The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-12-24
Whiftlesey's Death Brings
Out Truth About ssThc Lost
BaftaIiOn;" Was NeUer Lost


who is gone, and to his soldiers
who are living.
Tells Real Story.
The 77th Division had been or
dered to advance through the for
est. its front being about four miles
wide. This advance began on Sept
rs. On Oct. the whole line was
held mp by concentrated machine
gun fire.
| That you may visualize this ad-
vanctng Hne,f imagine soldiers
strung out from F4fty-ninth street
and Central Park to the Polo
Grounds, moving toward the East
river. Don't try to imagine the
ground as it appears on a map. The
whole country for miles looked
very much like that section of Cen
trail Park around McGown's Pass,
with some of the Palisades thrown
in. All was covered with dense
woods and thickets. So thick were
these woods that it was impossible
to see man more than sixty yards
| away. There were many hills as
high as the approach to the Pals
AIDES, and they happened every half
mile or SO. At the foot of these
sharp hills were deep ravines of
small, swampy streams, all snarled
up in a tangle OF vines and rank
underground. It was a Herculean
/ task to walk through that, let alone
fight through it And it lasted for
nearly nineteen miles, straight
ahead.
You can well understand why the
Germans held this for four years.
Advance Is Ordered.
! But, despite the hold up on Oct.
2, the division was ordered to pro-
coed without regard to losses The
forest had to be taken and the 77th
! had to take it
l will try to avoid map refer
ences, but, to the left of the line
two ravines came together, forming
a nasty swampy place, known as
| the pocket" In front of this was
a sheer cliff, just like the one lead
ing from the upper lake in Central
Park to McGown's Pass-that high
place up on the rocks where there
is historic stone and you can
stand and look over the surround
ing country.
Whittlesey's battalion, made up
of companies from the 308th and
307th Infantries and part of the
306th Machine Gun battalion, had
the job of taking up a position in
that pocket and holding it.
In moving forward Whittlesey
found an unprotected place in the
ravine and filed his men through
it They crawled and scrambled
through matted underground and
vines, but finally got together and
re-established their line, nearly
half mile wide as it faced.
j They had crossed an abandoned
trench or ditch that had grown up
in wild tangle, the Germans think
ing it unnecessary to man this a
year or so before But, mind you,
the battalion had not taken this
without some fighting. WhittleSey's
outfit had lost 80 men from flank
ing machine-gun fire and had taken
two German officers and % pri-
Yates prisoners.
Fought Way Through.
This would have been a master
full coup but for the fact that the
French on one flank and the 307th
Infantry on the other had been
held up SO that they could not link
their lines with Whfttlesey's. In
other words, Whittlesey's outfit
was the only one to fight its way
:. through and take the objective as
ordered.
The battalion settled down in its
place after dark, the men finding it
very difficult to dig funkholes for
.. themselves in the rocky ground at
the foot of the high slope that they
now faced.
The outfit had but one days "a
tons in addition to the one days
emergency (iron rations. they are
called carried ON their backs.
Early next morning a detail was
: sent back for rations. 1t never re-
turned.
At daybreak Company E under
Lieutenant Wilhelm was sent back
to attack from the left (west) OF
the ravine SO as to assist other
, companies in moving forward.
A few hours later Lieutenant
Lenke, who had gone with Wilhelm,
, returned with IS men, saying that
the company had been surrounded.
| He had been ordered to get his
platoon ont anyway he could VIII
helm subsequently worked his way
through with the few men that re-
, manned.
Communications Cut.
Trench mortars suddenly Open
: ed ND on the little command from
600 yards to its left and rear.
: Scouts came in reporting that their
post runner system had been brok-
en- up by the Germans. But they
? captured a prisoner. He reported
? that his company of 70 men had
, been ordered to trickle down the
old trench during the night and