The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1919-02-25
SECOND DIVISION
CHASED BOCHE IN
BLOODY CONFLICT

ficers locked on in amazement.
DO these men understand" they
asked do they know that within
a few hours many Of them will be
dead? How can they sleep if they
know?" The French officers were
told that the men understood per-
fectly-that they we're outstanding
their strength for the fight.
Fortunately, at this moment the.
Germans were forced to slow up
their advance for breathing spell,
but meanwhile pushing up troops for
fresh drive, that was designed to
reach Paris. On the morning of
June the Americans took over from.
the exhausted French a 12-mile front.
There were no reserves between,
them and the Marne.
On the first day in the lines the
marines repulsed an attack. Then
the historic fighting in Belleau wood.
In their first attack the marines
gained a foothold in the woods in
the face of terrible machine gun
fire The wood was literally alive
with machine gunners. In the al
most impenetrable underground and
among the rocks the Germans con-
cealed scores of machine gun nests,
arranged for infilading fire. For
days the ugly man-to-man fighting
went on Meanwhile Bouresches had
been penetrated and held securely.
One by one the machine gun nests
we're wiped out of the sinister wood,
mostly with the bayonet. After near
ly two weeks of bitter fighting, dur
ing which a regiment of the Third
division had made an attempt, the
marines finally swept through the
wood Meanwhile the Fourth brigade
launched the attack upon Vaux. The
little village was reduced to a heap
of stones by the artillery. Before
the attack the Germans put over 10
hours of intense counter-artillerying
But Vauv was occupied within five
minutes after the "jump-off.'
In the early fighting the men had
only their iron rations" and some
times were without food or water for
"a hours, owing to the difficulty of
transport. There was an ammunition
shortage in the first hours of the
battle The enemy shelled the whole
area heavily In one brigade area
nearly $4,000 shells fell in "a hours.
During the month of continuous
fighting that followed, the Second
captured "a officers, 1854 men and
large quantity of guns and ma
terial. Owing to the bitter nature of
the fighting the division lost heav-
ily-more heavily than in any other
fight. The total casualties were g.
III of which 1850 were killed on
the field. and over 1900 severely
wounded, and nearly 1000 slightly
wounded and missing.
At first the hospitals were made
quate to care for the stream of
wounded. In one village the stretch
ers were laid out in the open, side
by side, as they awaited treatment,
until nearly an acre was covered by
the rows of stretchers,
! For five weeks the division held
the road to Paris. The German
drive was halted. Then the Second
was withdrawn to nurse its grievous
wounds.
At this time Foch was preparing
the great counter-offensive that sent
the Germans reeling back from the
Paris salient. The Second was get
ting requirements to fill UP it's de-
pleted ranks. On July 16 the divi-
sion was hastily loaded into trucks
and unloaded in the Villers Cotterest
region. By night marches through
the forest the division was pushed
up to the lines. The forest was full
of troops moving toward the front.
In the inky darkness and driving
rain the men were forced to march
double file touching one another to
avoid being separated Reaching
the lines only few minutes before
the H" hour, the Second attacked
behind the tanks at the vital point OF
the thrust near Scissors. In spite
of stubborn resistance and heavy
losses the line swept over the Ger
man positions Many times the
German artillery fired point b. nix
into the advancing Americans. But
they fired only a few times. Then
the tide rolled over them. Most of
our losses occurred in the first few
hours. The Ninth infantry lost 66
per cent of its men within three
hours. AS the officers fell others
took their places, until sometimes
sergeants commanded battalions.