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Show With the Fighting Ninety-First in Combat of Argonne Forest Corporal Harold J. Jones of Missoula, Mont., ' Writes His Salt Lake Brother a Graphic Description De-scription of Struggle Which Covered Division With' Glory. j HF-N the history of the great w:ir A n i'H:on!r:fl. and tlie part played liy the l.'nlt.-ci Klutes In the world drama ' ts written, the deeds of the Ninoty-flrst division divi-sion will btand out in all their glory. The Ninety-first division belongs to the west. ; It wiL.-i made up of Interrnountain boys, including in-cluding cuntf nt-'ents 1'rinri Utah, Idaho itnd Montana, arid ; t was traitiod tit (."amp Vv Lewis. In June the divinion .nulled for .'"- ' -Kranoe, and tlire in- (-orpurared Imo the 1 1 1 st army, and wont into action about the la.t of September. ?;, In the great battle , of the Argonne for- , S est tlie Ninety- ; X. $ I lirst division di.stin- 1 I mulshed itself, when Harold J. Jones. it was finally relieved re-lieved after the battle the entire division was cited for bravery by General Per-thing. Per-thing. Tlie end of October found the western boys in Belgium lighting with the Krench. Hre ulso they won' special mention and added more glory to their name. In the first days of fishing in' Belgium thy captured a German oi fleer on whom was found the following order: "Yon are now opposed to the Ninety-first division. For every man of the Nlnety-firat Nlnety-firat division taken prisoner the soldier capturing him will be given eighteen days' furlough." From this it would appear ap-pear that the Hun command thought well of the "wild west" division. Still on Fritz's Heels. When p-Hice came the boy a were on : the front line in Belgium and still on the hes of Fritz. To honor the Ninety-first, division, one battalion of the western bovs was privileged to lead the allied armies on their triumphal entry into Brussels on the return of King Albert and Queen Elizabeth to their apital. Later the Ninety-first, was assigned to stations at Ostroosebeke and Dunkerque. Corporal Harold J. Jones of Missoula, Mont., 364th infantry. Ninety-first divi- , juon, in a letter to his brother, 'Walter H. ; Jones. 937 East Fourth South street, de- , scribes the great batLle of the Argonne forest: "I have been through hell, or, according accord-ing to the more accepted way, 'over the top.' and come back without a scratch. Orfce befor we were in reserve on the front lines, but didn't get in on It, and even this time we nearly lost out. We had made several long night marches up to the front and were waiting in the woods for the big noise to start, when we were pulled out and sent to an ammunition am-munition dump about thirty miles behind thf lines. After hiking as hard as we ; had to get to the front and then lose j out at the last minute actually made me bo md that I nearly cried several times. However, our luck changed and two davs later found us again in the woods. "It doesn't make any difference where or on what day we went oyer the top, but tt sure was great. AM the dav tie-fore tie-fore we were getting our last weapons of war, and that night we marched many weary kilos to t;ike up our positions on the line. All tlie rumors we had heard about the big guns were surely true. Earlier in the night we heard the barrage bar-rage start further down the. line, but around ua only an occasional shot was i fired. "If you have never heard a big gun go off it will be hard to form any conception I of what our barrage was like. One of I those big guns makes a flash that lights half the heavens, then there is a sharp, I short crack, followed by tint peculiar" hissing sound of the air 'as it clones in behind the shell. As the night wore on the shots became more numerous, until ' the sky was a continual red glare, and the noise was terrible. It seems strange, ; but the sensation of tear never came to i me at all. it all seemed like part of the play that we had been in for months, and it never occurred to me. that we were soon , to "go over the top." and to what, God only knew. Of course. I was terribly tired, for -1 had had very little sieep for! the last three or four nights, and I actually actu-ally slept 'for over an hour after we got set, even with all the barrage. i A Natural Nevvousness. "It there ever was a time when a fel- ! low was justified in being nervous it was j during those few moments before the J first wave started over. The separate ! shots could, no longer be distinguished, and It was as true a hell as I ever want to get into. It was not yet liKht and a fog hid everything, and with that awful noise and glare overhead It was a picture pic-ture not soon to be forgotten. Later the same day we had a chance to see just how terrible that barrage of ours had been, and, believe me, it was awful. The Germans didn't return manv shells rie-ht then, but the ones they did were surely biar ones. t "Just before noon the fog lifted and we were on the other side of the woods beyond the German front lines. As we looked out over the open valley before us it was just lilce a moving picture, it all nsoved so smoothly, the only thing there wasn't as much noise and blood and confusion, but everywhere the Yanks were steadily advancing. I was in the second wave and didn't see much real stuff this first day. However, this afternoon, aft-ernoon, I talked to a couple of German prisoners. One was 20 and