Evening star., 1927-05-01

fact that we had the battalion sur
rounded was a message l got from
the front line to the effect that our
machine guns had bottled UP between
l,200 and 1.60D of the enemy.
"Becau use of my knowledge Of Eng
lish | was ordered by the division
commander to send a note asking for
the surrender Of the battalion that
was cut off from its regiment. | went
down to a small bridge that marked
the extreme end Of the American
area. ! gave the message to one Of
the Americans we had captured To
carry back to his own commander
But that was the end Of that; we never
got reply.
" A LII this time our soldiers and the
Americans were SO close to-
gether we could hear the latter talk.
ing and digging themselves in with
their intrenching tools. Some Of the
Americans knew German, and they
would shout out to our men. trying to
fool us into going over into their
lines.
I'VE took Il great many prisoners at
two different points--at the bridge and
in the rear of the Lost Battalion. At
the one place they were chiefly de.
serters. and at the other members of
allied units who were trying to rescue
the battalion.
Il made my headquarters at the
tiny bridgehead and interviewed the
prisoners as they were brought to me.
Most of them were fearless and would
courageously refuse to answer the
questions ] asked them. I distinctly
remember one fellow, the leader of q
patrol we had captured. He was a
non commissioned officer -- 'unteroffi
zier,' we would have called him.
when I asked him for informa-
ton about his own troops, he looked
straight at me and said:
s. No, sir, I viii not ten you a word ,
II liked that fellow and tried to
show him my admiration. / sent him
back to my dugout in the rear, where
he was given hot food and a place to
sleep.
He was a contrast to a negro pris-
oner-We called them 'Sammies'--
who was brought to me shortly after
ward. He was crying like a baby.
My nanny told me All oughtn't
to so to war and now All know she
was right
He was certain he was going to
be killed. When we gave him some
thing to eat, and he found the Ger
man soldier was human being, not
the wild beast he had been told he
was. he braced up bit.
Some of the Americans, of course,
were afraid and would answer every
question put to them. But as we
never knew whether or not they were
telling the truth, we got little value
from them. On the whole, l found
that the American soldier had very
scanty knowledge of the general dis.
position OF his own troops. Person.
ANY, | always preferred the men who
had the pluck to keep their mouths
closed after they We're captured.
i never knew the total number Of
prisoners we took. but it was large.
We got 200 French cuirassiers in one
batch. who tried TO break through our
machine gun Gordon. We constantly
captured small patrols of scouts sent
out by the Lost Battalion, and others
apparently sent up from the rear to
try to reach the beleaguered Amer
leans.
In one place We got two officers in
american uniform. although one was
Swiss named Won Saxa and the
other a Frenchman. They were artil-
lery officers who apparently had lost
themselves while reconnoitering for
positions. Neither would talk, but
Won Saxa had maps that gave US
much valuable information. The
Frenchman was shot and killed when
he made a dash to escape
We had evidence of the sore plight
of the surrounded battalion in the re-
peated efforts of the troops in it's rear
to reach 1t and in the numbers of air
planes which flew overhead. searching
for the Americans, to drop food and
ammunition upon their position. But
all this stuff, which included chocolate
and cigarettes. came to us. II was