New-York tribune., 1919-02-24
3O2d Trench Mortar Battery
Composed of New York
ers, Made Fine Record
Cruisers Bring Troops
Montana and Kansas Reach
Port With More Than
5000 Returning Fighters

The first complete unit Of the 77th
Division, described by its command
ing officer as "a good clean crowd of
fine soldiers" came home yesterday on
the United States cruiser Montana just
a year and day after it embarked
from New York for overseas.
This group was the 302d Trench Nor
tar Battery, consisting of six officers
and 148 mon, all of whom seemed in
better trim yesterday than when they
went abroad
Captain Samuel J. Reid, who attended
the first Plattsburg training camp said
yesterday that words were inadequate
to express the pride and love he felt
for his men,
"Our battery was wonderful or
ganization," he said. at was made up
officers were recruited from civil life.
We had in our ranks Jewish clothes
makers from the sweatshops of the
East Side, Italian bootblacks, and the
sons of representative men of cosmo-
politan New York. They showed they
were a good clean crowd of men with
high grade of intelligence
No better proof of their good sense
and their valor could be cited than
their work on the Vesle, when they
took over a captured battery of Ger
man "77's" and operated it with won
derful dexterity and effectiveness.
lhe whole equipment was new to
them, but within few hours they got
the Germans number, and actually it
would have made your heart thump
fast and hard to see them showerinr
the enemy with his own shells from
his own field pieces
ut was soon observed that this Yap-
hank battery could eat up any old can
non that came its way, and later the
boys proved their worth by jumping in
and operating a battery of German
lO5-M I'M. howitzers. These pieces we're
covered with German markings which
meant something to the owners, but
nothing to our boys They Just for
got the German signs and figures and
dld with those guns what the American
engineers did with the damaged in
termed German liners.
When we went over We were at
ts tached to the 152d Artillery Brigade.
The Baccarat sector was where we saw
our heaviest fighting, but we had
plenty of it along the Vesle and the
Meuse and in the Argonne. Our bows
fought long and we'll, but, thank
heaven, their casualties were small"
The Montana brought over from,
brest ,401 officers and men, including
the 146th Machine Gun Battalion corr
rlete, consisting of 80 officers and 533
men, in command of Major j. M. Han
ley, of Mandan, S. D. He was circuit
court judge when he joined the army.
The battalion's chaplain, the Rev. I
l.: Roberts, pastor of the Baptist Churcn
of La Grange, Mo-, also returned. He
was gassed near Soissons, but had fully
recovered on his arrival yesterday.
Also on the Montana were: The Right
Rev. w. A. Guerry, Protestant Episco-
pal Bishop of South Carolina, and the
Eight Rev. Edwin Holt Hughes, Meth
odist Episcopal Bishop of BOSTON, Y. NJ.
G.. A. workers who served in France arc
in England.
Another homecomer was ieutenanL
Daniel C. Beebe, of Syracuse, N. Y, who
won the D. S. c. for his work with the
50th Aero Squadron over the German
lines last September. His plane was
badly battered on September IL and lis
observer killed, but he got safely to HIS
own lines after sending down two Ger
man planes.
On November he was shot down
within the German lines and made
prisoner near the Belgian front, but
during the confusion in Germany fol-
lowing the armistce he escaped and
walked to Sedan, where he met the
troops from New York.
The cruiser Kansas, which had put
into Bermuda for coal, also arrived yes
terday, bringing 1880 troops, includ-
ing the 116th Ammunition Train from
Camp Dix, and the 10th Engineers,
complete. The troops were in com
mand of Lieutenant Colonel James c..
McLeer, lawyer of Brooklyn.
The transport West Durfee from,
Brest, with Casual Company No. 148,
and the Artemis from St. Nazaire, with
twenty-five casual officers, also arrived
yesterday.