The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-08-26
BASIL SMITH KILLED IN
BATTLE NEAR ST. SOUPLET
shaftsbury Boy Died While Fighting
BraveIy and Was Last of His
Squad to Fall.

Basil Smith of SALISBURY was one
of the boys from this county who was
killed in France. He was a son OF
Albert Smith who lives in SALISBURY
near the Lyons clay works and was a
brother of Mrs. Jesse Harrington of
North Bennington.
Another sister, Mrs. James Garri-
son lives in Hadkensack, N. j., and
through her efforts the family has Sc
cured the details as to the young
mans death. He was a member of the
105th Machine gun company and the
following letter from Captain Bird to
Mrs. Garrison will be OF interest:
Schenectady N. Y.
"My Dear Mrs. Carlson re-
ceived your letter last Friday and ]
assure you that | am more than glad
to do anything to help you as | very
much admired Basil In order TO re-
fresh my mind concerning the incl
dents of his death, | wrote immedi-
ately to the Corporal of his squad. j.
f.. Bath, Hotel Bristol, 129 to 1875
West 4Sth street. New York City,
who was with him when he was kill
ed.
81 am going to quote you at length
from Corporal Baths letter, but be-
fore | do so think probably you
would like short resume of his
movements in France.
Il was an officer in his organiza-
tion from its inception and com
manded it during its entire stay in
France after July 7th After landing
at Brest, the company was moved up
to Flanders and for several weeks
was training behind the lines in the
vicinity of st. Omer The official des-
Rnation of the company was M>G.
Co. 105th Infantry Regiment, which
was part of the 53rd Infantry Bri-
gade and eth Division From st.
Omer we, moved up to a town named
Oudezeele. which is about 8 miles
north of Cassel. We trained there
for time and then had our first real
experience of warfare in the line in
front of Mt. KENNEL which had just
been captured by the Germans. 1t
was two or three miles south of the
famous city of Ypres. We had two
men killed in that vicinity and about
six or eight wounded. Basil dem
onstrated there, under very trying
conditions, that he was as brave and
courageous soldier as could be de-
sired
From this part of the line we we're
moved back south to the city of Doul-
lens and trained there while we were
being held in reserve. From there
we were sent UP to attack the Hin
denburg line with the Australians
20 81 ~
was in the third platoon of the com
pany. The casualties in this platoon
were particularly heavy and they did
important work
"Basi's record and conduct was
one of which anyone could be proud.
! afterwards based recommendations
for divisional citation for valor for
him on his conduct in that very
bloody attack of Sept 29th After
that fight we rested while and then
followed the Germans up through the
territory they had occupied since they
first invaded France. They made
determined stand on the high ground
just east of the La Sale River, near
the town Of st. Souplet. We attack
ed them in this positioneon the morn.
ing of October 18th.
"The casualties in that attack were
| tremendous, but the gun squa1R that
Basil was in, under Corporal Bath,
went forward very CALAMITY with the
Infantry and with one other squad
was able to do some very excellent
work, They held all that afternoon
and night, a large space of ground
between our regiment, the 105th, and
the 10Sth, which was on our left.
! They were located roughly 1000
yards north of the village of Arbre-
Guernon. That night we we're in
formed that barrage would be fired
by our artillery and we were to at
tack behind it at 5.45 on the next
morning, the 18th. AS our artillery
was going to fire on the ground which
was occupied by our own troops, it
was necessary to withdraw them, as
YOU viii lnote, in the extract from
Corp. Baths letter. am quite Ger.
tain that the shell of which Corp.
Bath speaks was not from our own
artillery but from the German artil.
lery which opened fire as soon as the
attack started.
You will see, therefore, that Basil
was killed at about a. m. on the
morning of October 18th Due to
clerical misunderstanding practical
ly all of the casualties of the com
pany that occurred on the 18th OF
18th were reported as occurring on
the goth. The following is an ex