Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-04-24
ROCK ISLAND SOLDIER is BACK
WEARING CROIX DE GUERRE WITH
PALM FOR HAIR-RAISING DEEDS

After eight months in the ser
vice Louis E. Pomrank, sos Twelfth
avenue, is back home, unscathed
! though he fought through a verita-
! BILE hail of bullets in the bitterest
/ fighting of the war just preceding
! the armistice. He returned a cor
/ poral and with the joy of home
| coming may well be coupled pride
49, for Corporal Pomrank wears
| pinned upon his left breast the
croix de guerre with palm, present
ed by the French government in Of
| fetal recognition of personal brav-
cry of the highest sort.
The last weeks of October. 1918,
| found the German legions retreat
iEg all along the extended front
they had held for over fouEe long
years. Under the unrelenting. ham
mer-like blows of Foch. the master
stra,egist. the grAy-clad hordes
were giving way. slowly at first
but more rapidly as victory in
spired those dirty, nondescript. be
grimed and grimly smiling young
savages from across the ocean,
those American Swine" who the
German soldier had been told were
afraid to fight.
And they were not only a few OF
them-they were all along the line
and in seeming inexhaustible num-
bers- In Lorraine. Champagne. st.
M1EIei, Nerdun, the Argonne for
est, Chateau Thierry. scissors,
Amiens. Mons and even in Belgium
they were fighting, pressing on,
ever on. with irresistible force. But
not without paying precious toll,
fer the savage and desperate Hun
gave way grudgingly, resisting to
the last with every means of de-
struction at his hand.
1t was the same along a certain
sector leading to the Escant river
in Belgium. Here. as was the case
ferther south, the Hun was backing
to the Rhine, American veterans,
including Company NJ. One Hun
dred Forty-eighth infantry. Thirty
seventh. Buckeye" division. were
being hurled forward by the British
as shock troops. The Yanks had
arrived during the last week in DC
tOher. On the first day they went
over the top they gained their OBJ
jectives. two tiny almost obliterat-
e.. Belgian hamlets which once bore
the names of Chyshantem and
Hcume. They were a.tained-but
rot without a terrific price. The
Yanks swept forward in a deluge
Of high explosive shells. machine
gun bullets. artillery and small
arms fire. poured upon them by the
enemy in savage despera ton.
The few crumbling walls that had
once marked the two towns lay Just
before the Escant river . Tie
stream must be crossed-the next
Americanl objective lay beyond it
In shallow. hastily dug pits the
men lay awaiting the coming Of the
engineers with pontoOn bridges.
Their positions were exposed ones,
the German artillery on the heights
across the river dominating then.
The earth seemed to rock with the
amending crash and roar of the
shells. Casualties were heavy
S. something had to be done
nc vi ucI GAME tDdi an d4N ante
would be effected without the eng
neers. Volunteers were called for
to lay the bridge that the troops
might cross.
Crouched with some of his COM
panions in a shelf hole was Pom
rank. He had left Rock Island
June 27, little dreaming how soon
he would be fighting for his life in
wars grim reality on Belgian
battlefield. That had been only a
scant four months before. He had
gone from Rock Island TO Camp
Grant. from where he had been
to COMPANY NJ of the
One Hundred Forty-eigh dough
boys of the good old Thirty-seventh. /
as a member of which he had been !
TO France and to the St. |