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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (April 16, 1919)
TIIE aiOIKXIXG OKEGOXIAN, "WEDNESDAY, APRIL" 16, 19V9. BY SPIRIT OF WEST 91st Men Wounded, Though Bent on Killing Huns. DEATH IS BRAVELY FACED California Soldier, Shajtercd, GiTes Humorous 'Warning to Bear ers of Stretcher. MIDNIGHT 'V" . Wllfl kVW ' c BT COLIN V. DTMEXT. (American R1 Croes F.mrcher With the Vlst Division.) EIGHTH ARTICLE. Etill another California boy in the S3d Infantry who lost his life In front of the German rear iruards. on the forenoon of September 26. w Private Clarence H. Hammell (2.26J.7al). of 7 Seventh street. Oakland. Hammell was first in comrany D to die. He was In the headquarters platoon, which had got away from the rest of the com pany In the fog, and which about 11 o'clock ran Into a machine-Rim nest. As compnry D was a mopping-up com pany, this nest was thus in the rear of the first wave of the 91st infantry. The poin: was Just beyond the Cheppy Very road, at the left of the Bols de Clerges. Hammell was 30 feet to the right of a shell-hole. Fifteen reet to the left of this shell-hole was Private August P. Miller of 1713 Golden Gate avenue. San Pran-l."co. Fifteen feet to the right of the shell-hoU was an I. company g man. who had got mixed in with the headquarters platoon in the confusion. As the machine-gun began to fire. Miller, the L company man, and Ham mell all made a run for the hole. Miller waa shot at and missed: he dived into the hole and escaped, and doubt less Is living yet. The I, company man was killed just as he got his feet in the shell-hole. He was hit in the lungs. He said, "Oh." and was gone. Hammell. the Oaklander, was on the dead run for the shell-hole and had got Just half-way when he fell with a bullet through the head, and did not move after that. If Salpera Skaot Accurately. Over and over again all forenoon this j sort of death kept happening, me gun nests were protected by snipers with rifles. There used to be a notion in the I n i ted States that Frits couldn't shoot. Wrong. The men whom the Hun left behind to delay the advance of the enemy could usually shoot like a west erner. He was one of that great band of professional snipers who from the English channel to Alsace, juo miles, could be found from '14 to 'Is hidden tn trees, working from garrets of buildings, camouflaged on the ground. covered with branches sometimes. working with deadly precision from toints where they could not be seen. All along the front of the 91st the snipers were thick. Many men feared thein more than the shell fire. On the aecond day. as will later be shown, they were almost as potent in holding Mo the advance as were the machine guns themselves. As for shell fire, a man usually frets that if he gets it. he'll get it: and somehow here isn't that personal Ueadliness about a ma chin gun. either. But it produces an eerie feeling when Just ahead is a man who is aiming directly at you. So J. H. Watts, private of company B of the 563d. met his death. Watt went over the top at 5:30 with the see on platoon. Sergeant John Loin, of Tiptonville. Tenn.. was commanding. The whole first battalion of the 363d had started out in support of the sec ond battalion, but it was the western nature to push right ahead and by 19:30 o'clock many platoons, including the) second of company B, were on the front line. Loin and his men then ran into numerous machine-gun nests in trenches on the side hills. Loin believed there were more than a doxen, and he hart to fight them. Watts was a gunner in lead of a gun tram. He darted into a shell hole to t up his gun when he was shot In the chest. He lived 30 minutes. "How do u feel. Jack?' he was askrd. and he aid. "It hurts pretty bad. boys." Watts na from Penrose. Wyoming. Mixed In with the men tn this fight was a private from company H of the 364th. who was lost from his company. This was Hoss Moore of Utah. Moore went over to help Privato Watts. His samarttanism cost him his life. Prob ably the same sniper who had shot Watts shot Moore through the jaw. He was finally carried over to the edge of a wood and covered up with a slicker, still living. Three other wounded mere there. A man was left with them while others went out for stretchers. None could be had. so they came back to carry them in on impro vised etelchcrs. When the 91st boys could get nothing better they fixed up a stretcher made out of a slicker with a sun at each end. It was 9 o'clock In the evrning when they got bark to Moore. He was dead. "What became of the sniper who shot Watts and MooroT' aked the writer, who was "fightins over the battle" with company B. "I have his buckle row," said a big sergeant nearby. Jllllai Boy Killed laalantly. There, too. where the Germans on the side hill held up the platoons, an Ore gon rnsn Tor bis life. He was Private dH ' : ' g new millinery on Easter; - , P ' .j IB Sjg Leading Hatter v-2 1 JC a I J Jaal L sJi Z&X&3: ; vQKJJO Morrison at Fourth cars 413 COIOI 1111 lOPOIl SS L lOi lfl.,P RMSMSiSEii. N'ell Best (27S1744) of company I of the sota man and was of fine habits and 363d. whose home was in Milton. Best culture. Don't Let Soap Spoil Your Hair ' When you wash your hulr, be careful hat you uve. 3Io?t soaps and prepared bainpood contain too much alkali, which la rrry injurious, as It dries the calp and makfs the hair brittle. The best thliiir to ue Is Just plain mulitcficd rocoeinut oil. for this la pure and entirely prea felon?. It s very i-heap. and beats the imt expensive soaps or nthin? cl.