Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-09-08
CHAPTER TX (Continued) .


The First division was held in army
reserve and thrown in to take par
ticularly hard bit of territory. They
were in eleven days in all and took
all their detectives. As a result they
were cited individually by General
Pershing in special orders No. 211.
The losses again We're very heavy,
nearly as large as at Scissors. 1t was
in this battle Lieut.. T. P. Emory was
killed while making a daring patrol.
Emory was a gallant young fellow,
not more than twenty-five or twenty
three years of age. He had originally
been intelligence officer for my bat
talon and had been quite badly
wounded by a shell fragment in the
Montdidier sector. AS soon as he was
cured he reported back to the regi-
ment and took up his old work as
second officer When the division
took over contact he had been lost
with the enemy A patrol was accord
ingly sent out at once, for it was pos
sible that an attack would be ordered
in the morning. Lieutenant Emory
was given forty men and went out.
Signal corps men were put with him
to carry a telephone. 1t turned out
that the Germans were holding strong
points rather than a continuous line
of front on account of this and the
darkness he filtered through without
finding them and unobseved by them.
The first word his battalion command
err received was a telephone message
from the signal sergeant saying: I'VE
have advanced about one and one
half kilometers and there Is no sign of
the enemy, The Germans have
opened on us from the right flank"
Then, "they are firing on us from
three sides. / believe we are sur
rounded" And last. Lieutenant
Emory has been shot through the
head and killed"
Captain Forster and captain Wort
ley also were killed at this time, be-
sides many other gallant officers and
men. Foster when he died was but
% years old. When he came over
with the division he was nothing but
a curly-headed boy. In the year and
a half that he spent in France he
turned from a boy into man. He was
afraid of nothing and had a rarer
virtue in that he was always in good
spirits. He had been hit once before
at scissors. He had been platoon
leader and adjtuant.
Later, on the death of the company
commander, Captain Frey, he had
taken command of company He
like Lieutenant Emory was shot
through the head by a machine gun.
Wortley was an older man and had
always been ambitious to join the
regular army. He had served an en-
listment in the regulars and had been
a sergeant. Later at Leavenworth
l. 4 l.;
Wortley also had been wounded at
Scissors
Major Youell described to me an in
cident which happened to him in this
battle. which illustrates very we'll the
dull, leathery mind that one gets after
a certain amount of bitter fighting
and fatigue. He was commanding the
Second battalion and had received or
ders for an attack. He was not sure
of his detectives. He got out his very
best prismatic compass, which he
valued more than any of his posses
sions, as it was virtually impossible
to replace it. He sighted carefully,
determined the direction of the at
tack, ordered the advance, put the
compass on the ground and walked
off leaving it there. when he next
thought of it the compass was gone
for good
Another captain we had, was thor
ough'y courageous personally. but he
held one very bad fault He could
not keep his men under control. Once
after an attack his battalion was
checking up to see if the detectives
were taken and all units in place. He
found the detectives were' taken all
but that in the instance of this one
company, the company itself was miss
ing On the objective was sitting the
company commander and his head
quarters group. The rest of the COM
pany had missed its direction advanc-
ing through a wood and got lost.
In Another Action.
| remember this same company
commander in another action. We
had been advancing behind tanks,
which had all been disabled by direct
fire from the Germans. | went for
ward to where he. was lying with a
handful of men by one of these tanks.
| said to him, Captain, where is your
company" He, said, 81 don't know