Hammond Times, Volume 13, Number 306, Hammond, Lake County, 11 June 1919 — Page 8

Page Eight. F" Lfl MKEifmiSI

THE TIMES. Wednesday, June 11, 1919.

ftTar Dupes Tells His Experiences

! Indiana Harbor Marine Has Interesting Story

of War In Which He Was Taken a Prisoner By Germans.

Karl Iupes. one of the "devil dogs" of Lake county, eon of Mr. and Mrs. P. W. Dupes. 345 Fir St., Indiana. Harbor, the thrilling news of whose Imprisonment In a Qermnei rrlson camp have appeared In these columns from time to time, has written for The Times an extended account of his experiences, which is as follows: I'll try and live a short synopsis of what I saw and Sound. The story of our trip from the American sector In French camnions Is too well known to be repeated here, and how we went In. taking: our positions on 1;he Slst of May and the 1st of June and the Initial contact is also well known. Sanguinary engagements took up our attentions until on the night of June 5th orders came In for ois to move we didn't know where, We marrhed about three kilos and, took up our "wave for

mation" to th Immediate front of the Third battalion of the Sixth regiment.! Ordered to lie down and wait for further orders, wtilch came about 3:45 a. m. It was Just breaking daylight so that you could easily distinguish our men. AVe started to advance and almost Immediately our machine gun battalions rut over a machine gun barrage for about fifteen minutes. We advanced about a quarter of a mile before we began to feel any resistance, but that, is hard to say for they may have been firing, but high, and you cannot tell whlcii way a bullet is going by the sound, our machine guns' barrage was pretty heavy and the bullets were cracking over our' heads. I was about the fifth man from the right fiank In the second we. The first man stumbled and after 'taking a few staggering steps fell, ehoutlng. 'Tton't 6top, keep on going." sv we kept on. It made me mad to see that boy go, because I knew him and liked him well. The object of our attack was a woods, rart of the main forest Eelleaiu 'Woods and we were to c!:an It out. The woods was not large, -covering probably seventy-five or eighty acres, acd ending in straight lines on either side one straight side and par2Iel to our line of advance. Our line wps so long1 that it put our end clear of the woods In a long open field, which was flanked on either side by woods. The one to our leCt was our Immediate objective, and we were toid not to fire at the other one for our cwn men occupied part of it. The advance continued we kept edging to the left as the line closed up n-here men dropped out. and finally we rdged into the woods to find a rather

deep ditch in which were 5 or 6 machine

cuns and several dead Germans. The machine guns had their belts -ifi place, about half through, but had beem aband-

cd before wc reached them. Wefollowed this ditch until it came out on the far ri!o of the woods our rart of the line had reached If? objective. The fighting was furious on "our left, but we could not see much of what was poing on because of the dense underbrush. AVe had scarcely shown ourselves in the corner of the woods when a rather light scattered fire commenced from the corner of the wood to'the right. Gunnery Sergeant "Jerry" Flnnlan said, "Come on boys, let's get in." because they were everywhere threatening our fiank and might make the main position untenable. About thirty of us started. Anyone who happed to be there went. Some of the men from the Second platoon Joined and we went In a single skirmish line. We had about thirty yards to advance, and made It In two rushes, keeping up a heavy fire from" our rifles and Chauchettes (shoo shoo grins) as we went. Everything wentwell ur.til we topped the little bank that ran along the edge of the woods when two machine guns cut loose on us and It was all over in about five minutes. I got seven bullets through my clothes before I managed to get behind a little pile of cord wood which happened to b". there, and Just in time to save my hide, too, because chips. E'c,;:eE, sticks and dirt began to come out of that wood pile. Then he raised a lit'le and began to tear my combat pack oft my back. It seemed as it would raise me a foot oft the ground every time a bullet went through that pack, and I was hitting like a rivet hammer for a few minutes. Then they would stop and what few of vis were left wSuld fire

where we thought the gunners might be, until they'd cut loose again. After a while things quieted down altogether, and I began to look around for some of the rest of the boys. There was a cord of wood piled up about fifty feet to my rear and I made

