World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
2. The division met with resistance from elements of eight hostile
divisions, most of which were first-class troops and some of which
were completely rested. The enemy chose to defend its position to
the death, and the fighting was always of the most desperate kind.
Throughout the operations the officers and men of the division
displayed the highest type of courage, fortitude, and
self-sacrificing devotion to duty. In addition to many enemy
killed, the division captured one thousand four hundred and seven
of the enemy, thirteen 77-mm. field guns, ten trench mortars, and
numerous machine guns and stores.
3. The success of the division in driving a deep advance into the
enemy's territory enabled an assault to be made on the left by the
neighboring division against the northeastern portion of the Forest
of Argonne, and enabled the First Division to advance to the right
and outflank the enemy's position in front of the division on that
flank.
4. The Commander in Chief has noted in this division a special
pride of service and a high state of morale, never broken by
hardship nor battle.
5. This order will be read to all organizations at the first
assembly formation after its receipt. (14790-A-306.)
By Command of General Pershing:
JAMES W. MCANDREW,
_Chief of Staff_.
Official:
ROBERT C. DAVIS,
_Adjutant General_.
The losses again were very heavy, nearly as heavy as at Soissons. It was
in this battle Lieutenant T. D. Amory was killed while making a daring
patrol. Amory was a gallant young fellow, not more than twenty-two or
twenty-three years of age. He had originally been intelligence officer
for my battalion and had been quite badly wounded by a shell fragment in
the Montdidier sector. As soon as he was cured he reported back to the
regiment and took up his old work as scout officer. When the division
took over, contact had been lost with the enemy. A patrol was
accordingly sent out at once, for it was possible that an attack would
be ordered in the morning. Lieutenant Amory was given forty men and went
out. Signal-corps men were put with him to carry a telephone. It turned
out that the Germans were holding strong points rather than a continuous
line of front. On account of this and the darkness he filtered through
without finding them and unobserved by them. The first word his
battalion commander received was a telephone message from the
signal-sergeant, saying: "We have advanced about one and one half
kilometers and there is no sign of the enemy. The Germans have opened on
us from the right flank." Then: "They are firing on us from three sides.
I believe we are surrounded." And, last: "Lieutenant Amory has just
been shot through the head and killed."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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