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south of town and around the town tellthe story of the sacrifice, that was,» %given to the advance on this ridge.♦ * 'The shells were bursting all around• • - ■ . s •and the machine gun fire was terrific» kWe attacked in the face of grazing machine gun fire for a distance of atleast 800 yards, but our waves never• r * / ■ ■ * mfaltered. We swept down the slope and across the small river up into, and around the town, driving the Bochej out and taking a large number of prisoners. The “Austrian 88”'had been firing♦ *point blank at us, and a number of times, I was knocked down by the concussion of shells exploding in my ^immediate vicinity.” We came across one of our friends, “a tank,” that had suffered a direct hit, lying on its side its fighting days over, just one of our comrades had “gone west.” We also came across a number of mangled areoplanes, Boche as well as Allied.It was* just about twenty minutes before sunset, when we made the attack and by the time we had passedthe town darkness had fallen. As we• « •arrived on the ridge north of Baulny, quietness reigned with the exception of the occasional clatter of machine gun fire searching for us. Off in the distance* in the direction of the Rhiiie. • ■ * ’ rwe could hear the rattle of the enemy convoy as they withdrew down the road. We organized as well as we could in the darkness, and I found thatI had about two-thirds of the men IaV «started over-with. So I got in touch with the Major. As our orders were to press on to the Army objective, we..*■* t ■ *started forward in the-darkness, (our major, about six rlieutenants and about300 men) using the burning town of► . • ♦Fleville as our guide. The Boche gets lots of; satisfaction out of burning_ • • t - * iFrench towns, when forced to evacuate We advanced through the fields untilabout midnight without encountering any resistance. We were unable to establish' iiasion with any units on opr flanks. So when We captured a Bocne sdldier, he told us we were way behind the Boche machine gunners and that no other American troops were ahead of us, we decided to’ withdraw and gain contact with our troops. We did, andfound them about 3:00 A. M. digging« .in on the slope north of Baulny, where they, had begun consolidating on theDivisional Front.• • * •*. . lt;• . ,detachment had walked several• * * » _ * r •kilometers into the German lines with-resistance, or firing « ;» ,;4hots and, turned • aroipjl andmposition in the Northern edge of the woods, which was a short way from our army objective, the town of Exer-mont. Just before, the time scheduled. . * v.to go over the top, the Boche attacked\ * ius. We, opened a rifle fire on the Boche which could be seen, from theidemoralizing effect on their attack-ing lines, was well delivered. Thetime set to go over (zero hour) arrived and everybody left their fox-holes with fixed bayonets. The automatic rifles in the first waves delivering an ambling fire, tand went over and down a slope, across a valley, and up another slope into th.e wood, driving the Boche back, while all the time the Boche artillery and machine guns were working on our flanks as well as from our * ^ * lt;lt;front. We were in advance of the 28th.* %•Division on'our left and 91st Division■*. * *■ *Von our right, which is the reason we were catching it from three sides. We could even see the flashes of their “77” Guns in a little draw across the Aire River. The barrage, that they kept on us continually during the attack, was something fierce.Our losses were heavy, but we succeeded in entering the woods, and for the rest of the morning the fighting was simply hand-to-hand fighting, which is a long suit of the “American Doughboy.” By noon, we had driven the enemy out of the woods and hadestablished ourselves in the northern- «edge of the woods. We were raked!by machine gun fire and strafed by• • %shrapnel and H. E. the rest of the day, but we lay in our fox-holes until night came, when a cold drizzling rain began, filling pur fox-holes with pools of ’water. We had started with only two days rations, but we still had plenty. We had some water in our canteens as the men had been cautioned to use water sparingly, because it is difficult to get water up from the rear and we dared not use any thatfighting we had seen which kept upfor the next two days. Although we* * . . 9did not progress much father, we held what we had gained in.spite of repeated counter attacks. .On October 1st, the 1st Division relieved us and we withdrew to a small village behind the lines where we rested and drew equipment and replace-.jments, *I have not tried to give an account of the Division as a whole, the aboverefers to my own battalion and regi-►ment.► -o -REAL ESTATE TRANSFERSC. A. Belt fco R. B. Waytt the SW SEt .4of Section 1, Township 11 north, Range 26 east. Consideration $5.00.James M. Mayo to Earnest saf Jeanette Reaves: SE SE SE Section7 and N Y2 NE NE Section 18 all in4Township 11 north and Range 22 east, Consideration $2,250.00. s.i,Ida Beasley and husband to J. Ship* man Lot 1 and a part of lot 3 in Mock 4 in Quesenbury addition to the town of Sallisaw, $140.George J. Hail and wife to B. F, Garvin: E Vz SE Section 13, Townshipv . • r % '11 north and Range 24 east. Consideration $400. .Lubia, India and Lelland Hines t» F. A. Woodward: An undivided three-fourths interest in and to the MW SW Section 30 Township 12 and range 26L Consideration $450,* * . , • Ben F. Garvin and wife to Ben LGarvin: One and three fourths acresin the NW comer of the NW SWSW,Section 6,. Township 11 and range 25.,Consideration One dollar aind other• • * -valuables.Joseph L. Coker and wife to Thoa. W. Hale: SW SW Section 28, Town-ship 11 north and Range 26 east Cpnr-sideration $2,000.W. S. Wesson and wife to Thos. Gar-• lt;1 •we found in conquered territory for^lile: Lot 1 in block 54 and lot 3 imthe simple reason the Boche poisoned all wells and streams in all localities before evacuating. It was a very uncomfortable night to say the least. No chance for sleep, as we had to all be on the alert. We had not over 600 men in the line that night, all that remained organized but of a regimentof^ahout .2000 men. Two-thirds of theofficers had been put out of action..The next 'momipg at 4:30 A^ JL, just as day. -hrehkin^ we recdyed^«'• S v 0 i/s V%lt; -v-Vniblock 58 in the incorporated towh of Sallisaw. Consideration $5,000.Emanuel Mayfield to J. A, Reeves: E1/^-SW NE Section 27, Township 11, and range v26. Consideration $300.R. A7 Sutton to C. W. Routh; Lo one and two in block 19 in Payne addition to the town of Sallisaw. Consideration $200.■ , ’ Or-- ' -r-X,. Sallow. complexion'.is due to a 1#rgld liver;. purifies attd atwagT■jf. ’ • •* -i_v -.v j: • ri’J ■*:. ..
Newspaper Details
Sequoyah County Democrat
Sallisaw, Oklahoma, US
Fri, May 23, 1919
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 13 Jul 2019
Other Publications Near Sallisaw, Oklahoma
Democrat American
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