The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-09

Back through the American dough-
 boys fell tho Moroccans. firing care lessly at the boche if they fired at all, their eyes almost closed from fatigue,
 staggering backward like blind men, resistance all gone.
 A Real Surprise for Hefnie.
 Then came the boche. And, boy, howdyi Along came that seven-mile gap where they thought to find the
 road open to Paris the Germans found the doughboys of the Second
 Division.
 No wonder they thought they faced five fresh American divisions. Luden-
 dorff can hardly be blamed even to this day for not knowing better. For, fired by the crisis to which they were now fully alive, the doughboys fought
 like tigers.
 Around Vaux and the Bois de Ia
 Roche, on the left end of the line,
 the Third Infantry Brigade, compris-
 ing the Ninth and Twenty-third regt-
 ments, dug "fox holes'' for shelter,
 lived on monkey meat brought up at midnight, and went after Hein1e.
 Into the Bofs de Belleau, worst posi-
 ton on the whole front, plunged the
 Fourth Brigade. the marines.
 we didn't have a hand grenade
 and we had only little canned willy
 and hardtack for chow" said the
 aforementioned lieutenant of marines.
 "But we went after Heinie like we'd
 been fed raw meat"
 Belleau Wood a Tough One.
 The Third Brigade had it's hands
 plenty full, for Vaux and Hill 2o4
 were powerful positions, but they
 captured them just the same.
 ;+ i,, 11o of nl
 leau Wood that the 1nettle Of the Second Division was eternally tested.
 This wood was a tumble of shattered
 trees, dense underbrush, barbed wire,
 and rocks. Hand grenades hung from
 every bow. Ground mines were cum ningly hidden in the undtTbrush.
 Through the big rocks Heinie had
 drilled holes for his machine guns.
 Hand grenades are the accepted
 weapon for cleaning out machine-gun
 nests. But the marines didn't have
 any. Why? Ask the Ordnance. Any
 how, they didn't have them, that was all there was to that. So a party
 used to worm its way through the underbrush, falling before snipers, be- ing blown to bits by ground mines, cut down by machine guns. But at length some one would manage to arrive before one of these rock forts, and then while a few remained In front to make a tremendous racket as if attacking, the others would
 sneak around the Hanks and fall on
 the machine-gun companies from the
 rear. Automatics or cold steel did the rest.
 Like Their Fathers Fought. It wasn't fighting as the embatt1ed
 armies had practiced 1t for four years.
 It was guerrilla warfare, the Battle of the Wilderness of civil war fame all over again, with new horrors added; it was exactly what was suited to the individualistic American soldiers. And they went to it.
 For forty days they kept it up. What they lived on heaven only knows. They don't. Canned willy and hardtack mostly, with now and then a little regular chow. And all the time Ludendorff and Hfndenburg raging because their great plan for taking Paris were held up by these brave youngsters from America. Di- vision after division was thrown in against them by the Germans. A total of 1880 prisoners revealed that ten different German divisions had faced the Second in Belleau Wood and at yauS. Bouresches, and Hills 142 and 2O4.
 But at last the words were cleared and all the gains consolidated, and then for the first time it was realized zt what a price. The Second had been the first American division engaged on large scale operations. It had routed forever tte spectre of German ir,vinclhiiity. It had turned back from Paris and civilizatio the tide of bar barisrn that thu catened to enguif the world. Hut it had lost 9,131 men ill doing 1t.
 D-:In't Know of Their Fame. How rhe world rang with their ex- ploits; how the allied capitals re- 1oiced, now the peoples of France and England took new heart for the fight. and ..cy the German Emperor up al Great Headquarters was lied to by lis bea.en ge1"'I)s. none Of these things old the Scct nd Division man krov as they io UsIed ther way to the rear July 1).
 All they knew was that they had done their stunt and could now go and rest up a little and get some regular food and some sleep. Yet the dream of rest lasted only six days. And then, July 16, 1t was up and at 'em again. On that day came the orders for the men to move. As they piled into the camions they | thought they were being headed for l a rest area farther in the rear. In- stead, the big buses headed up along 1 the edge of the German salient until | opposite a point below Sofssons. Another Impossible Road Then the men were set on foot and ordered to hide. Through the Vil1ers- Cotterets Forest they moved late in | the afternoon, and during the night of July IT. The road was impossible | for men afoot. Three streams of traf- I fic encountered 1t. Tanks, cavalry | and artillery, all were going up to the front The men got into the dttches | alongside and struggled ahead. When night came on it brought with it rain, rain the like of which | they had never seen before, not even 1 in rain-drenched France, where the |, skies seemed forever weeping upon l the stricken earth. The darkness was | impenetrable. It was so dark, in fact i that they were forced to join hands | to worm their way down through ! the vehicles, through all that mass oi 1 clanking tanks. thudding hoofs, jolt | ing guns, around them the curses o1 l drivers and chauffeurs, all the noises oF ct a