the other 21. Both had been fighting since they were 18. They saifl they were sure glad that the war would soon be over. One of them said that Germany couldn't win because she didn't have any men to start a counter-offensive with. Third Line Defenses. "This first day we advanced about seven or eight kilos and took their third line defenses. You can talk about barbed w ire entanglements, but - on this I day and since I have seen enough, it -I'prr.s, to reach clear home. The firt night we 'dug in' to wait until morning. It was . thought that a couple of companies com-panies had advanced too far. so Lieutenant Lieu-tenant Busha, two others arid myself were sent out as a patrol into no man's land to find them. We were gone from 1 until after 5 o'clock. and covered 'bucco' ground much and more. "The second day was more exciting than the first. It had rained quite a little during the night and it was pretty disagreeable when we went forward again after Fritz. We were held up for a while by machine guns and snipers, and there, was a continual zing, zing, zing over our heads all the time. We had to advance across a couple of meters of open ground. We went down one side of the little valley while the Huns were on the other side and could see us all the time. Advance Is Begun. "However, all of us and I mean thousands thou-sands advanced over the ground by short rushes, and we didn't lose a man. It was her I learned to appreciate my steel Stetson. I used to think I had pretty Rood shoulders, but the way I ' managed to pull them and all the rest of me under that helmet would make a good vaudeville act. Also, the way' I could make myself part of the ground when the bullets started zing-zing would make paper on a wall look thick. "It was the third day that holds its most vivid memories for me. Wen we started out this morning I was again in the second wave, and not on the front line, as the day before. We bad to fight through woods mostly this day and. our progress was somewhat slower. Also by this time the Germans had gotten a little better organized and were putting up a pretty stiff fight. It was on this day that the Hun practiced several of his old tricks on us. We found men in outranks out-ranks who turned out to be German spies and who would shoot one of our men down every once in a while. Several Sev-eral times the first and second waves would have advanced through a. thicket and think it was cleared out, and then later a German sniper or machine gun would open up behind us. It Isn't at all uncommon to find German machine gunners gun-ners dfessed in American uniforms. "Just after dinner or I should say. just after noon our artillery, which had been mpved up, got into action and we advanced about a kilo after the fleeing Dutchman. We reached an old German artillery position that they had abandoned, aban-doned, and went up the other side of the rather steep ravine. Of course, they had the expert range on this position, and the way they shelled us would , make your hair stand on end. However, we were used to shelling by now and so kept on to clear out the narnew strip of woods before night. It was pretty late in the day, and I was up on the front line. On the Germans' Heels. "When we reached the other vside of the strip of woods we were right on the Germans' heels so we kept right on. It was about 400 yards over a gentle gen-tle slope of open ground to a row of I trees and brush. When- we reached the crest of the slope we could see the Germans Ger-mans going in all directions. We hurried hur-ried on to this brush for cover. We didn't know at the time that it was another an-other German stronghold. Before the first of us reached it they started shell-I shell-I ing us something awful, and. with count-I count-I less machine guns V firing at us, there I wasn't much play connected with our ad-; ad-; vance. I was still Some distance from I the brush when a large shell hit about 100 feet in front of me. Something hit ; me in the stomach and down I went, and las I- fell forward something else flew i over my shoulder and knocked my rJack j away. I was a little dazed, but when I I found that it must have been a. rock ! that hit me for I was uninjured I got i up and hurried on to cover. T don't say it in exaggeration or boasting, but I'll bet that if I gu over the top twenty times I'll never be shelled worse than we were right then. They came so fast and thick one couldn't tell which way to turn. The Huns, who had stopped farther on and taken cover, were sure keeping thvlr machine guns warm. "The Germans wore determined to sfin us here, and they gave us 'bucco' gas. We took about a dozen prisoners here, and it was quite pitiful, as we lay there with our masks on, while some of them did-Jt have any. A couple of thm tried to ",;-tke nirf understand something, for they kept touching their lips, as one .might say good -by or throw a kss. It Vas touching, 1 must admit, even it' they were Germans, as they knelt there with rh6ir hands over their heads and the gas burning their eyes out. But it was a life or death moment and there was no place for sentiment. Everything Is Confusion. "From-here I moved a few hundred feet to one side for more cover, and got n a small, ditchlike hole, with about a dozen others. Everything was confusion, confu-sion, for the noise and shelling-was terrible, ter-rible, and the shells had scattered everyone. every-one. The few of us in this