The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-03-22
In Impenetrable Argonne Forest, His
Platoon Lost Contact with tho
Others and Failed to
Connect
SURROUNDED BY HoRDEs
Mon Of His Platoon Formed Semi.
circle, Expecting to be Shot
Down and Said Their
Prayers.

One gets vivid picture OF score
of American soldiers expecting to be
shot at once. forming a semi-circle
in front of Hun machine gun and
saying their prayers, from the story
of his capture told by Private Gus
Pechstein, who has just come bach
home after plenty OF experiences In
the war zone.
1t was in the almost im7enetrable
Argonne forest, where one can see
only a few feet ahead and knows
little of what is occurring few rods
away, that he was taken with what
was left of his platoon.
On September 20, his platoon
marched down barren hill and
went to the woods on their left FOL
cover and to escape their own bar,
rage, which was striking them. There
in those woods 1t all happened be
tween daylight and $3.50 o'clock in
the afternoon.
How He Was Captured.
There was path" said Pech
stein today. land my platoon was tc
the left of this path, and the other
platoon of my company was ON the
right of the path, there in the woods
We lost contact, and my sergeant
sent me, the platoon runner, to 10
cate the rest of the company.
Il found the other platoon and
brought back to my sergeant an or
der 10 remain where we were and
await the arrival Of laison officer
to establish our contacts. We wait
ed there from to 10 o'clock for that
laison officer, who did not appear.
"The sergeant sent me out sec
ond time to find the rest of the com
pany, but I could not discover it in
that tangle Of vegetation, brush and
trees.
con this trip l saw some engineer
regiment men on the barren hill
Snd went over to ask them whether
they had seen anything of my com
pany men. They thought the company
that was looking for might be over
yonder, but they did not know, and
returned and reported to my ser
geant.
And They Were All Surrounded.
about 2 o'clock that afternoon a
boche plane flew low all over the
place we occupied there in the
woods, and at $3.50 o'clock the Hun
laid down barrage in our rear, cut
ting off our line Of retreat to our
own lines.
1--WE then saw some Germans on
the barren hill and thought they
were prisoners until we saw one
shot at the top of the hill-that
showed us it was a counter attack
in the center of which we were ma
rooned.
"In few minutes machine guns
opened all around us. German sol
diers and guns seemed to rain down
from the skies, and we were COM
pletely surrounded and attacked
from all sides at once.
A SemicircIe For Death.
"Our sergeant stood up-we had
dug in long beforehand dropped his
belt and revolver as a sign OF sur
render. We were lined up and
marched out of there toward the
rear Of the Hun lines.
Back little ways we came to
gun that looked like a machine gun,
and our captors began to make signs
to us. We interpreted the motions
to mean that our guard wanted US
to line up in front of the gun to be
shot down with the least trouble on
his part.
I'VE formed semi-circle in front
of the gun, and one man called out:
Everybody say his prayers; we
haven't got but few minutes to
live
When They All Prayed.
1--WE did all say our prayers. and
i tell you that was some anxious
minute or two.
Then the guard made us under
stand that all they wanted was four
men to drag the CUNT turned out
to be a ne-pounder-back with US.
We took it, and we also carried three
dead Germans, one wounded German
and one wounded American back as
we marched twelve kilometers to
their brigade headquarters to be
searched.
1--WE marched six more kilometers
that night to get out of the shell fire
of our own long range guns, and
then were clear Of the combat lines
and real, complete prisoners OF
war"