The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1919-05-07
ENEMY THOUGHT
A MILLION YANkS Z
we're IN ITALY
332d Infantriy Of Which George Mills
Was Member, Fooled Foes Who
Thought There Were Several
Divisions OF Americans
In Italy.

The 332d Regiment of the S3rd Di-
vision, Just recently returned from It.
ally served one of the most useful and
sctrange purposes of any outfit in the
American Expeditionary Forces.
George Mills, former employee of
the Public Ledger, was one of the 1000
men in this regiment and he tells very
interestingly of how the Yanks and
their shrewd General put it over" the
Austrians and the Italians as we'll. The
regiment was originally made up of
Ohio men and it was replaced with AL
men wherever misfts were discovered
and sent to Italy to make as big
showing as possible The going was
bit rough with the allies Just then
and not many men could be spared
from the A. E. +. to go to Italy but
| it was necessary to make the enemy
think a large force of American troops
was on the Italian front, and the It.
alians themselves needed as much en-
oouragement as they could get from
seeing American troons In their coun-
try.
make as much of show as you
can" were the orders given by Gen.
eral Treat, in command Of the Amer
lean forces in Italy," to Colonel Wal
lace, commander of the regiment
which was referred to during its stay
in that country as the American
forces in Italy" How Colonel Wallace
made 'em look like million" is tolt
as follows:
So Colonel Wallace started. Some
times he paraded his regiment in two
different towns on the same day. Th'
farther apart the towns were the bet
ter he liked it. He advertised th'
American forces like circus. A bat
TALON would march down the stree
amid the frantic cheers of the popu
, lace turn into side street, doubl
! back to the starting point, replac
n campaign hats with tin derbies an
: perspire proudly down the line @
/ march again. The moment MARTA
/ music was heard the regiment fell i
and dressed to the right instinctivelI
1t would parade in its sleep. 1t dis
y mounted from the trucks on enterin
a each little town and climbed back int
q the trucks for the rush to the neN
n town.
"The whole country seemed craw
ing with Americans" the Italian oil
a servers said.
~ 1t fooled the world, all right. ltaI
; was we'll equipped with German syn
=, pathizers and spies, but unless Il
~ spies could tie a ribbon on eat
- marching soldier they could never fiji
ID out how many American there we
y in the kingdom. Only the few in Il
p secret had any suspicion that the
- was but single regiment After Il
81 332d reached the Italian front it Ike
~ up the tactics. 1t marched down &
-, streets and up the streets and throui
!, the communication trenches and ov
y, back areas and in and out and roul
u about. Whenever it found itself co
y, cealed from observation 1t chang
~ hats, or put on raincoats, or dropp
:, ~ its packs, or picked its packs up.
y "How many Americans are there
o. Italy?" asked an Austrian intelligen
* 70 officer after the armistice. 1--WE knt
-, there are five divisions, but how ma
~ more?"
eh The American found official repol
- ," signed by Austrian fliers who manag
- to identify" almost as many Americ
" units as there were in France.
a. a. The regiments services were not
'o hippodrome. however, for it chased t
ns Austrians for six days. Its casualti
90 90 we're slight, but it was hard work tn
10 VI ing to catch up with the fleeing enen