ditch lay there for several minutes, wondering what to do. As I was the last to get in and was where I could see the most. 1 tried several times to rise up and see what those around us were doing. Every time I moved it was zing, zing, zing, and down I would go. After several attempts I could see that all the rest were withdrawing with-drawing back over the open space behind be-hind us. Our situation, as I saw it, was to run back over that open space through shrapnel and machine-gun bullets, which looked like certain death, or wait where le wore and get caught later t.y our own burrage as well as that of the Germans, which was just as bad. We all hesitated hesi-tated for some time- before making a move, for neither alternative was much to be desired. A-t last one fellow said good-by and started -out, and a minute later I followed him. I ranover a hun-i hun-i dred yards, until I couldn't go any farther, far-ther, with that awful zing, zing," zing, all around. I hadn't any more than hit the ground than a big shell hit about fifteen fif-teen feet to one side of me and a piece of shrapnel 'cut my pants away' across my kneecap. A second later another hit about ten feet ahead of me and one back of me. My thoughts of and chances of ever 'seeing home again were as low right there as they ever got, and, tired or no tired, 1 started out again. I pafsed eev-era! eev-era! shell holep. but they were all full, so I kept on until I dropped exhausted behind a German grave on the ridge. Some minutes later I was aroused by someone asking me if I had water. I raised up on my elbows; for we were safe from the bullets whizzing overhead, and saw my old 'bunkie,' with- Ira head all wrapped in red bandage. He had followed fol-lowed me out of that little ditch. Gets'His Real "Scare." "It was some time later and I was sitting sit-ting in an old German trench in the woods with several others, when I got my real scare, or thrill, or whatever you wish to call it. The others .had eaten 'and it reminded me that I hadn't had a bito since early that morning. I'll never again experience that awful sensation sensa-tion that was mine when I drew my mess kit out of my pack and saw a bullet hole through it. The whole world seemed to stop. . Even if I do s&y it myself, I had been cool and c!ear-headed till then, but not so now All the rest of the night each zing or whiz of a shell overhead terrified me awfully, and I sure wanted to be way behind the lines. When I became cairn enough I started to find that bullet In my pack. I found it flat- tened against my shovel. The miracle of it isJIiat half an hour before I made tha rtKh over the hill I didn't have that shovel on my back. Shortly before that a fellow in the hole with me had been wounded and I took tlie shovel out of his puck. I still have the bullet. "The fourth cUy the Huns tried a counter-attack on our left, but didn't have much luck. When we saw what was up, as by magic we spread out and took about two more- kilos ot' ground. This tim.i I was fir out on the left flank :i:id the shelling iht: ga.ve us was a veritably veri-tably hurricane of fire. The oft'.oers had warned us repeatedly about gas, and had told us that it was 'our real danger. 1 did have, several occasions to wear my mask, but nut for a long time. I had to earn from experience that shrapnel ami shell fire are the most dreaded things of all. "Before I went on the front I used to kui:h In ridicule at tlie picks and shovels soldiers carry, but now I Have al the respect in the world for them. You vould be surprised at the hole a man can dig with one of them when he is under shell fire. Nerves Are Wrecked. "We were on the line long after other divisions were relieved, and while we were holding our positions Frttzy cer-'.ainly cer-'.ainly gave its some terrific shellings. They don't call it shell shock any more. . but nervous breakdown, when you've got too much of it. And, take" it from me, f you've ever been aheilcd you can understand un-derstand why a man's nerves go back on him. I've changed more in the last few days' hard fighting than I had in ad my life before. We all had hardships to meet and survive, and the world will never even guess the things that the peculiar pride of a soldier never lets him talk about. A couple of nights before we came back off the line I got a touch of that loneliness I had heard others tell of. I was awfully tired, atid that day all I had eaten was a .little coffee I made myself, for at this stage of ihe game 0 could no longer eat the 'bully beef which uncle provides in great abundance. abun-dance. "As I sat there in my hole In the ground on the edge of No Man's Land, my thoughts went far, and 1 longed, wanted something different, even' If it were only a bean just one bean-r-a-nd all the francs In the world couldn't get anything for mo more than I had. "If my longing the night before had been a silent prayer, ' it' wa,s, bounteously bounteous-ly answered the next tiay. For breakfast break-fast I made coffee and toasted some bread I had foraged; at noon I had in my possession four cans of beans, thai the law of self-preservation had prompted prompt-ed me to filch t'roin a broken case at the' side of the road. We were off the line by 5 o'clock and we had some of the hottest, best rice and some good beef stew. Well, when the laddie' boy said the Lord's prayer that night, the setting was bure some deferent.", After the Armistice. In a