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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (May 20, 1919)
THE MORNING OREGONIAN, TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1910. 815T ENDS FIGHTING 111 ARGONNE REGION Western Division Moves Back From Front Line. 1 GAPS ARE MADE IN RANKS Shells and Machine-Gun Bnllcts Sweep Into Men- Burrowing for Protection. r' BT COLIN V. DYMENT. .American Red Cross Searcher with the 91st division. FORTY-SECOND ARTICLE, The Hun fled from hill 255 and hill 169 about the same time on the night of October 9. The causes were the same in each case. American machine gun, thermite fire and shell fire, and com bined straight-on and flanking- infan try tactics. More has been said about the capture of 253 because the-91st did It exclusively, several 361st and 362d infantry companies claiming- the credit. The first division claims the credit of capturing 269, but some of the 316th engineers, some of the 362d infantry and part of the first battalion of the 361st helped do it. The 347th machine gun battalion was split, part backing up the attack on 255 and part the at tack on 269. Had Fritz not departed in haste from the two hills, ha would have been surrounded on them by the end of another day. With 255 and 269 out of the way, 288 lay ahead, its summit about two miles distance by trail from either of the two other summits. The 181st brigade was now in the roughest country in which it had fought, Hijl 288 was a long, northwest to southeast ridge in the Bois de Gesncs. The woods on its lopes were exceedingly thick; the long approaches to it from the other two hills was winding, covered with thick ets and hilly. The front, the narrow ector between, the first and the 32d, was scarcely a mile in width. When a certain point in the slopes of 288 was attained, the brigade's job was done. Infantry Poshes IVorth. So early on October 10 the infantry bejran to push north. The woods pro vided good cover and the men had learned how to avoid the worst of the dangers; but it' cost men to get the next mile. Private Frank C. Banner, who was drafted from route 1 out of Kverett, but whose mother now lives at We natchee. Wash., was in an advance party of 14 scouts with two corporals and a sergeant that on the morning of October 10 went forth toward 2S8 with instructions to get into contact with the front German line. Danner was to bring back the news, and in about two hours he returned with news and with a. package of German hardtack, from which he gave some to Sergeant Alfred O. Graebner of Gifford. Idaho. He said his party had run into a lot of German equipment and that the Hun. seemed to have gone in .a hurry. He borrowed a drink from Graebner's canteen and set out again to rejoin the scouts. When Banner was killed the scout ing party of 17 was tip in tho 288 horse shoe with machine guns on three sides of it, those in front not more than 200 feet away. The men were almost in the barbed wire at the bottom of 288. Sergeant Raymond Best of Densmore, Kan, had Ehot a German sniper, and Corporal Peter Colter of Reno, Nev., could hear the Germans jabbering about it- They were telling one an other to keep the machine guns still, xcept one or two as a blind, until the Americans got into the barbed wire, so that all could be killed there. Americans laying Down. The Americans were lying down. It was about 3 P. M. then. Danner was about six feet to the left of the ser geant in charge of the party William M. Kouts of Camas. Wash. He was resting his head on hi3 elbow and hand. A machine gun from each side opened. A bullet went down in his chest. He said, "My God, I'm hit," and died in stantly. The party was then only 300 yards from the southerly crest of 288. The tangle of brush saved the party from annihilation. Xot long before the Wenatchee boy died, a St. Johns, Or., soldier was killed by machine gun fire from the horse shoe at the foot of 28S. He was Pri vate William W. Hayes of 916 Lombard street. Hayes was half lying, half sitting, in the brush. German machine guns were 300 feet off at that time. Oorporal Victor A. Carley of Cincinnati, who was lying beside him, heard a thud, asked him where he was hit, saw him roll his eyes and die. Fifteen feet away, crawling up, was Private G. K. Burwell of Mountain Grove, Va,. bring ing Hayes canteen. Private Clarence Hall of 923 East John street, Seattle, was another of the several Pacific northwest men in the party of scouts in that perilous job. Shell Light in Hole. On the 11th on the way to 2S8, two Washington men and a Montana man were killed by one shell in the machine gun company of the 361st. They were Budd C. Larson of Friday Harbor. Wash., Private Emil F. Neuman of Wolf Point, Mont., and Sergeant Rich ard Nelson of 4016 Linden avenue, Seat tle. Nelson was another