The history of Company B, 311th Infantry in the World War
History
The history of Company B, 311th Infantry in the World War
United States. Army. Infantry. 311th regiment, 1917-1919. Co. B; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- United States
Slim Price, in a German’s black fur coat that came about to his hips,
came stalking up the hill with his Chauchat, and disappeared over the
crest, subsiding in a little clump of bushes out on the left of the
plateau. He was telling the world that he was a “fighting ---- of a
----.” A moment later I heard the rattle of his gun as he spotted a
Heinie machine gun squad advancing down the gully on our left. I guess
Slim was right, at that.
The C. O., 4th Plt., came up by this time. He was badly shaken, but
I put him in charge of the left flank until the 2nd platoon should
arrive, and went back to the right.
They had brought Lt. Schuyler a little way down the slope, and laid
him down until a stretcher came up. A shell had burst right beside
him, between him and Reid. He was still breathing, but very heavily,
and was quite unconscious; his eyes were nearly closed. I bound up his
head as best I could with his first aid packet, but my heart sank--the
concussion had been near the base of the skull. Oddly enough, he was
not at all disfigured; but it had been a terrible blow, and only his
magnificent vitality was keeping him breathing. That was a bitter
moment, with my best officer and best friend in the outfit dying, the
company shattered; and not a German had I seen.
Sgt. Levy came up with a couple of stretchers and the news that both
the Medical Detachment men attached to the company were killed. Hoping
against hope I had him put Roy on the first stretcher, and they bore
him away to the rear, though the shells were still bursting behind us.
It was no use; that gallant spirit breathed its last before they had
gone a kilometer. The bearers wanted to take him on to the surgeon
anyhow, but there were many others desperately wounded, and stretchers
were pitifully few.
In the meantime I had sent out patrols to the flanks to try and get in
touch with D Co. and the 312th Inf. A patrol of 6 men from D Co. came
in on our right, but they were separated from their outfit and didn’t
know what had happened. Brisk machine gun firing to our right rear made
us fear things were not going well there.
On our left, a party of the Boche under an officer had advanced down
the ravine toward the end of our ridge, and had driven in our advanced
riflemen; but had been checked, largely by the doughty Price from his
clump of bushes. Three runners sent to the left to find the 2nd platoon
did not return, and I feared the latter had lost its direction and was
in trouble.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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