Shiner Gazette (Shiner, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 33, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 9, 1918 Page: 3 of 10
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SHINER GAZETTE; SHINER, TEXAS
MillNG STORY
OF HAIG RETREAT
Illinois Officer Re’ates Experience
of Hun Attack on the
British,
TEN DIVISIONS AGAINST ONE
Deep te Overwhelming Number of En-
emy, His Losses Were Great—
Miraculous Escape From Bap-
tism of Shell Fire.
First Lieutpnnnt Roswell T. Pettit.
M. O.-R. C., of Ottawa, 111., in a letter
to his father, Dr. J. W. Pettit of the
Ottawa tuberculosis colony, and pub-
lished in the Chicago Tribune, relates
the thrilling story of the great battle
in Picardy. The American officer was
in the thickest of the fighting for nine
days, during the retreat of the British
Fifth army from before St. Quentin.
Lieutenant Pettit’s account of the bat-
tle thrills with the stress of the con-
flict, as it was written Immediately
after he had passed through the tre-
mendous experiences and before his
impressions had been in any way dulled
by time. His letter follows:
Lieutenant Pettit's Letter.
March 30.
Dear Father: Now that the show is
over for me for the time being, and I
have time to breathe and sleep and eat
and write, I’ll try and tell you about
the battle. Before you receive this
you will have had the whole story from
the papers, but I know you will be
interested in .knowing what I did in tlie
affair.
Of course, the things I saw were but
an infinitesimal part of a gigantic
whole and it would be Impossible for
me to give a correct description of the
battle. And as I write this, I do it
with no knowledge whatever of what
has been going on even a few miles
from me.
I have not seen a paper in eight days;
I have received no mail, and the only
information we have received has been
by word of mouth, and most of what
we hear must be wild rumors. For ex-
ample : The French have advanced
20 miles at Verdun, the Ameri-
cans have taken Ostend, and are on
their way to Zeebrugge, and a great
naval battle has been fought in the
North sea.
All I know is that on this part of the
front the Germans attacked us in over-
whelming numbers, in places ten divi-
sions to our one; that they suffered
terrible losses, but finally broke
through our lines of defense, one after
another, and fighting for the most part,
a rear guard action, we have retired
about 15 miles in a straight line.
For a week before the battle started
we had been expecting it; we were
ready to move on 30 minutes’ no-
tice. I had been out with combatant
as well ns medical officers on tours of
reconnaissance, definite methods of
evacuation of the wounded had been
worked out, and our plans of counter-
attack been made. After four or five
days of waiting, the storm finally
broke.
The Boche opened up on us at 5 a. m.,
March 21, with the heaviest barrage I
have ever heard. “Stand to,” was
sounded, we turned out dressed, and
had all our equipment packed in 30
minutes. Then we sat down and
waited for orders to move. The bar-
rage kept up continuously, sometimes
heavier and then of less intensity,
sometimes it seemed to be to the north
of us and then suddenly it switched to
the south.
Our balloons were up as soon as it
was light and the airplanes were buz-
zing over our heads. The ground mist
gradually cleared and the Germans
put a hail of shrapnel on our camp
and we all took cover, but three men'
were hit. Why it is a fellow always
feels safer with a roof over his head,
even if he knows bullets and shrapnel
and pieces of shell will go through
boards and corrugated iron just like
paper.
Ordered to Move.
Our orders to move finally came and
we marched off to the brigade assem-
bly point several miles away. This as-
sembly point was in a little bunch of
trees about the size of Allen park and
behind and separated from a larger
wood in front. In the larger wood
there was a battery of heavy artillery
and shells were dropping in there two
or three to a minute, and it was heavy
stuff, too.
Sometimes they overshot the big
wood and shells were landing in the
open around the little wood where my
brigade had its assembly point. As
we approached our little copse we
could make all this out from some dis-
tance away and it wasn’t a pleasant
sensation to feel that we were march-
ing straight into it.
All the battalions arrived and in that
little copse there must have been at
least two thousand men. What * a
chance if the Germans only knew! But
the shells continued to drop in front of
us and on either side, but none landed
among us, aitd after waiting there for
three hours, expecting to be blown to
bits any second, we finally moved for-
ward. Just as we left the copse, from
behind us, up over a ridge, came a
stream of galloping horses.
“It’s the cavalry,” someone shouted,
but soon I made out limbers and field
guns.
They galloped past us. going like
mad, took up a position to our righL
swung into position, unlimbered, and
in two minutes were blazing away. It
was a thrilling sight.,
Torn by Shells.
