Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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at Clo^e Ranee v ( r escribed In a RemarkaWe' <5erie3 Dy an Officer of Hie Marinea —* /"V Capi. JoKnW , ^ Tkomaj(on,Jr. /fllu«irahrci by the Author trom yketcK** Mad* or the BatNef<< T.800 ofleen tod mea; this brigade took fart la aome rerjr tateresttog erenta. Hereafter I have written of the marine* la the war with Germ: e ; how they went np. and what they did there, and how some of them came out again. Being a marine, I have ' v ) «• gmopa: they were old heardejl fal' laws of forty had forty-Ore, tofrttor- lala; or mean, nnpleaannt-lookliig Al gerians. such troops as are pat In ‘to hold a quiet sector. Seven or tight divisions of them had been In the line between Sotssons and Kneiina, watch was, until May 2T, a qnlet lector. On that day forty-odd division a, a , ^ 1 Qipyr^U /fU ty SW Je//Jji i Xu. Editor's Note: This story Is a areas section of th* war. As Captain Thomason is a marine officer, natur ally the actual names, dat*s,_and places mentioned will bear a definite relation te marine activities in Prance; there It no intention, how. ever, to overshadow the rest of the fighting American units. Thla story is a Marine etory, because th# author ia only familiar with the combat ex. parlances of hlr own men—but every doughboy who saw service in the war will recognize theee experiences and encounters as similar to Ha own. INTRODUCTION Seven years after the w«r, across the world fi'oro France, I met a major of. the American general staff, who was on the Parls-Metx road that last week In May. 1918. and saw the, hoys going In. "They looked fine, com ing In there.” he said. ’Tall fel lows, healthy and fit — they looked hard and compe tent. We watched you going In, through those lit tle tired French men. and we all felt better. We knew something was going to hap pen—” end we were silent over Chilean wine. In a place on the South Ta'dAc, thinking of those days and those men. . . . There la no sight In all the pag eant of war like young, trained meu going to battle. The columna look eolld and businesslike. Rich battalion la nn entity. 1.200 men of one purpose. They go on like a rlvar that flowa from every sort of .calling. TbWP were northwesternera with s\raw-col-. ored hair that looked white against their tanned skins, and delicately spoken chaps with the stamp of the eastern universities on them. There were large-boned fellows from Pacific coast lumber camps, and tall, lean southerners who swore aihazlngly In gentle, drawling voices. There were husky farmers from the corn-belt, and youngsters who had sprung, as It were, to arms from the necktie coun ter. And there were also a number of diverse people who ran curiously to type, with drilled shoulders and a hone-deep sunburn, and a tolerant scorn for nearly everything on earth. Their speech was flavored with navy words, and words culled from all the folk who live on the seas and the ports wh#e our warships go. In easy hours theft* talk ran from the Tartar wall beyond Pekin to the southern Islands, down under Manila; from Portsmouth Navy yard—New Hamp shire and very cold—to obsenre bush whacking* 4n the West Indies, where f'acao chiefs, whimsically sanguinary, barefoot generals with names like t'harlemagne and Thrlstophe. waged war according to the precepts of the French revolution and the Cult of the Snake. They drank the esu de vie of llaute-Marne. and reminisced on aaki, and vino, and Bacardi rum-strange drinka In strange cantinas at the far ends of the earth; and they spoke fondly of Milwaukee beer. Rlflea were high apd holy- thing* to them; they alto talked patronizingly of the war, and were concerned about ratlona. They were the I^athernecka, the Old Timers; collected from ship's guards and shore stations all over the earth to form the Fourth brigade of ma rines. the two rifle regiments, detached from the navy by order of the Presi dent for service with the American Kipedltlonary Forces. They were the old breed of American regular, re garding the service as home and war .... . . tidal wave of fighting Germans, with tried to set forth tlmple tale, without ^ mlllerr MAOotrmUoo comment. It la uoneceqaary to write " what I think of tpy own people, qoj- would it i be, perhaps, ' In the beat thste. And l have written of marines in this war because they are the folks I know about mysetf. Those battle- fields were very large, and a man seldom saw much or very far beyond his own unit. If he had a job In band. As a company officer, I always had a Job. There is no Intent to overlook those very gallant gentlemen, our friends, the army. Their story Is ours, too. JOHN W. THOMASON, JR. very deep and strong. .I’nlforma are _ dr . nh l l h .