New Britain herald., 1919-03-05

ward where they made the noise in leaving the trenches.
 Tells of Chamberlain's Feat.
 "When we entered the trenches we had orders not to ire on La on as the French expected to take the town later and did not want the place de- %troyed The Germans were using the church towers as observation nosts The 1O1st Artillery went in and didn't care what the French wanted, The first shot they fired knocked one of the towers and showed l7ritzy the Yankee boys were in. That started Fritzy and what was before a cuiet sector became lively for some time. On February 18th. 16O guns fired a barrage. Lieutenant Cham ber1air1 of this city was out in No Mans Land with his men and in such a position that his men were sacrificed if surrounded. They took a chance and came out. It was at that time Private Becker of this city lost his leg. Company F Of this city was mixed up in the middle of the en- Sagemnt.
 The Battle of Seichcprcy.
 We were at last relieved and ex- pected a rest We were, however, sent to Seicheprey and my command was to take up q position on the right in the Remiere Wood. I went and reported to the colonel. He told me he was glad we had come and told me what fine time we would have in the sector. He was glad because he had heard of the spirit of our men. Our orders were 10 stick to the last man. On April 20 at 3 in the morning things began to start. The lrS Iii IL and the French retired as was their custom. That left just the chance the Germans wanted, and we were surrounded. We were out there from in the morning until 3 in the af- ternoon, surrounded. Company D had many of it's men captured. The fight ing was terrible. Major Rau with 90 men, recruited to help us. drove 300 Germans from Seicheprey But we stuck and that was the principal part of it. We had our orders and they were obeyed. We took four prisoners, that was all
 Hit By Own Artillery.
 "Some of the wounded from our di- vision in returning to dressing sta tions must have reported Seicheprey captured. Without having the report confirmed the commander of the sec tor ordered the American artillery to open fire on Seicheprey. They did and if was hell. You ought to have seen the stones fly. Why they just simply riddled that town and all the time it was held by us instead of the Germans. Many of our men were killed. Sergeant Sokovitch of this city was killed there doing his duty in the support trenches trying to get aid to us. Out of the TO men I took into the engagement, 30 came out able to walk and some of them were other wise injured. It was the first test of the Yankee mettle and they stuck a II the time. General Edwards after ward visited me and asked me in the hospital why more Germans were not l captured. I told him the circum- stances of us being surrounded and asked him if he would not have done the same.'
 Captain Griswold did not know he was so badly wounded until after he was in the hospital. He complained of his back and the doctor, upon rip ping his shirt from him found it 1 completely blood-soaked. A. splinter of shrapnel about six inches long had l gone into his back right under his l left shoulder blade. It was a ten to l one chance and, as the captain re- 1 marked, II was on the lucky side 1 Slaughtered At Chateau Thier1y. 1 Continuing Captain Gfriswold said | "The regiment came out on July 1 10th. From there it was taken to l Chateau Thierry where it relieved the 1 second division. General Foch spoke of the section of the line taken over as the critical part of the line There
 was a terrible slaughter there. Of l 1000 men and 26 officers going into ] battle 200 men and three officers l came out. Major Rau was one of the men there and he lost his life l Captain Griswold then paid a high
 tribute to the dead hero, termng him 1 a good soldier, a fine officer and a l gentleman.
 l Praises Local Heroes. Captain GrisWold spoke of it as
 Absolutely criminal' to think that l the men were sent over the top at , l o'clock on the morning of November 1 11th the day the armistice was signed 1 He also mentioned the loss of be- 1 tween 5000 and 5000 men the last five days before the signing of the ar
 mlstice. He paid a tribute to the he
 rolc dead. He spoke of Sergeant | Clarence Callahan who arrived back i from France yesterday. He termed 1 hlm a hero who gave up his gas mask | to