The Wyandotte herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1879-1943, 1940-05-24
Veteran of A. E. F.
Recalls of Once
Arresting Hitler
Picked Up Fuehrer When He
Started a Small Riot in
Occupied Territory

SARANAP. CALF Carroll Rc~-
vel, assistant city engineer. IS glad
that he IS en- American citizen arI
IS back in the United States instead
Of being back in what was known
as the occupied territory" of Ger
many after the World war.
The reason is that Boswell and his
onc-tme buddy in the A. E. F. had
occasion once 20 arrest Adolf Hitler.
Boswell saw a years action in
France with Company F of the Fiji
toth infantry. He was wounded
and gassed but after his recovery
served another year and half with
NE American army Of occupation
N the Rhineland II was at Maven
N October, 1920. that he and Cor
pOTal Jetfries Of the same company
arrested Hitler when the latter was
an obscure agitator.
The American army of occupa-
Ton at Mayen," Boswell said, was
al one time left alone to police the
cn..Ie city, which has SO, 900 inhabi-
tants, while other Allied contingents
went TO simulate war maneuvers
near the Polish front, but which in
reality was intended as an effort to
haIt the Russians who were then
threatening TO move in through Po-
and on an armylesS Germany.
Guarded Munitions Stores.
We had big Job on our hands.
N To 81,
city IN general, We were charged
with the protection of the bridge
reads and the ammunition stores.
The result was that any agitator
that showed up usually got short
shrft.
Corporal Jeffries and l we're on
cur round of duties through the city
that evening when we passed the
Hofbrau, one OF the city's hot
spots
1T was usually going full blast
III one or two in the morning, but
this evening, although it was $50.
all the windows we're suffered and
the door was locked.
we peeked in through a broken
shutter and saw a slim, youthful
Ape caring man on the platform and
about Us people listening
Suddenly, a One-armed man,
WhO, we learned later, was an ex-
major in the German army, picked
up a wine bottle and threw it at
the speaker, knocking him off the
platform. A riot started at once.
I'VE knew the place and its sur
roundingS well, as we had been at
Mayen for year, and when we saw
the speaker dive for the rear door,
WHICH we knew opened on a mar
row alley, we dashed for it, station
ing ourselves one on each side.
Hitler Not Armed.
Then as the man dashed by we
stuck out our feet and tripped him
up. He was unarmed, so we merely
truSsed up his arms and turned him
over to the provost officer.
Before the military police he
gave his name as Adolf Hitler and
at once launched into a long TRADE.
THE next day HitlersWas turned
over to the German civilian police
and they kept him moving from city
10 city, wherever he provoked a
riot, while all the military police
we're notified to pick him up at any
time and turn him over to the local
German authorities.
Two months afterward I was re-
turned TO the United States and to
my home at Oakland, and never
heard of Adolf Hitler again until his
name began to appear in the news
in 1926"
Boswell said that while Hitler was
making his Mayen speech he still
talked in the accent of his native
Austria. He had his toothbrush
ntlstache at that time. too.