"GOT" WHOLE PLATOON
On June 3 the Sergeant in charge of one of our platoons at the iron bridge saw a German platoon of about fifty men forming on top of a hill. They made a beautiful target, according to the Sergeant's story today. He and his companions believe he got them all.
The enemy brought more artillery up by night and began a terrific shelling to culminate in what appeared to be an attempted attack. The French artillery sprinkled the opposite bank of the river with a barrage which the "novice" American fighters called beautiful. They thought it was less than a hundred yards away, and stood up to watch it, and there wasn't any attack.
The French engineers on this night laid a charge under the iron bridge while the American guns laid down a leaden protective barrage. When the charge was detonated the Germans rushed forward from the house to ascertain the cause of the explosion. It was here that a prearranged petrol flare lit up the vicinity like day, and again American machine gunners had what they insist on calling "targets."
"I was impressed by many things," a company's Captain said. "First of all, the coolness of every man, and especially of a young Georgia theological student who had been drafted, who on the third day complained because the boche shells kept mussing up his gun position. Second, the attitude of those wonderful French colonial troops with us. They gave us inspiration. They said we gave them inspiration; so it was a fifty-fifty exchange. Third, that beautiful French barrage and our wonderful 'targets.'"
Capture of Belleau Wood
Brilliant Exploit of American Troops Northwest of Château-Thierry
The American troops achieved their most important exploit on June 6, 7, and 8 in the region northwest of Château-Thierry. Here they drove back the Germans for nearly two miles along a front of several miles, took from them the important Belleau Wood, captured over 1,000 prisoners, successfully resisted and seriously demoralized two crack divisions of Prussians which had been picked especially to punish them, and effectively blocked a desperate attempt of the Germans to break through the line, an attempt which, if successful, would have given them an open road toward Paris and created a situation of extreme peril to the Allies. Edwin L. James, a correspondent of The New York Times, described this achievement as follows:
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There was considerable wonderment among French and American officers last week when it was discovered that the crack 5th Guard and 28th German Divisions were in front of us. It was generally believed then that the Germans planned no immediate attempt to advance northwest of Château-Thierry, and there was much speculation as to why Hindenburg had sent these troops there. This is now explained by a captured German officer's statement, and is substantiated by documents found on him. He said these two divisions already were on their way to the rear for a four weeks' rest, to take part in another offensive, when suddenly they were ordered to go at once to the front northwest of Château-Thierry, "in order to prevent at all costs the Americans being able to achieve success."
TERRITORY BETWEEN THE TWO DARK LINES WAS WON BACK IN HEAVY FIGHTING BY AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND MARINES
This showed the anxiety of the German High Command regarding the effect that an American success would have on the German Army and the populace, and of the great desirability of preventing such a happening.