The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-09
CROWDS ACCLAIM HEROES WHO HURLED
 GERMANS BACK AT CHATEAU -THIERRY

- ~~A - I Foreign Legion. sau north of them was the First American division. Tho Second was to advance on tho south
 ern or right flank.
 At 4:30 the Twenty-fhird Infantry, having double-t1med the last mile, came up to join the Ninth, all breath less, panting, but-on time. And nt 4:35, just as the advance got into mo- ] ton, here came the Marines, pune
 tual to the minute, doing it at the
 double. Turning from column to at-
 tack formation. without a pause of
 a single minute for the recovery of breath, the Marines went into tho charge with their brothers.
 There was no artillery prepara- t1on. It was to be 8 surprise attack. And whether the Germans suspected anything at all or not, the element of surprise was big. The attackers swept ahead, breaking the first line, routing all that opposed them, like heroes of mythology performing the incredible after having been with
 out food. sleep or water for exactly | thirty-six hours, soaked to the skin in the torrential downpour and ter | ribly fatigued by those long hours of marching.
 Enemy Fought Grtmly. After they went over the barrage l was loosed. It rolled ahead of them and mopped up Heinie. But no bar | rage ever does a thorough job of 1t. ! After it had passed on, Heinie came
 out of his shelters and grimly he | fought.
 . Day came a little while after the start of the attack-a bright sun after the night of rain. And all that oay and the next the Second fought on,
 fought with little food; fought with little water; fought with little sleep, i pushing back Heinie, breaking the 1 German line completely for the first time in the war with the exception
 of Cambrai; putting terror into the | German high command, facing more
 and more troops fresh German i divisions were thrown against them. ] and halting at last after an advance of seven miles
 Ut means the beginning of the end," declared General Lejeune, his eyes alight with recollections of the feat. '~The allied leaders knew now l what the American troops could do. i The Germans knew 1t. From where | they had advanced across the Marne southeast of Chateau Thterry they | withdrew hurriedly in the night. and from all across that wide salient they hurried to get their war material and l their men back to safety"
 5000 Lost in Two Days. Once more the cost of the depict l ed Second division was great. For casualties in the two days of fight ing amounted to 5000 men. "But that Soissons victory proved beyond a doubt that America had arrived and that Germany's sun was rofd l jeune. 'I want to tell you that Amer l lea may be proud of what our boys did there, just as she may well be proud of what they did in the war. Mistakes were made" he said. ! Mistakes by the high command all I along the line. Nobody with sense can deny them. But who doesn't i make mistakes? The Germans had ] trained forty years for war. yet they | them the victory. Napoleon made ! mistakes. Every great military leader of history made them.
 Yet this fact stands out above ] all. America from her citizenry created an army of 100000 men and landed 100000 of them in
 France. And she made such fighters
 of them that they turned the tide | against the enemy.'
 Chased Heinie Until Nov. il. These two were the greatest &C., l complishments in the war of the Sec 1 ond division. It acquitted itself hand somely in the all-American show at I St Mihiel, but that was more or less l a matter of following up Heinie as l he withdrew. It fought in the Cham pagne and in the Argonne-Muese of | fensive, and those were mighty tough. l In the Champagne. because of its rec | ord, the French commander asked 1 that the Second Division be detailed l to tatA. Mont Blanc Ridge, deemed | almost inpregnable. And the Second. l to be obliging, went up and took it. | During the eight days here from l October 1 to g. the division lost A. 1 975 troops. And in the Argonne-Meuse | offensive, the biggest American battle | in history, the Second also acquitted 1 itself well. But after all Is said, it was northwest of Chateau Thierry and south of Soissons that 1t wrote 1 its name in letters of blood on the l scroll of fame.
 Between Juno 1 and November Il, l. the division was never out Of sound l of the guns except now and then when shifting from point to point by l train. It engaged in five pitched bat l ties. It advanced a total of sixty two i kiIometers against the sternest op- | position.
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