The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1919-02-26
Circumstances Leading Up
To Decoration for Bravery
of Lieut.. Fred Mendenhall

:
Hq. B. S. No. 2, Bordeaux, France.
February 2, 1919.
Dear Folks
On my return from vacation, l re.
ceived letters from all hands, and so
! shall address this to you all.
Well, we met Fred on our trip, and
he has been awarded the DISTIN-
GUISHED SERVICE CROSS! /
don't know how much that means to
you, but to us familiar with such af-
fairs it means that he has conducted
himself so as to receive next to the |
highest honor that can be awarded
to an American soldier by the Amer
lean Army. The highest is the Con-
gressional Medal of Honor, of which
there will be perhaps 100 awarded in
the entire army during this war.
There will be not more than 5000 D.
is. C.'s awarded, which means that
about one man in every 700 who came
to France with the A. E. f. will be
so honored In Fred's division of
$4,000 men but four officers were dec
Grated and 81 enlisted men. So YOU
can see what he must have pulled
off to be so decorated / had had
feeling all along that something like
that was coming, for the little things
he had mentioned in his letters point
ed to the fact thae he was doing eX-
ceptional things. But he had never
mentioned word about it until he
walked in on us at Marseilles that
morning
He said he had sent you a copy Of
his citation, and as clipping has ar
rived showing that it had been pub
! lished, naturally know that you have
received it. But | am convinced that
he did not describe in detail what
| he did, and so will try to describe
what it took us week to worm out
of him. The details may be lit
tie off, for it was long process to
iget at the facts, but the operations
were essentially as l shall give them.
About o'clock on the night Of
Oct. 10 he was summoned to appear
before the Major for instructions.
On arriving, he and three other lieu
tenants, were told that the Infantry
We're going over the top at 4:30 and
that each of them were to follow
with his platoon and establish ma
chine-gun strong points in advance Of
the farthest point reached by the in
fantry. Fred asked if there was to
be any liason between them and the
infantry so that they might know just
how far the line had advanced. He
was told that the infantry had made
no provision so far as they knew and
the four platoons would have to use
their judgment as to what to do.
However, he was given map with
mark showing approximately the OBJ.
jective and the point where each
strong-point was to be located. An
other lieutenant who was to be in
command over the four platoons with
their officers, said that he would
try to get the information about the
laison and would give it to them be-
fore morning.
Fred went back and instructed his
Sergeant to roust out thirty men at
| 2:30 a. m. and have them ready to
receive instructions. He then in
structed the guard to wake him at
! 200 and went to sleep.
4 At 200 he was awakened as per
I instructions, and he in turn got his
Z Sergeant out The Sergeant was
|; then instructed to get his men in
readiness to go forward for the |
{ work in hand. While these prepare.
II tiohS WSic pSiHS HlduS, TlCu WSul
! back to the P. c. to see if the Lieu.
Z tenant in command had ever gotten |
I in touch with the Infantry about the
/ laison, but found nobody home. Ac.
! cordingly he started forward at $3.50
Y at the head of his column. He had |
to work his way through the black |
darkness over a ridge and through |
the underbrush to barbed-wire
dump An a valley about four kilome-
tres from his camps and two kilome-
tres from the German line. Smelling
was only desultory at that distance
back, and because the enemy did not
know of the impending attack.
| He arrived about 400 a. m, let his
men rest little. and then loaded
them with IL reels of barbed wire,
picks. shovels and axes. By this |
! time it was the zero hour and the
fireworks started Our barrage |
tuned up. and the dough-boys went |
ovoY. with n 1uhaon fro0, tbaip limo :, |