The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1919-04-23
RIVAL TRUCK MAKER TRIES
TO STEAL FORD Gt 0RY

~ STEAL rUhD ID Uni
Continued from Page One)
| 9djutant Of the 9Th regiment Of Ma
fines, A. E. F., and a copy Of a poem
Thy Wallace Irwin entitled Elizabeth
Ford"
]. D. Brady,
LIST Lieutenant, A. A. e. /. M. G. r.
Extract from letter from Major f.
f. Evans, US M. c., adjutant, Sixth
regiment, U. S. Marines, A. E. F.:
Marine Fcrd Historical"
Elizabeth Ford, as the regiment
knows her, has unique career. Not
only in Quantice, where i drove her,
but in Bordeaux, and later up in our
training area, she carried everything
from sick men to hard tack. Then
we had two months in the trenches
near Verdun, and at the end it seemed
as though she would have to go to
the scrap heap. Her top was entire
ly gone and we made mail wagon of
her. In some way the men, who have
an affection for her that you can hard
ly comprehend, patched her together
and we brought her down to our first
billets. "A week later we had to go
ct Paris and in the long trip the Eliz-
abeth Ford sailed along without mis-
hap and was the talk of the division.
Then we came up here and she rose
to the heights of her service and her
record. The night we took Boures-
ches with 20 odd men, and pews came
through that others had filtered in
and the town was ours, we shot cut
truck load of ammunition over the
road. The road was under heavy
/ shell and machine gun fire. Later in
the night we sent the Ford out with
rations. For the next five days, she
made that trip night and day and for
one period ran almost every hour fer
as hours. She not only carried am
munition out to the men who were
less than 200 yards from the Boche,
but rations and pyrotechnics; and then
TO sthe battalion on the left Of the
road, in those evil Belleau Woods,
she carried the same, and water, which
was scarce there. For these trips
she had to stop on the road and the
\ stores were then carried by hand into
( a ravine. | saw her Just after her
first trip and counted IL holes made
! by machine gun bullets and shrapnel.
A Joan of Arc Machine.
At enc time the driver, Pvte. Fleitz
and his two UNDERSTANDS, Halter and
bonneville, had to stop to make minor
repairs and another time, when they
had blowout. how she and the men
escaped being annihilated is a mys-
terry. The last time / saw her she
was resting against a stone wall in
the little sr'iare of Lucy-le-Bocage. a
shell wrecked town and she was the
most battered objectsfn the town. One
tire had been shot off, another wheel
hit, her radiator hit and there were
not less than 40 hits on her. We are
trying every possible way to find new
parts and make new Ford of her.
She is our Joan of Arc and if it takes
six old cars to make her run again,
we'll get those six and rob them.
Elizabeth Ford"
(By Wallace Irwin.)
! We carried her over the sea, we did.
T And taught her to hep. hep. hep
A cute little iinny, all noisy and tihny,
But full of American pep.
Recruited into the Corps she was
She came of her own accord.
| We flew at her spanker the globe and
the anchor
And named her Elizabeth Ford
Cute little Elizabeth, dear little Liz
abeth.
Bonnie Elizabeth Ford:
She was short and Squat, but her nose
was sot
For the Hindenburg line-O Lord!
fShe hated Hun like a son-of-a-gun,
| The kaiser she plumb abhorred.
Did chunky Elizabeth, Hunky Eliza
/ beth, -
l. Spunky Elizabeth Ford.
We took her along on our hike, we did
i And wonderful boat WIS she,
Shed carry physicians, food and mu-
nitions.
4 Generals, water or tea
She could climb bank like a first
rate tank
And deliver the goods Sboard-N
When we touch our steel Kellies tc
"Semper Fidelis."
Il Remember Elizabeth Ford
Cute little Lizabeth. dear little Liza
beth
4 Bonnie Elizabeth Ford.
She took her rests in machine gun
nests
i And on bulletlswept roads she
u chored.
Where the Devil Hounds were first on
the grounds
OF a section Of France restored
Why there was Elizabeth, Chunky
Elizabeth,