of the many wonderful sergeants in the 91st. He would do anything or ' go anywhere. An officer who knew grit when he saw it because he was cool and gritty himself. Lieutenant Vittz Ramsdell of Portland, an old O. A. C. boy and son I of the late Horace D. Ramsdell of I Lipman, Wolfe & Co., had recommended J Nelson only that morning for an offi- J cors training camp, iseison was tne kind of quiet sergeant before whom the men stood at attention when they talked. He and Larson and Neuman wero in one shell hole, Into which a shell came, killing all instantly. Lar son and Neuman were also good men. Most of the men killed in France from the 361st machine gun company were state of Washington men. A shell that lit in a shell hole with a trio of men killed three more ma chine gunners Instantly early that morning. Acting Corporal Robert Bracken of Weston, Or.; Private Clar ence Chevoya of Fresno, Cal., and Pri vate Freeman E. Rose .of Washtucna, Wash. They were in a hole just for ward of the crest of 269 instead of behind it, and had chosen that hole because it was deep, although they had previously started to dig one of their own on the reverse slope. Next day the company A of the 347th machine gun battalion was to open fire on the approaches to 288. In the morning three warm bodies were found in the shell hole. Chevoya's head was off, Bracken's arms were shattered. Rose was badly cut up. Montana Sergeant Is Brave, A game and dandy Montana sergeant, Andrew C. Modie of company A, 362d. from Ophiem, Mont., who had been knocked senseless and shell shocked in the battle of Gesnes by a shell, but who had refused to go to a hospital, was killed by a machine gun bullet in the attack on 288 on the 10th. Modie on the night of September 25 had gone out and cut wire alone, so company A might have a lane in the morning. He was typical of the fine type of Mon- anan that helped "win the war. Pri vate Fritz Nyquist of the same com pany was killed on the same day by a machine gun. Men often used to make one exclamation, sometimes even utter a sentence, before death overwhelmed them; thus Nyquist called to a cor poral, "Dave, come and help me." The corporal was there in 30 seconds, but Nyquist was dead. Private Thomas Hughes of route 7, box 170. out of Seat tle, was fatally wounded on the same day by machine gun fire. The foregoing deaths illustrate how men were met by the Germans after 255 and 269 were taken, in the assault on 288. The foot of 288 was reached by the scouts on the loth, and several parties of westerners prowled around the base on the 11th, but that night found the crest still untaken. The 1st division and the 32d divison. had been in eight days apiece; the 181st brigade of the 91st had been in 16 days, including its four days of rest in the Bois de Very. It was time for relief. The job of taking the summit of 288 was left for the next division. The next was the 4 2d, the famous Rainbow division, which relieved in the sector fronting 288, and, after a heavy artillery preparation, stormed the crest. Fritz was now within a month of the end of him. His line had- been pushed back, not foot by foot as was the case in so many of the offensives from '14 to '18, but mile by mile by the Ameri cans. When the 91st went in on the 26th the front German line ran through Regneville. Bethincourt, Malancourt, Avocourt. Vauquois, Boureilles, between the Meuse and the Argonne forest. When the 91st went out on the 12th the line ran through Brieulles-sur-Meuse, Romagne and a point just south of St. Juvin, between the Meuse and the Argonne forest. Gain Is Ten Miles. The gain on the Meuse-Argonne front, except for a few salients that soon were to be reduced, had been an even ten miles by air line, or more than a half mile a day on the average. The second phase of the Argonne was over. As early as the 11th men had begun to move back. In one case trag edy followed them. Lieutenant Man niere B. .Ware of headquarters com pany, 362d, had taken a detail back to the kitchens on October 11 and re turned to 288 with battalion mess. After the supper he returned with the detail, reaching the kitchens at Epin onvilie at 6 A. M. of the 12th.' He stood at the kitchen while the cooks mixed batter for hot cakes, for the trip back from 288, past 255 and over the old Gesnes field, then past the Cierges and Epinettes woods, had been long and hard. He was telling the cooks how lucky he had been to go through both drives without even a scratch. In a nearby shack a soldier was cleaning his gun. He was a headquar ters man from the 361st infantry. He let his rifle go off. The bullet hit Ware in the head, and after falling he did not move. It went on through his head and struck another man in the shoulder. There was a long, long trail ahead of the lSlst brigade. A wonderful bri gade