New Britain Herald Newspaper, January 11, 1919, Page 8

and His Famous “Lost Dattalion” . 1919, by Public I ments were nesr at hand, and W thought we would all die of starvation We had made up our minds never e e S refusal, a malediction and a proph- I velled, ‘Go to hell!" all the men R s . PP i ; ecy, the enthusiastic gathering of com- roared ‘Righto! Stick boys! Never ades prolonged their Williams Col- lege ck for five minutes. And TR s Tace the death they felt was inevit § then they sang the famous Williams et Wi ble!” i Y - “Mountain Song,” and at the end T 3 3 ) o Trie And with an exulting rush and a - . cheered again for Whittlesey. It gave W‘ 1 0 PG (i S0 v and men weve wibed out, BB shout of joy fellow Amerleans swept o = % 3 Y one the same thrill as would arise mists and uncertain obscurity Tnext day, leaving two compane . ’ the enemy from thelr strongly in . at the annual football game between which enshroud glorious exploits in cover our rear, we went forward a 0 2 By S | R S e . R = o Steheal font trenched positior verlooking \Whit. - “ 3 have been a fine looking sight. I said Willlams and \mhrrsr is greatest of all wars will lift, anc tretched A ficsav and it mend Of thoi 00 mak o As was expected, Whittlesey, when <ide, which ) £ the 7 ! i 0 the sentry: e originaliy i the battalion. not more . 7 «‘For God's sake, say something to 1he spoke, made no mention of his n one-third was alive and unwound oA auTen ven't heard any- ©OWn experfences. He nrdhe:l’lnn e on these few were <o weak it = but boohe for iwo days’ After listed American Kollhn'v;, m( i he liv for fe 1ay » 54 9 lory ol e ven. e R iving for four days on leaves licoyo cdlic hii surprisel heWMEsidlenouEh EIOTY rn|\|r|n; & n1 8 it ) 2 e hard as rocks. but soon the were chewing tobaceo that they col . sutenant, can’t T help you to Men Who have gained honors and eral Israel Putnam, Paul Revere, Gen i Kk on these medals for distinguished acts of hero- eral Warren of Bunker Hill, “Dashing &one also. s L : for/d % Lot At this point the story is resumed by reached headquarters about 7.0 Ism, he said, are merely symbols of the American soldier in the mass. For Lieutenant Arthur F. McKeough, a i and started to report to the colonel. first 1 the army, as well as elsewhere, Colonel Whittlesey said, it takes a number of men to bring about any- thing that is worth while. Then he confessed that at the start of the war, officers and enlisted men had little in common. All this has say die!' and itted their teeth te there will stund revealed an array line o of martial heroes who will live for was a Dos: 1an the other ever | 2 heart ‘and mindlof the Wherg o wers ir - hollow American people, coupled with those Our rations gave out the tollowing great names of Washington, Gen Phil” Sheridan, Admiral Farragut, and “We occupizd a strip of ground per of later davs Hobson yaps 100 yards long. There was a And when the one hundred mil, Swamp back of us, fortunately, where mild - mannered tnny - dispositioned He was eating hot-cakes. The young newspaper writer, who used to s thing he asked me was, ‘When did : vou cat last? T told him, ‘Two days sir.’ He &aid, ‘Sit right down and lions of Amerfcans have had time to We crawled for muddy water at night sit at his (yc iter ce of a couple of years o 1o i : ; e Sl cat those cakes’ 1 tried to get the Led Into an Ambuscade Lictle did McKeough think two ; o S e : ‘ : ‘ Then he set the rescue work weigh the respective claims of each Machine bullets splashed our faces New York newspape: of these men to greatness, it can be While we naper stated the name of Lieutenant Charles Whittlesey will probabiy precede the rest Liettenar Wilhelm, of Compuny @80 that today he would be a greater 4 By eat first E, altacked w strong German position hero thanany that he had ever written : : : ! b in motion.” changed, and officers ‘}!1\'1 x;llurn from about : ; : g In neither Colonel Whittlesey’s ac- I'rance carry back with them memo- McKeough's is Ties that will endure for a lifetime of the part that Whittlesey played the self-effacing valor of the American during the affair mentioned. How- boy in the ranks. Suffering the same ever, Major Whittlesey was made a hardships and mingling with common lieutenant colonel soon after, and as dangers, he sald, make an officer pos- sess an