eroi

h Infantry, and Captain Lucius M. Phelps, Oil City, of Company G,

Germans fled. The occasional small woods, dotting open country, through which they had been figh

e facing. Scouts having reported that the Germans were preparing to launch an attack in hope of delaying our troops, the general started for a position from which he would be able to see the attack and watch our men meet it. He became c

n formations. Standing on a little ridge, the general saw the young officer, whom he had known for years, going among his men, cheering and encouragin

hts tonight," said the saddened general, and

n night fell, with a fringe of Americans in hiding along the southern edge of the woods. The forest seemed to present

know their approximate positions in order to dispose the forces for a renewal of the assault in the morning. In this emergency

stinted admiration of the men and the warm praise of his superiors. When he found himself near other men he remained silent until a muttered word or even such inconsequent things as the tinkle of a distinctly American piece of equipmen

rawled back to the main American lines, and the report he made enabled his superiors to plan t

ieutenant of his company, when a bullet from a sniper hidden in a tree struck the corporal's gun, was deflected and pierced the lieutenant'

, so he "called it a day," as he remarked, and slept better that night fo

. Hidden in tree tops and under rocks, with even their steel helmets camouflaged in red, green and yello

the forces on the right flank of the 110th, and Sergeant Blake Lightner, Altoona, Pa.,

ought up a machine gun crew, established a snipers' post, re-established the communications, returned to his own

ington, Pa., and Private Boynton David Marchand, Monongahela City, Pa., were sent back with a message for brigade headquarters. When they reached the spot where the headquarters had been they foun

munition, they set out again, and toward morning reached their own ammunition dump and confirmed the message orally. Again they refused a chance to rest, and s

llage of Le Charmel. After violent fighting lasting two hours, during which the village changed hands twice,

d the fighting became hourly more bitter and determined. This, as well as the dense forests, where the Germans had strung a maze of barbed wire from tree to t

wherever possible, to infiltration, by which villages and other posts were pinched off, exactly

a time filter into protected positions close to the enemy until enough have assembled to offer battle, the enemy meanwhile being kept down b

e advancing columns. A headquarters, even of a regiment, is not so mobile as the regiment itself. There is a vast amount of p

guns in some force, held the troops up until the German rear-guards were disposed of. Once they were cleaned up, however, the American advance, hampered only by hidden sharpshooters

big guns, and it was from this cause that the first Pennsylvania officer of the rank of lieutenant-co

office machinery just was getting well into the swing again when a high explosive shell fell in the front yard and thre

enough evidence for Colonel Kemp that his headquarters had been spotted by Boche airmen, f

sive shell scored a direct hit on the building. Seventeen men in the house, including the two German captains, were killed outright. Colonel Kemp and Lieutenant-Colonel Fetzer had left the building and were standing

cer prisoners, was blown clear out of the building into the

n the part of soldiers that it was useless to try to evade the big shells, because if "your number" was on one it would get you, no matter

temporary command of the regiment and won high

th. It had taken shelter for the night of July 28th in a wood just south of Fresne, and early on the morni

the nervousness before action that had marked their first entrance into battle. They had beaten ba

s and comrades who had fallen in the earlier fighting, and it was a grimly-determined and rel

k place. Company M, near the center of the 109th's long line, ran into a strong machine gun nest. The new men who had been brought into the company to fill

ull complement of six commissioned officers, it now was sadly short, for those bitter days bel

officers of the company left in service, so Lieutenant Edward B. Goward, of Philadelphia, had been sent

ear its source, and go up another hill-all in the open. The Boche were intrenched along the edge of

there was no holding them. Here was the first chance they had had since the Marne to square accounts w

utenant Goward ran straight into a stream of machine gun bullets. One struck him in the right shoulder and whirled him around. A second

e of service. He walked directly into the same fire and was mortally wound

urderous fire which had torn gaps in their ranks, but could not stop them. They stamped out the German occupants with as little compunction as one steps

un crews were

ul, scholarly, doing his own thinking at all times. He had been noted for this characteristic when a student at the University of Pennsylvania. Fales, on the other

in the Commune of Cierges, Department of the Aisne, their graves marked by th

egiment. Every mile was contested hotly by Hun rear-guard machine gunners, left beh

e old First, leading Company A of the 109th in a charge, was struck in the left shoul

achine guns in what remained of the houses, firing from windows and doors and housetops. They cleaned

the service for which he was cited officially by General Pershing, winning the D

became incapacitated when the company was in action. Sergeant

Winthrop took command of his company when all his officers were killed or wounded, and handled it with extreme courage, c