New Britain herald., 1922-05-19
CANTIGNY, FRANCE,
 MEMORIAL SCHOOL
Where Americans 'Went Over the
 Top" to Be Remembered

Washington, n. C.. May la,-A modern prototype of Americas little red schoolhouse" will crown the hill at Cantigny. France. where American soldiers first entered the western front as a fighting unit
 The National Geographic society will erect at the tiny village of Cam tigny a school house as a memorial | to the American soldiers who fought there and as a further emblem of Amerca's historic friendship for France.
 Pcrshing Picks Place.
 In announcing the action Of the so- ciety's board of trustees Gilbert Gros- | venor, president of the National Geo. graphic society. stated that the se- lection of the town was determined | upon recommendation of General Pershing
 During the war members of the National Geographic society contrib uted S2o,o to be expended for the establishment and equipment of wards at American Military Hospital No. 1. at Neully, France. When the armistice was signed only Sl0 ,00o of llt lulI Ildl bttll tAptHutl. "A tOlll- | mittee of the society considered care- fully the most fitting and useful ex- penditure of the remaining sl0,0oo of this fund and, after consultation with | General Pershing, it was determined | that the spot where Europe first saw the valor of Americas youth would | be an appropriate site for the build ing of Americas characteristic insti- tuition of peace.
 First Thrill There.
 At Cantigny the First American Di- vision first went over the top and | began to share in. Foch's sturdy re- sistance which held the Germans back, then defeated them. and won the war It will be recalled tSat the German general staff had ordered | that the heart be taken out of the | Americans at any cost when, they first showed up as a unit along the fight ing front. Therefore, when orders | came for the Americans to iron out | the salient at Cantigny what might | have been a skirmish turned into a terrific struggle during which the Germans rallied thousands of men and threw 19,000 shells into the town. Even after the Americans took the town they had to hold it against six counter attacks by the exasperated Germans.
 Generals View Expressed.
 General Pershing. in his official re- port of the engagement at Cantigny, called it "a brilliant action" and said that it demonstrated our fighting qualities under extreme battle condi- TIa n, ,,,,ir. gave high praise to American cour- age, valor and soldierly qualities. The German war office merely referred to the Americans as the enemy"
 The London Times History of the War" has this to say of the Ameri- cans at Cantigny:
 History of War.
 "The st Division, fresh from the Toul training sector, had relieved the 18th French African Division from north of Mesnil St Georges to just north of Catnigy in that sector, facing Montdidier and south of Amiens, where the undulating country broken here and there with sparse woods af- forded the opportunity for a fierce de- fense after the open vastness of the Somme valley. They had, after the Amiens drive settled down into the game of exchanging shells across the green, stood up to a daily lombard ment of every kind of cannon. At last the chance, welcome after much sit ting in trenches. Cantigny, small but proud on its green eminence, over- looking with a mouth of fire the whole countryside, was to be taken Never did men rise so eagerly out of trenches to go forward than those Americans Through gas, through a cloud of machine gun bullets, follow ing close behind their barrage they steadily ascended the slopes of the village and sheltered themselves in the cemetery when the village was theirs. Cantigny was small isolated action with little immediate signif- canoe. But the village was the first ever captured by American troops in Europe, and the lesson that the Ger mans learned was the first they had received from the youth of America"
 Cantigny sets on a hill near Mont didier, and is twenty miles southeast of Amiens Even before the Ameri- cans took it the village had been de- vastated during an heroic French re- sistance.