Show aonmner v 'OHO WHITTLESEY'S MEN ARE FIRED ON BY THEIR OWN ARTILLERY THE LAST PIGEON IS RELEASED WITH THE MESSAGE "FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE STOP IT!" r £ 5 Ht 4 ? P ' ' f vt yf V A £ S :: Wg ' 1 ' V' ’ -- r " ' iff I -- “ pY jJ:1 (u v: ' J&xi V - ‘ T o " v twr Aj H 7 V ' I s vX "" i Vi 4:“v' v h' ' I X Yv JKr '- - Xs - : r- - ' x i pip' 1F' i K I ? v N r r imm vyv 4 the heroic Lost Battalion the crudest came on Oct 4 1 9 1 8 little more than 24 hours after the American discovered they were surrounded and troops outnumbered by Germans in the Argonne Forest ' They had adopted Major Whittlesey’s and Captain McMurtry’s slogan: “No falling back!” Now suddenly as tragic drama the way back was blocked and by a hand that dealt them a stab in the back From the rear - i — f EEL EE EE —- — -- ' ir EE EE EE o — - friendly artillery fired into them with fierce intensity killing and wounding 30 Americans untold features of this agonizing maddening occurrence appear in the diary that Private Jim Larney of Watertown N Y a Lost Battalion survivor kept through the siege y It records the experiences of Larney and others --who endured the 125-hogantlet of fire in Charlevaux in Pocket” thirst “the hunger and Valley There the Lost Battalion had thrust itself by obeying Maj Gen Robert Alexan- Those orders were to hold on der’s orders ur in “the EE ‘ - 1 O o Johnson F the many hard blows that struck a Pocket” Relief could come only from the rear — but all that did come from there was death in the flame and smoke of bursting shells from They “friendly” cannon Omer Richards (at left above) tells today how he was sent by Major Whittlesey to get one of Theodore Tollefson’s carrier pigeons Crawling through a barrage of shellfire Richards found Tollefson dead his pigeons gone from a shattered coop were familiar with the sound of the German 77 (millimeter) shells when they arrived and the larger calibers but this terrific ripping rending noise alone was terrible in its menace All around us great gobs of earth went flying trees splitting and breaking and blown bodily from the earth No pne man could describe all that in even a small circle around him happened Men were scurrying about- :w “I saw Major Whittlesey come running along in a stooping position as was every man who was moving Following him was Omer Richards (Whittlesey’s pigeon-mawho was lugging a wicker pigeon coop A fine trickle of blood was running down Whittlesey’s nose from up where the bridge of his glasses rested He and Omer were ducking over to what appeared to be a quieter spot to send a message I ran after and two or three times while Whittlesey sent that message I asked him if he were wounded He never once paid any attention to me ft n) brought two wounds to Jim s Larney but the slight sensitive religious youth who was Whittlesey’s signalman described the experience modestly “FrL Oct 4” he wrote “Continued misery Barrage upon us in P M Sgt Major I received Gaedeke missing in right wound high explosive arm and machine gun left leg Tollefson pigeon man with Richards wounded already has disappeared too Cavanaugh (William M Cavanaugh of Rochester Minn) 2nd Platoon Hq Co 308 (308th Infantry) with C Tree fell on Co wounded him also Great many casualties Major W (Whittlesey) bleeding from cut 'on German prisoners captured by the Lost Battalion in its nose Perhaps not from Tasked him if he shelling tense forinterruption was the moment hurt He did not reply were when from amid that inferno of flame and “Major Whittlesey sent following message smoke by last remaining pigeon during barrage: Whittlesey sent his pathetic last appeal For it was his last appeal his last chance and ‘C O (Commanding Officer) 1st Bn 308 Inf Larney and his friend Omer Richards (now of Ogdensburg N Y) are the very men to ‘To C O 308 Inf tell wfiy ‘We are along the 'road parallel 2764 Our own artillery is dropping a barrage di‘‘Ve landed in ‘the Pocket with two coops four pigeons in each” says Richards a quiet rectly on us little French-Americ‘For Heaven’s Sakel Stop it “Tollefson and I took dne each so a single shell burst couldn’t kill ‘Whittlesey 308th all the pigeons When the barrage hit us 1 ‘Major had two birds left They weren’t fastened to “Jos Friel and Geo Botelle went out with Friel their perches but free in the cubicles killed I fummessage bled to open the basket-- the strain and excite“Later Note — Gaedeke nor Tolleson (Tolment were awful with those shells bursting all lefson) never found” F New Yorkcited of Gaedeke aboutand all of a sudden one of the birds (Benjamin Thefor extraordinary heroism and inspiration came popping out I lunged to stop him but Minn he dodged and I swear he flew up and away and odore Tollefson of Hayfield — and never a message on him 1 Only one Joseph Friel New York City were killed pigeon left I I just had to make him good I So George Botelle Lakeside Conn was wounded still t write Also wounded although though my nerves jumped and my head buzzed down what he saw of with the noise and shock of shell bursts when Larney) Major Whittlesey handed me the message I “The barrage” he says “arrived directly attached it to the pigeon’s neck and released it” from the crossed us the It rear “What a relief 1 Now the message would upon swamp behind us and settled upon us and stopped get back to our artillery and stop this terrible there ripping the sky apart we thought We shelling I So I thought— but what do you sup Jbo O an v — zzz S EE t v ¥&? By Thomas M O h 'A NH Capt George G McMurtry The Lost Battalion adopted to a man his and Major Whittlesey's slogan “No falling back!” he-co- uld This part of Larney’s diary carries the mes-- : sage that saved the Lost Battalion from the fire of its own artillery Major Whittlesey's message ends with the urgent “For Heaven’s plea Sake! Stop it” pigeon food —cracked corn peas and birdseed — a little each day carefully