-e all to pieces. You ran Ct Ihia at any driiij store, and a fw ounces wtll last the hole family for cuonths. Mmply nioiMn the hair with water end rub it tn. abtut a tcazpounful is all that t rrqutrrd. It makej an abundance f rirh. k reamy la t her. clvauses thor onchly and rinsrn gut eally. The hair drie quickly and evenly, and is soft, fresh, looklntr. bnsht. fluffy, wavy and easy to hand.e. Bestd.'. It loosens and takes out ? ery purticlo of dust, dirt nJ dandruff- Adv. ' HAYNES 1111 BREAD HAYN E5 F0 5TERBAKI NGJSs. . was a regimental runner. Probably he had just delivered a message and had got lost coming back. At any rate he appeared on the front line. The sniper shot him between the eyea and killed him instantly. Best was a good boy. "I was in charge of him several days before the battle when he was doing messenger work. The night was never too dark for him to go out," said Ross L. Calfee of company B, whose home Is in Richmond, Cat The frequency of men's getting lost constantly shows In this narrative. The explanation is easy. The ground waa entirely new. Officers carried maps and some of the non-coms, but the others knew little or nothing of the lay of the land. Directions were changed in the fog. A man might think he was going north and be going wc.it. The official course of attack was 17 degrees west of north, but few of the men car ried compasses. They were eager to go. One group would be stopped by j machine guns and the groups at the sides would go on ahead. Had tho lines moved ahead in a straight and regular front, and had plenty of time been taken to rout out the snipers, tl.e casualties of the first day or two might have been considerably smaller. But the western soldier ha no pi- tience with waiting. Officers and men alike kept pushing on. stooping only when machine guns were r!ght ehead. Doubtless this policy paid, for by mid- afternoon the irregular line was five miles north by northwest of the jump- off. Five miles In ons short day, and that through a wild country, almost as hard to break through as the ta.nous approach to Verdun. Those who lost sons on this day. when they read "f the ground thet was gained and of the depressing effect on German morale, may feel that the sacrifice, as deatMs in the army go. had much compensation, Koldirr Badly Maaglrd. After Watts and Best had been killed and Moore fatally wounded. Loin's sec ond platoon passed by the left flank to re-establish communication with the main company. It had proceeded about 400 yards when German artillery opened. The platoon contained a cor poral named Krnest P. Wall, between whose legs one of the shells alighted. That morning Wall had said to his ser geant. "Sergeant, if there is anything to do that Is dangerous, give it to me I want the toughest proposition there is. I haven't a scared bone in my bodv." Wall was off to the left when the "shell fell, along with Sergeant Ed Wildt. They were not in sight of tho rest of the outfit. An noticed the shell fall and called over to know whether someone was hurt. A voice answered, "No." and the outfit went on. About an hour later, however. Private O. M. Wentworth of Oakland. Cal., saw and Identified Wall. Sergeant Wildt was lying close by him, with both ankles and hip torn by shrapnel or shell rasing. Wall was leariuny mangica. He had written a letter before they went in, which he asked to be mailed to his sister in case he was killed. The letter is believed to have been blown off. Even his identification tags were goite. ' The writer himself was two miles away at the time and did not seo the bodv of Wall. Nor up to many months later had Wall's name appeared in the division record of dead. I'nless backed by the authority of the division records, "this narrative will seldom sneak of a man as killed; but an ex ception is made in Wall's case because his tags had been Mown away and because he is carried as dead on the company roll. Wildt and Hall had been very good friends and to escape the fearful sight beside him. Wildt rolled down the hill and therefore was missed by the stretcher bearers. So he lay for Zi hours. In the night it rained on him. When the bearers filially got him the n-xt afternoon and were putting htm and his shattered ankles and hip on the stretcher, what do you think he said? He was a mine operator from Madera I'ountv. California, was Wildt. "Handle me damned easy now. or I'll get up and kick hell out of you." he said. The Western soldier had an abiding sense of huinorN Westers Spirit Miows. Borst. a private of company B. was