitted to the
most gruesome tortures, before reliev-
ed by death. And in line with the
brutal and treacherous nature of the
German, the speaker told of how,
when cornered, Germans would throw
up their hands and yell "Kamerad,"
with their feet so connected with a
cord attached to the triggers of their
guns that they could open fire with
the latter on the enemy while crying
for mercy.
Perhaps the most narrowing sight
depicted by Col. McQuigg, was that
of the battlefield of Ypres sometime
after the campaign there. He said
there are at least a million bodies
there, some buried, some not, and
that these human remnants are being
fed upon by rats.
AS to the proposed League of Ma
tions, Col. McQuigg disfavors it un-
less it carries with it unequivocal pro-
visions for the condign punishment of
those directly responsible for the
war, and an economic yoke upon the
neck of the nation which shall keep
it's nose to the grindstone until a gen.
Grafton arises that will be glad to
behave.