letter written after tlie armistice was signed, Mr. Jones tells of the last battle In Belgiu n. Here the Ninety-first was f;ghting with the French? "Since I wrote you last it has been 'my privilege and good fortune if you say it fast to aain look the Hun in the face anfl come out alive. Now that some sort of peace has been arrived, at, I don't know how strict the censor will be, but I'll take a chance. "After I wrote to you we made several short moves and lived a comparatively high iife for a few days, for we slept in billets or Belgian houses. We thought that at last we had arrived at the end of the 'fable' entitled 'The Search for the Rest -Billet.' We were in the first real town We had ever been in 'over here,'; but It was all too good to last. Three o'clock one afternoon we were out drilling, drill-ing, when we received word that we were .to go" pn the 'line. Twenty minutes later we wtfre marching cut of town, and when the sun rose the rrext morning the Hun was facing the Wild West division. "I might digress enough here to tell of what the 'Germans think of us. Before Be-fore we ever went over the top the first tiro we had a Rood 'rep.- I t was cunt back you couldn't loucn it I so hlclT. Jt was due to out rep that came up here. Well, alter h mo ke Ltd rlmrrd. papers were VU)e German ofn.-er which read th-it u Xi.M-tv-rtn.1 d.vision was JW"1 the liuns, and for every man oi ira Xinetv-nrst taken a, a prisoner the man captures him would eet el!,nue dav.1 furlouuh.' Thai s , 0J "Jfc I thousht. so tnaybo we lived up to UK n'eNheid crimes for two days and then went over the top on the mon n, of the 3!st. The nature of the , was unite different tram on the M Mnn and surely was warm while it lasted. At the end of three or four holds Huns who had faced us were l"'. flowers, and the worat was ov ei V hat was supposed to take three daiswanac complished in one. Several da s ua9" In which we didn't do much, and then we aajaln started In pursuit ot jcrrj. Hear Many Rumors. We had heard lots of rumors about peace and the like, but as wc along behind the Germans, .with shooting on every side, It dldn t seem like peace. We dug in on the night of No vernier 10 and had orders to move for ward the next morning, but hetoie tlie zero hour had arrived orders came to stop hostilities. Thus, when pence u'. we were on the front lines. t seemed almost too trood to be true, but each di it seems that it must be. It has been inv good fortune to see quite a bit of Belgium, and it has " been more or less different. rh(5 nrsi place where we camped was where tries had fouttht back and forth for four ftan. I haven't the words to paint a. Picture that would give you any idea of the destruction de-struction and desolation that existed there.. It was just the opposite of tie scene here, for this is heaven ItselE. tsinj there are Ions miles and many days ae tween the two scenes. "I have read In different papers oi where other troons have liberated French towns and how the ptople in their gladness glad-ness hueged and kissed them. I have known that Joy, too, and it surely makes you glad that you could be there. it was on the first day after we went over the top that we liberated many people who had been kicked around by the Huns for four years. As we advanced toward one house we saw a man there, but when we reached the place no one was to be found.. Finallv some straw by a pile or wood was pushed aside and a young woman crawled out with her hands over her head. "When 'We made her understand we jiexe. Americans she told the others to 'come out, and a man and a girl crawled out. They jabbered a lot, and Anally the old mother came out. She was jabbering to herself and had her rosary In her hand. I thrilled with pride, and it was kind of touching as another young fellow stood on the other side of her and we helDed" the old ladv to her feet. She had to shake hands with each one, and then they took all of us Into the house and gave each one a cup of milk. Are Given Bread. "Some distance farther on we stopped near another house in which there were forty men. women and children. Here they brought out lots of bread and gave thirty or forty o? us bread with a kind of lard butter oh it. Many of us paid them and some gave them even as much as ten francs for a slice. "About a week later as we advanced we were only five or six. hours behind the Germans. As we advaced across the country and the people saw we were Americans, they couldn't get their flags out and up soon enough. One place, as we marched, a lady brought out a basket of bread and ''butter and a pitcher of coffee. At another place there was & German grave In, the backyard, with a bunch of flowers on It. I walked up near the house to see what the excitement and - - jabbering was about and told them -lira; an American. At that one woman hurried hur-ried past mo and I saw her go out and throw those flowers off the grave, it amused rhe,' for that woman's face and every move was either hatred or contempt. con-tempt. Even in the place where wo are now, anything we want is ours. It b pretty cold, and so the little old mar sees that we always have wood. The other night he brought each at s ai apple, and the next mornlngthe lad'-came lad'-came out and wanted to know if we wouldn't come into the house by the store and have coffee. All these acts speak for themselves, and there are lota more I could tell of, but I II have to stop now. I |