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XJLBX DTJPES. a break for it; luck again, because Just as I went around the corner of it a bunch of firecrackers went oft. sending out a rain of sticks, chips, etc. When it quieted down again Ijtook a look around and here they come; four waves of them coming, keeping a perfect line distance and interval, with their big heavy helmets and bayonets fixed. I began to think it was about time for me to move so I started a series of rushes from bush to bush until I came to the crest of the bunk, which was Just to our rear. Dropping behind a bush I took a lofck back and about fifty yards away was a big fat Dutchman right out in th open and standing up. That was too much to resist so I took a bead and fired, and rolled down the bank without waiting to see what my shot did. Rolled against a bush at the bottom and staxtel crawling on my hands and knees. Intend

ing to go as far as I could then make

a break for the other wood about 250 yards away. t

Firing started again, some coming uncomfortably close, then whee. my hel

met was ringing like a bell. When I

awoke, lying on my stomach, four Germans were standing around me, one with h!s rifle hanging in such a position that

I Judged he had rapped me on the head with the butt of it to see if I was dead. I looked up and he started jabbering something in German which I couldn't understand, then he said. "Blessez?" the French for wounded, which I understood, and I shok my head "No." Believe nv;, I was scared. Two of them had their bayonets ready to finish me off, but the one who was doing the talking yelled something to them and they stepped back, but you could see they wanted to put a notch in their guns they were

young boys. I should Judge about seventeen or eighteen. The one who w&s talking was much older I should Jude thirty at least. He made me taJte. off all my equipment, including my gas mast, leaving me onlywith what clothes I ha.d on and my helmet. He then pointed toward a man in the rear and gave me a shove and I went. This fellow lqoked me over "hard," and then called an old fellow who motioned for me to follow him. He then started to the rear, passing through the town of Bourrasches. Licy, Torcy. Coincy. to Fereen Tardenols. We went on out to an old chateau about two kilos from the town, -where the general had his headquarters. We arrived there about 2:30 p. m. on the 6th. and In a short time I was taken up before the general for an interview. I was taken into his room and he greeted me very kindly and told me to sit down because I must be very tired. First he wanted to know where I had been taken. I told him I didn't know, but named the first town I had passed through. Then he wanted to know my name and what organization I belonged to. When I told him the Forty-ninth company. Fifth regiment. United States marine corp3. Kis eyes popped and he carre right over

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to me, surprised out of himself. He soon cooled down and then began to ask about our movements, etc Before ho came to that part I told him I didn't know. After a few questions he looked at me and laughed, and said. "come. come, you don't mean to tell me that you don't know where you have been all the time?" and I said. "No, but I do not intend to tell you where I've been." This made him mad and he blustered a little, but when I told him I did not Intend to give away any information at all he quieted down and had me taken out. The next morning I was taken back to

the town where I was first, taken through to the garrison headquarters, where I was turned over to the guard handling prisoners, etc I had a rather peculiar experience in front of this headquarters. hile standing there a fine auto drove up and stopped and four or fl-e officers got out and went inside for a few minutes. One of them, an especially fine looking man. about forty, came out in the lead and noticed me standing across the street, dressed in the forest green of the marine corps. He looked at me a moment, then came across holding out his hand, saying. "Well. well, well, what is this? An American?" I shook hands with him and told him I was. We had quite a conversation there, about the States, etc. He knew Gary well. Ha wanted to know "why we were in this beastly war anyway? Why we wanted to come over and mix up in this awful mess?" and more to the same effect. I said, "May I speak freely?" and he smiled and said go ahead. Well. I mentioned the Lusltanla first and said that we did not give a damn If they sank all the ships on the ocean carrying contraband, but we wouldn't stand for sinking without warning and no ship should be sunk before she had been visited and searched. Then I told him that we considered the declaration of the forbidden zone as a direct blow against us. I said that we were ready to sell anything to Germany as to any of the entente allies, if they would come and get it, and it was not our fault they couldn't make the effort. Then I spoke of tho violation of. the neutrality of Belgium and he smiled and shook hands again and gave me some cigarettes and said. "Weil. I see you at least have some Idea of why you are over here, but I feel sorry for you, my boy; you will have to work now, and work hard, but you won't be mistreated." Some of the other officers stepped up and shook hands with me. and so I asked one of them if it was asking too much to'know who I had Just been talking to. The big fellow heard me and coming back, he straightened up and said, "I am Count von (I don't remember the name), the personal representative of the Hamberg American Line at London before the war. Then he left. I was taken to the Gefangen Lager,

