THE LOST LEGION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 228, 20 June 1919, Page 7

THE LOST LEGION

TRAPPED IN THE-ARGONNE

'■ FIVE DAYS' ?IGHT WITH HUNS

How an American battalion in France was trapped by the, Germans, and how the men fought for Jive days against hunger and overwhelming odds, is told by Colonel Whittlesley, the commander, ami another, officer, in , the ■ "Weekly AlaiL It is described as one of the most amazing episodes of. the war.. A company of Americans were entrusted with Amission to push ahead in the-Argonne Forest. They, were lured into a -trap laid amid its fastnesses by the cunning Hun; they were surrounded and cut off.;they were.raked for five days f and nights by machine gunners and snipers; they were reduced t6 eating tobacco and leaves;. they were csked to Gurrender, but threw the insult back in-the Ger- ; mans' teeth; and at the end;; having decided to. do or die, they stormed their besiegers' position,, and came out—onethird of them—starving but triumphant!

..■"lt was the time when Foch was'dealing the Germans deadly thrusts every day, first in ono salient, then another,", says Colonel Whittlesley, the Legion's commander. "We got the order to. push. oi ahead, and started before, the fresh provisions which had been brought up could be given around. Each man-bear-ing. 220 rounds of ammunition,-we advanced all night. "The following day our - course lay along a deep Tavine, with hill's about 200 feet-high rising abruptly. On -top of these hills the Germans planted ma-, chine-guns, which'they.used to cruel.advantage. I sent Company- A against one hill, and almost -all the officers and men were wiped out.: The next day, leavingtwo companies to. cover our rear, we went forward a short distance.- , .. ' A Cunning Ambuscade. . , • "Our rations gave out tho following day. The men divided bread orusts, hard as rocks, but soon - these were gone also. ,We occupied a strip of ground perhaps 100 yards long. Thero was: a 6wamp back of us, fortunately, where we crawled for muddy water at nignt. Ma-, chine-gun bullets splashed our faces while we drank.. Lieutenant Wilhelm, of- Company E, attacked a 6trong German position- on our right,. where machine-gun nests and snipers were picking our men off one after another, but his.command of 99 men was surrounded, and almost every one died.' ' "At the end of the third day it; dawned upon ns that we were surrounded and completely cut off from m our reinforcements. The fact that the Huns had led ns into a .cunning ambuscade, was- particularly galling. Kunners I had sent out returned and reported, that they had ten cut off. Now the men were-'eating chewing tobaocoand leaves. It was a horrible ordeal. Before each attack the Germans fired trenchsmortars at ns. ■ Night- and day several thousand of them.raked us with a withering machine-gun fire. Snipers fired at us from everywhere. Howling like thousands of wild devils the Germans approached to within ten yards and hurled hand grenades, which we called 'potato mashers,' causing great, loss of life.

■ "The fire from the German trench mortars had smashed nine of the eleven machine-guns we' had, and thero ■ wero only five boxes of .machine-gun ammunition left And nothing to eat for four days! The men were so,weak that they were scarcely able to stand.on their feet. Then on the fifth day there came a German, blindfolded, and bearing a whito flag. jHe brought ns a'typewritten message, which ran about as follows: 'We have heard 'the cries of your'wounded; It is,impossible for you to escape. Why.do tou not surrender in the name of humanity?'

"We did not know.that reinforcements wore near at hand, and we thought we would all die of starvation.''We had made up our minds' never to -surrender, but to "die |as men. So, when I yelled 'Go to lit—!' all the >men roared, "Righto! Stick, boys!.: Never say'die'!' and gritted their teeth,to face the death they felt.kas,:ineyita.ble.".., ... And with an .exulting rush and a shout.of joy fellow Americans swop: the enemy from-their strongly entrenched ppsitoins,overlooking,Whittlesley- and his men. i Of the .700' men originally in the battalion, .not more than one-third was alive and unwounded, and ' even these few .were eo weak from-.living for four days on leaves and' chewing ; tobacco that they collapsed. ' , Bodies all' Around. ' • . * At this point the story is taken up by Lieutenant Arthur M. M'Keough, oh; of the Legion. . "Major Whittlesley,", he said,, "gnv? , me fifteen or twenty men with grenades 1 to.'wipe out what we thought was a sin gle machine-gun nest on the left. W-: cleaned out what we could of them with hand grenades; but it was a tough ]00. Then along about' evening another lieutenant with, a 'detail of men joined my party and told me that Major Whittlesley 6aid I should take, a couple of men make my way back to headquarters and tell the colonel, if I got there, that tli • battalion was surrounded. I picked oui a fellow Hirschkowitz and'another lad named Jack Munson,. and we started off through the darkness, going by. con> pass. . .' "There were Boches all around, Evevv few yards we could, see them or hear them, and it was a miracle that we weren't caught. We were ' headed due Bouth, but so thick was the undergrowth that-we frequently had to go due north around a thicket before .we .could get our.right direction.. we reach-, ed the edge of a little clearing. We heard talk in. German, and then saw two Boche officers talking together. Wj were lying down, and I rested my autu-, matic on a log and called on them to surrender. . But they'. weren't 'kamarad-' ine.' One of them let go at me just as I let fly at him. I aimed at his mouih..' arid plugged him'between the eyes. His bullet caught me in the right wristjust a nick, but enough to give me mv. wound stripe.' Through all the day ' Lieutenan*. M'Keough and his two dauntless coin: panions, Indian-like, lay low. Not once did they move from their dense thicket.. At nightfall tho three set out. again Oi' . their mission,' which, meant life and death to 700. .comrades. "About 8 o'clock. .the . second night," he continued, "it"wasn't long before we', ran into another. German funk-hole line, and a ..heaivy j voice called 'Bist du Deutsch ?' . (Are you German?) " I gave' the word to the boys to beat it, and they ' did. I started. to Tun, and fell right into a funk-hole on top of two Germans. We wero' all three so amazed that we didn't know what to do. I used tho only German words I - knew, 'Was ist lo?' ■ (winch I didn't know till : afterwards meant "What's the matter?''), and tha Boche I fell most directly on answered, 'Was ist los?' Dash for. Rescue. ,' "I was across his shoulder, and had my automatic in my hand, and I let him have two bullets In the spine,'• and ho N shivered and went' down. The ' other fellow was facing me arid standing-up, 60 I let him have one through' the'; breast. Tho first fellow 6ort of quivered again, so I let him have a third' shot. There was an uproar for hours, so I lay where I was until things quieted, then crawled into the brush. A dozen times sentries almost walked over me. At midnight it started to rain, and I could travel more freely. Several hours after I ran into an American 6entry, who was so startled at seeing me that ho almost dropped his rifle. I don't wonder. I .had blackened my face with mud and camouflaged my head with boughs of trees. I must have been a fine-looking sight. "'For God's sake say something to me'. \ in American; I haven't heard anything but Boche for. two days.' After he _ recovered from his surprise he said: 'Lieutenant, can't I help, you to the rear?' I readied headquarters about 7.30 and started to report to the colonel. Ho was eating hot cakes. ' The first thine he asked me was* 'When did you eat last?' I told him: 'Two days ago, sir.' Ho said, 'Sit right down and eat those cakes.' I tried.to get the news off my chest, but he mado me cat first. Then ho set tha rescue work in motion."