In going forward we went around
the end of the larger wood in front of
us, over ground that was torn to bits
by the heavy shell fire that had jusfi
preceded, over another edge, across a
valley, and under the crest of a hill.
And here we found the tanks going
over the top of the hill to take up-
their position. At this point we were
still about a mile from the front line.
At this place I opened up an aid post
under the crest of the hill to take care
of what wounded came in while we
were getting into position.
Shrapnel was bursting in- the air.
shells were whizzing overhead, and our
guns behind me were belching forth
the fire. The noise was deafening.
A railroad ran through the valley
and an engine pulling a couple of fiat
cars was going by. A couple of sol-
diers were sitting on the rear truck-
swinging their feet. A shell burst on
the track and only missed the last car
about fifteen yards. Neither man was
hit and the train went blithely on.
By this time it was getting along
toward evening, the sun was sinking
in the west, and finally went down a
great hall of fire. At the time, I re-
member, I noticed its color. It was
blood red and had a sinister look. Was
it my imagination, or might it have
been a premonition? At any rate, I
shall never forget the color of the sun
as it set that night at the end of the
first day of probably one of the great-
est battles in history. It certainly
didn’t look good to me.
The drumming of the guns contin-
ued, twilight gradually deepened into
night, the signalers stopped their wig-
wagging and took up their flash sig-
nals, a fog dropped down on us and
put the lights out of business;,, and
when we left to go forward under the
cover of darkness they were busy put-
ting out their telephone lines—signal-
ers and runners don’t have an easy
time.
Shell Dump Goes Up.
Behind us a shell landed in an am-
munition dump and it went up with a
roar; then the rifle ammunition started
going off like a great bunch of fire-
crackers, and great tongues of flame
lit up the sky.
It is reported that the Germans had
broken through our line and we were
to counter-attack in the morning. We
got into- positions without a single
casualty. I opened an aid post in an
old dugout and settled down to sleep
until morning. You may think it fun-
ny that one could sleep under such
conditions, but I had been up since
5:30. had tramped about six or seven
miles, nad had a rather trying day
and was dog tired.
Just like some of the warm days we
gePthe last of March at home. In
going forward it was necessary
for us to march seventy-five yards in
front of three batteries.of field guns.
There are six guns to a battery. They
shoot an eighteen-pound shell and
while we were there each gun was
shooting twice to the minute. You
can Imagine the racket when I tell
you that the discharge of one gun can
be heard about four miles. In addi-
tion the Boche was trying to knock
out this battery and he was dropping
his six inch shells a little too close for
comfort.
Nearly in a Trap.
Then I made a lovely mistake. 1
was to'establish an aid post near bat-
talion headquarters and went blithely
on when I met a company commander
and asked him where to go.
“Back there about a quarter of a
mile,” he replied. “This is the front
center company. If you keep on in
the direction you are going you (are
going up over that ridge and Fritz Will
he waiting for you with a machine
gun."
So my sergeant and orderly and
myself didn’t waste any time in clear-
ing. On the way back I found a gallon
can full of water, got into a corrugated
iron shelter and had a wash and a
shave. It certainly felt good. I don’t
believe I had washed for thirty-six
hours. It was warm and bright. I
could look out of my shelter and see
our support lines digging themselves
in several hundred yards away. The
cannon fire ceased, the machine guns
settled down to an occasional fitful
hurst and it was midday of a beautiful
spring day.
A couple of partridge flew over me.
What did they know or care about, all
this noise and racket and men getting
up in line and killing each other?
Along about three o’clock things be-
gan to liven up again. In the mean-
time headquarters had heen establish-
ed in a sunken road with banks about
fifteen feet high on either side (later
this cut was half filled with dead).
My aid post was in a dugout near by
and gradually things got liofter and
hotter1.
Our men had dug themselves in
and were popping away with their
rifles. The field batteries' behind us
were putting up a barrage, airplanes
were circling overhead, both ours and
the German's’. The Germans put up a
counter-barrage, the machine guns
were going like mad. I was standing
with the colonel on a little rise of
ground above the sunken road when
the Germans broke through about a
mile to the north of us. They could
be plainly seen pouring over the ridge
in close formation.
Tanks Get Into Action.
Then the tanks came up, and you
should have seen them run! Just like
rabbits! The tanks retired; the
Boches reformed and came at it
again. They tell me that at certain
places our men withstood fifteen suc-
cessive attacks and that the Germans
went down in thousands. One Welsh-
man told me that his gun accounted
for 75 in three minutes during one
wave.
