The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1920-01-16

this, and one on the arm something
else. No time is wasted trying tx
talk, for the rain of machine gun bull
lets and the roar of bursting shells
are busily enhancing the racket Err.
mentrude' sets up on her Owl account
She also has a machine gun or a 81
milimeter deadly weapon that is con
'tributing to the general din and casual.
ty list when the tank is professions
ally engaged.
Boches Couldn't Stand Hitched.
! j. w. Appleby, sergeant first class.
one of E~rmentrude's attendants, was
with her and her flock of sisters in
both the st. Mihiel and Argonne
drives. After the Argonne, the tank
corps had Ermentrude and "a others
'of the same family left out of $50
that waddled into the fight. But five
of the missing ones had previously
lined up on a hilltop under heavy ar
tillery fire and exterminated a Ger
man regiment marching to the attack,
and the deadly concrete machine gun
nests and "pill boxes" had vanished.
The tanks had rolled over them all.
Sergeant Appleby says "the Boches
simply weren't there any MORE" af-
ter the tanks passed over. The ma
chine gun problem was solved. Ser
geant Appleby gives the following
brief outline of the U. S. tank corps
campaign, for which Ermentrude is
now promenading the nation, flirting
with recruits. He is telling actual
experience.
CATER the United States had been
in wal for several months they decided
that in order to hasten the victory they
must have a tank corps, wherefore
G. H. @. issued a call for volunteers.
"Ihis call was answered by about
700 men and they are the boys who
formed the first units Of the tank
corps. These men came from the
LIST, End, Goth, 41st and 42nd divisions.
They were reinforced by thousands
recruited in the states. The first
units went into training at Bourg,
France. That is some Burg" as the
men were 4.rst billited in barns. In
some cases they had to drive the cows
out first to find places to sleep. |
remember in one billet the men slept
over a pigpen and did not seem to
get along with the pigs very well, as
they always wanted to eat about our
bed time. You know, a soldier has
set hours for everything.
"At that time life in the tank corps
was anything but a vacation. The
boys started in to drill and attend
instruction schools at s in the morn
ing and they kept it up until late at
The n thought in every
mind wa that we were getting ready
give the Hun something that he
never gave us the tanks. They are
the most demoralizing weapon to the
enemy yet devised, and the Hun found
he could not compete with them.
"The men were trained how to
handle a tank under any and all cir
cumstances, that is, driving wei shell
holes, trenches, instructions of all
driving at night, ETC., and talk
ing about night believe every SOL
der will agree with me that a French
night is about three times darker
than an American night. When we
went up on the front we knew exactly
what we were supposed to do-and
we did it.
"The tanks went into action in the
st. Mihiel on the 18th of September,
1918, and stayed there for four days
and nights, when the order came for
us to draw back and go to another
front. Just before the order came
we were five miles ahead of all the
American forces. We were ordered
up to the Argonne, but in order to
fool "Jerry," we had to pull off a
couple of "fake" tank drives in 9TH