Part 13

They were divided into three waves for the main attack, with separate detachments to whom had been allotted the task of mopping up the Cantigny cellars. On the right and centre the advance was made to the furthest objectives, while on the left, according to the plan, after mopping up the German trenches, our troops withdrew slightly to a better position, connecting with our old front line.

The troops went forward in extended order, preceded by the powerful tanks, all of which entered Cantigny and went some distance beyond. With the infantry went a detachment of flame throwers who were used against the cellars when the boche refused to come out when ordered to do so. They were also accompanied by a strong detachment of engineers, signal corps men, and carrier pigeons, but the wires have remained intact.

The artillery fire was tremendous. The German batteries at the rear were also drenched by gas. A rolling barrage behind which the infantry advanced was laid by the field guns. The infantry went forward first at the rate of fifty yards per minute and then at twenty-five yards per minute. The moving barrage of fire stalked ahead of our men into Cantigny, keeping the boche down until the infantry was upon him.

The timetable was adhered to perfectly. At 4:45 o'clock the artillery began a heavy concentrated fire, swelling to a drum fire at 6:45, "zero," continuing thence onward to 7:20, when the infantry reached their final objectives. At 7:30 the infantry outlined their position with flares so as to enable the airplanes to signal back. Thus it will be seen that Cantigny was taken in less than thirty-five minutes, for the final objectives were beyond the village.

ALL MODERN WEAPONS USED

There were some tough nuts to crack besides Cantigny itself, such as the trench system protecting it on the south, also part of the Fontaine Wood, and some separate houses at the crossroads at the southeastern outskirts of the town, but all were reduced with bombs, bayonets, or rifles, while the machine guns which went along with the infantry also aided.

Besides all this, a heavy smoke barrage was used, not only to screen our infantry from boche observers, but to blind the boche gunners. The tremendous effectiveness of the whole thing was shown by the fact that for nearly a half hour after the infantry went over the top, the German artillery was practically silenced. This was due especially to the accurate counterbattery work of the French heavies.

So the Americans in their first attack had the aid of every engine of modern warfare--tanks, gas, flame throwers, smoke barrage, numbers of airplanes, machine guns and automatic rifles, while some especially heavy trench mortars also were concentrated and hurled great bombs into the German trenches from close range. Reports all agree that the German defenses were completely leveled, and the smashed up trenches look like a field plowed by a giant harrow. Our men walked into the trenches through great gaps torn in the barbed wire, but in many places there was no wire at all for great stretches. So much for the main outlines of the attack.

WATCHING THE BEGINNINGS

Waking up early in the morning on the blanket bed on the floor of the dugout and taking a first peek through the sandbagged entrance, it was plain that our best hopes were going to be realized and that it would be a clear day with good visibility. The sun had not yet appeared, but the clouds were few and the early light showed every feature of the country. Here and there were dark dots denoting the waiting batteries, while sausage balloons were already swinging overhead.

In the messroom the commanding General sat at breakfast, cleanly shaven and unworried, although he had been on the front line most of the night. This General, who was in immediate command, talked not about the attack, but about the censorship, tactfully choosing the favorite subject of every correspondent.

By this time the artillery had started, so we went out along the road toward the front, passing a line of ambulances parked under the trees. The further we went along the road the more frequent became the flashes of the explosions on either side, but thus far not a single boche shell had come in and the sounds overhead were all caused by the familiar rushing of our shells and none by the whistle of the boche shells.

Some distance up the road was a vantage spot whence we got a clear view of Cantigny, or the spot where it had been. It was a picture terrible in its grandeur. Cantigny might have been a volcano in eruption shooting up clouds that were first white, then brown, then black, while above the air was filled with spiral shaped black clouds of exploding shrapnel.

GUNNERS BEAT THEIR RECORD

That great smoke cloud was eternally writhing and twisting and taking on new forms as if anguished Cantigny were trying to escape its fate, but every instant more guns flashed. Beside the observation post the cloud grew larger. Finally the smoke streamed off to the right. Near by the American gunners were working, stripped to their undershirts, dripping with perspiration. We walked over there.

"This is the fastest firing we've ever done," said one breathless officer.

Further to the right was the house where the correspondent spent several days and nights a month ago. It is ruined now, but batteries are still there, and they, too, were spouting fire and smoke.

To the left new batteries had opened and the din was terrific. It was hard to resist the impulse to put one's fingers in one's ears. A glance at the watch showed that it lacked barely five minutes of the "zero" hour. Those five minutes passed more rapidly, and yet more slowly, than any I had ever experienced.