Machine-gun bullets were nipping
around me, the shell fire was getting
hotter, and even though.it was a won-
derful sight to watch I^decided “dis-
cretion was the better part of valor,”
or something like that, and got down
in my dugout.
I went back to the advanced dress-
ing station through the hottest shell
fire I ever experienced. More than
once I went down on my face when a
shell burst and the pieces went whiz-
zing over my head. I spent the night
in a mined village where the advanced
dressing station was located, and aU
night they shelled it to blazes. It was
remarkable how few casualties we
had.
About eleven o’clock the morning of
the third day a shell blew in the side
of our post, but luckily no one was
hurt. We stuck to it until about four
in the afternoon, when we saw our
men retiring over a ridge in front of
us. keeping up a continuous machine
gun and rifle fire, and we heat it back
to another village and opened anoth-
er post.
The Eegrimed Lord.
About ten o’clock on the morning of
the fourth day Ldrd Thyme, my col
onol when I was with the battalion,
stumbled into the shack where I was
sitting. He looked like a ghost. He
had lost his hat. his face was covered
with a four days’ beard, the sweat
had traced tracks in the dust from his
forehead to his chin. His sleeve was
torn and bloody and he had a gash in
his arm where he had been struck by
a piece of flying shell case.
“My God, doc, are you here?” he
said. “You got out just in time. The
battalion is all gone. The sunken road
is filled with dead—mostly Huns,
damn ’em. The line broke on the
right; we were surrounded, and at
the last we were fighting back and
back. Only thirty of us got away.”
So we knew the Boche had broken
through to our right and our left, and
it was a question of how long it would
he before we, too, were surrounded,
hut we wanted to stick it out as long
as we could.
But not more than an hour later a
medical officer rushed in from one of
the battalions and between gasps for
breath told us the Germans were on
the edge of the village, had shot him
through the sleeve with a machine
gun bullet (luckily that was all), and
for us to beat it.
Let me tell you we did. I threw
my knapsack and made the first hun-
dred yards in nothing flat and then
settled down to a walk because I was
so out of breath I couldn’t run any
more.
The incessant scream and crash and
hang of the shells kept up and the
rat-taf-tat of the machine guns neve£
ceased. The village immediately be;
hind us was a seething mass of hrici
dust, smoke, flame, and bursting
shells. We were told on our waj
back that a stand was to be mad; I
behind this village, so we circlet
around it and took up a position
about a half mile behind it at a erdss/ '
roads. 'J'-’f
Unfortunately for us, a six lnch^at-
ter.v came into action about fifty y^rds
from us and, aside from the harassing
effect of the terrific noise, batteries
are always unpleasant (neighbors, as
they, invite shell fire/ We stepped
here until about 10 /O’clock at night,
when we were ordered to retire.
There was no way of getting out
the wounded that we had collected, so
the stretcher hearers carried them on
their stretchers for six or seven miles.
In fact, we all helped, and when we
arrived at our destination at 4 o’clock
in the morning of the fifth day we
were all in.
I could -hardly move, but after two
big bowls of hot tea and some hard
tack I turned in on the floor and slept
like a log for four hours, when we
moved to another place and opened a
dressing station.
Hun Plane Crashes.
On the way a German airplane came
down and crashed near the road, hut
neither the pilot nor observer were
hurt. They were a couple of rather
neat looking lads about If) years old.
And so it went for three days more,
open a dressing station, retire (some-
times on the run), long marches, very
little to eat except what we foraged
from abandoned camps and dumps,
dog tired, sleeping when and where we
could, and finally the division was re-
lieved. We now saw our first civilians,
and last night I slept in a bed. It
wasn’t much of a bed, and the mattress
was full of humps, but to get my
boots off my sore and aching ft?et, to
stretch out, and know I wouldn’t be
routed out in fifteen minutes—well,
you„ couldn’t have bought that bed
from me for $100.
Did you ever read Robert W. Serv-
ice’s description of the retreat from
Mons? Well, that’s the way I felt:
Tramp, tramp, the grim road the road
from Mons to Wipers;
I’ve 'ammered out this ditty with me
bruised and bleeding feet;
Tramp, tramp, the dim road—
We didn’t ’ave no pipers—
All bellies that were ’oiler was the
drums we 'ad to beat.
The ninth day, sitting around the
fire in our mess after the best dinner
we had had in days, the commanding
officer handed me some papers and
said, “Here is something that will in-
terest you, Pettit. I want to say we
shall be sorry to lose you.”