appealing fondness for ‘“his It is not entively beyond the range of probability that the American na- ©R our right, where machine-gun nests tion, o proud of her victorious army snipers werc picking our men off For it was this same Arthur Me will snateh up Whittlesey and make ©ne after another. but his command Xeough, now First Lieutenant Me. count nor Lieutenant fmmortal as “Go-to-Hell” Whit- ©f nincty men was surrounded and Keoug o won his way out of the aimost every one died forest of Argonne by cuuning and by children and your children’s At the end of the, third day it Lilling, and carried the word which children will often mount your dawned upon us that we were sur- resulted in rescuing forces beiig sent 3 s S = K a reward sent home e 2a e inalpronalat the knee and beg to hear the heroic tale rounded and completely cut off from to the aid of the famous Lost Bat. o T i ] Williams College Boy thought that he is an American of Whittlesey and his men. So here Our re-enforcements. The fact that tallon, which luy there starving, thirs:. e kg : g T D And tloe it sustth Gorded it is unfolded, so that you may pass the Huns had led us into a cunning Ing. surrqurded by foes and appar s S And the Stars and Stripes, the And in justice it must be recorde ppa b g ‘o soldier’s paper written within sound that when all pledged to Colonel of the cannonading, called Whittlesey’s Whittlesey and shouted “For he's a conduct “the most gallant of the war.” jolly good fellow,” the Willlams men it along to future generations of ambuscade was particularly galling doomed Americans, that they may absorb some Runners I Liad sent out returned and “Major Whittlesey gave me fifteen of that lofty love of country of which reported that they bad been cut off. or twenty men with grenades to wi - - % ; ¥ 3 e grenades to wipe e cclated how tho rescuers found gave “the hero” a reception he will Colonel Whittlesey is one of the high- Now the men were eating chewing to- out what we thought was a - ¢ s SUn R wee S 2 S ! singte E S ¢ (Whittlesey. An aide rushed recklessly always remember. est exponents. baceo and leaves machine zun nest on the left 3 3 3 t - ) : o L eft,” Mc ¢ : b i dong the trench which the Lost With a wonderfully wistful look, ‘Really, T don’t see why you should It was a horrible ordeal. Before K eough said, after relating : = be interested tory,” 1 Colo- each attack the Germans fired trench battalion had hed HoNALLe Battalion had occupled for five days, this man, who had seen so much, said e interested in my story,” said Colo- ecach attack mas t attalion had pushed beyond its com LIEUTENANL ARTHUR F. MeREOUGH askine for Major Whittlesey. A tall simply, “It's fine to be here and see nel Whittlesey, when he landed from moriars at us. Night and day sev- munication lncs. “But when we got . 1@ paiiently “Here be IS ail thess frienilly faces suain” Then France recently. Colonel Whittlesey eral thousand of them raked us with elose to it we found that there were DESERN e e o e T a withering machine-gun fire. Snipers thres nests and at loast throe maoning W47 @14 (hen saw two boche officers mouthful aplece and that was all we Everybody wa i e o . ‘ i o i el e e e s e e, e s e s e ing out rations to his men, althoug Who can say that Whittlesey did i he himself was starving. not live over again in that short sen- Report has it, also, that the colonel tence those horrible five days in Ar in charge of the vescuing band, in- gonne forest, seing men he loved as stead of calling Major Whittlesey to brothers perlsh in the hail of Ger Hip hntedl ihe brave Whittleseysup e ntniot while stanvation threatensd himself. the whole command with annihila- Before the war Major Whittlesey tjon? is I'he Hun on the Run liicet thotandalot —ild devlls tha Gor it down, and T rested my automatic on “There was so much light and shoot- oo e e hen i om T ahs n T Kamerad. Hell! a log and called on them to surrender. ing that I felt sure we would be caught But they weren’t ‘Kamerading’ One one way or another, so I told the boys, manded to tell his story, leaving out and hurled hand vdes, wi “The boches heard us coming and of them let go at me ji I fly ‘When I yell “Separate!” do so and run no details whatever, Colonel Whittle- called ‘poiato mashers,” causing ¢ shouted over something about *IK sey capitulated, but