hoarding it and rationing There’s always- - humor myself isn’t there?” TSJOT for me just then” says “The shells were Larney hammering down around me and when I saw Bob Manson crouching successful drive through the enemy lines Oct 2 1918 at the top of the slope on the edge of the road I joined him We saw a man lying face down in the ditch across the pose that pigeon did? Instead of flying away like the first one that had no message it stuck road We dashed over and threw ourselves with us I It flew into a tree and roosted down one behind the other I was behind the there I Whittlesey was wild I man Bob behind me We thought we were ‘“Can’t you shoo it away?’ he shouted above But no— we’d escaped the ‘friendly’ okay the noise shells but there was an enterprising German “Well I did — but then the bird just flew machine gunner up that road and how he did around in circles over our heads I It must have sow them in there I To this day I can’t see been We were seated stiff it how we escaped I leaves and would be shot down for the Germans were twigs right beside my head were being snicked off Either Bob or I hollered : ‘We’ve got to shooting at it They knew what it was for all right I We found out afterward that they get out of herel Let’s go!’ or one of our own shells must have hit it it “Bob dashed back across the road and into lost a leg and was decorated That was the and in crossing the trees down the slope famous Cher Ami — dear friend A dear friend lost a finger of one hand Bob went out in to us that day all right— -- and lucky too For the ambulance with me when we were relieved j j it was our very last pigeon I would like to A I never saw him again moment later I dashed across too threw myself “Whittlesey sent me afterward for one of Tollefson’s birds” Omer Richards j continues down beside an automatic rifle team and pointed “Guess he wanted to send a second message my rifle over the road in hopes I could get a 1 the Tollefson’ crawled crack at that Boche- gunner He had put one to barrage Through funkhole There lay Tollefson dead There through the flesh of my left leg just above the — knee as I ran across the road was his pigeon coop- torn apart by a shell — It didn’t hurt There were no — one of those friendly shells didn't hit the bone just in and out and gone “But when the third man came across he pigeons left! “It was an awful situation for the Battalion was drilled in the body He was a big man But for me — well now I had some pigeon food fell a stranger to me He all sprawled out So I ate the left and no pigeons to feed the trees made He the among slope all right 1937 Week by Every (Copyright Magazine) shell-shock- Low-growi- ed - ng came to after a bit and went out with the wounded when we were relieved ‘The shelling was still going on when looking behind me down the slope I saw my old pal Walter Baldwin lugging a wounded man beside him squatting with his back to a small tree facing up hill ‘Hello Jim” says he “This is Sam Feuer-lic- ht of C Company You know him He’s wounded” Just then another big one let go I was crouching my riflej in my right hand butt on the ground sitting on my right heel left knee up That burst finished poor Feuerlicht I got a chunk of hot iron in the right elbow which stayed there till they dug it out in the hospital the night of Oct 8 Later I signed a recommendation for a D S G for Baldwin He didn’t get it— but did get a citation” hours later when the hag-gar- d Seventy-tw- o remnant of the Lost Battalion 1 94 of near 600 staggered out of “the Pocket” Walter Baldwin was among them He wanted to make affidavit to what the terrible rain of flame and metal from “friendly” artillery had But he was hushed up done to his buddies the Lost Battalion has about truth whole The never been told of that bar- Yet amazingly the smoke-clou- d silver-line: For the pigeon that at d rage was last started forth from it also reached its objective Cher ' Ami delivered the message to" headquarters By that time the barrage had stopped but the message probably prevented another similar ghastly shelling HE night of Oct 4 the dull report of the American automatic rifles came from the ridge to the south Help was oh its way 1 Hopefully scouts were sent out to: guide the relieving troops The scouts never Came back The died away cheering The Germans had thrown back the would-b- e rescuers as thereafter they threw them back time after time With heroic persistence the rest of the 308th and 307th tried to pierce the iron-gra- y More Americans died in the ring effort to rescue the Lost Battalion than died in the Battalion itself Oct 6 dragged wearily machine gun and sniper fire another heavy grenade attack and One bomb more blasting from minenwerfer struck beside Jim Larney’s funkhole half cov- ered him with dirt filled his eyes and ears Once he had to move his position and he wrote “I had great difficulty in scrambling out on account of being stiff and lame from the wounds lieutenant Peabody killed probably by a sniper Tumbled down into our funkhole and out again and down into one below us” That gruesome event ended suffering for Lieut Marshall G Peabody of New' York ' City a member of the 306th Machine Gun Battalion Wpunded two jdays earlier he had been in constan) pain Larney! says he "sat up there above us with his greatcoat draped over his shoulders We could hear him moaning in the night Some stray shot or sniper’s bullet must have got him for the first thing we knew he fell right in on top of us and out again and came to rest in a sort of shellhole below us Must have been alive as he fell and dead shortly after he stopped” He lay unburied like all who died that day Hunger and exhaustion made the survivors too weak to bury their dead So dead and living lay together Yet they clung to their slogan: “No falling back I” “thump-thump-thump- !” j NEXT WEEK: The German and surrender to Whittlesey's Rescue comes af last ' ° |