And this is what it _was: “Lieut.
Roswell T. Pettit, M. R. C., is relieved
from duty with the British army and
will proceed to the A. E. F., where he
will report for duty.”
I leave for Paris in the morning.
This has heen a long tale, but the half
of it hasn’t been toid. I hope I haven’t
strung it out too much.
I have just been informed that ail
my kit had to be burned to prevent It
falling into the hands of the enemy.
I shall probably want you to send me
some things from home, but will see
what I can get here first. Your son,
ROSWELL.
Well!
She—George and I are going to get
married. - ..v
He—So I hear. He’s going to marry
an actress. Who are you going-to
marry?
Don't Worry About Pimples.
On rising and retiring gently smear
the face with Cuticura Ointment. Wash
off the Ointment in five minutes -with
Cuticura Soap and hot water. For
free samples address, “Cuticura, Dept.
X, Boston.” At druggists and by mail.
Soap 25, Ointment 25 and 50.—Adv.
Very True.
“I adore' children, excepting when
they cry.”
“Whyt that’s the time when I’m fond-
est of them.”
“Indeed? Why?”
“Because then they are always re-
moved from tiie room.”
HEADACHES
This distressing Ailment should be
relieved at once and save strain on
Nervous System. CAPUDINE gives
quick relief It’s a liquid—Pleasant to
take.—Adv.
j||||j STet Contents 15BimdDrac
ill P
Pi!
:=S2§I?
B]
Mm
_I
Kill ALCOHOL-3 PER CENT.
You Might Try This.
“You’re managing to- wake up ear-
lier in the morning.”
“Yes. I’ve just bought a parrot.”
“Instead of an alarm clock?”
- “I already had an alarm clock, hut
I got so I didn’t pay any attention
to it. Now I hang tlie parrot’s cage
in my room and put the alarm clock
under it. When the alarm goes off
it startles the parrot, and what that
bird ^gays would wake anybody up.”
$100 Reward, $100
Catarrh is a local disease greatly influ-
enced by constitutional conditions. It
therefore requires constitutional treat-
ment. HALL’S CATARRH MEDICINE
Is taken internally and acts through tho
Blood on the Mucous Surfaces of the Sys-
tem. HALL’S CATARRH MEDICINE
destroys the foundation of the disease,
gives the patient strength bj’ improving
the general health and assists nature in
doing its work. $100.CO for any case of
Catarrh that HALL’S CATARRH
MEDICINE fails to cure.
Druggists 75c. Testimonials free.
F. J. Cheney & Co., Toledo, Ohio.
Arranges Compact Nautical Chart.
Economizing time, space and paper,
Capt. Fritz E. Uttmark, head of a gov-
ernment nautical school in New York,
has devised a new chart for finding a
ship’s position at sea. A vessel’s posi-
tion by the present method can be as-
certained only after a protracted cal-
culation on about 200 square feet of
charts. This difficulty has been over-
come by a plotting chart less than one
square foot in area.
USE m&WB FO07=EASE
The antiseptic powder to be shaken into the
shoes and sprinkled in the fool-bath. It relieves
painful, swollen, smarting feet and takes the
sting out of corns and bunions. The American,
British, and French troops use Allen’s Foot =
Base. The greatest comforter known for aU
foSl&Sfen; -Sold.e very where, 25e.—Adv.
Necessary Expenditure.
“I say, Brown, can’t you manage to
pay me that ten dollars you owe me?
I need the money.”
“Awfully _sorry, old man, but I
can’t do it.”
“I notice you manage to go to the
theater two or three times a week,
though.”
“That’s just it. The thought that
I owe you money is worrying me so
that I have to do something to help
me forget it.”
Constipation generally indicates disor
stomach, liver and bowels. Wright's I
Vegetable Pills restore regularity wi
griping. Adv.
rdered
ndian
without
Earned His Respect.
“I have great respect for that wom-
an’s judgment.” “Why so, Flubdub?”
“She refused to marry me once.”
Dr. Pierce’s Pellet^ are best for liver,
bowels and stomach. One little Pellet
for a laxative, three for a cathartic. Ad.
Unless people swallow flattery it is
apt to make them sick.
mmm
tin^theStomacfe andBwrisoH
jifiS J TherctyPromoting Digcs^Mj
ChcCrfutacSsa«dR«stM»
‘Sr#!/,I
1 tegs* \
JlocArUe Saifs
Arise Seed
Worm Sad
*« Clarified Sugar
1 A helpful Remedy for.
■ , Constipation and Diarrhoea.
i and Feverishness and I
[I! UiJSXSN
fac-Siraiie Signate^
Jhe Centaur Gompat®-*
For Infants and Chaldrea*
Mothers Know That
Genylue Gastoria
r
Always
Bears tlie
Signature
In
Use
For Over
Thirty Years
GASTORIA
THE CENTAUR COMPANY, NEW YORK CITY.
