Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-29
No Wonder Germany Quit
BY MAJOR FRANK c. MAHIN
OF the Army Recruiting Station

OIe HlBlI lONdIuS lllc Gnu VI
September my regiment came into
the town of Dieulouard on the Mo-
selle river, about five miles above
Pont-a- Mousson. We were just out
of the st. NIihiel offensive where,
being the pivot for the attack, we
had caught the devil for four days
and nights. At the entrance to the
town my battalion billeting officer
met me and l went on ahead with
him to look over the billetS. |
found my entire battalion was as
signed to a large tannery on the
north edge of town. While we were
| looking over the building there was
a stunning concuSSion and / re-
marked that that sounded like a
big one going. 1t was customary to
speak of shells as coming or going,
according to whether they were
Boche or Allied. My lieutenant an
swered that there was an Ameri-
can 14-inch railroad gun firing on
Metz from siding about a hun
dred yards away. l asked him If
the Boche had been searching with
their guns for that nice little rail-
road gun, and he told me they had,
! but everything had been hitting in
a field and on a hillside six or seven
hundred yards away. Nevertheless,
l didn't like the idea of putting my
men in that building, but we were
ordered to do it, so in we went.
There was plenty of room, plenty
of straw for beds. and plenty of
water and we were more comfort
able than we had been for months
| except for one thing, and that was
| that the Boche started shelling the
town itself. Our 14-inch friend pull
ed out and left us, for which we
were not a bit sorry, as every time
| it fired the concussion blew you out
: of bed and made the very ground
tremble. However, that wasn't near
| ly as bad as the spasmodic shelling.
! The Boche were using long-range
9.5-inch guns and they would drop
| five or six shells into the town about
Il minute apart, then perhaps wait
| two hours and send over two more,
! then wait Is minutes and send one,
then wait four hours and send 90,
and soforth. The shells came so fast,
dropping down out of the skies that
| you hadn't even hit the ground after
hearing the whoosh of the approach
! ing shell till it had burst. There
were still some hundreds of civilians
in the town, and during our first
|
dren were killed, but strange to say
not a soldier was touched. Never
theless, the shelling was decidedly
nerve-racking. Everyone felt the
same, and as l heard it frequently
expressed. Wouldn't it be just hell
to be bumped off by a stray shell
after what we have just been
through Finally we began to get
a feeling that since nobody had been
| hit in week, nobody was going to
be. But just the same, everyone
was getting mighty sore at the Boche
| for this long drawnout harassing.
| You don't mind being harassed for
a few hours, or l should say you eX-
| pect it occasionally, for you most
certainly do mind it, but when the
blame buiness keeps up for a week
it gets your goat. But our eXemp-
ton came to sudden and disas-
trous stop. Just at noon on bright.
clear Sunday, one of those 9.5-inch
shells lit right square in the mid
die of the big room in which all
four of my kitchens were estab-
! lished. I was down at regimental
headquarters when that shell hit, but
heard it and placed the smothered
explosion in my tannery, so l start
| ed post haste to see what damage
! had been done. Believe me, it was
plenty. That room was a sight be-
yond description. Rolling kitchens,
tank carts, and ration carts, and
kitchen paraphernalia were smashed
and strewn broadcast, while inter
mingled with that kind of debris
were tons of brick, quantities of
broken glass, twisted steel girders
and the bodies of twenty-four dead.
In addition to the dead there were
| SO wounded, so that shell tempo
rarily or permanently accounted for
93 Yanks. OF course, the Boche ex-
pected and hoped to demoralize us
with the shelling, but if they could
have seen us after that slaughter
they would have carefully refrained
in the future from long-range ha-
RAISING of American troops. The
whole outfit were so thoroughly en-
ragged, there was no talk or demon
stration, but everyone made up their
minds that the Boche were going
to pay for that shell with blood, and
two weeks later they most certainly
did, for in our next attack every
man jack went over the top with a
grim determination to get revenge
for some friend or bunkie who
passed out in Dieulouard. 1 am
afraid very few prisoners came back
out of our area, but l know the
burial parties had plenty to do to
put the dead under ground after we
had nassed on