Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1918-12-15

because OF the record he has made
eleven miles in depth. Thousands Of
shells fell right around headquarters
here. where we had several batteries
of big guns, but only one battery was
put out of commission,
AT daylight the goth Regiment
found Germans on their left and right.
The Germans had poured through the
gap left by the retirement of the
French and had also broken our line
between the 30th and 3Sth. The left
flank of the 2Sth had fallen back, but
had formed for defense, and we had
the advantage-if il could be called
an advantage-of having the Ger
mans who had broken through sub
iected to fire from two sides--from
the right flank of the goth and the
left flank Of the 38th.
Thirtieth Was Surrounded.
For twenty hours The SOth fought
Germans i'm front Germans TO the
right and Germans to the left and oc-
casionally they had to fight Germans
who had gone around our ends and
finding themselves unable to advance
tackled from the rear The position Of
the goth was such that they had to
FIGHT their own battle without help
The forces which might have been
sent to their relief under normal CON
.ditions were required elsewhere. All
the time they were fighting a foe
which had them surrounded we were
bending every effort to get reserves
from the French to counter-attack on
our left.
1T was almost full twenty -four
hours before that counter attack was
launched and the Germans were
finally driven off. The bulk of our
resistance to the Germans who got
across the river was offered by ma
chine gun and rifle fire Our ac-
curacy in rifle fire enabled us to sue
coed in a counter attack while our
machine gunners held off frequent
front attacks in force.
"A sergeant, the only survivor Of
one of our machine gun companies,
with his left hand blown off, worked
the gun alone. He saw q German
force approaching but was unable to
reach them with the gun because he
couldn't manipulate il for elevation
in his crippled state. with his auto
matte pistol he peppercd the Germans
until they turned to the left to move
forward against another part of the
front That was what the sergeant
had anticipated.
THE manoeuvre of the Germans
brought them into range of the SER
geants machine gun. He wiped them
out and was still on the job, covered
with blood from his shattered hand
when others came up and relieved
him.
One Van Captures Twenty.
-Four of oar men, under cover of
a smoke screen, dashed at German
force advancing to attack. killed a
dozen of them and brought back the
rest prisoners-forty of them. One
German American private named
koempfer was suddenly attacked bv
twenty-one Germans. He was all
alone. on his way to do little snip
ing. Before the Germans could fire
a shot Koempfer dropped their com
mander with a shot from his rifle and
charged on the rest They surren-
dered and he brought them in.
I'VE took GOO prisoners and all
kinds of equipment and when the
Germans quit we were on the same
line we occupied whom we came into
this sector on the 30th of May and
Jumped into the fight for Chateau
Thierry. on the occasion of our en-
try into hostilities in MAY 30 per cent
of our men had never been In a bat
tie. The S0th and 3Sth Regiments.
which held out under almost unbe-
ievable difficulties. were in their sec
ond fight of the war"
Some boys" said General Dick
man.
J visited the both Regiment that
afternoon in their rest hilets. Their
losses had been comparatively light.
The survivors We're cheerful and still
hungry On a field by road which
the Germans We're Smelling at inter-
walls hot ball game was in progress
with 500 soldiers looking on and yell
ling approval of good plays My recol-
lection is that the French commander
of that sector recommended all the
members of the S0th and 3sth Regi-
ments for the Croix de Guerre.