The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1919-01-17

is i'm hospital i'm Bath, England
recovering from wounds received on
the field of battle, and the letter
was written from there to friend
In Rochester n. Y. and published
in a paper m that city. 1t will be
remembered that Sergeant Miller
was awarded the Distinguished
Service Medal for gallantry on the
field of battle, i'm the drive he so
wildly described i'm the following
lines.
"The Allied forces had advanced
until the line was practically parallel
to the Hindenburg line of defense
running from Lille through Cambria,
st. Qentin and LeFere to Laon. 1t
took stiff battling to get this far, but
the American troops in the sector
hadn't been employed in this advance.
Weir attached to the British here for
purposes of maneuver, and have been
since going into action months ago,
as you've read in the papers. AS
consequence you may not hear so
much about our work as you would
were we with the Americans.
GAS / said all the advance defenses
had been overcome and the line was
up against the front line trenches of
the Hindenburg system. They were
battling fercely to get near Cambria
and st. Quentin. Right here they
needed a couple of fresh divisions to
step in and tear a hole in this famous
| line between these two cities, so that
it could be rolled up toward the north
and get behind Cambria and toward
the south TO get behind st. Quinten.
"Our gallant division and south
ern division of volunteers were it.
That was the task. You must con-
slider that it meant an advance Of
three miles through what was proba-
bly, the best-wired and best defended
trench system in existence. We (the
two divisions), had all the assistance
that tanks, aircraft and artillery
could give us.
''The sector selected was almost
equi-distant from the two strongholds
On Friday, September 9th, at dawn
"a brigade from each division went
over and took the forward trenches.
of the cline" in a preliminary ad
vance of a thousand yards, leaving
the "big show, and taking Of the
line itself, an advance of four thou
sand yards, for Sunday, September
lzlth. But these brigades lost Il!
they lad gained before Sunday came
ianound.
although we were not due to go
over the top until Sunday morning,
I'VE rushed up to within mile Of
where the First Brigade were having
their trouble, in case Jerry should
come too strong.
"From here on | speak only of one
day night, and Saturday and until
four o'clock Sunday morning we lived
in some shallow holes in the ground.
lalthough we were out of observation.
"No rations or water but some
that l first tactfully procured from
some Australians less than a mile
away, then frankly stole from them.
On both occasions that / went after
these rations | saw men go down
under shell fire.
"At four o'clock Sunday morning
we were all aroused and got our
selves together in preparedness for
the biggest day some of us ever had
and the last day for some of us. l,
together with Sergeant Halahan
from Rochester, slept or rather spent
the night in hole which we dug
about two feet deep and not quite
broad enough for both of US. Several
times in the drizzling night shells
landed close to scatter dirt on us, and
twice we had to get up and put our
gas masks on.
eve got started A long file of
men disappearing in the darkness.
Ten yards between men and fifty
yards between gun teams, so shell
wouldn't get more than one or two.
We went about mile and then enter
ed sunken road where we were safe
from Machine gun fire. But Jerry
knows where those sunken roads are
and drops shells into them off and on,
for pastime l guess. Anyway, right
here the Machine Gun company of the
108th, United States Infantry had its
first casualties of this war. Two of
our best men were carried back.
Before six o'clock we went over
from this sunken road, so as to be as
far as possible from such source of
attraction from Jerry iron. All was
strangely quiet. 1t was just brighten
4 1:xx1~ ~. ~~..Il