Father Duffy's story : $b a tale of humor and heroism, of life and death with the Fighting Sixty-ninthDuffy, Francis Patrick
History
Father Duffy's story : $b a tale of humor and heroism, of life and death with the Fighting Sixty-ninth
Duffy, Francis Patrick
United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 165th; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
On November 7th, Bootz with the 2nd Battalion was in the van. On
Hill 332 the Germans put up a stronger resistance than they had
hitherto shown; and it came at a time when our fire was growing
weak on account of the expenditure of ammunition, which there
was little means of replacing. Bootz told Captain Stout, who was
in command of G Company, that the hill must be taken, and Stout
advanced with thirty-eight men of his own company and a detachment
from Company H to capture the hill. As they kept crawling in on the
Germans the latter began to waver, and the Captain called on his
followers to advance upon them with fixed bayonets. With a great
cheer our fellows swarmed up the crest and the daunted Germans,
after a futile stand, grounded their guns, threw up their hands and
surrendered. The men whose names stand high in the Company annals
for this deed are, first of all, the dead: John Danker, George
Spiegel, Onefrio Triggiano and Raymond Hawkins. Also the gallant
captain and Lieutenant Otto; First Sergeant Meagher, Sergeants
Martin Murphy, Martin Shalley, Irving Framan, Denis Corcoran, John
Brogan and Francis Malloy, the two latter being wounded; James
Regan, Thomas Gallagher, Hilbert and Henry, Remington, Youmans and
Leavensworth, and, to complete the list, a bold Choctaw Indian with
the martial name of McCoy. Sergeant Patrick Travers, of Company H,
received high praise from everybody. While the German resistance
was still determined, he went alone against a machine gun on the
right and captured it single-handed, taking three German officers
and four men.
The same day B Company lost Sergeant Ed. Kramer, and Martin
Gilfoyle; C Company, Frank Casserly, Michael Golinski, and Joseph
Peressine; Company E, Orliff Gilbert, Samuel Kelly and William
Lambert; Machine Gun Company, William Gunnell; and the Sanitary
Detachment, Michael Cavanaugh.
Meanwhile events were happening which made the order to advance
without ceasing seem more extraordinary. Elements of the 1st
Division appeared on our flank and rear. They, too, had received
orders to the same effect from their Corps Commander, and had
advanced to the left across the front of the 77th Division, and
were taking possession of our line, which was the one leading
straight towards Sedan. They had crept up around Bulson in
the morning, only to find General MacArthur and 84th Brigade
Headquarters in possession of the village. Elements of the 16th
Infantry now came on Bootz’s hill and claimed it as theirs. “This
is my hill, and my line of advance,” said Bootz. “If you say it’s
yours, show your booty. I have twenty-five prisoners and twelve
machine guns; what have you got to show for it?” And Bootz ordered
his battalion to advance, leaving to the others to do what they
would.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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