he fixed as one ioss of life We lost 107 killed and merad!” I got one of my hoys, a little at him. I aimed at his mouth and like hell.” of the terms of the stipulation that his more than twice that number were Rast Side Jew naumed Hirsehlowitz P Us&ed him between the eye His This was about § o'clock the second ality was to be hidden in his wounded. The wounded men insisted wonder, too), who knew German narrative. on doing their we. We were not to find out if they wanted to surrender, 1t me in the right wrist light we were out. It wasn't long e : 3 vt long L lawyer In New York city. He K, but enough to give me my heforo we ran plumb into another S Once a “Theorist” o o cel : s about thirty-five years old, and wound stripe. The other fellow ran Gorman funk-hole line and a heavy 1 about (_'L\ = S esrut e o ot ofi. T took his papers from the dead voice called ‘Bist du Deutsch? (Are Sraduate of Williams Collese. L A trac umor stalks pleasantly T e six feet three inches ere anc ere 0 i o ono and also a postcard photograph of you German?) I gave the word to SUapping man, six feet three here and there in the grim tale of : in height, and built in proportion, too. Whittlesey’s Argonne forest experi- His size, however, gives one the im- ence. Before the war some comrades pression of extraordinary litheness, referred to him as a pacifist. In col- “On October 2, 1 was in command able to bury the dead then, so we He had a long palaver with tiiem and of 700 men of the first and second placed them all on a rocky hillside and then reported, ‘No, sir; they want us battalions of the 308th Regiment, and interred them later to surrende They say they've got Company K, of the 307th Regiment. “Of course 1 don’t know how many us surrounded and they want us to do They were mostly New York city boys. Germans we got rid of, but I judge the Kamerad act. Tell them., Ka- with whom 1 had been at Camp Upton, their losses far surpassed ours. They merad, hell!" T instructed Hirchy, and hiny the boys to beat it and they did. !ieutenant MeKeou, had this pho- “I started to run .and fell right tograph with Lim. Tt showed a hand- jnto a funk-lole on top of two Ger- ; but some were from the West. T was buried their dead every night, of he did it with great giec some young (German officer and bore mans We were all three so amazed rather than mere hn‘\.. £ ok ; le ;,r» 1110»] was ’n u\ndl\uus vhvln\p-shgul. i i, et e e . the worde. “Birthday greetings from that we didn’t know what to do. I it jis been truly et down that most cered chap, and, according to com- a major ther cours r W y n out what we could of ave men are also modest. Whittle- panions, the last man in the world Oscar”” vhich was appavently his used the only German words 1 knew: name Was ist los? (which T didn’t know till ey is no exception. One would prob- to be selected for a warrior. He was Through all ihe day Lientenant Mc: afterward meant ‘What's the matter?) ably mistake his quiet, unassertive a theorist, a savant and a good pal, Keough and his two dauntless com- and the bocho I fell most directly on, reserve as shyne: But the clear blue they all agreed. They called him AT Al e e N an el i eves and the determined set of face “Chick.” He took no part in ath zot 1 1 t 2 o e 1 ) . ° did they move from their dense thicket. “1 was acress bis shoulder and had bear indisputable indication that letics or sports of any description, Oreny bidd e - e "”\1‘ Sl ! “”‘\ Mr A ang "l‘f\ @ couple of men, make my Way At mgntfall the three set out again my :4‘,y{k.mum in my hand and lr ot Whittlesey is a man who ends every- singularly enough. ahead, and started before the fresh there were only five boxes of machine- back to headquarters and tell the €010 o their mission which meant life an? him have two bullots through the thing he starts However, possessed of a brilllant death to 700 comrades. dbine and Do quivered andlrent down Recently a reception and dinner was intellect and studious by nature, Whit- ’ 3 5 ‘Almost immediately we ran intc The other fellow was facing me and given to Colonel Whittlesey at the tlesey had acquired a deep loathing bearing 220 rounds of smmunition, we weak that they were scarcely able to fellow Hirschowitz and another 1ad :hole company of Germans in ‘funk- andine up. %0 1 lot him have ome Williams Club in New