The Watertown news. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1917-1919, 1919-01-03


trained to keen observation upon their
rifle range, nearly everyone of them
wearing marksman's medal or bet
ter, that of the sharpshooter or ex-
pert rif1eman, did not wait for those
gray clad hordes to advance nearer.
Calmly they set their sights and
aimed with the same precision tina,
they had shown upon the rifle ranges
at Paris island, Mare island and
Quantico. necessarily their rifles
cracked, and with their fire came the
support of the artillery. The machine
gun fire, incessant also, began to
make it's inroads upon the advancing
forces.
Closer and closer the shrapnel burst
to it's targets. Caught in a seething
wave of machine gun fire, of scatter
ing shrapnel, of accurate rifle fire, the
Germans found themselves in a posi-
ton in which further advance could
only mean absolute suicide. The lines
hesitated They stopped. They broke
for cover, while the marines raked the
woods and ravines in which they had
taken refuge with machine gun and
rife to prevent them making another
attempt to advance by infltrating
through.
Above, French airplane was
checking up on the artillery fire. Sur
prised by the fact that men should de-
liberately set their sights, adjust theil
range, and then fire deliberately at ar
advancing foe, each man picking his
target, instead of firing merely in the
direction of the enemy, the aviator
signaled below "Bravo!" In the real
that word was echoed again anG
again. The German drive on Paris
had been stopped.
For the next few days the fighting
took on the character of pushing
forth outposts and determining thu
strength of the enemy. Now the fight
ing had changed. The Germans, mys
titled that they should have ru1
against stone wall of defense JUS
when they believed that their ad
vance would be easiest, had halted
| amazed; then prepared to defend thu
| positions they had won with all tn
stubbOrness possible.
In the black recesses of Belleal
wood the Germans had established
nest after nest of machine guns. Their
| in the jungle of matted underbrush
/ of vines, of heavy foliage, they ha(
| placed themselves in positions the.
believed impregnable. And this mean
that unless they could be routed, un
less they could be thrown back, tn
breaking of the attack of June wouIt
mean nothing. There would come an
other drive, and another. The battl
| of Chateau Thierry was therefore no
won and could not be won until Bel
leau wood had been cleared of tn,
| enemy.
1t was June 6 that the attack of tn
American troops began against tina
wood and it's adjacent surroundings
with the wood itself and the towns O
horcy and Bouresches forming tn
detectives. At o'clock the attacl
came, and there began the tremendou
sacrifices which the marine corp
gladly suffered that the German fight
ers might be thrown back.
| The marines fought strictly accord
ing to American methods-a rush,
halt, a rush again, in four way for
nation, the rear waves taking owe
the work of those who had fallen be
fore them, passing over the bodies o
their dead comrades and plungin,
ahead until they, too, should be tori
to bits. But behind those waves wer
more waves, and the attack went on
Men fell like flies;" the expression
IS that of an officer writing from tn
| field. Companies that had entered tn
battle ESQ strong dwindled to so an,
go, with a sergeant in command; bu
the attack did not falter At ga
o'clock that night Bouresches wa
taken by Lieut.. James F. Robertson
and twenty-odd men of his platoon
these soon were joined by two rein
forcing platoons. Then came the enc
my counter attacks, but the marine
held
| o.
| In Belleau wood the fighting hat
been literally from tree to tree
stronghold to stronghold; and it wa
a fight which must last for weeks be
fore it's accomplishment in victory
| Belleau wood was jungle, it's ever,
rocky formation forming a German
machine gun nest, almost impossible,
to reach by artillery or grenade fire
There was only one way to wipe
out these nests-by the bayonet Ant
by this method we're they wiped out
for United States marines, bare chest
ed, shouting their battle cry O.
"E-e-e-e- y-a-a-h-h-h yip!" charged
straight into the murderous fire from
those guns, and won!
Out Of the number that charged, il
more than one instance, only one
would reach the stronghold. There
with his bayonet as his only weapon
he would either kill or capture the
defenders Of the nest, and then swing
ing the gun about in it's position, turf
it against the remaining German DO
sitiOns in the forest
Such was the character of the fight
ing in Belleau wood fighting which
continued until July 6, when after 9
short relief the invincible Americans
finally were taken back to the rest
billet for recuperatiOn.
to- l.