The sun., 1919-03-09

let loose a sickening machine gun and
rifle fire into the teeth OF which the
marines advanced. The German artil-
lery in the woods increased the fury
Of its fire, and the big guns at Belleau
and Torcy, a mile and half away,
pounded our advancing lines.
on Berry's front there was the open
wheat field, 400 yards or more wide -
winter wheat, still green but tall and
headed out Other cover there was
none. On Sibley's left there was open
grass land perhaps 200 yards wide; his
right was close to the woods.
Owing to the poor communications
the two battalions engaged in what
were virtually independent actions.
and, as l had feared, Berry got the
worst end of It. He had to face that
wide open space. swept by machine
gun fire, with a thanking fire from the
direction of Tory.
My eyes were on what Sibley's men
were doing. and I only knew in a gen
eral way what was happening to the
battalion of the Fifth. But Floyd Glib
bons, the correspondent. was with
Berry and saw 1t all. He was, in fact,
seriously wounded himself and has lost
an eye as a result Gibbons says that
the platoons started in good order and
advanced steadily into the field be-
tween clumps of woods. 1t was fiat
country with no protection of any sort
except the bending wheat
Into n Hell of Bullets.
The enemy opened up at once and II
seemed, he says. as If the air were full
of red hot nails. The losses were ter
rife. Men fell on every hand there in
the open, leaving great gaps in the
line. Berry was wounded in the arm
but pressed on with the blood running
down his sleeve.
Into a veritable hell of Kissing bull
let's. into that death dealing torrent,
with heads bent as though facing a
March gale. the shattered lines of
marines pushed on. The headed wheat
bowed and waved in that metal cloud
burst like meadow grass in a summer
breeze. The advancing lines wavered
and the voice Of a sergeant was heard
above the uproar:
Come on, you - -! Do
you want to live forever"
The ripping fire grew hotter The
machine guns at the edge of the woods
were now bare hundred yards away
and the enemy gunners could scarcely
miss their targets. u. was more than
flesh and blood could stand. Our men
were forced to throw themselves flat
, on the ground or be annihilated, and
, there they remained in that terrible
hail till darkness made il possible for
them to withdraw to their original po-
sition.
BerryS men did not win that first
encounter in the attack on Belleau
Wood, but it was not their fault.
Never did men advance more CALAMITY
in the face of certain death; never did
men deserve greater honor for valor.
Sibley, meanwhile. was having bet
ter luck. l watched his men go in and
it was one of the most beautiful sights
I have ever witnessed. The battalion
pivoted on its right, the left sweeping
across the open ground in four waves,
as steadily and correctly as though on
parade. There were two companies of
them, deployed in four skirmish lines,
the men placed five yards apart and
the waves fifteen to twenty yards be-
hind each other.
say they went in as II on parade,
and that Is literally true. There was
no yell and wild rush. but a deliberate
forward march, with the lines at right
dress. They walked at the regulation
pace, because a man is of little use IN
hand-to-hand bayonet struggle af-
ter a hundsed yards DASH My hands
were clenched and all my muscles taut
as l watched that cool. intrepid, mas
terful defiance of the German spite.
And still there was no sign Of waver-
ing or breaking.
oh, 1t took courage and steady
nerves TO do that in the face of the