Father Duffy's story : $b a tale of humor and heroism, of life and death with the Fighting Sixty-ninthDuffy, Francis Patrick
History
Father Duffy's story : $b a tale of humor and heroism, of life and death with the Fighting Sixty-ninth
Duffy, Francis Patrick
United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 165th; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
At seven o’clock Lieutenant Hunt Warner, with Lieutenant Zipp,
appeared with reinforcements, consisting of forty men from Company
M. Lieutenant Warner was put in command at Chevert with Sergeant
Embrie of Company K, as second in command; Sergeant Von Glahn of
Company M, was put in command at C. R. 2, where the gas was at
that time especially heavy; and Lieutenant Zipp was put in command
at Changarnier, with Corporal Joe Farrell, who knew the sector
thoroughly and spent the night going from one post to another, as
second in command, Lieutenant Tom Martin at Changarnier being in
command of the whole company sector.
That evening about dusk the men in the front line heard an explosion
in the rear and looked back in time to see the battalion ammunition
dump go up in a blaze of glory, on seeing which all broke into
applause and loud cheers. It was thought that the Boches might be so
foolish as to think the evening propitious for a raid, and all posts
were manned and all were ready to give him a warm reception, but he
failed to show up.
At seven next morning the French appeared and the relief was
completed by about nine o’clock, when the survivors set out for
Lunéville, where they were taken in hand by Lieutenant Arnold, who
ordered them all, much against their protest, to a hospital where
they were surprised to find that they were casualties, their injuries
consisting principally of burns on the body, which had just begun to
show up, and which kept most of them in the hospital for at least a
month.
On their arrival at the hospital they found there some of the French
troops who had relieved them on that morning and who had already
become casualties because of the gas which lingered in the area.
The men killed, besides McCoun, were Salvatore Moresea, whose body
was found by the French in No Man’s Land the day after the Company
was relieved, Carl Braun, of Headquarters Company, hit by bullet,
with Robert Allen, Walter Bigger, and Lawrence Gavin, who died in the
hospital within a day or two as a result of the effect of the gas on
their lungs. About four hundred of our men were put out of action in
this gas attack including practically all of K Company, many of M,
and some from Headquarters, Supply and Medical.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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