the inclosure In which prisoners of war were kept; given two rather poor blankets and put to work the next day unloading wounded Germans from their motor ambulances at the driving station. The food was such that I couldn't eat for several days, but I soon came to it and was giad to get anything. We got a cup of "crusty" coffee for breakfast, a

ladle of soup for dinner, and for supper soup and coffee. Bread was issued once a day, one loaf to ten men, at the noon meaS. In a few days they brought in some more American prisoners until finally there were twenty-three of us. from the Second and Third divisions and & few of our motor ambulance men. We were soon put to work on the ammunition dump unloading munitions. Our guards were as lenient with us as possible, but the officers in charge would keep after us until we'd get mad and tell them "to go to bell." The expression on their faces was rich, they understood, but didn't know how to take it. and would usually go away and leave us alone for a little while. It was almost impossible to ret anything to smoke so we would "shoot butts" along the road and when we would get enough together, a guard would give us a cigarette paper and let us hide behind a pile of shells and smoke until an officer would heave In sight, then we'd douse the pill and get to work again. Our artillery was shelling the town every night, and we had some close calls from our own guns, one setting fire to a number of sheds in the next yard to where we were kept, destroying about two million rounds of French Hotchkiss ammunition and setting off a bunch of Stokes Morton bombs. The fireworks lasted for about three days and it was great. Our galley stores were in a shed in the next yard, next to the one that had the ammunition, and shortly after tho fire started, while the Germans and the French prisoners were running around wild, we Tanks were raiding the

commissary, getting something over a

loaf of bread apeice. which we had to keep hidden until it was gone, which wasn't long I can tell you. Cartridge cases and bullets, not very dangerous, were flying everywhere, but liable to put an eye out or give you a pretty bad cut. There was a big wheat field beside the ammunition dump, and as there was no chance of getting away from our enclosure, I made two attempts at it by getting away and hiding In the wheat field until dark and going as far as I could a,t night. I was gone from 5:30 P. m. in the afternoon until about 10 a. m. the next day. Tho first time we had covered about ten kilos when we were caught by a lone German while getting a drink out of a little creek, and brought back and confined on bread and water for over twenty-four hours. The second time we got up close enough to the front toi hear the rifle fire, and were caught by a bunch of artillery men. Another three days in the "hoch" and back to work. Our food was such that we were starving to death and we can thank our own artillery for keeping us alive. As I said.

we got more or less shelling every night

and in the morning on our way to work we would find dead horses strung along the roads, killed by our shells. We would run out and cut off chunks of meat from these horses and carry It back to camp with us and cook it up for ourselves. It saved our lives. Finally, about the 16th or 17th of July, our artillery cut loose on the ammunition dump with some of- our bis "14" naval guns, at least that is what we Judged them to be from the size of the shell holes they made. The first one hit,the dump at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, about a quarter of a mile from where we were working. Everybody stopped and looked wonderingly, for there was absolutely no sound of the shell before it struck and exploded. It Just went off like a mine. About thirty seconds later another one hit to our rear outside of the dump, but that was enough. Everyone broke loose and run Germans, guards, everyone for himself. It tickled me to see our guards duck their heads and go. Now there were several sheds around the road where we were working and I was under the impression

