The elder Jonas Platt survivied some of the most ferocious fighting of the war with only a leg wound. It amazes me how a Platoon Commander can survive while his Platoons are practically whipped out in succession. If I remember corectly, one of his Platoons was down to less than 10 men, and this guy is up front leading them.

I am not insinuating Lt. Platt was a coward, because he was anything but. He was just one lucky devil, as was Capt. Hamilton (killed in aviation accident after the war) and Major Sibley. Particularly Major Sibley, who fought on the front lines with his Marines throughout the war and never got a scratch and once killed four men in one day in hand to hand combat. We are speaking of tough a$$ed Marines. Just think how physically tiring that has to be.

If you want to read about hand to hand combat, I found a first hand description of a battle that was supposed to be an ambush by elements of the 169th and the 167th which turned into a hand to hand fight with bayonets that lasted several hours. I had to read it twice to fully grasp what occurred. The Marines did not have a monopoly on the vicious fighting of WWI. Check out the 167th at La Crouix Rouge Farm. One Company of 350 men was reduced to 7-men. When Cates attacked Boureches, he had only 5 or 6 men left from his Platoon (he was actually in front of Robertson) and 20 men from another. It was one heck of a war.

Jim