Evening star., 1940-04-27
Visit Battle Story
Given by Wounded
Corporal, Stowe Says
British Surprised South
Of Steinkjer, American
Told by Truck Driver
By LELAND STOWE,

BY LELAND STOWE,
Chicago Daily News Foreign CORRESPONDENT.
OSTERSUND, near the Swedish
Norwegian frontier, April 27.-The
clearest account of the battle of Visit,
where the British expeditionaries
met their first defeat and where
more than nalf of battalion of 600
was killed or captured, was told to
me by young English lance cor
poral Every time our truck got
stuck I climbed up beside him in
the drivers seat and he told me a
bit more. That was on the Tuesday
morning that it took us four hours
to cover Is miles of the muddiest,
slimiest, toughest road in creation.
The lance corporal had two bull
let's through his shoulder. He had
been travelling like this half the
night, trying to get back to what is
called hospital and over this hell
and damnation road. The truck
growled deafeningly. Every few
minutes as it struck rut under .
feet Of mud ore of its wheels took
a dive toward China. From behind
1 could see that the corporars body
was thrown foot to the right of 2
feet to the left. He had only one
good hand to hold on with.
He had patches of dry blood on
his face. After every spell of in
fernal bronco-busting. I found him
as pale as cigarette paper, but he al
ways managed a shadow of smile
He had guts-no other word for it
in the English language. just no
end of CUTS. Said he used to be a
grocer's clerk in-well in one of the
greenest, prettiest places in Eng
land.
Shot BY Norwegian.
The corporal had been shot by a
Norwegian, by mistake, during the
retreat. He did not complain about
it. He never uttered a groan and
he never complained. All he said
was four well-chosen words-about
certain topnotchers who, for some
time. had been supposed to be saving
the British Empire. With an ugly
burning wound and after seeing
more than half of his battalion
cheWed up for lack of artillery and
anti-air guns he dismissed the re-
sponsible persons with four short
words. Only a man born with the
British gift for understatement and
self-restraint could have done that.
But about the battle. The corporal
said that his battalion had pushed
through Steinkjer and on down the
railroad. Everybody thought the
anger, about 80 miles to the south
But at Visit, three miles below
Steinkjer, that illusion ended very
suddenly.
"We were taken by surprise" said
the corporal. 1--WE thought the en-
emy were much further down. We
had to rush about and do the best
we could. The ferries were in the
woods right ahead of us. But we
managed to find not bad position
where the ferries had to come
through the deep snow. We sent
one company forward to held them
while we got what positions we
could.
"At first that was all right. We
heard the Germans had a cruiser
and destroyer in the upper ford.
You know, it goes right up to
Steinkjer. But we thought their
troops were below u.s. Meanwhile, if
we had to we could wipe out the
ferries in the woods completely
But they had the field guns and 4
inch mortars-and then the de-
stroyer got around the neck of land
and began shelling us straight on
the right flank, and the bombers
kept coming over, too"
Had No Artillery.
"You did not have any guns?"
asked. though I had asked the same
question a dozen times already. I
got the same answer.
"Oh, no." said the corporal. We've
got no artillery at all with us. That
was what finished us, and we were
getting it from the ferries in front
OF us, from the bombers, and from
shells from the destroyer in the
ford. Then the ferries came around
the woods and encircled one of our
companies. We saw them running
out, but we did not shoot because we
thought our men had taken the
ferries. 1t was just the other way.
ut got worse and worse. We had
a lot of our boys killed and wounded
I don't know how many. But when
1t got dark those of us who were left
had to get out as fast as we could
Some of us were running back along
the railroad. Just before we got to
Steinkjer, we saw a lorry waiting by
the road. We ran into the snow,
not knowing if they were ferries.
They were Norwegians, but they
thought we were the ferries. They
let 60 one round at us and I got 1t
here in the shoulder. The rest were
lucky. I was the only one that got
hit"
We managed to find some ciga-
rettes for the lance corporal before
the surgeon went to work on his
wounds. We left him there knowing
what kind of men will yet redeem
British arms north of Trondheim-
providing certain people in London
give them the weapons with which
to do it.
, (copyright, 1910, by the chicaso Daily
News, Inc.)