The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1919-05-22
"JA-AT CHATEAU THIERRY-"
A Former German Soldier Tells How
Boches Bumped Into Hanks.

George Pattullo in Saturday Evening
Post.
The German masses are unanimous
in ascribing their defeat to the
limited States. l have lived in Ger
many the past three months and have
talked with demoblized officers and
soldiers, with German officials and
civilians. Every man of them-col-
onels, captains, lieutenants, privates,
mail carriers, clerks, storekeepers,
farmers, professional men, priests
blames the submarine campaign for
their present plight, because 1t en-
listed America in the ranks of their
foes
With three or four officers / was
taking lunch in a restaurant III COD
lenz last December-this was before
the order came out forbidding Amer
leans to buy food from the Boches'
Among them was a young French
man and he was giving us his idea
of the factors which determined the
outcome. Our waiter was a black
haired, alert, straight backed indlvi-
dual, who brought,h his heels together
every time he passed us dish. On
his left cheek was scar-a livid
pucker-where bullet had penetrat-
ed.
Suddenly he butted into the con-
versation, his eyes popping, his whole
body Quivering with excitement; evil
dently he was unable longer to re-
press his feelings on hearing the
French officers claims. The latter
was angry and wanted 20 cut him
short and discipline him, but the
Boche's first rush of words consisted
of: Il was at Chateau Thierry," and
we wanted to hear more. Over our
French friends protests We told him
to fire ahead. And this is substan-
TALLY what he said in English:
ia, was at Chateau Thierry, and
sir, 1 wear the iron cross. The
French?" he snorted. THE English?
The English were beaten. Yes, we
had whipped them. They had enough
after the March fighting, and they
had more than enough after KENNEL.
They were like this. He held his
two hands high in air. "And then at
the end of May we broke through
the French. Ja-the war was finished.
They yelled The wars over Like
this" He drew a finger rapidly
across his throat. $50 we came on
again. We came on again, sir, not ex-
pecting a real resistance. And then
suddenly, we smashed into Ameri-
cans. None of US soldiers knew they
were there. They put UP fight, and
then there were more Of them and
still more. We had been deceived.
There were too many Americans, so
what could we do?" He finished with
an eloquent shrug.
In several villages they told me
that up to the very last they were ut
terly ignorant of the magnitude of the
American effort. At Lieuterod, where
l spent a week, fully dozen citizens
said the people had been assured that
only a handful of Americans had ar
rived in Europe-that the United
States could not transport any forces
because the submarines had the sea
blocked. But toward the end men
came back from the front with
strange tales.
There were Americans everywhere
on the front We found that out too
late. No matter where we struck, we
bumped into Americans there; and all
were fresh, young men. Is it true
that all your soldiers are hardly more
than boys? We were told that the few
Americans in France were old men
and no good. And now comes your
army and it is full of young men.
Yes; they lied to us and cheated us.
For when the soldiers came through
they said your men fought savagely
and without fear. They said that
they would do things every day
though X meant sure death, and that
a lot of Americans were thus killed"