***_ ^ r V*! Bt J h * r V r, ‘ ^ 0,D,, ‘ h« an ’o^’upatl'onVand they transmit ted their temper and character and of light on the helmets and the bayo nets, and light In the quick, steady eyes and the brown young faces, greatly daring There la no alnglng— veterans know, ami they do not sing much—and there I* no excitement at hH ; they are aclutoled craftsmen, gn'ng up to Impove their will, with the tool* of their trade, on another lot of fellows; ami there la nothing to make a fits* about. Battle* are not salubrious place*, ami every file know* that a great many more are going In than will come out again — hut that la along with the Job. And they have no Illusions about (be Job. There la nothing particularly glori ous about sweaty fellows, laden with killing tools, going along to fight. And yet—such a column-represents a great deal more than 28,000 Individuals mustered Into a division. All that Is behind those men is In that column, too: the old battles, long forgotten, vdtw secured our nation—Brandywine Trenton and York town. Sun ^^qjnto and Chnpultopec. Gettysburg, fblckamanga. Antletnm. Kl Caney; scores of skirmishes nearly every year—In which a man can he killed ns dead ns ever a chap was In the Argonne; traditions of things endured and things accomplished, such as reg iments hand down forever; and the faith of men und the love of women; and that abstract thing called patriot ism, which I never beard combat sol diers mention—all this passes into the forward zone, to the point of contact, where war Is girt with horrors. And common men endure these horrors and overcome them, along with the Insistent yearnings of the belly and the reasonable promptings of fear; and In this. I think, is glory. They tell the tale of an American lady of notable good works, much es teemed by the French, who, at the end of June, 1918, visited one of the field - hospitals behind Degoutte’s Sixth French army. Pegoutte was fighting on the face of the Marne sal ient and the second American division, then in action around the Bois de , Belleau, northwest of Chateau Thierry, was under his orders. It hap pened that occasional casualties of the Marine brigade of the Second American division, wounded toward . the flank where Degoutte’s. own hori zon-blue Infantry Joined on, w^re picked up by French stretcher bear ers and evacuated to French hospitals. And thla lady, looking down a long, crowded ward, saw on a pillow a face unlike the fiercely whiskered Gallic heads there displayed In rows. h." the aald, "surely you are an rlcan!” 'No. ma’am ” the casualty an- awered. ‘Tm a marine.” The men who marched up the Parla* Meta road to meet the Boche In that aprtng of 1918, the Fifth and Sixth reglnieots of United States marinea, gathered from virloui piactf. 19 viewpoint to the high-hearted volun teer mas* which filled the ranks of the Marine brigade. It is a pleasure to record that they found good company In the army. The Second Division (I'nlted Stxte* Regular was the oftlrlal designation) "was composed of the Ninth and Twenty-third Infantry, two old regl ment.x with names from all of <>ur wars on their battle Hag*, thV Second Going Over. regiment of engineers—and eogineecs are always good—and the Twelfth. Fifteenth, and Seventeenth field artil lery. It was a division distinguished by the quality of dash and animated by an especial pride of service. It carried to a high degree esprit de corps, which some Frenchman has de fined ns esteeming your own corps and looking down on all the other corps. And although It paid heavily in easyaltles for the things it did— in five months about 100 per cent— the Second division never lost its pro fessional character. In 1917, when trained soldiers In the United States were at a premium, the navy offered a brigade of marines for service In France; It was regard ed desirable for marine officers to have experience In large operations with the army; for It Is certain that’ close co-operation between the army and the navy is a necessary thing in these days of far-flung battle lines The British distress at Gallipoli is a crying witness to this principle. In a navy transport, therefore. 