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Show Pershing's Narrow Escapes Under Fire Told by Sergeant General's Personal Chauffeur Declares He Spent More Time Under ' Fire Than Any Officer or Enlisted Man of the American j Expeditionary Forces Always in Advanced Post Directing Major Operations. British Vicar Fined for Kissing Servant I ' 1 1 :i 1 1 1; i 1 1 . Ui v. 11. .T. Martin, vicar ..f Il,.ly Trinity. Old Prompt on. was lined IOs iir Chatham police rinivi on tin' complaint of an oighteon-year-old daily servant. Annie j i) i !i tr. iliiil he l);ul kissed her nil several occasions. The giri stated licit- Mr. Mail in lisnl fold her that site could love him as much as slio loved Iter young man. and liad kissed Iter the lirsi day she was in the house. New York. Gen. John J. Pershing was the hardest working man of the American expeditionary force and was under fire a greater number of hours during the War than any otlicer or enlisted en-listed man under his command, according ac-cording to Sergeant Cesar Santini, who was the general's personal chauffeur chauf-feur throughout the entire length of America's participation in the war. The general worked late and was always al-ways in the advanced post command directing the movements of troops during dur-ing major operations. General Pershing personally directed direct-ed the St. Mihiel tight, was in the Ar-gonne Ar-gonne forest commanding operations for nearly two months and mingled with the advanced troops at Cantigny and Chateau Thierry. He questioned prisoners brought in by the doughboys at Cantigny and Chateau Thierry, and in the latter operation walked into the wheat fields to the gun positions to personally commend their crews and to tell them how proud he was of them. Sergeant Santini, who reveals these fiithterto unpublished facts of the doings do-ings of General Pershing in France, is a Frenchman by birth and enlisted in the United States army as an automobile auto-mobile chauffeur and engineer at Governor's Gov-ernor's Island on April 'Si, 1917. His knowledge of the French language and his ability as a chauffeur led to 1: ? selection as the commander In chief personal chauffeur. Sergeant Sanlir, snlled from the United States witil General Pershing, he drove the general gen-eral over fosrty thousand miles of French , roads during the more than two years he was in France, and he returned home aboard the transport Leviathan w'th the commander in .i.i.. j headquarters, which at that particu-; j lar time was being heavily shelled by : I the Germans. ' j Shrapnel shells were continually ; bursting directly over the automobile, steel fragments on several occasions j landing on the roof of the machine. General Pershing and Jiis aide-de- ! camp, who were seated in the tonneau j of the car, seemed to be little affected by the "strafing" they were under- j going, and no matter how near the shells landed their conversal ion, which probably bad to do with the major operation of the morrow, was not interrupted. in-terrupted. "One shell ii was one of. .Terry's largest" Sergeant Santini declares, "hit the road directly in front of us and only about a hundred feet from the machine. Had there not been a heavy rainstorm the day before, which turned the road into a mire of mud, none of us probably would now be alive to tell the tale. Our automobile was splashed with mud, but beyond that we suffered no ill effects from the explosion. It undoubtedly was the narrowest escape the general had during his many visits to the line." Peaching the advanced ' "" dquar-lers, dquar-lers, near the town of Mesnil St. Fir-mine, Fir-mine, that evening. General Pershing, who had been active since the early hours of the morning, turned in for a Tew hours of rest. He lay down on " col: in an otlicers' dugout and slept peacefully during four hours of an unusually heavy bombardment. All Sizes Coming Over. "Jerry knew something was going to happen," the sergeant says, "because he was sending them over in all sizes and shapes. Our car was camouflaged under some trees and I tried my best to take a little snooze on the seat. directly to several of the gun position, where he commended the crows and lob' i hem how proud he was of them." During the fight in the Argonne fores! for-es! General Pershing spent nearly two months in its recesses directing movements move-ments of troops. His mobile headquarters headquar-ters was pulled into the heart of the forest where it wat: camouflaged by shrubbery. Every night the genera! made a visit to the advanced post commands, which were almost at (he barbi'd wire entanglements, to see that his orders were being carried our. "The general never took any " chances," the sergeant said, "he always- went up to the front to be sure things were - done exactly as be ordered." One of the peculiar things sergeant Santini noted was that every time be took General Pershing to Paris the Germans would start a long range bombardment or send over a Hock of bombing airplanes. It did not seem to matter what hour of the night or day they readied the city the bombardment bombard-ment would begin directly after (hcir arrival and invariably continue for hours. Sergeant Santini is not so sure that the Germans did not receive information in-formation as to when the general was going to the city, although every effort was made to keep the movements of 1he commander In -chief in the greatest great-est secrecy. Sergeant Santini probably drove more historic personages in the lime-he lime-he was in France than any other-chauffeur other-chauffeur in the world. can boast of today. to-day. He drove President and Mrs. Wil- N. son on several occasions, President Pohicaro, Premier Clcmenceau, Generals Gen-erals Foch, Haig, Pelain and Bliss anJ King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of Belgium. King Albert awarded Sergeant Ser-geant Sunt ini the gold Medal of Merit of I lie first class. Awarded Citations for Bravery. The