“ifc
Exact Copy of Wrapper,
-'4 .: tetete-U-tetetetex ••.t'vay',••••• - . :
Well Matched.
Edith—They are an ideal couple.
Edward—Indeed.
Edith—Yes. He has ambition and
she has xvealth.
“Many a thorn lies hidden in a
hunch of soft words.”
A hog ought not to be blamed for
being a hog, but a man ought.
Their Medicine Chest For 20 Years
T is characteristic of
folks after they pass the allotted
“three score years* and ten,” to look
back ever the days that are gone
and thoughtfully live them over.
X-ffiM', at seventy»one, *JESI? Gently
drifting back a quarter of a century, when
I see myself in the little drug store I owned
at Bolivar, Mo., making and selling a
vegetable compound to my friends and
customers — what was then known only as
Dr. Lewis’ Medicine for Stomach, LiV6r
and Bowel Complaints.
For many years while I was perfecting my
formula I studied and investigated the
laxatives and cathartics on the market and
became convinced that their main fault
was not that they did not act on the bowels,
but that their action was too violent and
drastic, and upset the system of the user;
which was due to the fact that they wore
not thorough enough in their action, some
simply acting on the upper or small intes-
tines, while others would act only on the
lower or large intestines, and that they
oduced a habit ro-
ses.
almost invariably pre
quiring augmented d’o.
I believed that a preparation to produce
the best effect must first tone the liver,
medicine would produce a mild,_ but
thorough elimination of the waste without
the usual sickening sensations, and make
the user feel better at once.
After experimenting with hundreds of
different compounds, I at last perfected tho
formula that is now known as fJsture’B
r"Ar,*c?v. which I truly believe goes further
and does more than any laxative on tho
market today. The thousands of letters
from users have convinced me I was right,
and that tho user of Nature’s Remedy as a
family medicine, even though he may hava
used it for twenty-five years, never has
to increase the dose.
among my fnenas, before X ever offered 18
for sale, caused me to have great faith m
Mafere-'e Rantsdjf from the very first.
And now as I find my
when I must howto t
to another life, my greatest plei
sit each day and read the letters that each,
mail brings from people as old or older
than I, who tell of having used Nature's
RameSy for ten, fifteen and twenty years,
and how they and their children and
grandchildren have been benefited by it.
It is a consoling thought, my friends, for
a man of my age to feel that aside from
his own success, one has done something
for hia fellow man. My greatest satisfac-
tion, my greatest happiness today, is the
knowledge that tonight more than one
million people will take a Kaiore’s ReiceSy
(NR Tablet) and will be better, healthier,
happier people for it. I hope you will
be one of them.
A, H. LEWIS MEDICINE CO.,
St. Louis, Mo.
ATTENTION!
Sick "Women.
To do your duty" during these trying
times your health should foe your first ^
consideration. These two women
tell how they found health*
Hellam, Pa.—“I took Lydia E. Pinkham’s Veg-
etable Compound for female troubles and a dis-
placement. I felt all run down and was very weak.
I had been treated by a physician without results,
eo decided to give Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound
a trial, and felt better right away. I am keeping house
since last April and doing all my housework, where before
I was unable to do any work. Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vege-
table Compound is certainly the best medicine a woman can
take when in this condition. I give you permission to publish
this letter.”—Mrs. E. R. Crumbing, It. 2no. 1, Hellam, Pa.
Lowell, Mich.—“I suffered from cramps and dragging
down pains, was irregular and had female weakness and
displacement. I began to. take Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vege-
table Compound which gave me relief at once and restored
my health. I should like to recommend Lydia E. Pinkham’s
remedies to all suffering women who are troubled in a simi-
lar way.”—Mrs. EliseHeim,E.Ho.0, Box83,Lowell,Mich.
Why Not Try
LYDIA E. PINKHAM’S ,
VEGETABLE COMPOUND
LYDIA E.PINKHAM MEDICINE CO. LYNN.MASS.
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Habermacher, J. C. & Lane, Ella E. Shiner Gazette (Shiner, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 33, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 9, 1918, newspaper, May 9, 1918; Shiner, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1142506/m1/3/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Shiner Public Library.