In Every After Battle
Having been inducted into the firing line, the 26th had no surcease, but took part in every subsequent battle up to the signing of the armistice, missing the promised rest, time after time, owing to the exigencies of the campaigns. And according to the complaint of a captured German lieutenant, they did not always play the game right. On one occasion the moment an enemy barrage was lifted, a body of Yankees darted ahead and actually nabbed some of the advancing Huns, the lieutenant included. He sputteringly said in reproach of these tactics, “They should not have been where they were. They were coming right through our own barrage, and might have been wiped out.”
That the Americans were so apt to be “where they shouldn’t have been” was greatly disconcerting to the Huns more than once. They did things in such an unconventional way, acting so much on individual initiative that they frequently spoiled the precise calculations of the German machine. The French had greater appreciation of the Yankee method. The commanding officer of the 32nd French said this of the 26th:
“I salute its colors and thank it for the splendid services it has rendered here to the common cause. Under the distinguished command of their chief, General Edwards, the high-spirited soldiers of the Yankee Division have taught the enemy some bitter lessons at Bois Brulé, at Seicheprey, at Xivray Marvoisin; they have taught him to realize the staunch vigor of the sons of the great republic fighting for the world’s freedom.”
The division was also in the Château-Thierry battle. Mr. Le Due writes:
“On the 9th the fighting on this new field began. The Boche, in the early morning, swept down into Vaux and established machine-gun posts.
“‘You’ve got to drive those (censored) out of there or we’ll be the laughing-stock of the division,’ was the word sent out by Colonel Logan. And so the driving began.
“That fight for Vaux will be long remembered—a picturesque fight, with groups of men rushing here and there, cleaning up snipers and machine-gunners, rushing hostile positions; overhead the roar of the American barrage, below the hum of countless machine guns. The clean-up was thorough.
“Three days later Foch’s famous counter-offensive began—on July 18, at 4:25 in the morning.
“The night before, at ten o’clock, a terrific thunder-storm had broken. Lightning flashed and rain fell in sheets. But in the morning there came a clearing, and when the fated hour approached there was a rosy flush on the morning sky. Commanders wore an anxious look. A surprise had been planned, and a clear day was not to their liking. But just before the time set a heavy mist began to descend. All was well.
“A gun spoke; then the roar from a hundred, a thousand iron-throated messengers of death. The creeping barrage had opened. The infantry was to attack simultaneously.
“The Yanks moved forward on the left, pivoting upon their own right, held by the 101st, in front of Vaux. The 102d came next; but it was the boys of the 103d and 104th, on the left, that did the early fighting.
“‘We are in Torcy,’ was the first message sent back. Then came a delay. A hitch had taken place; but by nine o’clock Bouresches, Belleau, and Givry were in the hands of the Yankees.
“The first objectives taken, preparations were at once made for a further advance. But the French, to the north, had been held up. On the 19th there was no forward movement until three in the afternoon. Hill 193, above Givry, where the French were held up, was passed on the flank, causing the Germans to fall back. Etrepilly and Etrepilly Woods were reached, taken, and passed. So, too, Genetrie Farm and the woods close by La Halmadière.
“In the night of the 19th there was another halt. Then forward again at daybreak, with the 101st and 102d Infantry getting into action late this day, and sweeping forward, through Vaux and the woods close to Bouresches, they crossed the Soissons-Château-Thierry road, and by the 22d found themselves in front of Epieds and Trugny.