'United States Ship Henderson, the Fifth reg iment of marines embarked for France In June, 1917, with th* first armed v American force*. The Sixth marines followed. The two regiments conatituted the Fourth brigade, and served Inrihe Secoed division. United States Regular, until the division came home. In Auguet, 1919. About 30,000 marinea were sent to France: some 14,000 of these Went at replace- iqeata to maintain the two regiment* the big war companies, 250 strong, you coaid find every sort of man, CHAPTER I x -•* Attack. In the fields near Marigny marines of the First Battalion of the Fifth found an amiable cow. There had been nothing In the way of ration* that day; there were bo prospects. All hands took thought and designated a robust Polish corporal as excution- er. He claimed to have been a butcher in a former existence. He was leading the cow decently away from the road when a long gray car boomed up, halt ed with the touch of swank that -Headquarters chauffeurs always af fect, and disgorged a very angry colonel. “Lieutenant, what are you doing there—’’ he yelled. “Sir, you see, ihe men haven’t had anything to eat, and I thought, sir— we found tills cow wanderin’ around —we couldn't find any owner—we’d like to chip in and buy her—we were goin’ to—” “I see. sir, I see! You were going to kill this cow, the property of some woithy French family. You will bear In mind, lieutenant, that w‘e are in France to protect the lives and prop erty of our allies from the Germans— Release that animals st once! Your rations will be distributed as soon as possible—carry on—” The colonel de* parted, and four or five 77s crashed into a little wood two hundred yards up the road. There were more sheila In the same place "HI! Brother Boche must think there's s battery over there!"—"Well, there ain't—" the ma rines sat down In the wheat and ob served the cow, abandoned by a van ished French family. "I was a quartermaster sergeant once, sir," said the platoon sergeant dreamily. “I remember Just what the cuts of beef are. There’d be fine sir loin on that cow-critter, now. . . . Mr. Ashby (another flight of 77s burst In the wood). If we was to take that cow over an’ tie her In that brush— she oughten to be out here in the open, anyway—might draw fire . . . shell's liable to hit anything, you know, sir—” "Sergeant, you heard what the colonel aald. Rut If you think she'd be safer—I'd suggest volunteers. And &y the way. sju-geunt. I want a piece of tenderloin^he T hone part—" The cow was duly secured In the wood, men risking their lives there by. The Boche shelled methodically for two lioufs. and the marines were reduced to a fearful state of nerves— "Is that dam' heifer gonna live for ever?—” Two of three kilometers away fighting was going on. The lieu tenant, with Ida glass, picked up fur, running figure* on tlw slope of a hill. You caught a flicker, pqjnts of light on the gray-green fields—bayonets. Occasional wounded Frenchmen wan dered hack, weary, bearded men. very dirty. They looked with dulf eye* at the Americans—'Tres mauvais, la- has! Beaucoup Boche. la—” The ma rines were not especially Interested. Their regiment had been a year in France, training Now they, too, were dirty and tired and very hungry. The war would get along ... It always had. A week ago. Memorial day, there had been no drills. The Second Divi sion, up from a tour In the quiet Ver dun trenches. rested pleasantly around .Bourmont. Rumors of an at tack by tile First division, at Cantig- ny, filtered in. Oantigny was a town up toward Montdidier. Notions of geo graphy were the vaguest—but It was • in the north, where all the heavy fighting was. It appeared that the Second was going up to relieve the First. . . . "Sure! \v,e’ll relieve ’em. But if they wanted a fight, why dl(Jn[t they let us kno\i* in the first place? —We'd a-showed ’em what shock troops (-an do!” . .„ The division set out In camions; in the neighborhood of Meaux they were turned around and sent out the Paris- Metz road, along which the civilian population from the country between the Chemin des Dames and the Marne, together with the debris of a French army, was coming hack. The civilians walked with their faces much on their shoulders, and there was horror In their eyes. The' marines took notice of another side of war. . . . . “Hard on poor folks, war la." “You said It!"— “Say—think about my folks, an’ your folks, .out on the road like that!..." “Yeh. I’m thlnkln’ about it An* when we meet that Boche, I'id goona do something about I!