Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1919-03-14
sd Fought Way
ToOurcqHeights
Thence to Vesle
Continued from First Page.)

ed, while battalions of the 10th, 121st
and 147th Field Artillery were also
echeloned in advanced positions so that
the Infantry, in going forward, would
at no time be without prompt artillery
support.
Directing its march upon the small
town of Fismes, on the south bank OF
the vesle, about halfway between Sois-
sons and Reims, the 32nd pushed on,
and at 10 a. m. the advance Of the 127th
Infantry, leading the Gath Brigade, was
nearly into st. Giles, and the 63rd Bril-
gade was at Resson Farm, at which
points both were overcoming machine
gun resistance, while the men OF the
attached battalions of the 10th Engin-
GERS were working at top speed to re-
pair the broken bridges and roads and
permit the supplies to come up.
But the congestion of the traffic OF
several divisions advancing in close
proximity to one another and the con-
ditions of the roads after several days
of heavy rains made the supply problem
a very hard one, and often the tired
men had to go hungry.
OVERLOOKING THE VESLE
Before p. m. the front line was on
the bluffs overlooking the Vesle, hav-
ing advanced nearly eight kilometers,
and it was ordered to reach the river,
capture Fismes and at once organize
means for crossing the river. But this
was more easily directed than accom-
plished. The Vesle here was Is meters
wide, very deep and rapid, and, as later
developed, lined on both banks and al
so in the bottom of the stream with
masses of barbed wire.
Fismes itself, a solidly-built manu-
featuring town of, normally, about $500
people, so ancient that its very name is
a corruption of the old Roman name,
Fines Suessionum, as well as every
other village, farm and natural strong
point in the southern half OF the river
valley, was held by the enemy in force,
while, as for the northern half, it was
a maze of machine gun nests from the
shore to the hills, where the emplace-
ments of the serried batteries of artil-
lery began.
For two nights and two days the ex-
hausted men of the 32nd Division strug-
gled, first, to obtain a footing on the
bank of the river, and then to cross it.
The 128th Infantry, attacking Fismes
in the night of August 3-4, but repulsed
with heavy losses, was relieved by the
l27th Infantry, which, late on the after
noon of the 4th, led by such officers as
1st 1t. Roy C. Dickop, who, after being
MORALLY wounded, gave the order,
"Charge," and led the assault of his
company until he fell dead, succeeded
in getting one battalion through the
town. 1t dug in on the river bank and
stayed there under an unceasing storm
of machine gun fire and an artillery
bombardment which was also sweeping
all the roads in the rear as far back as
Dravegny.
PATROLS REACH RIVER
Meantime, the 125th Infantry, in the
left sector, was held to the bluffs by
the enemy's fire, except for a few
patrols which reached the river. Thru
the gallantry of officers like End Its.
G. w. Huffman and j. S. Cotton, and
Sgt. w. A. Hartman, and the other en-
listed men who accompanied them, the
10th Engineers had already thorough
ly reconnoitered sites for pontoon
bridges at Fismes, and by the morning
of the fifth they had bridge material
ready to lay, but as no wagons could
live in the town, and the north bank OF
the river was not secured, the material
was not sent up too close.
During the 5th the French division
on the right succeeded in occupying
the southern bank in its sector in force
while Col. Langdon, of the 127th In
fantry, and Gen. Robert Alexander,
who had succeeded Gen. Conner in
of the 63rd Brigade, labored
to build up line on the north bank by
gradually passing individuals and small
groups across the river.
BY that evening the losses in the long
battle had been so severe that the 127th
Infantry had less than 400 effectives
left, and the other regiments were not
In much better case, while the state OF
exhaustion of the whole division was
such that the Third United States Corps
since August commanding in place OF
the 38th French Corps, ordered it re-
ieved by the 18th United States Divis-
on, and ii retired for rest to the area
Dravegny and Cierges, the
general of the 18th Divis-
on taking command of the Fismes Sec
Tor at daylight, August Z.
ATTACK ON JUvIGNY
There remains to be mentioned to the
.