Imperial Valley press., 1937-03-14

with the gun. l finally lost
my none-too-steady temper and
kicked him in the face not
too hard, but his nose bled, and
while that lasted he stayed awake.
1t dried up, and he forgot again.
l complained to Villa.
Shoot the fellow Shoot him
quick!"
A few days later that is just
what happened to my helper, but
the rest of the gun crew were as
bad.
For days Villa argued with
Pascual Orozco. Pancho did not
want to attack Chihuahua be-
cause Federals had repaired the
railroad and had a force of over
5000 entrenched inside of the city.
They concluded to take Juarez in
stead, and thus keep open COM
munieations with the States; too,
this would give us supplies of am
munition We were to fall back
and unite with Francisco Madero,>
who commanded with his broth
ers, Gustavo and Raul. Villa was
to be rear guard, checking the
Federal cavalry which swept out
from Chihuahua by now in
hot pursuit. Our movement de-
pended upon the Santa Clara can
yon and whatever natural shelter
offered. We gave way mile by
mile, setting up machine-gun
traps, supported by infantry =. .
fighting to hold back the Federals
from our main body, and still in
tent upon Juarez.
Then General Funston gave a
warning. A few people had been
killed in Douglas by stray bullets
from raid on Aqua Prieta.
We reached Juarez, pitched
camp a few miles away, and dug
in. In Villas tent one morning I
met Rodolfo Fierro, THE Butch
er," who was helping to make a
camoufiage bomb celler. A crew
of men made bombs day and night
to store for future use. JuareZ
asked for and was granted five
day armistice. DiaZ asked for it,
and Madero, a mild little man,
agreed. Francisco Madero had
come to visit Villa, and took him
to task for the hanging of the
Mayor and his secretary; the rev.
olutionary president disliked vio-
lence. He looked more like a
school teacher than a leader of
men, but Villa and everyone loved
him though Pancho never
agreed with his pacific methods
... called him affectionately the
Christ-fool."
IA LAY 9, 1911: Armistice over,
lM Villa decided to go ahead
| with the attack. He's secured an
| other machine gun, manned by a
little Jew named Abrahams; one
was in charge of Captain Ander-
| son, and the last was mine. These
were set at strategical points, pro-
tecting infantry strung out along
a shallow gully facing the Fed
| eral trenches on three sides of the
town.
Villa gave orders to begin fire,
to hold it low, stirring up a lot of
dust, and keep this up for five
minutes. Then to cease firing.
Villa, with a chosen detach-
ment, all smoking big cigars furi-
ously, rushed up behind the dust
cloud. They dropped bombs close
to the Federal trenches, lit the
six-second fuses by their cigars.
Back they ran.
Black cans whizzed through the
air. Our infantry plunged forward,
bayonets, clubs, machetes swing
ing e. the men yelling to keep
up their courage. The Federal
trenches had been thoroughly
bombed. A hundred low depres-
sions were filled instantly with
screaming, cursing men. Federals
broke and ran for the CITY, Villa
and his bombing squad crept to
the eastern side of Juarez toward
the international bridge &. . plan
ming to have the States behind
him as an advantage. Federals did
not like to fire directly into Uncle
Sans territory since General
Funston's warning.
Suddenly the bridgehead slut
tered with machine-gun fire as
Villas main body in the ravine
waited impatiently. His bombers
did their work again. Fragments +,
Of human bodies Uttered the |
bridge; his reserves crowded into |