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Show 'If WESTERN is' : WITH 81ST ME M : GASUALTiES i SALT LAKE, Dec. 2. "Our Ninety-first Ninety-first division did itself proud and will go down in history as a great fighting ' unit," writes Sergeant William Stanton Stan-ton of the 3G2nd infantry, formerly with the Gibson Commercial company, to the Tribune. "We' have received honorable mention for bravery from General Pershing and many of our boys will be awarded medals." One Utah man captured four German ma- nhinn mmn 1 - i .1 ,i i.n buna aiuiu-Utiuuuu, uuu 111,11 turned the guns on the Germans, killing kill-ing and wounding many and taking several prisoners. "It made us laugh when we read in the U. S. papers that the Huns were short on ammunition and food. I have seen stacks of their ammunition, and in their dugouts which we have captured cap-tured they had ample supplies of food, liquor and everything to make life very comfortable. But we gave them Ji big surprise. The French and tho British said the Huns could not be driven from the Argonne forest, but It took our division and four others ninety days to do the job which our allies had been trying to do for four years. But the toll of death was terrible. ter-rible. Threo of our lieutenants were killed and another badly wounded. Our captain was gassed. It was up to the first sergeant, then, to lead the company, and he did great work. "The last time our regiment was In battlo another ten days, losing quita heavily, but not as many as the first time. We were then sent back,, expecting ex-pecting to go to a rest camp, but Instead, In-stead, after hiking several days, and then a three days' ride on the train, wo landed Jn Belgium and are now. on the famous Belgium battlefield. Log in Woods. ''One, night I starteiPbuck from tho 1 I I J I I -U .1 I. U.IL !L l,L! j 1..- company and got into an ambulance. It was about eight miles to our dug-. dug-. outs In the woods. The driver let me I off In an entirely different wood, and, I instead of going home, I went in the opposite direction. It was dark as pitch and I got almost up to thekfront lines before I knew It. "I hunted mo up a dugtout for tho night, found one with about three feet of water In it. I crawled up on a chicken -netting bunk and could have slept pretty good If the mice and big rats hadn't played hide-and-seek around me. 1 found an old gunny sack and threw it over me so they would, not run over my face, and finally fin-ally got to sleep. I can sleep in any place now. Such is life with the A. E. F. It's great if you don't weaken. "I didn't have my clothes off for a month, slept and lived down in the ground under tons of sandbags, with nothing much (o eat but hardtack and canned 'Willie' and sometimes beans and salmon, but I enjoyed it all. Beloia'n.t; In D(;rrilr "The poor Belgians! Death and despair de-spair are written on their faces. They are now coming back to their torn-up and shattered homes after being In the German clutches for four years. Thoy are heart-broken and sad -looking. Some find their old homes partially intact, while others merely find a heap of stones where once was home, sweet home. One night Davis, myself and another sergeant got lost from our bunch. We hit a truck and got on another road. Wo landed at night with a bunch of Belgian soldiers. Two could speak good English and they' told us of the things done to the poor Belgian people that you could hardly believe. Tho women havo suffered most, and many of their children have German fathers. On Three Fronts. "Have been on threo of the Im- 1 portant battlefr.onts, as a reserve on one front; saw the Yanks push the Huns back forty miles in the battle' of the Argonne; have seen thousands of German prisoners; have seen our own boys burled and hundreds lying on the battlefield. "The west and Utah will soon got the casualty lists and tho entire Pacific Pa-cific coast will be In mourning. You will never see many of tho boys that you met and cheered as wo l'eft the' station at Camp Lewis. It made me shuddor when the runners would come , with reports from the battlefields, and many a lute night I spent in a dugtout under tons of sandbags, preparing the list for Washington, so that the boys' mothers and fathers could get the sad news as soon as possible. Our company com-pany was shot to pieces. Corporal Joseph Jos-eph H Sorenson. son of .Mr. and Mrs. Christian P. Sorenson, fell in battle the first day. He was hit bv a high explosive shell. All the sergeants that you met at the train were either killed or wounded. As I remomber, I think of the five or six married women at the train who had husbands in our company, one or two are widows and tho husbands of all the others have been badly wounded." oo |