The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1919-03-07

entered an old house. The place had
been used by the Huns as a prison
camp, and no doubt was later con-
verified into a strong point. 1t gave
every evidence of having been the
! scene Of desperate and recent en-
counter. A ladder led to the upper
floor and there we found Generals
Parker and Marshall. On the table
was map with blue, red and green
lines. 1t was too familiar for us to
| mistake its meaning. We knew at a
glance that some place along the line
we would attack at dawn. With a can
die we'll camouflaged under a coat
for shell had torn great cash in
the roof-General Marshall outlined
the plan. We were to raid Sedan with
a division. The ordinary night raid
was an old game, but to use a whole
division for that purpose was indeed
novelty.
Briefly, the plan was to throw out
| an advance guard-the point OF which
was to be armed with automatic
riflcs-and orders to kill everything
opposing the march. Under no Cir
cumstances were they to stop, and IL
necessary to the success of the project
they were to be sacrificed. The idea
was to have this division on the
heights in front of Sedan in a box for.
nation ready to fight in any direction
before daylight
1t was thought we would be sur.
rounded by the Boche in case we wero
able to cut our way through, but we
had every assurance the First Army
would fight its way up the following
night with rations if we succeeded in
grasping and holding the key The
troops had not yet reached the cross
roads, and having been up all OF the
previous night with about enough of Il
ration during the day to maintain a
"cootie," l decided to avail myself OF
the opportunity to sleep for q while
, in the generals automobile AS | cud:
died up under a robe, Capt. Lano
| crawled in with me and throughout
lifht shall always remember him that
night. With the excitement and emo.
ton known only to the French he
grasped me by the arm and said ut
| is madness, madness. Tomorrow We
shall all be dead or be prisoners!" |
have often thought his attitude that
night is typical OF the European sol.
der. To them war is a game carried
on by fixed rules-any departure from
which means absolute ruin. wasted
half day once while sat in 4
trench listening to high ranking
French officer explain just why our
attack on Saint, Mihiel was doomed to
fail. But this night was so darned
tired and hungry l was not much in
terested in dying or being captured
either, so fell asleep. In what seemed
to me minute.though in reality it
must have been an hour-our troops
! wer cup, and after destroying all pa
pers and other means of Identification,
we started. The roads we're in mis-.
cradle condition. In retarding our
progress the rain had found willing
ally in the Boche-who with his usual
thoroughness had mined the road and
blown great holes in it at regular in.
tervals. The railroad running paral.
lei had suffered like fate. So violent
had been the explosions, the big rails
were bent and twisted like so much
! wire, OF course not bridge re.
NAMED.
1t was soon apparent to everyone
our artillery and combat wagons could
not get up, but each man carried tw)
hundred and twenty rounds OF ammu-
| milton and the machine gun carts were
full. With that it was thought a few
Huns could be sent West so the
march went merrily On. The route
took us over the main road through
Stonne and Artaise and before dawn
this brigade marched into Chemery.
The Huns were Smelling that town
some and we lost few killed before
the column cleared. At that point we
discovered the Forty.second division
(Rainbow) had already launched its
attack and was meeting with some
success. They connected with the
French under General Petain on theh
left and other American units on the
right. For time it looked as though
we were crowded out and our twenty.
three kilometer march would be for
nothing. However, hurried consulta.
ton was held by our generals and they
decided to edge into the scrap one way
or another Accordingly this brigade
was split. The Goth infantry and halt
of the Third machine gun battalion un.
der 1t. Col. Roosevelt crossed the
canal at Chemery and moved north
along the left bank. The 2Sth infantry
and the remainder Of the machine gun