Newark post. (Newark, Del.) 1910-1969, 1919-04-30
LIEUTENANT MORRIS r. MITCHELL HAS VALUA-
BE BIT OF HUMAN HISTORY


uniform and escaped to Weisenberg,
where he met four American officers
who took him to Metz and supplied
him with money. He was in that city
and stood upon the Kaiser's monu-
ment which had been overthrown when
the French troops came through. He
reported to the provost marshal, who
sent him to Toul and later to Blois and
then to Brest for embarkation to the
United States.
Private Harry H. Roessler, of the
307th Infantry, 18th Division, whose
home is in Brooklyn, N. Y, went into
action at Fismes early in September.
On the eighth his company was on the
way to the front, when one of the
Lieutenants was hit by a piece of
shrapnel. His platoon got excited,
closed up, and while in this formation
a shell launched in their midst wound
ing three men, killing the man in
front of Roessler and blowing out the
bottom of the latter's mess kit About
"a hours later che got his" Each man
had been ordered into dugout.
He continues: GAS l was sitting in
mine | saw a fellow come along the
road with an armful of rations. He
told me where to get them and I
started out. The German machine
gun bullets were flying all around, but
I was hungry and game enough to try
anything once.
''When l had gotten what I wanted
| went back to my dugout and filed
up. I was just about to enjoy my
first smoke in three days when shell
came over. (There is saying among
us that you won't get hit unless the
shell has your name on it. I think
this shell had my name, address and
Identification number on it, as l was
the only one it got). Some of the
shrapnel hit me on the face, neck and
Lack"
His wounds were dressed by COM
rade and he was removed to first
aid station and to a field hospital
where he was put under ether.
'The next thing | heard was an
American females voice asking me
how | felt. l opened my eyes and
looked at her. 1t was the first Ameri-
can womans voice I had heard in two
months and right away l started to
feel better"
He tells of the various stages of his
recovery, pays high tribute to the
Red Cross nurses. He says that al
though he has lost part of his left
cheek bone and is deaf in one ear, he
is proud of what he went through, but
wouldn't care to try it again.
Private Anthony Cardello, of the
same division gives vivid account of
taking over a relief on August 26th
with sthe rain falling in bucketsful
and the darkness so intense that he
could not see the man in front of him.
his company had to cross the Vesle
river on little bridge that Jerry had
in perfect range. They reached their
lines with the loss of few men and
had secured a few minutes sleep when
a call came for patrol to take ma
cline gun nest that was menacing
their left. Cardello's lieutenant called
for volunteers and with seven others
Cardello volunteered for the job.
The young soldier tells the story
thus: ave had to go across a field
with the moon at our backs, which
made the going more dangerous and
the movement more slow. We got
there safe-all of us after having
lodged what seemed to be a million
bullets, we reached the woods where
he had his machine gun, but could not
move around to locate him. AS it is
usual in machine gun fire, just to keep
your head down for observation, we
located him in tree. Our lieutenant
told US to make as little noise as pos
sible while he himself advanced to-
ward the tree and at a given signal
we were to fire toward this tree and
when Jerry would respond he would
make it out and the Lieutenant would
get shot at him. The plan worked
fine and the Huns lost one of their
best gunners.
By this time our little firing had
aroused the rest of the Huns and how
we all got beck to our lines alive is
more than l can say. We got back
about four in the morning of the 9th
and almost Immediately we were told
to get ready to go over the top. There
was no use in trying to get any sleep
or rest so patiently we waited for the
Zero hour.
This was set for ago, when we
heard the word "Let's Co." which was