“Night fell with the fighting still going on and only the flash of shooting to see by. But at 9 o’clock word came from Sibley by runner that he had got through and had attained the first objective, the eastern edge of the wood. In four hours he and his men had passed clear through the lower quarter of Belleau Wood, traversing nearly a mile, and had cleaned things up as they went. And only 500 of them started; I hesitate to mention the number that finished. “At 10 o’clock reinforcements were sent in with orders to consolidate the position.” THE TAKING OF BOURESCHES In the meantime other Marines, the 96th Company of Major Holcomb’s battalion and one of Sibley’s reserve companies, were engaged with the task of ejecting the Germans from Bouresches, the town just east of the woods, as necessary to be cleared as Belleau Wood itself. Holcomb’s men got to Bouresches first and went in. “Half of this little force was under Captain Duncan and the other half under Lieutenant Robertson. The enemy’s fire, as they neared the town, was frightful, and more men fell than kept going. Duncan was shot down while coolly advancing with his pipe in his mouth. Robertson, who, by the way, was afterward shot through the neck near Soissons, led the remnant on and entered the town. “There were probably 300 to 400 Germans in that town and the place bristled with machine guns. There were guns at the street corners, behind barricades, and even on the housetops, but the Marines kept on. They attacked those machine guns with rifle, bayonet, and grenade in their bitter struggle for a foothold. They were outnumbered when they started, and one by one they were put out of the fighting. But they kept going, taking gun after gun, until the Germans, for all their numbers and advantage of position, began to fall back. And Lieutenant Robertson took Bouresches with twenty men! “He sent back word at 9:45 that he had got in and asked for reinforcements, but he did not wait for them. Those twenty men started in to clean up that town in the approved Marine fashion, and he was well on his way when Captain Zane’s company of Holcomb’s battalion arrived to support him. Then Engineers were sent in to help consolidate the position.