another man who a-howed from what stuff the men of the west is made. Back in the trench where Watts and Moore had been shot, and within a minute of the shooting of Watts, a sniper struck Borst In the back, the bullet coming out at the groin. Sergeant LKin sent a man to gle him first aid and he said. "Don't mind me, go and 'get those Uermans." As tho platoon was leaving Loin called back for stretcher bearers and Just before the squads got over the hill he saw them pick Borst up. liorst was a, University of ilinno- Company A of the 363d, a fine outfit of Pacific Coast men, had its first losses Just before noon. It had started out in support with B, C, and D of the first battalion, but like some of the others had gone on through In the fog and soon was on the front line. It was about a mile south of the village of Very when tragedy came. There the scattered company ran into barbed wire. In the third platoon was Harold E. Cary. a corporal (2.263,721), whose mother, Mrs. A. H. Voight, lives at 340 Eddy street, San Francisco. Be hind Cary, some 10 or' 12 feet, was Sergeant Chester K. Mcintosh, of 143 Fifty-seventh street, Oakland. This barbed wire had been placed- to delay an advance so that machine guns and snipers could work on the troops as they were getting through. Cary had Just got across the barbed wire. It was his first day under fire, but he had showed up finely. No one in company A was more highly re garded than Cary. He was just far enough through the wire so that when he fell back his head cleared it. Into, his chest a machine gun bullet had gone. Mcintosh heard him say, "Oh, my God." then he was dead. Fifteen feet behind Mcintosh was Private Benjamin Hlney. an Oregon man. His wife lived at Sheridan, Ore gon. Hlney was Just at the edge of the wire. He, too. had showed finely on this his first day. The machine gun got him. Fifty yards to the right was Dennis I. Morris, private first class (2.290.026). who had got through the wire 25 yards wnen tne macnin gun killed him. A few minutes later Mcintosh was skirt ing the right flank to pet around a machine gun and passed .Morris' body. He stopped a moment to look, but .Morris was dead. Cary. Hiney and Morris had all been struck in five min utes. It was a crack platoon, for it went straight ahead. A hundred and fifty yards further on it came within 200 feet of the Germans. Then they sur rendered. There were three of them there. One was severely wounded. The men had their bayonets ready to thrust through the other two, but lieutenants came up and forbade them. In the ninth installment Lieutenant Dyment will continue description of the incidents of the first day of battle. Over at the right of the Pacific etates men were Montana and Utah men, who similarly were having their baptism of fire. iEeadinqiotkier chant and three checks were written on the merchant's blanks and cashed in Vancouver and Portland. One was for J20, another for 17 and the third for 10. Knights to Attend Church. VANCOUVER. Wash.. April 15. (Spe. cial.l Vancouver Commandery. No. 30 Knights Templar, will attend religious worship at the First Presbyterian church of this city Easter Sunday at the 11 o'clock service. Rev. L. K. Grimes will preach a special sermon. Salem Man Is Suicide. SALEM. Or.. April 15. (Special.) The body of J. T. Cheshire, 67, was found on the bank of the Willamette river last night with? a self-inflicted bullet wound in the head. He took his life because of ill health, according to a note left to his wife. He had been suffering from tuberculosis for several years. He had lived in Salem all his life and had been in the grocery busi ness until a short time aero. Xcw York's New Tunnel Open. NEW 'YORK, April 15. Without formal ceremonies the new Clark-street tunnel under the East Kiver, connect ing the Seventh-avenue subway with Brooklyn was opened today. Construc tion of the tunnel, which cost 7,000,. 000. was begun In October. 1914. SAILOR ACCUSED OF THEFT Horse Reported Stolen and Sold and Rad Checks Passed. Lcdwith Ilutson. sailor, who pro fessed to have been employed on the Gcorpe "Washington on the first trip of President ilson to r.urope, was arrested by Deputy Sheriffs Beckman and Schirmrr in Montavilla yesterday. eharced with the theft of a horse and the passing of bogus checks. The youna man Is aid to have ad mitted the theft of a horse in Van couver, asn., which was soll to Front-street merchant for f 40. A checkbook was stolon from this mer I The farmer rko.has Uyatts in his car insists upon having themin his tractor HYATT ROLLER BEARINGS Five Times Faster than the Fastest Flying Fingers Not only can the "Royal" Typewriter work five times as fast as your typ ist types, but itsexclusive features bring a positive speed ad vantage to . t he operator. . One feature is a really adjustable touch. A few turns of a simple thumb screw tunes the tension of the entire keyboard to match exactly one's per sonal touch, light, heavy, or snappy. Your typist knows best what . an aid this is. 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