Ahead was a green slope dotted with trees, up which our infantry was to advance. It was bare and empty. It seemed incredible that in a few minutes our men would be there. The second hand crawled, yet raced, around the dial. It rested on the figure 10 and we looked at one another. "They're over," we whispered.

We looked up from our watches to find that the smoke clouds had drifted down the slope until the whole country for miles about Cantigny was obscured by shifting, changing vapor from the great caldron toward which our unseen men were plunging. We almost groaned our disappointment, for in a moment there came a little rift in the smoke, revealing something moving on the ground.

Imagine looking at the teeth of a black comb through a wire screen and having some one pass the comb slowly before your eyes. That was what it looked like--those black teeth, our men, were screened by the shifting smoke. It was only the tiniest glimpse. Then the smoke drifted over and rose again, but we had seen them going forward and upward to Cantigny. After a time the smoke spread still further. Nothing remained to be seen.

ALL WENT AS REHEARSED

Walking back along the road, where now there were a few belated boche shells coming, the heavy artillery officer said: "From my observation post we could see them for a couple of minutes. They went just the way they rehearsed, just walked along slowly, keeping in fine alignment. We could see two of the three waves and not a single man out of place, following the barrage like veterans. We could even see an individual man sometimes."

Beside the road ambulances were waiting. From overhead an observer came sweeping down to drop a message near a white marker on the ground. He leaned out of his seat and waved his hand; then the machine soared up again. Evidently all was going well. Other planes were hovering over Cantigny.

As we entered headquarters all about the guns were crashing and flashing. Headquarters was an underground hive swarming with activity. Officers were hugging telephones or were bent over maps under electric lights. Some were in khaki and some were in light blue. The first of these latter was Lieut. Col. de Chambrun, a descendant of Lafayette. "It goes well," he said, and a moment later an American officer called from a telephone: "They can see the boche throwing down his arms in Cantigny." After that the messages came thick and fast:

"The first boche shell hit our front line at 7:06--the Colonel has twenty prisoners--the right flank is sending back about a hundred--balloon reports grenade fighting west of Cantigny where our men are mopping up the trenches--two of our stretcher bearers are returning with an empty stretcher--one tank returning from Cantigny--our men are seen walking around the street of Cantigny--flame throwers can be seen through the smoke clearing out the dug-outs--enemy fire beginning on Cantigny Wood at 7:30, three-quarters of an hour after zero."

After that come other reports of German batteries at last able to operate, though haltingly. Shortly afterward the officer reported, laconically, "There goes my observation post. Steve's gone to capture Cantigny single-handed. Couldn't keep him there."

The French and Americans were jubilant. There were mutual handshakings, then silence, and in came a grimy, sweaty, but happy soldier, the first of the men who'd been over the top into Cantigny. He saluted punctiliously: "Sir, I have brought back twenty prisoners."

PEN READY FOR PRISONERS

Sure enough, there they were outside, about to be herded into a detention pen that was already prepared for them. They were dull-looking men, still half stunned, in dirt-gray uniforms, looking like slugs or earthworms, sullen and angry at being captured by Americans. The officer said 120 had been counted up above already, and added: "Hope we get enough to even up for Seicheprey."

The soldier was triumphant. "I went with the first wave," he said. "We got to a sort of trench, and all of a sudden the boches jumped right up in front of us and started to throw grenades. We went at 'em with grenades, bayonets, rifles, pistols, whatever came handy. I spitted one big fellow on my bayonet, but the bayonet stuck. So I pulled out my trench knife and went for another, but he yelled 'Kamerad!' so I grabbed his gun and hit a third over the head with it. There were grenades busting all around, but I could hear our fellows shouting 'Go to it, Yanks!' the same as they did all the way over No Man's Land.

"Pretty quick all the boches were yelling 'Kamerad!' and putting up their hands. The Captain told me to herd these together and get them down quick so they could be questioned. There's about a hundred more up in the woods cut off by the barrage."

A little later the wounded began coming back to the dressing stations which had been specially prepared. The wounded were all cheerful, saying, "We went right through 'em--nothing to it--go back and do it again tomorrow." Every man asked only two things: "How many boches did we get?" and "Have you got a cigarette?"

These are the real victors of Cantigny. When all's said and done, the staff may plan, guns may fire, tanks may crawl, but the common infantry soldier is the real hero of all.

