The Topeka state journal., 1919-04-21
They Have Their Own Opinion
of the Controversy.
CALL 35TH "BELLY-ACHERS"
Whine Over Argonne Battle
Laughed at Overseas.
But Kansas Boys Are Happy To
Be Home Again.

Kansas and Missouri soldiers have
their own and very emphatic opin-
ion of the controversy that has been
aired in this country over the 35th
Division and the charges of excessive
losses and lack of artillery and air
plane support for the division in the
Argonne Forest battle.
This opinion began to seep out when
the 10th engineers arrived Saturday.
But it was not so noticeable, for the
engineers are rightfully mighty chesty
over their individual record and were
very prompt in making known that in
everything that had been said of the
battleN and any reflections that may
have passed back and forth between
the doughboys and the artillerymen,
all agreed that the engineers had been
Johnny on the job with the goods"
AS one engineer put it. ITS not our
affair and we have no part in it,
But this sort of detached attitude
was gone Sunday when the 129th field
artillery and the 10th ammunition
ern Missouri, arrived. Both units let
it be known mighty quickly that they
had a few words to add to the subject
and those words were emphatic Both
officers and men in both units very
evidently felt that in some way the
controversy and criticism that had
been l.veled at the general manage
ment of the battle were not at them.
Because of alleged artillery and air.
plane shortages, and for which the
units were in no way, directly or indi-
rectly, responsible, had reflected upon
the part they had played in the great
battle, they were quick and prompt to
resent it.
WHY Talk About 1t?
Most of the officers and men who
frankly said that they were working
under conditions of most aggravat-
ing character rather took the attitude
that it would have been much better
had nothing been said about it.
Summed UP in few words. they were
afraid the public and the rest of the
army would regard the 35th as belly
achers," as one private put it. And
tentions.
1t was curious to try to get at just
what the men themselves. over there
in France. had got of the controversy
and the charge Governor Allen had
made in his Topeka speech and later
before the military committee of the
house and senate of congress. They
had got fragments of it in letters and
some of it in newspapers and other
parts of it by word of mouth in dis
cussion among themselves of the di-
visions part in the battle.
Plenty of Ammunition.
Lieut.. Orville r. Weare of Kansas
City had this opinion and his attitude
was so typical of the rest of the train
that~it almost tells their. viewpoint.
''I really have got something,I would
like to say" said the lieutenant, ignor-
ing the questions. Its about those
charges that Governor Allen and 9TH
ers made about the shortage of am
munition for the 35th in the Argorne
battle.
There wasn't any shortage. The
facts and the records will show that
we got plenty of ammunition up. There
was acres of it. 1t was an awful job
but the train put it over and anybody
who says we didn't, doesn't know. The
roads were hell-there is not other
way to describe them. They were
jammed and congested. The bocle
would plow them up until they were
impossible When 1 think back over
it l don't see how we did get it thru.
We were being shelled and gassed all
the while but the outfit of more than
one thousand men worked like slaves
day and might and we came thru.
When the orders came to move the
artillery forward we got the dumps
established and the ammunition wait
ing there as the guns came up. And
we kept it coming. How, don't
know. Thru the entire battle, it went
that way, altho conditions became
worse all the while. as we had to bring
it forward over worse and worse ter
rain and no roads at all. But the
train did 1t somehow and the people
ought to know that fact-not criticism
that there was shortage of ammuni-
tion.'' ~
Col w. E. Fitzpatrick of salina
commanded the ammunition train.
The officers-and men spoke most
highly of him. But as he was the
senior officer aboard the big trans
port Great Northern he had a multi
tude of affairs to attend to as we'll as
1t.
Maj. Leslie E. Harvey of Salina also
discussed the work of the ammuni-
ton train and his story was almost
the same story that Lieutenant Weare
told.
They Resent Criticism.
The major felt that somehow the
criticism had reflected on the work
of the unit and rather resented it.
But when he was told the people back
in Kansas and Missouri didn't feel that
way about it at all-that they had
only the highest COMMUNICATION for ev-
cry part of the 35th division units,
that it was whether the war depart
ment had got to the battle front suf-
ficient equipment to give the fighting
men the chance they deserved that
was questioned, he felt better about it.
Major Harvey had the official reports
to show just what the train had done
to get the shells up during the battle,
day by day, most imposing figures in
rounds of ammunition.
Artillery on the job.
Down the piers block or so, where
the Kansas City artillery regiment was
getting ashore and filing into the big
mess hall for chow, it was much the
same story. Summed up, it was about
this: The artillery regiment had given
everything that men could. They had
moved the guns forward as fast as it
was humanity possible to move them.
They had done big job and were
proud of it.
One private put in: IF we had had
5000 horses to a gun we couldn't have
gone forward in some spots against
the condition we were up against.
But somehow we got there"
Capt Theodore Marks of Kansas
City, one of the efficient battery COM
manders. said: Were sorry there
has been all this talk about the 35th.
but there is this to say: If there is