The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-08-13
MARINES STOPPED
|. BOCHES WITH JOLT
Advancing Foe Had Great
Surprise When He Found
Americans in Line
GRAPHIC STORY is
TOLD IN A LETTER

Heroic Resistance of Our Troops Be
lieved by Many Officers to Have
Saved Paris-Individua Acts of
Bravery.
WASHINGTON, Aug 13.-A graphic
eyewitness account of the fighting near
Chateau Thierry, in which American di-
visions, including the marine brigade.
public by the navy department 1t is in
the form of long letter from an officer
of the marines to Major Gen. Barnett,
commandant of the corps, and the story
told is of peculiar significance as in the
opinion of many officers here it was the
stand of the Americans along this line
which saved Paris.
The name of the writer is not disclosed
The Americans were rushed to the line in
motor trucks to support the hard pressed
French. On June l the marine brigade
deployed in a support position, the bat
talicn commanded by Major Thomas Hol-
comb hurrying into the line as the men
climbed out of the trucks. The Germans
were coming on, and June 2 the French
dropped back, passing through the Ameri-
can lines.
Eve had installed ourselves in house
in La Vote Chatel, a little village between
Champion and Lucy-le-Bocage, the let
ter says. From one side we had obser-
walton of the north and northeast. They
came out on wonderfully clear day in
two columns across a wheat field. We
could see the two twin brown columns
advancing in perfect order until two
thirds of the columns, we judged, were in
sight
| The rifle and machine gun fire was in
cessast, and overhead shrapnel was burst.
ing. Then the shrapnel came on the tar
get at each shot. The white patches
would roll away, and we could see that
some OF the columns were still there,
slowed up, and it seemed perfect suicide
for them to try. You couldn't begrudge
a tribute to their pluck, at that
| Then, under that deadly fire and a
barrage of rifle and machine-gun fire, the
Boche stopped. 1t was too much for any
men. They burrowed in or broke to the
cover of the woods, and you could follow
them by the ripples of the green wheat
as they raced for cover"
The writer declared the rife fire Of the
Marines amazed the French who saw it.
THAT men should fire deliberately and
use their sights, and adjust their range, -
he says, was beyond their experience. 1t
must have had telling effect on the
morale of the Boche, for it was something
lthey had not counted on. As matter of
fact, after pushing back the weakened
French and then running up against a
stone-wall defense, they were literally up
IN the air and more than stopped We
found that out later from prisoners. for
the Germans never knew we were in the
front line when they made that attack
They were absolutely mystified at the
manner in which the defense stiffened IN.
until they found that our troops were in
line"
! The letter tells in detail of the days of
| fighting that followed 1t describes a
daylight charge against a machine gun
host and of scouting raids up to June s.
when the whole brigade swung forward
to straighten out the line This action
resulted in the capture of Belleau Wood.
| Major Sibley's battalion of the Sixth
Marine Regiment led the way here, with
Holcomb in support. The woods were
alive with enemy machine guns That
night word came back that Robertson,