—Look—right nlce-lookln' girt, yonder!" •^hefe^Yrero French soldiers in the rout tod. Ne^fly all were wounded, or In the last stages of exhaustion. They did not appear to be first-line the Boche ever effected, were flung upon them, and they were swept away, as a levee goes before a flool They had fought; they bad come back, fighting, thirty-five qjllee tg three days; and the Boche, thpngh slowed up, was etlll advancing. They were holding him along the Marne, and at Chateao-Thterry a machine- gun battalion of the American Third dlvialoo was piling up hie dead in heapa around the bridge-heads bnt to the northwest he was still coming. And to the northwest the Second Di vision was gathering. Turing the second, third and fdhrth of June It grouped itself, first the Fourth bri gade of marines, with some guns, and then the regular Infantrymen of tbe Ninth and Twenty-third. Already, around Hautevesnes, t^ere had been a brush with ^advancing Germans, and tbe Germans were given a new experience: rifle-fire that begins to kill at 800 yards; they found It very Interesting. This was June 5; the bat talion near Marigny, on the left of the Marine Brigade, had a feeling that they were going iq tomorrow. . . . The men thought lazily on events, and lounged in the wheat, "and watched that clump of trees—and at last an agonized bellow came on the echo of a bursting shell— “Well— she’s stopped one! Thought she musta dug in— “Le’s go get It—" Presently there was lots of steak, and later a bitter lesson was repeated —mustn’t build cooking-fires with green wood, where the Boche can see the amoke. But everybody lay down on fall bellies. Before dark the last French were falling back. Some time during the night Brigade sent battle orders to the First battalion of the Fifth marines, and at dawn they were in a wood near Champlllon. Nearly every man had atenks In his mess-pan. and there jvas hope for cooking them for breakfast Instead. . . . Tbe piatooni came out of the woods as dawn was getting gray. The light was strong when they advanced Into the open wheat new all starved with dewy popples, red as blood. To the east the sud appeared. Immensely red and round, a handbrendtfi above the horizon; a German shell burst black acrosa the face of it. Just to tbe left of the Una Men turned their (leads to see, and many there looked no more upon the sun forever. “Boys, lt*s a fine, dear morntn’l Guess we can chow after we get done molestin' these here Relates. heyY'— One old non-com—was it Jerry Finnegan of the. Forty-ninth?—had out a can of salmon, hoarded somehow against hard times. He haggled it open with his bayonet, and went forward so, eating chunks of goldfish from off that wicked knife. Two hours later S<fgeaDt Jerry Finnegan lay dead across a Maxim gun with his bayonet in the body of tbe gunner. . It was a beautiful deployment, lines all dressed and guiding true. Such matters were of deep concern to thla outfit. The day was without a cloud, promising heat later, but now It was pleasant In the wheat, and the woods around looked blue afid cool. Across this wheatfleld there were more woods, and In the edge of these woods the old Boche. lots of him. In fantry and machine-guns. Surely he had seen the platoons forming a few hundred yards away—It la possible that he did not believe hla eyes. He let them come close before be opened flrp. The American fighting man has lil* failings. - He ia prone to many r* grettable errors. But the engarious enemy will never let him get close enough ta see whom he is attacking. When hephas teen the enemy, the American regular will come on in. To atop him yop must kill him. And when he Is properly trained and has somebody to say “Come on I” to him, he will stand as much killing as any body on earth. Tbe platoons, assailed now by a fury of small-arms fire, narrowed their eyes an(^Inclined their bodies forward, like men In heavy rain, and went on. Second waves reinforced the first fourth waves the third, as prescribed. Officers yelled “Battle- eight! fire at will"—and the leaders, making out green-gray, clumsy uni forms and round pot-helmets in the gloom of the woods, took It up with Springflelds, aimed shots. Automatic riflemen brought their chaut-chauts into action from the hip—a chaut- chaut is as accurate from the Mp ea It ever is—and wrangled furiously with , their ammunition-carriers — “Come on, kid—hag o’ clips!