The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1918-08-01
KAISER HAD STAGED TRIUMPH.
from Vantage Point German Emper-
or Watched Our Men Break
German OnruSh

around Chateau-Thiery after the
American and French had captured
the town. He says in the New York
Times. under date of July 23 that the
French people who stayed in Cha
teauThierry during it's seven weeks
occupation by the Germans say that
on June and 4 the Kaiser was
there.
! These people said that the Ger
man officers later told them the
Kaiser came to Chateau-Thierry on
the morning of June 3 to watch his
troops from Hill 2O4 while they mar
ched down the Paris Metz road to-
ward the French capital. In the pre-
ceeding two days the Huns had taken
Chateau-Thierry and moved ahead
thirty kilmoters, and the German EN-
peror had come to stand at what he
! thought was milestone on the road
and watch his men go onward to
Paris.
The Kaiser never saw his show
For the day before he reached Chat
eau-Thierry the I'd American Divis-
ion had taken position on the Paris
Metz near Tholet and in front of
Relleau Woods, and from the NOM
ent the 5th and 9Th Marines and
the 9th and 23rd Infantry got there
the Germans came no further.
The desperate attacks of the Ger
mans to hurl back the Americans or
June and 4, perhaps, are now to be
explained by the fact that their rul-
er waited for them to go on to Paris.
1t was on July A, that the American
artillery got into action with the
French guns and spoiled the
kaiser's triumph.
Yesterday l went over the terri
tory captured by our troops north
west and north of Chateau-Thierry
in their victorious advances l saw
places that had been villages-Bel-
leau, Torcy, Boulresches, and so on.
The heavy hand Of war has wiped "a
way all sembalance of habitable
places and left desolate and dusty
ruins of stone and mortar. The viii
lage that sheltered 500 to 1000
souls is now but piles of debris. l
saw the bodies of Americans who
died to save France and civilization
from those Germans.
Going north from the wreckage of
Lucy lie Bocage, 1 could not resist
the impulse to go through the Bois
de Belleau where I had been during
the fighting month ago, which
prevented much inspection. Across
the field with the shell holes so
thick that one could step from one
to another, l reached the rocky edge
of the woods. Here, in machine gun
positions, twenty Germans had been
slau ghtered. Here and there was
stuck up a rifle and bayonet lock,
making a cross marking the grave
of some marines.
In the middle of the field lay the
carcass of COW, perhaps peaceful
ly grazing when the war had made
No Mans Land of her pasture. Along
the edge of the woods lay bodies of
horses caught by the German ma
chine guns.
1t was uncanny to go through
in American history. Every other
tree was cut off by shell fire. Not a
square foot of ground but bore
marks of fighting. German machine
guns in cbeverly concealed nests
stood with the bodies of boches lying
across them just where they fell a
month ago.
/ Here were the remains of kitch-
en- which had served it's last meal
here the ruined dugout through the
wrecked door Of which one could see
five German bodies lying where one
of our rs shells had got them while
sleeping. Here lay box of unused
hand grenades; here Il pile of am
munition which had never killed
marines; there lay cache of decay
ing food-here, there and every
where, carnage in profusion, where
the Germans had tried in vain to
halt the Americans.
| Near the northern edge of the wood
was a large rock and scattered about
! it lay the remains of Il German air
plane, which had hit it squarely after
some allied aviator had sent bullet
through its pilot. Parts of the air
plane had been scattered fifty feet in
every direction. Here lay the body
of an American, which had not been
found in time to bury. We spread
a shelter half over il, and sticking
his bayoIet in the ground, hung his !
steel hat on il, so he would be found
and given a decent grave.
I Leaving the northern end OF the