Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-06-22

chine gun with rifle fire and killed
the entire crew of another.
| Whereupon B Co. came out Of the
Romagne woods and lounged acros.
the clearing to the Cote de Chatil.
Ion, with their guns slung over tneil
shoulders as though they were tax.
ing = leisurely hike on a peaceful
country road.
| With the men scattered through
the woods and around the Germar
dugouts hunting for prisoners, wore
came up that the Germans were get
ting together for a counter-attack
By that time the Alabamians OF tas
10Th had come up on the left. T
and c companies Of the l68th were
reformed, and the Germans wee
beaten back.
captives His captor.
The Aalabamians had had a tough
fight in another part of the Bots d.
Romagne. They were facing the
left slope of the Cote de Chat,lIon
with their third battalion under
Major Morris in the front, and THE
other two battalions in support. Be-
fore they took their side Of the
Cote, however, joining up with tine
Iowans, all three battalions were in
the fight-the first under Major
Jeorg and the second under Captain
Flowers.
Private Neighbors OF M Co., 10TH
IN this fight won the Congressional
Medal of Honor for one of the mos.
astounding exploits of the war
Neighbors was wounded and left De
hind when his platoon rolled back
before the ferocity of the German
resistance, so that the Germans cap
tured him. And that night before
they could get him out of the zcue
OF the fighting and back to a prison
camp he overpowered his guard and
got his pistol, then rounded up niue
more Germans and marched them
all back into the Rainbow division,
Served As Base for Mortar.
During the German counter attack
Sergeant Atkinson won himself a
Distinguished Service Cross. He
was a member Of the regimental
headquarters company, serving in
the Stokes Mortar platoon. Being
out ahead of his platoon and seeing
the Germans starting forward, Ser.
geant Atkinson had to think and act
quickly. Ordinarily Stokes Mortar
is fired from firm base built solid
ly into the ground But Atkinson
had no time to build base for his
gun, so he held it between his knees
and fired the big mortar bombs,
point-blank into the enemy. Atkin"
sons work did probably more than
any other one thing to break up the
German counter attack on the Cote
de Chatillon.
On October 81 the Rainbow, now
holding the strongest German posi-
tons on the Kremhilde Stellung, was
relieved by the Second division,
which thereupon started forward by
leaps and bounds behind the retreat
ing boche, at the rate of couple
of kilometers a day.
The Second was assisted in the
attack it made November by Gen
eral Gstley's whole 9th artillery
brigade from Minnesota, Illinois
Indiana and Maryland, besides the
150th machine gun battalion from
Wisconsin, the l5lst from Georgia
and the 14oth from Pennsylvania,
These machine gunners and artil-
lerymen plowed holes in the wither-
ing German defenses that the Ger
mans never were and never would
have been able to patch up.
Rainbow Races for Sedan.
The rest of the Rainbow, having
dealt the staggering blow assigned
to it, was pulled out, shifted ovei
to the left and given a running
start toward the city that had been
the goal of the American army since
September 26-Sedan!
They say an important telephone
message flew quietly around to the
Firt, the 18th and the Rainbow divi-
vision on November |. The mes
sage was Sedan regardless of
boundaries!"
This meant that each of these
three divisions was to try to get to
Sedan as rapidly as it could, paying
no attention to the limits of its sec
tors, squeezing over into another
divisions sectors if it could move
more quickly by that method; but
above all to get there.
They were al: to take for them
selves the "right-of-way," like fire.
fighting companies tearing up
busy street to a big blaze.
The Rainbow division, struggling
northward through the terribly
wrecked country, found itself UP
against almost impossible barriers.
In desperation. division headquar-
tiers called fo- the Rainbow's Fight
ing engineers" the South Caro-
linians and the Californians who
had fought as infantry on the
Ourcq were ready to fight as in
fantry against the Cote de Chatil'cn
end were now hiking as infantry to-
ward Sedan. Jr the situation that
confronted the Rainbow, the engi
neers were wasting their time as in
fantry.
Engineers Effect a Crossing.
At midnight on November 4. nav
ing gotten as far as Authe, division,
headquarters learned that the cause
way across the Bay valley, north of
Brieulles, had been demolished by
the Germans in their retreat. No
t;sfic-not even men on foot-
could get across it. The causeway
had been about 1000 feet lorg.
crossing a 1narshy creek, and had
consisted of a "fill" IS feet high. In
this artificial road the Germans had
blown mine crates every IS feet; in
some cases the holes went far below
the surface of the original creek
bottom.
The fighting engineers" discard