it had been! This serial sets out to mention few but the dead, yet the living should have their honor if there were space and even justice were pos sible. The 182d brigade had been moved from the Bois de Very to the woods near the Verdun road, five miles south east of the original jumpoff line. The 316th sanitary train had gone with it. The field hospitals had been broken up on the 6th. There were three or four days of rest, then a 35-mile hike south to the Revigny area! The hike was made in three days. Revigny is near Bar-le-Duc. Hike Made Without Rest. The lSlst brigade had to hike with out rest, so from 288 to the Revigny country, which was 45 miles by road, it hurried straight on. When, it arrived hundreds of men who had hung out un til the last that they might see the thing through in the Argonne went into the hospital. The 182d brigade arrived about Oc tober 11; the 181st about October 16. The men got warm food at regular hours again. There was water in which, to wash mess kits. There was :ne new equipment. There were i .nkets, civilians to look at, buildings that were not knocked down, fields that were raising crops, real cattle, and, above all, an absence of shells and ma chine guns. So the resilient westerners quickly picked up. Ribs began to go back into bodies; hunted looks disappeared from eyes. Rumors of moving began to spread. Men kept close to the out fits lest they be left behind. The com manding general one day on the road met a small group of officers marching in bedroom slippers. Under their uni forms were pajamas. They were 91st men who had fled from the hospital lest the division move on without them. There was not much time for rumor and guesswork. One day it was Octo ber IS officers whispered the news. "We're going to Belgium." The entry of the 91st into Belgium and its preparations to go on the Scheldt river fight for its last five days of fighting will next be described. Pendleton Plans for Memorial. PENDLETON. Or., May 19. (Special.) Pendleton, under the leadership of the city council and the commercial asso ciation, is laying extensive plans for the celebration of Memorial day this year. The various fraternal orders will take a large part and Umatilla county men returned from tho eerwice are ex pected to be in the line of march for the parade several hundrd strong. Assault on Indian Charged. KLAMATH FALLS, Or., May 19. (Special.) Willard Lotcbes has been bound over to the federal grand Jury on a. charge of assault with a dangerous weapon. He is said to have shot at Delford Lang, a neighboring Indian on the Klamath reservation, following an altercation. Small Pill Small Dose Small Price O ITTLE H IVER I !X li PILLS For Constipation Carter's Little Liver Pills will set you right over night. Purely Vegetable ingworm Scalp Sores If yon want speedy help try D. D. FX Prescription. So wuy to apply, not creasy or messy. It washes iota the scalp and the relief is instant. Try it today. We marantM the- Int bottla. 15c. soc and $1.00. inxiix.in. TML lotion for SWn Disease Sold by The Owl Drug Co. and bifidmora " "SBnaaM "LIBERTY CONI-K," -rssT'---!' Two Days More Today Tomorrow America's Famous Ace EUT. IN PERSON LI BERT IN PICTURES I ? Li Li A Thrilling Romantic Story "A ROMANCE OF THE AIR" Is Based Upon His Book, "Fly L'Air" NO BATTLE SCENES . Mir S w-4 "'" - V . 'i "7.f .V . Ti mmi m A n vjl stU..wiiL n 7 IN - -ii' " i. 3 V! 1 TO - D AV-TILL-' L FRIDAX my- r. v A n o t her mas t r p I i' o lv vril Harrourt. a u t h or of "A ! a 1 r of silk Stoekmcs." The storv of a jea 1 -ous lover and h prottv srirl who see mcrl carc rrpuUtion. Iofs with h f r A OREGON'S INTEREST LARGE MUCH IS EXPECTED OF COX GRESS NOW IX SESSIOX. 3Iany Government Activities in Slate 3Iust Suspend It Funds Are Xot Provided. OREGONIAN NEWS BUREAU, "Wash ington. May 19. Oregon has a sizable material interest in the congress which convened in extra session today, be cause many of the government's activi ties in the state will have to suspend if appropriations for their mainten- nce for the fiscal year 1920 are not forthcoming- by July 1. The sundry civil bill, which failed of passage in the last congress and will be one of the first measures taken up, carries an appropriation of $113,000 for tho Umatilla irrig-ation project; $357,000 for the Klamath irrigation project; a blanket sum for the main tenance -of the quarantine stations at the Columbia river, Florence. Newport, Coos Bay and Gardner; $6690 for the fish hatchery at Clackamas and sub sidiary stations; $28,225 for Crater Lake national park: $25,000 for the protection of the Oregon and Cali fornia and Coos Bay wagon road land grant lands, and $111,480 for caring for the insane of Alaska, a large part of which goes to the Sanitarium com pany of Portland, of which Dr. II. AV. Coe is the head. The