One important engagement occurred June 12th, which the soldiers called the million dollar raid, because they thought the preparatory barrage of the Germans must have cost all of that. The Germans came over, probably believing they would find the Negro outfit scared stiff. But the Negro lads let them have grenades, accurate rifle fire and a hail from some concealed machine gun nests. Sergt. Bob Collins was later given the Croix de Guerre for his disposition of the machine guns on that occasion.
While holding the sector of Hauzy Wood, the 369th was the only barrier between the German army and Paris. However, had there been an attempt to break through, General Gouraud, the French army commander, would have had strength enough there at once to stop it. About this time everyone in the Allied armies knew that the supreme German effort was about to come. It was felt as a surety that the brunt of the drive would fall upon the 4th French Army, of which the 369th regiment and other portions of the American 93rd Division were a part. This army was holding a line 50 kilometers long, stretching between Rheims and the Argonne Forest. It was the intention of the Germans to capture Chalons and then proceed down the Marne Valley to Paris. It was expected that the big German drive would begin on July 4th, but as it turned out it did not begin until the night of the 14th—the French national holiday.
On July 1st, the 369th had been moved from its sector further toward the east where the center of the attack was expected. Upon the 14th of July the French made a raid for the purpose of getting prisoners and information. This had a tremendous effect upon the whole course of the war, for through it General Gouraud's staff learned that at midnight the Boche artillery preparation was to begin, and at 5:25 o'clock on the morning of the 15th the Germans were coming over the top.
This phase of the operation is described by Col. Hayward as follows:
"This is what Gen. Gouraud—Pa Gouraud we called him—did: He knew the Boche artillery would at the appointed hour start firing on our front lines, believing as was natural, that they would be strongly held. So he withdrew all his forces including the old 15th, to the intermediate positions, which were at a safe distance back of the front lines. Then, at the point where he expected would be the apex of the drive he sent out two patrols, totalling sixteen men.
"These sixteen had certain camouflage to perform. They were to set going a certain type of French machine gun which would fire of its own accord for awhile after being started off. They were to run from one of these guns to the other and start them. Also the sixteen were to send up rockets, giving signals, which the Germans of course knew as well as we. Then again they were to place gas shells—with the gas flowing out of them—in all the dugouts of the first line. Meanwhile the French artillery had registered directly on our own front trenches, so that it could slaughter the Germans when they came across, believing those trenches to be occupied as usual.
"Everything worked out as expected, and as luck had it, most of those gallant sixteen Frenchmen got back safely.
"Five minutes before the Germans started their artillery preparation for the drive Gen. Gouraud started his cannon going and there was a slaughter in the German lines. Then when the German infantry crossed to our front line trenches (now entirely vacant) they were smashed up because the French guns were firing directly upon these positions, which they knew mathematically. And those of the Boche who went down in the dugouts for safety were killed by the gas which the Frenchmen had left there for them.
"This battle—the supreme German drive—raged over eighty-five kilometers (51 miles). West of Rheims the enemy broke through the line, but they did not break through anywhere in Gen. Gouraud's sector. Stonewall Gouraud stopped them. The American units which took in the defense that was so successful were the 42nd Division, including the gallant 69th of New York, who were to the west of us, our own little regiment, and the American Railroad Artillery.
"That was the turning point of the war, because soon thereafter began Marshal Foch's great counter thrust, in which the 1st and 2nd American Divisions participated so wonderfully about Belleau Wood, Chateau-Thierry and that district. Gouraud in my belief, turned the tide of the war, and I am proud that the New York City colored boys had a share of that vital fight.
"Right here I may say that this orphan, urchin regiment of ours placed in the pathway of the Boche in the most significant battle the world has ever known, had only thirty-seven commissioned officers, and four of those wounded, had to be carried in stretchers to their positions in the trenches in order to direct the fighting."
Colonel Hayward was himself in the hospital with a broken leg. Disregarding the orders of the surgeons he went to the front line on crutches and personally directed his men in the fight. In all of his written and quoted utterances since the war, he has refrained from mentioning this fact, but it is embodied in the regimental records.
Shortly after the French national holiday, the 369th was sent about 15 kilometers west to a position in front of the Butte de Mesnil, a high hill near Maison en Champagne, occupied by the Germans. Around that district they held half a dozen sectors at different times with only one week of rest until September 26th.
Artillery duels were constant. It is related that near the Butte de Mesnil the regiment lost a man an hour and an officer a day from the shell fire of the Boche. So accurate were the gunners handling the German 77s that frequently a solitary soldier who exposed himself would actually be "sniped" off by a cannoneer.
In the September fighting the 369th saw the toughest period of its entire service. In company with a Moroccan Negro unit and others, the regiment participated in the attack on the Butte de Mesnil. The New Yorkers took the important town of Sechault and it was for that exploit that their flag was decorated with the Croix de Guerre.
Throughout the western Argonne fighting and the various sectors of the Champagne in which the 369th operated, especially during the months of July, August and September, their service was typical of that of other units of the 93rd Division. The going was tough for all of them and each contributed everlasting fame to American arms and undying renown to the Negro race.