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.