The following day after preparation to resist an attack in the morning, orders were issued in the afternoon to clear the woods of Germans, and this task was attempted by L and M Companies of the 102d Infantry with D Company furnishing the machine guns. Without artillery preparation the men went forward, fighting through the tangled woods against an enemy entrenched, armed with innumerable machine guns and numerically superior, but lack of leaders and proper liaison with the units on their flanks forced them to return after they had almost gained their objective. Again on the morning of October 25 orders were issued to attempt the advance, but it again proved too much for the men. With entire battalions formed into units, but slightly greater in size than a full infantry company and the men suffering from the exertion of the past few days and lack of sleep, a final attempt was made Sunday, October 27, to force the enemy from his positions in the woods which had a certain strategical importance in the military situation. As the barrage was scheduled to start at 10 o'clock that morning, all men were withdrawn from the front lines and held in readiness to attack when the curtain of fire thrown over by the artillery should lift enough at 11 o'clock to allow them to go forward. Summoned to Battalion Headquarters, Lieutenant Paton left his post of command after the barrage was well under way and started down a communicating trench accompanied by Nutting. German artillery had started its reply and was doing all it could to prevent the attack which the Huns knew to be in preparation, and a life which had seemed charmed was taken as toll when Lieutenant Paton was killed by a fragment from a bursting shell. Wilfore and Lieutenant Pickett of the Infantry were mortal victims of the same messenger of death and Nutting suffered dozens of wounds from the small bits of steel which fill the air close to an exploding projectile. Time after time under the leadership of non-commissioned officers from their own companies and several of the D Company sergeants the infantry went out onto that short stretch of ground separating them from the coveted German trenches, but each time they fell back, hundreds of casualties resulting from the perfect hail of machine gun bullets which the Germans sprayed across that section of "No Man's Land." In the command of a second lieutenant the third battalion of the 102d Infantry mustered one hundred and eighty men that night, practically one fifth of its authorized strength, while D Company had lost seventeen during the day from its already depleted personnel. A reorganization of the defenses of the sector was effected the next day, and three surplus guns were sent to the rear, the strength of the Company being too low to provide crews for them.