—" "Aw —I lent It tCLEd to carry, last night —didn't thlnls—" "Yeh, and Ed lent It to a fence-post when he got tired— get me some off a casualty, before I—” A 1 very respectable volume of fire came from the advancing pla toons. There was yelling and swear ing In the wheat^ and the Jines, much thinned, got Into tbe woods. Some grenades went off; there was scream ing and a tumult, and the "taka-taka- taka-taka" of the Maxim guns died down. “HI l Sergeant i—bold on 1 Major aald be wanted aome prison- era—" "Well, air, they looked like they was gonna “ atari somethin’—" i "All right! All right I but yoir catch aome alive tbe next place, you hear?—"Quickly, now get aome kind of a Has " “Can't make four Wana " "Wen, make two—an’ put the e&autrchaots la the second—bo we get tin’ 'em bumped off before we - and corporal* commanding A spray of fugitive Beebe went he- fere the -attack, bolding where the grennd offered cover, working hla light machine ■gone with devfUah *km, retiring, on the whole, commendably. He had not expected to fight n defen- stvo battle here, and was not heavily Intrenched, but the place was stiff with his troops, and be was in good quaNty, as marine casualty Hats ware presently to show. There was more wheat, slid more woods; and obscure ravage fighting among Individuals in tbe brushy ra- vine. The attack, especially the in board platoons of the Forty-ninth and Sixty-seventh companies, burst from the trees upon a gentle slope of wheat (that mounted to a crest of orderly pine, black against the sky. A three- cornered coppice this side of the pices commanded the elope; now It blazed with machine-gun^ and rifles; the air was populous with wicked keening noises. / • Moot of tho front waves went down; all hands, very sensibly, flung themselves prone. ‘‘Can’t walk up to these babies—" "No—won’t be enough of ua left to get on with the —’’ “Pass the word: crawl for ward, keeplu’ touch with the man on your right 1 Fire where you can—" Sweating, hot, and angry with a bleak, cold anger, the marines worked forward. They were there, and the Germans were there. An offi cer, risking his head above tbe wheat, observed progress, and detached a corporal with his squad -Jo get for ward by the flank. “Get far enough past the flank gun, now, close as yob can, and rush it—we’ll keep it busy." . . . Nothing sounds as mad as rifle- fire, staccato, furious— The corporal judged that he was far enough, and raised with a yell, his squad leaping with him. He was not past the flank; two guns swung that way, and cut the squad down Ilka a grass-hook levels a clump of weeds. . . . They lay there for day*, eight marinea In a dozen yards, face down on thetr rifles. But they had done their Job. The men In the wheat were 'dose enough to use the spllt-oecond inter val In the firing. They got In, curs ing end stabbing.- Meanwhile, to the left a little group of men lay In the wheat under the very mnzzle of a gun that clipped the stalks around their ears and rid dled their combat pecko—firing high by a matter of Inches and the mercy of God. A man can stand Just so much *of that Life presently ceases to be desirable; the only desirable thing la to kill that gunner, kill him with your hagdfj One of tbeng, * corporal named Geer, aald"*: "By God, let's get hUnl" And they got him. One fellow seized the spitting muz zle and up-ended It on the gunner; ha lost a band In the matter. Bayonets flashed In. and a rifle-butt rose and fell The battle tore through the cop pice. The 'machine-gunners were brave men, and many of the Prussian Infantry were brave men, and they died. A few sjr{ame£ back^ through the brush,, and liuntera’ an3 hun^* charging kaaM was beck. Be *•* te bl* feet wltt deKberatlee, laid Ve rad fiacao; it Mve th clip, and they appeared the _ _ .. . three Beebe with their eyes looked pelt deep helmets. ... * 8e fgve them the WbOitt he wee le. tbe little nm at the feet of the hill with three men, all woood- od. He never knew bom he get there. It Jam happened. ; Later In the day the Iteeteaaat was back on tbo pine created bin. aow Identified aa Hill 142. Captain imllton was there, on* or two other and a handful of fee Forty- end Sixty-seventh companies; a semblance of a tine was orgaalaodL From fee direction of Torcy a count er-attack developed; the Boche waa filtering cleverly and forming some where oa t<U Torcy road, in eovor. The marine* were prone, Mings ad justed, killing Mm. "It's a quarter- point right windage—" "Naw! not a breath of air 1 