Missouri Valley times., 1919-01-30

several times BY exploding shells,
and finally he heard one coming, and
then he remembered no more. Two
days later he regained consciousness
in q hospital.
His company, after hours Of terrif-
ic fighting, had but eighty men left
out Of $50 who entered the battle. \
His story, IA part, follows:
.On July 90 We left the Champaign
front and started for the Marne. The
night was dark and It was raining.
We were wet and cold and hadn't had
anything TO eat for five days but .
little hardtack and corned beef.
Eve marched all night. We stopped
at little town about ten kilos from
Chalons and ate dinner there. Then
we marched on into Chalons. Boche
planes bombed us on the road and
killed several Of our boys.
"Then we took train AMI went
up to Chateau Thierry. We got Off
the train about ten miles from the
battle front. That night we rode up as
close as we could in motor trucks.
"They were shelline the road as we
came up. On both sides Of the road
were dead soldiers, American, French
and Boche, and dead horses and mules
1--WE had an awful time staying in
the trucks when they would hit shell
hole in the road. Some Of the boys
were thrown against the sides and
hurt. We had Jap drivers.
Then we unloaded from the trucks
and marched up toward the front. It
sure was hell. It was worse than the
Champaign front which we had just
left. Dead were lying everywhere.
We had to walk over them. The
ground was slippery with blood. Some
Of them, especially the Germans, had
been dead fof week, and the smell
was something awful. The gas turned
them black in ten hours after they
were dead and caused them to decay
quicker.
eve marched into wood and
stayed there in support Of the First
and Second battalions for two days
and nights. The shell fire was some
thing fierce. We did not have any
thing to eat and not much water. We
were also out Of smoking tobacco. It
rained again and we were all wet and
cold.
"At 10 o'clock I was sent with de-
tail Of seven men, back through all
Of that shell fire to get some 'eats.
We went about five miles and carried
it back. We had just gotten back and
eaten our dinner when we got orders
to advance on the German positions.
Then hell started. All Of our guns
opened up and SO did the Germans,
everything from the seventy-fives to
the two-tons.
"It, was about four o'clock in the
afternoon when we got up to where
the First battalion was fighting. We
dug in and stayed there until the next
day. About 2 o'clock we started to
advance, and the Germans fell back
across the Cirque river.
eve came out Of the woods into
the open and advanced about five
kilos, until we came in sight Of the
boche gunners, then they put down q
barrage. / never will forget that shell
fire. We went into battle formation.
We could not see very far on account
Of the smoke, and there was 80 much
noise you could not hear yourself
shout.
"Then we began to lose men on
every side. Anywhere you looked you
could see men blown up into the air.
We went on until we came to the
Cirque river. We halted there and wait
eduntil 3 o'clock the next morning,
until 8 o'clock the next morning,
when the order came to cross the river
The river was some sight. In
places it was damned up with bodies
of horses and men. The water was red
, with blood. When we started across
the boche opened up ION us with
machine guns. Lots Of the boys were
wounded in the river and fell over
! and were drowned. All we could see
would be dark red place on top Of
the water where they went down.
"Then we got ont Of range Of oul
artillery and fought for four hours
without any help from them. There
/: weren't many Of US left BY that time
i but we could see our objective, Hill
| No. 2l2. We got to the foot Of the
hill and stopped to get our wind, ther
/ the captain yelled, and we went VI
that hill.
1T was fierce, but We got to th,
! top and drove of what Germans ".
did not kill. That was about o'clocl