The Topeka state journal., 1918-12-20
u. s. Marines Curious To Feel
Action Under Fire.
Sergt. Robert McGiffert Tells
of Chateau Thierry.
FRENCH WERE FALLING BACK
Told Yankee Relief That Moth
ing Could Stop Huns.
wondered What We Could Do
in Case Like That"

Curiosity seems to have been the in
citing mot.v: of the American marines
when they held and turned back the
German tide at Chateau Thierry and
at Belleau wood. At least this is the
impression Sergt Robert McGiffert, of
Topeka, gave out at the Chamber of
Commerce this noon in talk he made
to the diners there.
In telling of the hike from the mo-
tor trucks to the point just behind
the French lines at Chateau Thierry
on the night before the attack of the
marines, McGiffert said that the retir-
ing French soldiers were continually
calling out to the Americans to fall
back, that the Germans could not be
stopped, and that a stronghold must
be found somewhere in the rear. The
Americans looked at the French in as
tonishment and in McGiffert's own
words, "the boys just wondered what
Americans would do in case ike
that"
AS far as the battle itself was con-
cerned, McGiffert said that the Ameri-
cans were much superior to the Ger
mans in fighting ability. He paid high
. tribute to the American machine gun
ners and said that it was their steadi-
ness in their first engagement which
enabled the marines to counter at
tack and turn the Germans back.
Casualties Wero Heavy.
McGiffert said that it was the first
day of the battle only in which the
Germans were especially effective. He
said that on that one day approx
mately five hundred men were lost in
his own battalion of one thousand
men.
The Americans were located in a
patch of woods-and the Germans in
another patch of woods about two
hundred yards away. The Americans
charged across this open territory,
which was no mans land, behind a
rolling barrage thrown by the Ameri-
car artillery. He said that 1t was in
this one battle that the American
method of attack changed the whole
tenor of the war. Always before, he
said. in response to a direct question
by one of the diners, the allied troops
in attacking machine gun nests had
thought it necessary for the nests to
be torn to pieces by artillery fire be-
fore the infantry went into the action.
In this attack the rule was reversed,
and the infantry took the nests and let
the artillery follow up.
McGiffert said that the Fifth and
Sixth regiments of marines out OF a
total strength of about 5000 men lost
Approximately 5000 men in the bat
ties around Chateau Thierry and Bel
leau wood. McGiffert's own regiment,
the Fifth. was decorated by the French
government and the particular deco
Iar ;cn given was the first one of its
X ! to be given to any regiment of a
a + ~c;gn power.
C-cat American Locomotives.
Telling of the difference between the
French railway locomotives and the
American product, McGiffert told o.
a trip bunch of marines made on 6
French railroad They were sent to &
junction point and while waiting there
a real American freight moEul came
into the station and stopped near ont
of the troops cars. McGiffert said tina
the boys went Wild over the sight O.
this American machine. He explained
that the French locomotiye bears
striking resemblance to a email sizet
threshing machine engine SO far a.
size is concerned. And he declared
that the usual whistle of French