A History of Troop A Cavalry, Connecticut National Guard and Its Service in the Great War as Co. D, 102d Machine Gun Battalion

by Unknown

For several nights at the request of Colonel Parker of the 102d Infantry, the forward guns of the Company had been used to lay down barrages of harassing fire on various enemy communicating paths with good results, according to regimental observers. With this feature to prevent their stay becoming monotonous and many new places to explore, the men had not become discontented with the sector, when, on July 18, at an early hour in the morning, word was passed down from headquarters that the Allied offensive was to start at 4:35, shortly after daybreak. This movement was destined to be the start of the great offensive which ended in the signing of the armistice terms by the German powers in November, for at no time after they started their retreat from the Marne salient on that day, did the German armies find the strength to halt the onrushing millions of Foch's men.

It was in the area between Rheims and Soissons that the Crown Prince had succeeded in breaking through the French defenses and by this feat advanced to the Marne at Chateau Thierry, a distance of some twenty miles. The heights about the first two cities remained impregnable and thus a salient was formed which was found difficult to hold as soon as pressure was applied by the Allies.

Preparations for the Allied advance had been going on for some time and had been carried out with the greatest secrecy, so when the blow fell the first few days found the Hun unprepared to make a resistance which could impede the progress of the French and American troops. From the edge of the salient west of Soissons the Xth French Army, with the 1st, 2d, and 4th American Divisions occupied the line down to where the VIth French Army with the 26th American Division was stationed to the left of Chateau Thierry. On the right of Chateau Thierry were the 3d and 28th American Divisions operating also under French command and around the eastern side of the salient extending northward to Rheims were more French troops with Italians and Colonials to apply that arm of the pincers to the imperial forces.

As the 26th Division occupied the curved side of the salient extending from Belleau Wood on the left to and including Vaux on the right, it was forced to wait until the area immediately to its north was taken by the forces occupying the line from Soissons, south to Belleau Wood, and for a like reason the 51st Brigade, holding the right of the divisional sector, was delayed until the 52d Brigade had reached objectives assigned to clear the area to the northeast of its positions.

With all units of the Brigade on the front line, those formerly in reserve to form the first wave of the attack, the order to advance was received at 3:15 on the afternoon of July 20. D Company was assigned to the second battalion of the 102d Infantry and took up a position in the second wave. The victorious operations of the 103d Infantry on the left were visible to the men before they made their attack, so they went in at the designated time with the spirit of victors and the newly fortified knowledge that as individuals or collectively, the Germans were no match for them.

Advancing beyond its objectives, the 102d Infantry found that darkness would leave its flanks exposed, for the 103d had failed to keep the pace, so the machine guns of the Company were called to take up defensive positions on the left of the line occupied by the regiment which had moved for two kilometers in a general northeasterly direction. Private Russ, wounded in both legs by shell fire just before the start of the attack, was the first casualty of the drive. Early the next morning the 103d gained the territory intervening between its line and that of the 102d, and D Company, in the first wave of the attack, continued the advance through shell-splintered woods, piled high with German ammunition and machine guns, meeting no opposition until noon, when it became necessary for the first platoon under Lieutenant Paton to mount its guns and sweep woods where Hun machine gun nests had halted the progress of the troops. This required but a short time, for the German gunners were so discomfited by the fire that they hurriedly withdrew.

Travelling in a northeasterly direction, the Chateau Thierry-Soissons road was crossed in early afternoon, and although this was the objective for the day's advance, the march—for it had become little else—was continued to Verdilly, about ten kilometers north and a little east of Chateau Thierry. The wagon train met the Company on the road and relieved the tired gunners of their loads, for a Hotchkiss machine gun alone weighs sixty-five pounds, and the feat of carrying one a mile or more belonged only to the stalwart. All equipment considered excess had been thrown aside at the start of the advance and packs had been filled with strips of ammunition. The men were tiring fast under the strain of their first real battle, but at 6 o'clock the advance was resumed from Verdilly with the hope that contact with the enemy might be established by nightfall.

North of Verdilly in the direction of Trugny and Epieds the country is broken by hills crowned with forests on both sides of the valley, through which the road leads and the lowlands were largely filled with wheat fields. Here the German made his first determined stand and he was aided by the fact that the American artillery had been unable to keep pace with the advance of the infantry, so that when American forces pressed close he could hold his positions with comparative ease against the onslaughts of infantry defended as they were with countless machine guns.

The bivouac in the woods was made unpleasant for the men by German artillery, which had taken up positions after a headlong flight, and a battery of 75's, manned by French, added to the general din of battle close enough to the sleeping places they had selected to prevent them from gaining a much needed rest.

Lack of artillery again delayed the attack on the morning of the 22d, but it was finally decided to attempt it without artillery preparation and the second section of the second platoon with one squad of the third under command of Lieutenant Nelson started the attack, with C Company of the 102d Infantry leaving the cover of the woods and starting down the slope on the left side of the Verdilly-Epieds road, Trugny being just to the right of the Company sector. The Hun, however, had this part of the terrain well covered with enfilading machine gun and artillery fire from positions in Trugny Wood on the opposite side of the road, and the infantry was forced to withdraw, but D Company's men stayed in the forward positions to cover the doughboys' retreat. Then attempt after attempt was made to dislodge the enemy but all efforts failed because he had more bullets than the 102d Infantry had men. Continuing to hold the positions they had taken early in the day under the hottest fire they had ever experienced, Corporal Malone's squad all became casualties with the exception of Coady and Gonsior. Kapitzke and Callahan were killed in succession as they took up their posts at the gun and the rest of the men suffered from shell shock and the gas which the Germans used freely to prevent an advance with the wheat for cover.