New-York tribune., 1919-04-29
Lost Battalion
With 77th Men
Returns Home
1000 New Workers Dis
pleased; Forced Below
Decks When Relatives
Extended Their Greetings
Many Heroes on Ship
Engineers Who Built Ourcq
Bridge for Old 6oth Get
Back Among Thousands

The famous Lost Battalion of the
308th Infantry, 77th Division, came
! home yesterday from Brest on the old
Hamburg American liner, Amerika
The battalion was all there, but it was
/ lost again somewhere on the transport
between Quarantine and Hoboken, to
be rescued finally from the dark re-
cesses of d one-time enemy ship when
the hour of debarkation arrived.
After its experience in the Argonne
the 30Sth vowed it never would stray
from sight again and its ephemeral
| Disappearance yesterday was not the
fault of the men or their officers. 1t
might be explained that the transport
carried 7,051 officers and men, and
fearful that something might happen
if this small army of heavyweig ghts
should suddenly rush to one side to
greet the feet of reception boats IN
the upper bay the skipper sent word
to the commanding officer that it would
be we'll to keep the troops below This
was just what the troops did not want,
but knowing every definition of the
word discipline they hastened between
decks and saw little of the merriment
the home folks had prepared for them
on the water.
Major Georga G MoMurtry, of this
city, who won the Distinguished Serv-
the "lost ones" Captain William j.
Cullen, a lawyer of Tho Bronx, who
commanded Company II and won the
Distlnguis Service Gross, was ac-
companied by lieutenant Harry Rog
ems, who commanded Company G.
1--WE moved forward at noun October
e. said Captain Cullen, "aud encoun-
tered severe machine gun opposition.
Wa destroyed soma of the nest and
found wa had penetrated two hllome-
tras into the German lines, While the
officers were In conference one Vt them
SAW g German pick up gun and tire,
nThen hogan tho real attack on the
tast ialtalen
"lhe enemy made live attacks IN lhe
sis daNs We were surrounded q
On tho Ameflha paMe Lieutenant
Herman eeheehFed, or Fat ehanue, \ H.
leader ur tho J0ath INFANTRY baud. who
brought back two brass Instruments
DECORATED with two wound siiibes and
red crosses to indicate that they had
been struck In action. The remainder
of the bands pieces. he said, were
destroyed along the Nesle in August
1913.
Lieutenant schoenfeld and the mon
the Lost Battalion. Among these was
Captain Eddy Grant, one time New
York baseball player.
a few hours before the Amerika left
Brest Lieutenant Colonel Maurice
Laurent, of the French army, went
aboard and announced that he had been
ordered to bestow the Croix de Guerre
upon three men of the 308th Infantry
for galiantry in action. The decora-
tons were for Major McMurtry, Ser
geant Benjamin kaufman and Private
Jack Hersch kowitz.
Among the casual officers on the
America was Captain John B. Della
hunty, who was personnel officer of
the 308th Infantry. He brought home
a bride who before her marriage was
Miss Margaret Rowland, of Racine,
Wis. She had been nurse at the hos
pltal established by Mrs. f. II. Harri-
man. The couple were married April
5 on the steps of an old chateau at
Brulon.
On the transport Pueblo, which
docked in South Brooklyn, came 1,799
| officers and men in command of
Colonel John NJ. Johnson, of Marion,
). Z. Among the troops on board were
the 117th Engineers complete, practi-
cally all Of them having been as
sembled in South Carolina. They were
the builders of the bridge across the
Ourcq,- over which the old 69th, of
New York, crossed in pursuit of the
enemy last July, In the latter part of
the war the 117th got the name Of the
suicide squad because of the extra
hazardous work it undertook in advanc-
ing ahead of the tanks, cutting en-
tanglements.
The transport Belvedere, formerly a
ship of the Austro-American Line
fleet, brought home the 18th Engineers
known in France as the Lucky 18th
lhey were made up of men from
twenty-tour railroads, and were organ
in command of Colonel C. L. Whitney
OF Lewiston, Mont. They operated
chiefly in, the Champagne with the
4th French army.