Americans' Defense of Château-Thierry

United States troops, mostly inexperienced in actual warfare, on June 1 played a brilliant part in the defense of Château-Thierry. By their prompt and resolute support to the French they assisted in driving the Germans from the south bank of the Marne at that vital point, and were largely responsible for blocking the enemy's determined advance across the river toward Paris, thus preventing the development of a most serious situation for the Allies. The French official report of the incident was as follows:

American troops checked German advanced forces which were seeking to penetrate Neuilly Wood, and by a magnificent counterattack hurled back the Germans north of this wood.

Further south the Germans were not able to make any gains. On the Marne front an enemy battalion which had crept across to the left bank of the river above Jaulgonne was counterattacked by French and American troops and hurled back to the other bank, after having suffered heavy losses. A footbridge which the enemy used was destroyed and 100 prisoners remained in our hands.

A BRITISH ACCOUNT

The Reuter correspondent under date of June 5 described the feat of the Americans at Château-Thierry in these words:

On May 31, when the Germans were already in the outskirts of Château-Thierry, an American machine-gun unit was hurried thither in motor lorries. Château-Thierry lies on both banks of the Marne, which is spanned by a big bridge. A little to the northward a canal runs parallel to the river and is crossed by a smaller bridge.

The Americans had scarcely reached their quarters when news was received that the Germans had broken into the northern part of Château-Thierry, having made their way through the gap they had driven in our lines to the left of the town and then pouring along the streets to the bridge, intending to establish themselves firmly on the south bank and capture the town.

The American machine gunners and French colonials were thrown into Château-Thierry together. The Americans immediately took over the defense of the river bank, especially the approaches to the bridge. Fighting with their habitual courage and using their guns with an accuracy which won the highest encomiums from the French, they brought the enemy to a standstill.

Already wavering under the American fire, the Germans were counterattacked by the French colonials and driven from the town. They returned to the attack the next night and under cover of darkness crept into the town along the river bank and began to work their way through the streets toward the main bridge. At the same moment a tremendous artillery bombardment was opened upon the southern half of the town.

BLOWING UP THE BRIDGE

When within range of the machine guns the Germans advanced under the cover of clouds of thick white smoke from smoke bombs, in order to baffle the aim of the American gunners. A surprise, however, was in store for them. They were already crossing the bridge, evidently believing themselves masters of both banks, when a thunderous explosion blew the centre of the bridge and a number of Germans with it into the river. Those who reached the southern bank were immediately captured.

In this battle in the streets, and again at night, the young American soldiers showed a courage and determination which aroused the admiration of their French colonial comrades. With their machine guns they covered the withdrawal of troops across the bridge before its destruction, and although under severe fire themselves, kept all the approaches to the bank under a rain of bullets which nullified all the subsequent efforts of the enemy to cross the river. Every attempt of the Germans to elude the vigilance of the Americans resulted in disaster.

During the last two days the enemy has renounced the occupation of the northern part of Château-Thierry, which the American machine guns have made untenable. It now belongs to No Man's Land, as, since the destruction of the bridges, it is not worth while for the French to garrison it.

Against their casualties the Americans can set a much greater loss inflicted by their bullets on the enemy. They have borne their full part in what a French staff officer well qualified to judge described as one of the finest feats of the war.

THE QUICK ADVANCE

The story of the quick advance of the American marines was related in detail by Wilbur Forrest in The New York Tribune as follows:

It is a narrative that stands for more, perhaps, than most of those written in American history books. It is literally another story of American minute men who abandoned the figurative plowshares of peaceful training camps and rushed to the scene of action. They met the enemy with weapons they knew how to handle.

On May 30 the enemy reached the Marne east of Château-Thierry and began a forceful advance along the north bank toward the city. The same day American machine gunners received orders 100 kilometers to the rear to jump into auto trucks and hurry into action.

They started almost immediately, and an all-night journey found the battalion at 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the 31st on a hill overlooking Château-Thierry. All around them French batteries were firing full tilt. The enemy was advancing on the city.

Right here those American machine gunners got their first glimpse of real war. German shells crashed into villages within plain view and the little city below them was not being spared. The officers chose a small nearby village as headquarters and the marines waited for darkness before loading little black machine guns on their shoulders and marching into Château-Thierry.

GERMAN SHELLS RAKE CITY

German high explosives and shrapnel were raking the city, but the young Americans under fire for the first time coolly placed their guns in position on the south bank of the river. They saw heavy shells strike the railroad station and they saw it burn. They saw houses fall like packs of cards, and I have the word of a Frenchman, who was present, that they were "cool like American cucumbers."

