Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 304, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1919 — Pershing’s Narrow Escapes Under Fire Told by Sergeant [ARTICLE]

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 Expeditionary Forces —Always in Advanced Post Directing Major* Operations.

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 officer or enlisted man under his command, according to Sergeant Cesar Santini, who was the general’s personal chauffeur throughout the entire length of "America’s participation In the war. The general worked late and was always in the advanced post command directing the movements of troops during major operations. General Pershing personally directed the St. Mlhlel fight, was in the Argonne 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 Sergeant Santini, who reveals these hithterto unpublished facts of the doings of General Pershing in France, is a Frenchman by birth and enlisted in thftXJnlted States army as an automobile chauffeur and engineer at Governor’s island «*on April 23, 1917. His "knowledge of the French language and his ability as a chauffeur led to his selection as the commander in chief’s personal chauffeur. Sergeant Santini sailed from the United States with General Pershing, he drove the genoral over forty thousand miles of French roads during the more than two years he was In France, and he returned home aboard the transport Leviathan with the commander in ■chief. Awarded Citations for Bravery. The general has given Sergeant Santini a gold cigarette case aS a token of his appreciation of thp chauffeur’s services to him, and the sergeant holds a citation personally awarded him by the commander in chief for bravery under fire. The citation 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 out of service and has taken It upon himself to tell of his association overseas with General Pershing. Long before American troops reached the front General Pershing went through the rigors and strain of Intensive shell fire. In the summer of 1917 he was the guest of the French commanders and witnessed the attack on Chemln des Dames. On this occasion the commander in chief rode right up to the barbed wire entanglements In his automobile and crossed the German trenches directly behind the lines'Of French Infantry. Again in the Lunevllle sector where the first Americans fell ill the war, ■General Pershing went into the line. He donned hip boots and traversed several miles of trenches • during an •enemy bombardment;" On this occasion Sergent Santini waited In a communication trench until the general returned, and admits the “Jerry” was using his high explosives to comparatively good advantage. Shell Just Misses Car. Of the numerous narrow escapes General Pershing had in his time at the front the narrowest was, according to the best recollection of Sergeant Santini, the day before the battle of Cantigny. The general riding along, a road toward the advanced

headquarters, which at that particular time was being heavily shelled by the Germans. Shrapnel shells were continually bursting directly over the automobile, steel fragments on several occasions landing on the roof of the machine. General Pershing and his aide-de-camp, who were seated in the tonneau of the car, seemed to be little affected by the “strafing” they were undergoing, and no matter how near the shells landed their conversation, which probably had to do with the major operation of the morrow r was not interrupted. “One shell —it was one of Jerry’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 theroad 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.” Reaching the advanced headquarters, near the town of Mesnll St. Firmine, that evening, General Pershing, who had been active since the early houra of the morning, turned in for a few hours of rest. He lay down on a cot in an officers’ 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. More than once the shells fell too close to the machine to make me feel comfortable. One big fellow hit and 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'ofc the various units of the First division, which was engjjged 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 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 commending and shaking hands with the doughboys as they drifted back in small groups from the front line. When the Germans crossed the Marne river for the second time General Pershing was north of Chaumont, his general headquarters. Upon receiving word of the crossing he leaped into his automobile,, and Sergeant Santini was informed the general was “in a hprry,” but that he must take no chances. On the way down toward Paris the route took the general past where the second division had been In a rest camp. The division was about to move to a certain point on the line. General Pershing countermanded the orders on the road, directing the division to move post haste to a point on the outskirts of Chateau Thierry. Commended the Marines. “The general reached ChateauThierry soon after the repulse of the Germans by the marines,” the sergeant continued. “He crossed the engineers’ bridge and entered the town and Went

directly to several of the gun positions, where he commended the crews and told them how proud he was of them.” During the fight In the Argonne forest Genei-al Pershing spent nearlwtwo months In its recesses directing Movements of troops. His mobile headquarters w-as pulled into the heart'of the forest wheije it was camouflaged by shrubbery. Every night the general made a visit to the advanced post commands, which were almost at the barbed wire entanglements, to see that his orders were being carried out. “The general never took any chances,” the sergeant said, “he always went up to the front to be sure things were done exactly as he ordered.” One of the peculiar things sergeant Santini noted was that every time he took General Pershing to Paris the Germans would start a long range bombardment or send over A flock of bombing airplanes. It did not seem to matter what hour of the night or day they reached the city the bombard-ment.<-would begin directly after their arrival and Invariably continue for hours. Sergeant Santini is not so sure that the Germans did not receive information as to when the general was going to the city, although every qgort was made to keep the movements of the commander, in chief in the greatest secrecy. Sergeant Santini probably drove more historic personages in the time he was in France than any other chauffeur in the world can boast of today. He drove President and Mrs. Wilson on several occasions, President Poincare, Premier Clemenceau, Generals Foch, Haig, -Petain and Bliss and King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of Belgium. King Albert awarded Sep-' geant Santini the gold Medal of Merit of the first class. z"

Fools Newspaper Men. On the two occasions that Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, visited the battle front in France he" rode in General Pershing’s automobile. Sergeant Santini . tells of many annjslng incidents and tricks General Pershing resorted to In an effort to evade newspaper men. One of these Incidents occurred during Secretary Baker’s first visit. Secretary Baker and General Pershing were on their way up to 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 Pershing came up to a turn In the road he leaped out of his automobile ■and Into that of Secretary Baker, neither of the machines stopping. The two machines then separated and the newspaper men took up the trail of the general’s car. The automobile General Pershing .Used was equipped with special tanks that held forty-two gallons of gasoline. Gas masks and helmets for the occupants of the machine were tied in a bag on the roof in a position where they could be reached easily by the driver or orderly. Inside the machine there were always several extra blankets In the event of an emergency. General Pershing never had occasion to use a gas mask. During the time the. general was & France he Tiad in all nine different kinds of machines. An automobile was /discarded not because it had been worn out or failed to function properly, but because a better model had been found. The orderly and driver carried side arms and a rifle was strapped on to one side of the car. Sergeant Santini was asked if General Pershing was’-in the habit df riding very fast, and he' replied that “thegeneral was sometimes in a hurry.” He admitted, however, that at times he had exceeded seventy-five miles an hour. His orders were to “go as fast as you can, but take no chances with the general.” Sergeant Santini is satisfied he carried out those orders to the best of his ability. When General Pershing moved from place to place his “war car” traveled with him in his mobile headquarters, the train which the French people are now suggesting as a gift to the American people as a permanent war relic.