general has given Sergeant Santini a gold cigarette case as a token of his appreciation of the chauffeur's chauf-feur's services to him, and the sergeant ser-geant holds a citation personally awarded him by the commander in chief for bravery under fire. The citation ci-tation stands as mute evidence of the hazardous situations General Pershing found himself . in at times, as Sergeant Santini was virtually never out of close touch with his commander, and they both naturally suffered the same ordeals from shell fire. Sergeant Santini was 'recently mustered mus-tered out of service and has taken it upon himself to tell of his association iverseos with General Pershing. Long before American troops reached reach-ed the front General Pershing went through the rigors and strain of intensive in-tensive shell fire. In the summer of 1917 be was the guest of the French commanders and witnessed the attack on Chemin des Dames. On this occasion oc-casion the commander in chief rode jight up to the barbed wire entanglements entangle-ments in bis automobile and crossed the German trenches directly behind the lines of French infantry. Again in the Luneville sector where the first Americans fell in the war, General Pershing went into the line. He donned hip boots and traversed several miles of trendies during an enemy bombardment. On this occasion occa-sion Sergent Santini wailed in a communication com-munication trench until the general returned, re-turned, and admits the "Jerry" was using his high explosives to comparatively compara-tively good advantage. Shell Just Misses Car. Of the numerous narrow esef pes General Pershing had in bis time at the front the narrowest was, according accord-ing to the best recollection of Sergeant Santini, the day before the battle of Cantigny. The general wa' riding along a road toward the advanced More than once the shells fell too close to the machine to make me feel comfortable. com-fortable. One big fellow hit and carried car-ried away the chimney of the dugout in which the general was sleeping." Next morning General Pershing was in the headquarters telegraph office, where he received minute reports from the advanced posts which had already entered the town of Cantigny. The general personally directed the movements move-ments of the various units of the First division, which was engaged in the operation. At about nine o'clock in the morning the doughboys began to come back with prisoners, several of whom were brought before and questioned ques-tioned at length by General Pershing. The general was very much pleased with the results obtained by the troops in this engagement, the sergeant says, and showed his appreciation -by personally per-sonally commending and shaking hands with the doughboys as they drifted back in small groups from Ihe front line. When Ihe Germans crossed the Marne river for the second time General Gen-eral Pershing was north of Cbaumonl, his general headquarters. Upon rc-! rc-! ceiving word of the crossing be leaped j into his automobile, and Sergeant ! Santini was informed (be general was "in a hurry," but that lie must take no chances. j On the way down toward Paris the i route took the general past where the j second division bad been in a rest camp. The division was about to ! move to a certain point on the line. General Pershing countermanded the j orders on tin? road, directing the division di-vision (o move post haste to a poinl on the outskirts of Chateau Thierry. Commended the Marines. "The general reached ('hateau- Thierry soon after the repulse of tlx; Germans by the marines," the sergeant continued, "lie crossed the engineers' bridge and entered the town and went Fools Newspaper Men. On the (wo occasions thai New Ion . D. Baker, Secretary of War, visited tin; battle front in France he rode in General Pershing's automobile. Sergeant Ser-geant Santini tells of many amusing incidents and tricks General Pershing resorted to in an effort to evade newspaper news-paper men. One of I hose incidents '-curred '-curred during Secretary Baker's lirsi. visit. Secretary Baker and General Pershing Persh-ing were on their way up lo the front line, the secretary In one automobile and the general in his. There was a score of other automobiles loaded with ' newspaper men in the rear. As General Gen-eral Pershing came up lo a (urn in (lie road he leaped out of his automobile and into that of Secretary Baker, neither of the machines slopping. The two machines then separated and (bo newspaper men took up Ihe trail of the general's car. The automobile General Pershing used was equipped with special tnnliH I hill held fori y-t wo gallons of gasoline. Gas masks and helmets for the occupants occu-pants of the machine were lied in a bag on the roof in a position where they could be reached easily by Ihe driver or orderly. Inside (be machine there were always several extra blankets In the event of an emergency. General Pershing never had occasion to uac a gas mask. During (he lime the general was in France he bad In all nioe different kinds of machines. An automobile was discarded not; because it bad been 'worn out or failed In function pri per-ly, per-ly, mil because a heller mode! bad I n found. The orderly end drivrr cairied side arms and a rifle was strapped on lo one side of (he car. Sergeant Saiilin! was asked If General Gen-eral Pershing was in the habit o' riding rid-ing vciv fast, and In- replied Ihat "(be. gi Moral was sometimes in a hurry." lie admitted, however, Ihat at time" he had exceeded seventy-five miles u hour. His orders were to "go u fast as you can. bill lake no chances wi'h the general." Serjeant Santini is -ai;s licd Ic carried out those orders 'o 1 :t bi'st of his ability. When General Pershing moved from place lo place his "war car" traveled wi:li him in his mobile headquarter?, ihe train which the French pen) le ar now suggesting as a gifl to the American Amer-ican people as a permanent war reli.-. |
