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. . -r •■ * *i .BEFORE NEW ENGLAND MEN HAD PACKS OFF/ I;.■They Had Just Relieved Senegalese at 2 AM, WheniBarrage Started—'Then Came the Raid, But Her-4Imans Soon Had Enough--Why Chaplain O'Connor■Took Off His Captain's BarsII :t*yBy FRANK, P. SI BLEY With the American Troops, May 2$.Things are tuning up a little in our sector. On to t h e r fronts great drives are on; the famousoffensive again st the British has pulled up long ago, but a new offensivea shell caught him at the door, wounding him so badly that he never had a chance to live.The commanding general saw him during the day in the hospital, and gave him some words of praise and admiration, which even in Crowley's desperate condition, made him flush with pleasure and embarrassment.Picked Out Shell Pieces HimselfLieut Harriman was brought in to the dressing station by James Blair of Bn-began yesterday sella terrace, Jamaica Plain. Blair wentright over the ground we occupied in' February and March,Carroll Swan is moaning because the Boches have not only taken the dugouts liir. men built with so much care and labor, but also they have in all probability got the arm chair which the company built for Carroll—and built so sciidly that he could not carry it away with him when he went.yPith us Fritz seemed to have got windof a relief which was just finishing upon Sunday night. At our right end, a unit of Senegalese moved out and a bunch of boys under Capt Too-Long McCarthy—so cLled because he has not yet received his gold leaves, thoughcommanding foi^r companies many months—went In.The men had not been in position 30 minutes—had not even taken off their packs—when blboie, blooie, down came the German barrage.When it was all over, a prisoner first said there were 100 of them, and later changed it to' 400. It is probable that there were about 125.They issued from a ravine, divided into two parties, and were at our wire before anybody knew they were coming.One party, on the left, cut a gateway through the wire for the foreseen getaway; the other, swinging round a combat gro,up in their now familiar tactics, got behind the first line trench, and attacked from the rear.Saxons This TimeLieut Lynn H Harriman of Concord was in command of the group attacked, and was busy with the frontal attack at the moment.He took his men against the newcomers, but was wounded almost at the moment when the Boches gave way and started for the gate.The coup de main was over almost as suddenly as it started. The American barrage was called for, and came with astonishing promptness. By good luck our artillery, which had shifted to its new position the night before, had got registered immediately on arrival, and was just ready for business when needed.The attack took place at 2 a m. When it came daylight, some 20 dead Germans were seen hanging on our wire and their own. We had two prisoners, both wounded; one 6f them died before he could be questioned, but the other gave some interesting information.We found that Saxons were oppositeus this time; we have now had experience with Prussians, Bavarians and these. JL-ont after more wonnded, and made several trips.One of the men he brought in was Happy Jim Hickey of South Boston. A shell had burst near Hickey, tearing-his thigh as if a shark had bitten it. He was put into a litter and came riding into the battalion dressing station reclining on one elbow and apparently quite at ease.....The surgeon began to snip his breeches away to get at his wounds, whereupon Hickey said Easy with the pants, there, doctor. I may not be able to get another pair.The surgeon pressed .gently on his leg to see If the fragments of steel could be easily dislodged. Hickey, who had been all the while leaning on his elbow and tracing little patterns in the dust with a twig, though the pain'must have been severe, looked down ,at what the .doctor was doing. He fumbled in his coat pocket. . (Is this what, you're looking for? he asked the doctor, and showed three curled and twisted bits of metal. He had actually picked them out of his own flesh while he Jay on the ground wait-*rig for the litter bearers.Kept Up Two Day#The artillery did not coroe off scot free,for Sergt' Edward N. Ripley of Malden,serving with the battery long known asBoston’s own battery, was killed by a shell fragment.All day Monday, all night Monday night, and in slower fashion all day. Tuesday,. the enemy kept/ up artillery and machine gun fire bh the whole front occupied by this qnit.It is believed that because they saw our men wearing packs, and the Senegalese also wearing their packs, the Boches figured that an assault in strength was contemplated, with the design of holding whatever ground was taaen. It seems to have made them nervous, and the way they threw steel across was a marvel.Late Monday night one of the flying bits of metal killed Ernest M, Clark qf Charlestown, a boy from the old Fifth. But there was no further infantry activity.Crowley Took TollAt that moment we had only twodead, both from the first company ofCapt McCarthy’s command. They areAlessandro Cassealeano and Vincent J. Cutillo. Later that day, J- J. Crowley of the South End, died in hospital. Crowley had not gone without makingown lines, a captain and a private grabbed Crowley and started .to run him off with them. Just at' that moment the first of the American barrage came down, and all three men flung themselves on their faces on the ground.Crowley’s hand struck a short stick, called a sniper’s stick, apparently used by snipers to support a gun barrel steadily—and a fine club. Crowley grabbed it and struck right and left, knocking out both his captors. Then he pulled the pistol from the captain’s hand and shot them both dead.He jumped up and ran back to his own lines, finding /the men just going into a dugout. He tried to follow, butBetter Without Officer's BarsFr O’Connor, though the senior chaplain of this whole outfit, is wearing no bars on his shoulders. He became a captain April 21, and mounted thempromptly enough.But the other day, when the shift was just ahead, he told his lambs that they had three days liberty to let off steam. At the end of that fime, he warned every man to be dean and sober, or they would hear from him.During the interval he came to a group of the boys, and one of them, with the reins of liberty evidently flung to the wind, flung his arms round the padre-captain's shoulders and addiessed him affectionately as Fr Mike.”Some of the others sung out for him not to be so fresh, and the boy retorted,Sure, I knew the father a long time before the rest of you. I confessed to him many times before he even knew my name.’oars lt;T persistently that the Faare noticed it and askea him why he did it.They remind me of an officer, father, said the boy, and you know sometimes the officers ride us.I made up my mind that night, said Fr O’Connor, that maybe in hisfrankness he haa said what a lot of boys were feeling. So I made up my mind to take off the bars and never to wear them again.The next day there was a chaplain's meeting, and some of them noticed the bars were gone. I told them why, and they laughed, and said Iv had just beaten headquarters to it. Thdrers a new order out that no chaplain shall wear bars at allt
Newspaper Details
Boston Globe
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Sun, Jun 23, 1918
Page 120
Full Page
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Anonymous
USA 10 Sep 2019
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