NEWS: Claude W. SMITH Writes Home, 1918, of Milesburg, Centre County, PA

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LIEUTENANT SMITH BACK FROM FRANCE
Former Pennsy Police Officer Here Returns to Join New Command in U.S.
110th FOUGHT BRAVELY, HE SAYS

  Lieutenant Claude W. Smith, of Milesburg, Centre county, and formerly a 
Pennsy police officer in this city, prior to his call to the colors, has 
arrived home from France, with stirring stories of brilliant action of the 
110th Pennsylvania infantry, of which Company G, is a prominent unit.
  With Company B, from Beaver county, Lieutenant Smith fought the grey-coats, 
starting on July 15.  He is widely known to residents of the city, especially 
Pennsy employes.  He recruited a number of Altoona boys for the First 
Pennsylvania cavalry, being then identified with Troop B, Bellefonte.  At 
Camp Hancock, Ga., the lieutenant was transferred to the Keystone division 
and sent to Company B, 110th infantry.  He also assisted in drilling the 
Nineteenth Engineers, now in France.
  When the Germans started or tried to blast a road through the Pennsylvania 
boys' line, the later stood on trench parapets and let go their machine guns, 
rifles and automatic pistols, as earnestly and as unconcerned as if it was 
target practice.
  Prussian bodies were heaped up so high in front of the trenches that a 
platoon of men could walk over them and not touch the earth, Lieutenant Smith 
said.  Germans came forward in waves but finally fell back to again come 
ahead with machine guns to cut a path through the hail of bullets from the 
trenches.
  They climbed trees, dragging machine guns up with them, and a Beaver county 
boy's rifle crashed, and a boche fell from a tree.  "Aw, let 'em go up," 
shouted another Pennsylvanian.  "The higher they climb the harder they drop."  
The men in his platoon took the situation as unconcerned as if they were 
shooting squirrels in the woods back home.
  An example of German treachery was given by Lieutenant Smith.  A group of 
Prussian officers were reconnoitering and were discovered as they approached 
the observation post where Smith and his men were hidden.  The Pennsylvanians 
covered the boches with pistols and a half dozen pairs of arms were lifted in 
surrender, but as they came in, a German major shot at his captors.  The 
bullet grazed Smith's helmet.
  "Oh, well forget about him," said Lieutenant Smith when asked what happened 
to major.  "I've got his uniform in my baggage.  He was all dressed up like a 
Christmas tree.
  The Pennsylvania boys face the First and Sixth Prussian Guards, but the 
latter didn't break through the American line.  The Beaver countians held the 
position so long that Smith and his forty-three men were surrounded.  They 
crawled, fought, hid in shell holes, until thirty-two of them and the officer 
escaped through the German lines and joined their command.
  Silent about losses of the Beaver county unit, Lieutenant Smith said many 
were buried where they fell.  The fallen hero's identification tag is bound 
to a tiny wooden cross over his grave and a written identification is made 
and put under the soldier's helmet, atop the ground.
  When Lieutenant Smith started homeward, the Keystone state men were still 
in the fray.  Artillery regiments of the Pennsylvania division were joining 
the infantry and machine gun battalions in pushing the Germans northward.  
"Remember," said the officer, "the Yanks haven't retreated yet."  He expects 
to get a new command and get back into action soon.

Altoona Tribune, Tuesday, September 10, 1918, page 1