Ua# aero—" ,A file of sweating soldiers, bur dened with picks and shovels la ad- igh [ed burst In n frantic medley on tbe open at the'^rest of the hill. Impartial ma chine mins, down the hill to the left, took toll of both. Presently the rem nants of tbe assault companies were panting In the trees on the edge of the hill. It was the objective of the attack, bat distance had ceaaed to have any meaning, time was aot, and the country waa full of square patches of woods. In the valley below were more Germans, and on the next hill. Most of the officers were down, and all haQds went on. They went down the brushy slope, across a little run. across a road -where two heavy Maxims were canght sitting, and mopped up and up the next long, smooth slope. Some marinea branched off down that road and went Into the town of Torcy. There waa fighting In Torcy. and a French avion reported Ameri cans In it, but they never came out again ... a handful of Impudent fellows against a battalion of Sturm- truppen. . . Then the men who mounted the slope found themselves In a cleared area full of orderly French wood pile* and apparently there waa a machine-gun In every woodpile. Jerry Finnegan died here, sprawled across one of them. Lieutenant Somers died here. One lieutenant found himself behind a woodpile, with a big auto-rlflemao. Just across from them, very near, a machine-gun behind another wood pile was searching for them. The lieutenant, all bit world narrowed to that little place, peered vainly for a loophole; the sticks were pumping and shaking as the Maxim flailed them; bullets rang under bis helmet “Here, Morgan,” he said, "I’ll poke my tin hat around this side, and you watch and see if you can get the chaut-cbaut on them —" He stuck the helmet on hla bayonet, and thrust It Out Something struck It violently from the point, and tbe rifle made hi* Angers tingle. The chaut-chaut went off, once. In the same breath there was an odd noise above him. . . the machine-gun ... he looked up. Mor gan’s body was slqmptng down te its knee*; ft leaned forward against the wood, the chaut-chaot, etlll grasped in a clenched band, coming to tbe ground butt first Tbe man’s bead was gone from tho eye*' nfl; bis hel met Mid stickily back'over hi* coat- bet peck and lay oa the ground. . .. "My mother," reflected tbe Hemcsant “will never find my grave In tbie placer He picked up tbe chant chant and examined It professionally, noting^ a spatter of tittle red drape om the breech and Che feet bgl the flUn An Engineer of the dltlon to bandoleers and combat came trotting from tbe right A ond lieutenant, a reddish, roogb-look- log youngster, si a raped np and saint ed. "You in charge here?" he aald to th* marine officer. "I’m ant Wythe of the Second with a detachment Fm to rapes* te yon for orders." "Weil—captain's right op yonder--bow got?" "Tweety-twa, That makes thirty-six of qa, am—Just flop right'- bare, and watt held this line. Orders are to dig In fcste but that can Tbo## engineer!, their pecks way end their toots enetbe* end they east themselves down happily, "What rang*, baddy?—osin’ any windage—f A hairy into £ls sling gad laid out § UttU plij^ of dlpi. . . . Thera waa aiw*ays good feeling between the marines of the Second dlvijion apd the regular army units that formed it but the marina* and the Second engineers—"Say, If I ever got a drink, a Second engineer can hare half of It!—Bay, they dig trenches and mend roads all night, and they fight nil day I An* when US guya get all klUed off, they Jnst coase np an’ taka over the war I They’* mo better folks anywhere than the am- glneara, .. " (CONTINUED NRT WEEK.) •low Doctors Treat Goins and the Fto To break up a col.l overnight 4k o cut short an attack of grippa, hi* luenza, sore throat or tonsillitis, phy- ticians and druggists *tre now recooa- nending Caiotata. the purified and ■efinod calomel compound tablet that ;ivea you the effects c-f calomel nud xlts combinf^^vithuut the unpleaa- ;nt effects otwlfer. One of two Carotabs at bcd-t:r.w v/ith a swallow of wstor,—that’s ell. No salts, no nauoen nor the slightest interference w'th your eating, work or pleasure. Next morning yout cold has vanished, your system u thor oughly purified and you are feeling fine with a hearty appetite for break fast Eat what you please,—no dan ger. Get a family package, con ta'fling full directions, cniy 35 cents. At any drug store. (a iv). 1 Is a Rrcactfptiee for CoU*, Qfepe, Flu; gue; BOiout Fern and