Indian appropriaUon bill, an other measure which failed, provides $6000 for the Klamath Indian agency: $4000 for the Warm Springs agency: $3000 for the Umatilla agency: $150,000 for the Salem Indian school: $3000 for the Siletz agencies, and $5000 for the maintenance of the Modoc Point irriga tion system within the Klamath reser vation. This bill also provides for an investigation of a claim by Charles S. Hood, a Modoc Indian, for services in securing the restoration and enroll ment of Modoc Indians of Oklahoma as members of the Klamath tribe of Indians fn Oregon. Oregon's national forests are allowed the following amounts in the agricul tural appropriation bill: Cascade forest. $7S.15; Deschutes. $10,175: Fremont. $5427; Klamath, $20,249; Malheur. $6091; Mlnam, $6476; Ochoco. $6451; Oregon national forest. $20,409; Santiam, $7852; Siskiyou. $12,660; Siuslaw. $6042; Uma tilla. $6562; I'mpqua, $13,509: Wallowa. $9617. and Whitman, $18,725. Besides these items Oregon will receive much from blanket appropriations which go to maintain agricultural agents in the field and for the suppression of in fectious animal diseases and the de struction of crop pests. LOST RIVER DAM PLANNED Project for Irrigating- Lands of Tnlc I. like Considered. KLAMATH FALLS. Or., May 19. (Special.) That plans are being, worked out for construction of a dam j across L,ost Kiver oea Deiow Merrill by which later it is proposed to Irrigate the reclaimed lands of Tule lake, is announced by Project Manager H. V. Newell. Mr. New.ell says there is no certainty as to when work will be un dertaken but that the plans will be ready when the funds are available. The main canal of the project, while large enough for present needs, will not be sufficient when the Tule lake bed is irrigated, according to Mr. Newell, and it is planned to use the old bed of Lost River for a portion of the dis tance to carry the extra supply. PENDLETON GRADUATES 29 Scholarships in Higher Institutions Are Granted to Two. PENDLETON, Or.. May 19. (Special.) Twenty-nine students of Pendleton high school last night were graduated from the institution. B. F. Irvine of Portland delivered the graduating' ad dress, suggesting under the topic, "Aft er the War," the part young Amerjca has to play in the. reconstruction pe riod. Awards of the several scholarships were made at the graduation exercises. Alfred Koeppen may have his choice between two scholarships, one at Whit man and the other at Willamette. Miss Laura Kearney won the opportunity to attend any one of the conference col leges which she chooses. The Lantern cup, presented to the best Lj f i tin . 1 l H ' 5 ' rf rf ; - - ::xi . ; m' - J -" - all round student, goes this year to Ned Strahorn. For two years it has been won by a eirl. The members of the graduation class ane: James Rursell A key, Dan P. Bell, Msr Jorie Ball, Dean Best, Ninta Ruth Clark, Georcanna Fletcher. Jessie Korshaw, Rlanche Kurnilih. Wtlma tivelyn Gardner. Gwendolyn V'erle Horseman. Evalyn Lawent Hurd. Alice Marjorle Kellum. lura Knr ney. Mt-rle Irene Kins. Alfred Lyman Koep pen. I.loyd B. Mnntiromcry. Bethel Vir ginia Menton. Willis Ollles. Fred W. Park er. Gwendolyn Ropers. Hunert 1 Smith, Irene pocknacjle. I.orena Southwell. lid ward Kiddens Strahorn. Oors France Striiuirhan. Helen Mildred Thompson, Ken neth D. Tulloch. Oheratlne Winn. In tho county. Tests made by the vis iting experts showed the milk now- being supplied to the city to be unusu ally clean and heavy in htitterfnt. Pendleton Oalrjrmen Organize. PENDLETON, Or.. " May 19. (Spe cial.) Pendleton dairymen are prepar ing to organize for the betterment of the Industry In this section. At a meeting Saturday with E. L. Westover and C. F. Hoyt, visiting dairy experts, a temporary organization was formed with J. DeWildo as president. F. H. Mytinger and J. E. Troxel as tempo rary directors. Dr. W. II. Lytle, state veterinarian, has been asked to come herft and make a test of all dairy herds ROSE FESTIVAL OREGONIANS will be the most interesting and complete issues ever published. You will want to send these copies to your friends. Five Complete Issues, Including Postage, 15c (Wednesday, June 11, to Sunday, June IS, inclusive) FILL OUT BLANK FORM AND SEND TO THE OREGONIAN. PORTLAND. OR. NAME. ST1XKET. TOWN. STATE. 1 2 3 I 4 I 5 I ' 6 . . . 7 8 9 71 ' 12 The Oreconian, Portland, Or. Gentlemen i Inclosed find for which mail The Rose Festival Oregonian from Wednesday, June 11, to Sunday, June 15, inclusive, to each of the above. (Inclose 13c for each name.) AND STILL THEY GIGGLE MARGUERITE Is Giving Columbia Patrons More Real Gig-jrles and Laughs Than Any Other Attraction Has Given In Months "Let's Elope" tJ-i is one of the best comedy dramas this dainty lit tle lady has ever made. ALL THIS WEEK Vi: v.; 5 .V '"' V L r?3