The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1919-04-25

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left for what was to. be our horse lines
for the next battle in which we We're
TO take part This was an Old camp In
the Brocourt woods, part of the IA
nous Argonne forest, where the Amer.
leans soon were to fight their hardest
battle of the great war
On the morning of September gard,
Capt. Henderson went forward and
made reconnaissance OF what was to be
our first position In the Argonne often
sive. That night the battery was NOV
ed into this new position, which was
on the northern edge of the BEDSIDE
Hesse, about 21s kilometers south.
west Of the village Of Avocourt we
were this time, within about 5000 me.
ters of the enemy front lines.
The guns were put into position and
everything made ready for the coming
battle. Here we were to assist In
breaking into trench system which
the enemy had occupied and defended
very strongly, since the battle OF Yer
dun, of which this part Of the sector
was a very important one
We opened fire at 2:3O a. m. Sept
26th, 1918, firing for az hours cutting
barbed wire entanglements exclusive
lt. After this came the barrage and
firing continually until 1926 that morn
ing in support of the infantry. This
time our battalion was supporting the
147th Infantry, part of the 9th d.
vision.
The strong line of the enemy resist
ance was broken through and they
were pushed back with the very hard
est of fighting, according to schedule.
AT i a. m. we received orders to move
forward. The batteries we're all out
Of position and ready for the move in
az Short time after receiving the or
ders, but just as everything was ready
to move, orders came to get back into
position and prepare for defensive
mission as quickly as possible; that
the Germans were making a strong
counter attack and were pushing our
Infantry back.
This was a time for quick move
ment, and to show what we could real
ly do. The men quickly responded,
realizing what delay might result in.
The battery was back into position
with communication restablished and
ready to fire, within less than ten
minutes after the order was received,
notwithstanding the fact that the car
riages had to pass single file through
a barbed wire ENHANCEMENT and up a
steep bank to the position.
The telephone detail, under Sergt.
Owen Johnston, deserves special men
ton here, considering the fact that
they had to run line in order to es.
tablish communication with battalion
headquarters, which was at least 500
meters away, within this short time.
However, this proved to be false
alarm and orders again came to con-
tinue to move forward.
Our new position was in rear of
what had been that morning the Ger
man front line trenches; in wood
about 500 metres north of Avocourt.
Most of the firing was in and around
the town of Montfaucon, which our in
fantry finally succeeded in taking, but
with no small amount of hard fighting
This was by no means an ideal bat
terry position. 1t was in part Of a
woods where the underground was
thickest. Most of the men stayed in
their shelter tents and Capt. Hender-
sons command post were under a
wagon also hid sleeping quarters. One
may readily imagine what the condi.
lions were, when it began raining dur
ing our first night here. We occupied
this position until the morning of
Sept 2Sth when we moved forward
again.
Our next and last position in this
battle, was on the northern edge of
wood about / kilometer southwest
of Montfaucon. 1t was here that some
of The hardest fighting of the previous
day had been done. Our infantry by
this time had advanced and were in
the outskirts of Sieges, which was TAX
en-, losct and again retaken a number
Of times before the enemy was finally
pushed back.
We remained In this position until
the night of Oct. 9th, firing altogether
several rounds on Cierges and vicini-
ty, in support of the infantry, during
some of the hardest part of the fight
ing. While here the 37th division was
by the 32nd division this
making the third division we had as
sisted in supporting in actual battle.
On the next morning after our ar
rival at this position we had our first |
real hot breakfast which did mt CON- |