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that they were ration dumps of aome kind, so a-i loon as tho reat rin I started for these aheds. You see my first thought waa always for something to eat. and I didn't get far until I could see two or three fellows going he same way. We went over and found the place deserted, shells were atill coming about every two minutes and striking fairly close, so we preceded to look for what we could find. No luck. It was a salvage dump, rifles, bayonets, helmets, etc.. but nothing to eat. Well we moved on until we got over to the side of the dump away from the wind. The only thing that I was really afraid of was the gaa. I knew that nearly every shell in that dump waa some kind of a gas soai, and I was afraid that they might hit a pile and we would be out of luck, as we had no gas masks. The shelling finally died down and they began gathering us together again. It was useless to try to escape them because we had absolutely nothing to eat with us and In our condition we could not have gone very far. We were all so thin and weak that It was all we coull do to keep going at all. Shelling continued for three or four days and as Boon as it would stop they would take us oil work and back to camp. Finally orders were passed out at supply to roll our blankets aa we were going to leave. We moved out at about 8 o'clock

'that night, marching to Branges, where

we stayed until abeut 9 o'clock the next mornjng. We were taken on to Braisnes on rhe Vesle. We wer kept here a little uver iwenty-four hours, or about until the 24th day of, July, when we started on a two-day hike io Laon, crossing the

oM Cherr.ln des Dames, passing through Vailley and several other small towns. At Loan we were quartered in the old Cnsserne formerly a French civil prison with several thousand French prisoners, about 500 English, and in a few day3 200 Americans, most of them from Co. C, 110th infantry of the 28th division, which was taken almost intact. These were originally Pennsylvania National Guardsmen from the Connelville district. Without a doubt this was the worst place I ever saw in my life for cooties. We Tanks would hold a "shirt reading session" every day, but the French and the British made no effort to keep ther-i under control, and some of the sights that I saw there were past description. We were made to work every day, details taken out every morning and afternoon to different places. There was one bunch of guards who took a detail of about twenty men down to some warehouse near the station to unload rations, sugar, rwel back (hard tack), etc., and they would always try to get a bunch

of Tanks on the detail because they found we would use Judgment when we stole stuff, so as not to get the guards

in bad. The truth was that our guards were as big thieves as we were, and would give us opportunities to steal fool when the officers were out of sight, but the Tommy didn't have sense enough to wait until the officer's back was turned, so they were always In hot water and the guards had to be rough to protect themselves. Needless to say I got C;n this detail every chance I got. I've stolen and eaten so much Jam and marmalade they call it that I'd get so sick I could hardly stand up. There were so many things happened that were dead serious at the litre, but now when I look back at them I luu't help but laugh. For instance, I wes standing in the main room of one of the warehouses the rest of the men were In another room working when the German sergeant in charge brought out a quart bottle and give It to another German to fill with "schnapps" fcr him out of aome big demijohns in one corner of the room. The sergeant started for the other end of the- room where some boxes were piled up. The othsr Gorman got a funnel and started for the demijohns. Just at this time the officer in charge of the place came in tkrough a door behind the boxes and of course he Sergeant was in some fix. Tha r.flker couldn't see the German in the corner but would if he walked a