During the night the Germans gradually filtered into the outskirts on the north side of the town. Roughly speaking, the American guns were so placed between the houses and in the gardens as to enfilade the approaches to the bridges and the streets on the opposite sides. All remained on the south bank of the river with the exception of a Lieutenant, (John T. Bissell,) a youthful Pittsburgher, who was one of West Point's latest graduates.

The Lieutenant with a dozen men and two guns was ordered to cross the river to prevent the enemy's advance along forked roads which merge to the right of the northern approach to the iron bridge. For convenience sake it is permissible to say that A Company was charged with holding the left part of the town on the south bank and the approaches to the larger bridges, while B Company's guns swept the opposite approaches to the iron bridge, and, therefore, held the right portion of the town.

Several hundred yards separated the two companies. The enemy's shelling was intensified during the night, but no Germans were yet in sight. The machine guns were quiet, although A Company's commander, O. F. Houghton of Portland, Me., was forced to abandon the headquarters he had chosen in a house on the bank of the river and change the position of some guns because of the enemy's precise fire.

It was a waiting game for Company A's guns. In the meantime Company B, at about 5 A. M., in broad daylight, saw two columns of the enemy of twelve men each, advancing across an open field toward the river to the right of their position. The Germans carried light machine guns and were blissfully ignorant that our men were here. One American gun swung its shy little nose around toward the Germans and waited. Behind it was an unpoetic youth named Must of Columbia, S. C., a Sergeant, who waited until he saw the whites of their eyes, and then let them have it, as he explained today.

AT CLOSE RANGE

"I got eight out of the bunch by a little surprise shooting," said the Sergeant with a considerable show of pride. "They flopped nicely. Then I turned on the other squad, but they were leary and I only got one. The rest of them got into the ditch and crawled back without showing themselves. Later in the day their Red Cross men came out to pick up the wounded. We've got orders not to fire on members of the Red Cross, so I let 'em work unmolested. But I kept tally all day when their Red Cross men came out. By my count they carried off nine and they weren't all wounded, either."

The Germans during the day of June 1 gained the hills overlooking the north bank of the river. Their machine guns and their artillery observers, therefore, were able to direct a galling fire on the south bank and portions of the north bank which still were held by French colonials and two machine guns under an American Lieutenant.

DEADLY MACHINE GUNS

The enemy's position thus made the north bank untenable and orders were given to retire to the south bank under cover of the darkness. At 9:30 P. M. the French, in accordance with these plans, retired to the south bank and blew up a stone bridge. The American machine gun companies during the retirement poured a galling fire from the flanks into the areas evacuated by the retiring troops.

The enemy was now shelling the south bank more heavily and the enemy machine-gun fire was multiplied. The commander of Company A was forced to change the position of his guns in order to secure a better field of fire. With the light Hotchkiss pieces on their shoulders he led his men into a wood further down the river. Here they were spotted by enemy observers and thirty high explosive shells crashed into the wood. The shelling ceased and the guns went into their positions.

The French were still retiring at 10:30 P. M. It was pitch dark, except for shell bursts and the streaky flame stabs from the machine guns on both sides--the Americans were in the wood and along the south bank of the river, the Germans on the crest of the hill on the other side.

Suddenly there was an immense detonation. It was the big bridge blowing up. Then there came out of the darkness across the river, as the firing lulled, the ghostly chant of the advancing enemy. It was one of those German mass attacks, where men, shoulder to shoulder, singing in guttural tones the praise of Germany and the Kaiser, blindly walk into death like fanatics.

The sort of creaky, shuffling sound their boots made as they trotted into the open road came across the river like the wailing of lost souls, converged toward the bridge and was heard by these young Americans, who strained their eyes across the river to get what machine-gun men call "the target." But it was in pitch darkness, and there was only the sound to tell them there were plenty of "targets." Every little black devil of a machine gun tore loose with hellfire. The Americans behind them, who saw their first glimpse of war about thirty hours before, fed in bullets as fast as human hands could work. And the bullets caught their "targets" on the opposite side.

The "target" came on again and again, but nothing could live in that leaden hail. The enemy waves melted in the darkness.

Now come the even more thrilling experiences of the little band of Americans under Lieutenant Bissell who had been cut off and surrounded by the enemy across the river. Even experienced soldiers could not be blamed if they had surrendered there.

At the beginning of the German mass attack a few French colonial soldiers, also cut off by the blown-up bridge, made the Lieutenant understand that then it was every man for himself. The north bank was becoming a seething mass of Germans. All other forces had retired across the river. Bullets were registering on every foot of the space approaching the bridges.