York. Now for war. He soon perceived that the Sdvanced al¥ night stand on thelr feet.” named Jack Munson and we s holes, which are little dugouts, un- through the breast, The first fellow the Williams Club, while it is very present war was intended to forever “The Argonne forest has an unde Chen October 7, the fifth day that off through the darkmness, going connected with each other. These gort '(,r qui m;’ in % I let him cozy and homelike, was not the place end war on earth, and into the task brush so dense and tangled that it is we had becn hemmed in the ravine, compass. vas a jur e had to (Germans heard us rustle in the brush, have a third shot. to hold such an event. For the crowd of stopping battles and bloodshed for- impossible to sec more than ten fect with the Germans firing down at us go through, and we could make only gaive us o challenge and receiving no here was an uproar for hours, o ©f Willlams men who turned out to ever he threw himself absolutely as ahead. But our boys had the Hun from the hills, there came a German, a few feet at a time, crawling along. answer, became suspicious. They sent T lay where I was until things quleted, greet Charley and say how proud they a zealot, once America joined in. on the run, and we pushed right blindfolded and bearing a white flug. “There were boches all around. wup flares and star shells by the hun- then crawled into the brush. A dozen were jammed the main hall; they won his commission of a cap- ahead, their skirmish line offering lit- He brought Us a typewritten message. Kvery fow yards we could ses them or qred and fired in every direction. The times senirics almost waiked over me, were packed like sardines in the ves: S the officers’ training camp tle resistance. which ran about as follows: hear them, and it wus a miracle we durk forest at night became incandes- At midnight it started to rain, and 1 tibule, and on the third floor and at Plattsburg, and went to Camp Up- The following day our course luy “‘We have heard the cries of your weren’t caught. We were headed due cent with light, could travel more freely Several the first floor, and on the stairways ton. About a year ago he went over- along a deep ravine, with hilis about wounded.| It is impossible for you to south, but so thick was the under- I thought it was all off. I took hours later I ran into an American men clung fenaclously to their place, scas. Meritorious conduct and effi. 200 feet high rising abruptly. On top escape. Why do you not surrender in growth that we'd frequently have to from my gasmask bag a Iot of battal gentry who was so startled at .wn(..;; Jietening eagerly for every word Whit- cient work swiftly gained for him his of these hills the Germans bad plant- the name of humanity? Send back go due north around a thicket before jon records und buried them, trying to me that he almost dropped his rifle. tlesey uttered major's commission, and then came ed machine guns, which they used to your reply by messenger carying a e could get our right direction mark the spot. Incidentally, I found I don’t wonder. I had blackened my When Whittlesey was introduced as the “Lost Battalion” exploit. < “At dawn We reached the edge of 2 one piece of breaq in this bag and I face with mud and camouflaged my the man who had answered the Ger- Colonel Whittlesey is a native of gainst one hill, and almost all of the “We did not know that rzonforce- jttlc clearing. We heard talk in Ger- split it In three way There was a head with boughs of trees. I must mans’ demand to surrender with a Pittsfield, Conn “It was the time when Foch was their dead bodies in the underbrush, them with hand grenades. but it was dealing the Germans deadly thrusts where their comrades had not been a tough ioh. Then along about eve- each day, first in one salient, then able to get them ning another licutenant with a detail another. I was in the Rainbow Di- The flerce fire from the Germar of men joined my party and told me vision, and we were in the Argonne ench mortars had smashed nine of that Major Whittlesey said T shou provisions which Lad been brought up gun ammunition left. And nothing to nel, it T got there. that the battalion could be given around. Kach man cat for four days! The men were s0o was surrounded. I picked out this ' cruel advantage. T sent Company A white flag