The Washington herald., 1919-02-18
KANSANS VICTIMS
OF OWN BARRAGES,
DECLARES ALLEN
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.

that II the French had fought like
the Thirty-hfth. they would have
had no army left after the first
year.
Alrplane Shortage Mystery.
When asked who was responsible
for the conditions he had described,
Governor Allen replied:
The responsibility for the lack
OF material lay with whatever
source was under obligation to sup
ply it. The shortage of airplanes
is one of the mysteries of the air
plane service.
The battle of the Argonne Forest
was the battle for which we had
been preparing for months. When
we came to it, we didn't have the
machinery. 1t seemed to be a part
OF that highly organized inefficiency
that characterized the whole army
over there. Whenever you touched
anything, it fell down, except one
thing, the raw men material, which
was all right"
Governor Allen said the aircraft
| didn't arrive and that the division
| fought with French ordnance. lie
| also declared that they were con-
/ stantly buying horses at $500 each
and were losing them the next day
| because they were not Mt to do the
work"
\ letter written by a major
whose name Gov. Allen withheld
was read saying the casualties in
his battalion were forty per cent
The governor took sharp issue with
statements by Secretary Baker and
Gen. March. Chief of Staff, that the
| Thirty -fifth's casualties were nc
heavier than those of other divi-
sions. ut should be noted that this
six-day battle was the only one in
which this division fought, while
most of the other divisions enumer-
ated had been in many other
| fights" he said
Gov. Allen said that the divisions
casualties during the battle lasting
six days and five nights from Sep
| tember 26 to October ., were about
| 1900 of whom 1,733 were dead OF
missing.
]
/ After reading from orders issued
| by Maj. Gen. Peter Z. Traub, who
commanded the division, Gov. Aller
said:
These orders show the commen-
/ dation of men OF the infantry who
went forward against artillery. ma
chine guns, grenades and tanks
From the same orders, he showed
| how the 10th Engineers had held
a position in the front line for sew
eral days, although not supposed tc
/ be organized for infantry duty.
! From a letter written by lieutenant
colonel, Governor Allen read:
'Our artillery fire failed US and die
not support US after the first few
hours. We fought the German artil,
/ lery. machine guns, hand grenades
etc, with our service rifiss only. We
should have been trained to fight ma
terial with material"
[ He also read from a letter written
I by a first sergeant who wrote that the
artillery support was useless after the
/ first four and half hours, due to
lack of horses to bring up the guns
Most of the horses, the sergeant
wrote, were not nt for use and could
he seen dying along the road. The
letter also said that the Germans
dominated the air.
Hit by own Shells.
Governor Allen laid before the COM
mittce a report signed by a captain
written at intervals during the battle
and a cipy of which he forwarded to
his wife. through whom it became
public. That part written on Sep
tCmbcr % declared that the division
was suffering losses from its own
artillery fire, which was falling short
1t read:
During the entire day our troops
were continually pelted by our owr
artillery. Our own artillery was more
destructive to our men than to the
| enemy. Our airplanes have been oil
little use to US in combating enemy
planes. l have sent five different
messages to the artillery this morn
ing to lengthen our range. 1t is doing
more to undermine our morale thar
anything else. There is not a tele
phone in the organization, no signal
/ flares left and we have no way to
| communicate except by runner. Our
/ regiment has not more than ZOO men
left"
The regiment in question went in
with the full strength of 5000, Gov
ernOr Allen commented.
An official report by Lieutenant Col
onel X. c. Peck, inspector general OF
/ the corps of which the Thirty-ffth
was a part, estimating that the total
shortage Of horses in the division was
2,7O3 and declaring that ammunition
trains were practically immobile be-
] nf lack Of
read by the governor.
The statement of an officer of tho
l31th that his regiment went in
with 1900 men and SO officers and
came out with 1929 men and *
officers was repeated to the com
mittee by Governor Allen. He also
quoted Harry R Hoffman, Of Chi
cagO, attached to the divisions med
ical corps. On September 2S, Can't,
HOffman's statement said, a runner
was sent back with this message:
For Gods sake, send us litters,
blankets and food"
Word came back that nothing
could be done owing to lack of
transportation. At that time, ac-
cording to Hoffman, there were 500
men at the dressing station. Bombs
from German airplanes were falling
about the station, Capt Hoffman's
statement said, and the major COM
mandins the sanitary unit, arming
himself with a rifle taken from a
wounded man just killed by air.
plane fire, directed others to arm
themselves similarly to fight of
the Germans.
Gov. Allen said very elaborate
regulations had been issued provid-
ing for hip splints for wounded
men and for application of external