short way uown the loom. The sergeant d'dn't care call to him for that would be giving himself away. I could see the sergeant was as white as a ghost, so I spoke to the German and Sodded to the officer. He got wise right away and hid the bottle and funnel before the officer saw it. A look of relief went over the sergeant's face, he talked with the officer a few minutes, who then left and as the sergeant came back he looked at me awful close, but said nothing. About an hour later I got around where the sugar was kept, cube and domino sugar in pasteboard boxes, and as I was alone, the sergeant looked at me a, minute and then found something very important to do down at the other end of the room where he couldn't see me. Guess what I did? Our little marine colony fared rretty well for supper that night. The food we were getting was no name for It a soup made from evaporated vegetables, carrots, beets, potatoes with some sour krout mixed in to make it sour, and nfll fit to eat. If it wasn't for the ration dump as we called it I should have starved here. It was worse than what we had been getting up close to tha front. Finally they passed orders for all the Tommies to fall In for transport back to Germany and there were about fifty of us Tanks who 'managed to slip through with them, that's how I got back to Cassel. Ge got aboard the train at Laon. pased through Hirson, Sedan. Luxumbourge City. Treves, and crossed the Rhine at Coblenz Geissen to the big camp near Cassel. We left Laon on th9 evening of the 10th of August, arriving at Cassel on the evening of the 12th. It was night when we went through tho city of Coblenz. so we couldn't see much of the scenery. This camp at Cassel is one of the biggest ones that the Germans had there were troops th-re from every nationality and race allied against the Central Powers truly a polyglot camp. Dysentary hid broken out among the Tommies sixteen died In the hospital the first week we were there, thirty-five died within a month after arriving. Our boys were keeping up pretty good, somo were pretty sick, but none died. We were about the first Americans to hit the camp, so our Red Cross got provisions there t5 take care of us. but the French and British Help Committees took it on themselves to do what they could and between them we kept body and soul together until our Red Cross got stuff to us, when we were setting "Jake." The food that the French and the British gave us was the biggest factor in combatting the dysentery; for th Germans were feeding us on cabbage soup. It was at this time that I sent desperate appeals to you for help, because we had not been permitted to writa previous to this. We were registered here, over three months after being taken prisoners, and my government notified as to my location. We Americans did no work, merely Idling our time away around camp, for the sergeant in charge of us seemed to like us and would go out of his way to get Frenchy or Tonmy to da the little detail work around the camp to kei-p us from working. Finally all but six of us were sent to Ilastatt. we fcllov ed them several weeks later. Wc were now receiving food parcels from the American Red Cross and as soon aa we landed ta

WHERE SOME OF THE TRANS-ATLANTIC FLIERS HOPE TO LAND

Marking landing field for airplanes at Banemore near Limerick, Ireland.

A hufre field at Banemore, not plane crews planning to attempt far from Limerick, Ireland, is the flights across the Atlantic. The foal picked out by some of the air- photo shows a man painting a

hui?e white cross on the field t& make the landing spot more easily visible to aviators.

Rastatt we were completely outfitted in new uniforms, overcoats, shirts, underwear, shoes and toilet articles. This was "Jake." Nothing but a little detail work to do, possibly a couple of hours a day, plenty to eat. books to read furnished by the T. M. C. A.), we organized a band, football teams, got up theatricals, etc.. to pass the time away until it would be over. Nov. 11th was one great day. We coAld see it coming, as we were getting the German papers every day. and there were men who could translate them for us; then when the arjnistlce was signed the guard was taken off the camp and we were free. Lots of felldtvs shoved off hiking to meet the army of occupation moving in, but on the 13th a first lieutenant from our army came in to camp and organized us under our noncoms, telling us that our government did not want us to leave them as A. of F. had no way of taking care of us, but to wait where we were until transportation was sent in for us.

The first train came In on the 6th of'

Dec. It was the United States hospital

train 64. It had came in by'the way of Switzerland and took all the boys in the hospital and a few of the others to make a train load. On the evening of the Sth of Dec. a Swls train with Swiss guards came in and took about one-half of us. Another train came in the next day and cleared the camp out. I went on the first train on the Sth of Dec, going through Basle, Berne, Lausanne and Geneva, where United States hospital trains 55 and 66 met us and brought us to Vesle. France. The trip through Switzerland was wonderful. Those Swiss people seemed to me to be the finest people in the world bar none. In reference to my life in the prison camps, it's an experience I wouldn't want to go through again for anything. The things we had at Rastatt helped to make life a little more btarable for which every one of us sincerely thank the T. M. C. A., and especially the American Red Cross, which I believe to be the finest organization in the world bar none. God bless the American Red Cross. Well. dad. I've tried to give you a lit

tle of it and will tell you more when 1 get home, but please get that idea out of your head. Use this if you want ta, but please don't expect me to "chautaa qua" after I get back. Love to all, and keep waiting. Tour son, KARL.

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