The Topeka state journal., 1919-11-11
Thousands of Kansans sin Ac-
tiOn" Year Ago Today.
"CIosest Calls" Came During
Last Hours of Fighting.
18TH MOVING ON VERDUN
Eighty-Ninth Engaged Enemy
Up to Last Minute.
Shell Holes "LOoked Good" to
Scrappy Kansas Lads.

With Armistice day ceiebrations be-
| ing held in many towns and cities thru
Kansas today. former service men are
retelling today their experiences of a
year ago when they were "in the thick
of it." Many of them mad what they
| termed their closest calls in the last
] hours of the fighting, and many lost
their "buddies" but few minutes be-
! fore the hostilities ceased.
| Men of the 35th division-to which
unit hundreds of Topeka soldiers be-
as the day before they were to enter
another show as gruelling as the
| Argonne fight. For a week before the
armistice was signed the doughboys of
] the Kansas Missouri national guard
division had been moving forward into
the line near Verdun. On the morn
| ing of November II, the veterans of
the first six days of the Argonne were
crouched close to the front lines wait
| ing for the dark to come when they
would move into the @jump-off
trenches The morning of November
| IL the 35th division was to lead
drive on the city of Metz. The signing
| of the armistice forestalled this CAM
| paign which, it was declared. would
| have been one of the bloodiest of the
| war.
Eighty-ninth on Meuse.
Members of the s9th division. which
| included in its ranks men from Ne
braska, Missouri, South Dakota, Kan
sas, Colorado. New Mexico and Ari-
zona, were heavily engaged by the
enemy up to the final minutes of ac-
| tivities. The night of November 10.
| the division crossed the Meuse river
| liaiSon battalion and a machine gun
| company, under orders of the End di-
| vision, were preparing to cross. the
| river when they were caught under a
/ koa afF-gaf 0f aTfJl
| and suffered heavy casualties.
Troops of both the seth and Goth
divisions entered the city of Stenay,
on the east side of the Meuse river.
only an hour before the armistice be-
came effective. They crossed the
river on a footbridge which the Ger
mans neglected to destroy, former
| service men said.
| N''It was about quarter to eleven"
remarked a former S9th division man.
| when a German 1ong-range shell
dropped in the midst of our detach-
ment as we rested near an old saw mill
| in the vicinity of Beaumont. That
| shell killed eight or nine and wounded
| about thirty. In fifteen minutes the
/ war vas over"
THAT last night was terrible" OBJ
| served \another middle west division
| soldier "AH night long the Germans
concentrated their artillery on the hill
where we were and swept it from side
| to side and from the bottom to the
| top. We lodged from shell hole to
shell hole, with the pieces of shrapnel
and high explosive screaming thru the
air. Often as I lay in a shallow hole,
| with part of my body showing above
| the level of the ground, shell would
pass so near that could feel the heat
| from it, like the breath from a fur
! mace door. The explosion of the shell
would lift me from the ground and 1
would be partly buried by the falling
sticks, stones and debris.
| Rescuer Met Death.
my buddie got separated from me
that night. We had moved farther
| down the hill about dusk and later
| he had to return to our former posi-
tion to look after some rations. The
crest of the hill was shelled furiously.
! Everywhere there were smoking shell
holes and ghastly craters, for the Ger
| man was using heavy artillery that
night. The smoke of battle hung
| heavy over the water-soaked ground.
The momentary flash of bursting
| shells printed on the mind little pic
lures of waste and destruction. of
| tangled trees, smoking shell craters
and gas-filled hollows. One shell
wounded a man and partially buried
him in the hole where he was seeking
shelter, and it was his cry for aid that
my buddie answered. Another shell
dropped CLOSE at hand and the man
with whom L had fought for months
was mortally wounded. They carried
him down a narrow path thru the
woods to a dressing station mile or
more away and several days later i
heard of his DEATH
| Numerous incidents were related by
former service men who wear wound
stripes on their uniforms, of going
thru months of fighting without a
scratch. only to be wounded dnring the
last few minutes or hours. One said
he had been at his machine gun all
night without being hit but was
severely wounded by a piece of shrap-
mel as he was on his way to the
ration dump" to get some breakfast
the morning of the 11th. Another told
of losing an arm within a half hour OF
| the cessation of hostilitles.
Couldn't Believe News.
| How the first news of the armistice
was received by his organization was
related by a former machine gun SER
geant. They had a field telephone
| located in a hole iu the ground and il
was connected with the battalion
headquarters some distance to the
rear. 1t was about 1918 the morning
of the 11th, he said, when the tele-
phone rang and they received the news
Of the armistice. He himself copied
down the messag ge as it was reneated