Hide Article Text (OCR)
m:\ToivTKXA*t he woiuiil oh hid hand by a ma. Iiliif Klin bullet.SiiW Many H€*fU|C«T*.The Marines, Roberts said, wi*rlt;» the only American no|(1hth to Hlt;‘e French refugees In real flight from their hoimvs. “We saw them coining fromChateau Thierry and tin* villages there-ahoiit, * In* said Tuesday, “old men. seventy or eighty year» old, women and children* carrying all they possessed upon their backs or the more fortunate on rails drawn by horses or oxen passed by us on the way hack to safety while we rushed on into the battle They presented just aw pitiful a sight as you have seen in the movies, and then several times worse.**Roberts saw bis first service on the Verdun front which the French had termed a “quiet sector.** “The French and Mermans used the set tor as a rest camp and Frenchmen shot only when fired upon,” Roberts said. “When w* got there, however, we fired everychance we ant and bad the Hermans guessing’ whether We were launching a great offensive there.*’ It was at Verdun that he was passed with mustard pas and forced to stay in a hospital fora month*The Second Division took part in the Meuse-A rim n no offensive whloh closed the war. “Our division was ordered to cross the Meuse Itlver and attack even after the armistice was signed,“ Roberts said, “for the reason, as 1 take it, that the commanding officer wanted to Say his troops fought until the last. Several battalions did cross anti lost about 1,000 men, but our major refused to obey the order and held hack four battalions of us from the slaughter. Needless to say, he was the most popular officer in the regiment after that. When we did learn of the armistic, we could not believe it was true. We did not realize what it meant until thenight after it was signed when we were allowed to build fires- the first we could build since getting into the danger /.one. We were so overjoyed that every man built at least one fire and1 think some built two to make up for lost time.’'After the armistice was signed, the Marines were sent on to Germany as a part of the army of occupation and were bllletted in Herman homes* “We were treated well.” Roberts said, “but only as well as we demanded. Some of the boys may have Weed Oermuny but 1 cannot see how they did. The Herman women, of course, lifted us Americans because we treated them better than the Herman men did and some of them because they thought all Americans were rich.**I lid it *t I.ike Herman.*Asked how he liked the French, Rob* I erts said: “While wr were in France, i we thought the French were robbing us and did not care for them but the more I set* of the rest of the world, the more I like the French. While the French profiteered in a retail way. thedade from grain tops and disidled /vater-a delicious lourishing and re-[resiling drinlc.
Newspaper Details
Denton Record Chronicle
Denton, Texas, US
Tue, Sep 16, 1919
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Denton P.
TX, USA 06 Feb 2019
Other Publications Near Denton, Texas
Denton Summer Lass-o
Denton Lass-o
Denton Daily Lass-o
Record and Chronicle
Denton Record Chronicle
