Document for Today, October 4th:
Pigeon Message from Capt. Whittlesey to the Commanding Officer of the 308th Infantry, 10/04/1918

Pigeon Message from Capt. Whittlesey to the Commanding Officer of the 308th Infantry, 10/04/1918 (National Archives Identifier: 595541); File Unit: Field Messages - 32.16; , Records of the American Expeditionary Forces (World War I), 1848 - 1928; Record Group 120; National Archives.

During World War I, the U.S. Seventy-seventh Infantry Division attacked the Germans near Charlevaux, France. Only one unit penetrated enemy lines: Maj. Charles W. Whittlesay’s First Battalion of the 308th Infantry Regiment. The battalion was quickly surrounded by Germans - and then came under friendly fire from its own artillery. Whittlesay used his last carrier pigeon to send this three-sentence plea: "We are along the road paralell 276.4. Our artillery is dropping a barrage directly on us. For heavens sake stop it."

More "Reports from the Front" in Prologue...
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