The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-08-20

HuVeu Vut Uy ubp tHe He1u Ox GMe
 column clearing the main gate
 of the reservation at 8 .. m. The
 End battalion was acting as the
 body and the End platoon of Go.
 Y. (Cha cid guardD was desig.
 mated as the anti-airc:aft plat-
 soon. In the eveEt that hostile
 planes flew over the column, 1t
 w"s the duty of the End platoon
 immediately open fire after
 jumping under trees on either side
 of the roaa tke same as the rest
 # the command was required to
 do, when the column had reached
 the junction of the lonely road t
 hurried into that road and moved
 westerly as far as the cemetery.
 However Q sign V s on the sole
 bridge over NH pond, notifying us
 that theoretically, the bridge had
 been blown u-. The advance
 guard commander assured that
 if he used logs, timber and blanks
 from . nearby barn to repair the
 bridge sufficiently for the pass
 age of foot troops and send word
 to regimental headquarters wh
 immediately sent up the pioneer section of headquarters company to construct . new gridge over which motor vehicles could pass. The front of the advance guard
 and the advance party assured
 that they waded across the pond
 and took up 6 defensive position
 on the other side which protected
 the men engaged on the bridge.
 The advance then went on until st . point about 100 yards east of the Ridge Broom road; as it was fired on by the enemy ma. chine guns. At this time the End battalion took over the advance guard and the list battalion be. came the main body. Captain Thomas II. Horrigan battalion commander, ordered Lieut.. Rigney to move Company E into the woods to the right with the in. struction of developing the left flank of the enemy, who had an excellent position on the high ground to the west.
 However, be:ore the enveioping movement could get under way the problem was called off and the advance taken up as . route
 march. Proceeding on to the Bride Brook road thence along
 same to the Boston Post road then east on same to the road to the Yale Engineering camp and over that northerly to the ceme. tery on the left thence over Q road to the left in . westerly di. rection to . point near where the road turned off to the defensive position area of earlier in the week. We went into the woods to the east of the Hawkins road which is In the Stones ranch military reservation. The entire truck train and aiI the troops were carefully concealed in the woods and pap tents were pitched by the men. On this march the men carried light packs with only the mess gear and the yaincoats therein. The rolls were carried out by truck as was the kitchen equipment. The welcome sight of the kitchens all set up and ready to serve . good meal put heart into the troop who were quite fatigued after the long march under a hot sun. The march was nine miles In length (about the distance from Waterbury to Cheshire) mostly on hard roads with some very stiff grades to climb. Marching in column is also very fatiguing be- cause of the fact that you are required to keep closed up, must not stop only for the usual ten minute rest at the end of each hour, etc. Also the constant patroiling, double timing, etc., in the first half of the march while the advance guard problem was on to increase the fatigue. After setting up the pup tents and eating dinner, the men and officers were allowed to strip as they pleased, get in their tents and enjoy . few hours sleep. | slept until about 5:3O when was awakened by the buzzing of . bee around my head which I thought was an evening plane.
 Supper was served at 6 D. m. and at ! p. m. a1i officers were re- quired to go with their battalion commanders to make a recon. of the area in which lhe attack of the morning was to take place. Our jump off was to be from the Hill 262, company on the extreme right E next and the lst battalion on our left. The boun- diary between E and c was an old apple tfee (which Captain Peter Fox selected as his post of command) to . dead tree on the edge of the wooded area to the north. We were to march on . magnetic of 2s0 degrees. The company commanders recon nointered their territory to the front. The officers com- pIeted their reconnaissance at Q D. ni., and then went back tO the