The Iron Division, National Guard of Pennsylvania, in the World War: The authentic and comprehensive narrative of the gallant; deeds and glorious achievements of the 28th division in; the world's greatest warProctor, H. G. (Harry George)
History
The Iron Division, National Guard of Pennsylvania, in the World War: The authentic and comprehensive narrative of the gallant; deeds and glorious achievements of the 28th division in; the world's greatest war
Proctor, H. G. (Harry George)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- United States -- 28th (Iron) division
Seeing him topple, Lieutenant Fales rushed toward him to see if he could
be of service. He walked directly into the same fire and was mortally
wounded. Goward managed to roll into a shell hole, where he died in a
short time.
The men did not stop. Led only by their non-commissioned officers, they
plunged straight into and over the machine gun nest directly in the face
of its murderous fire which had torn gaps in their ranks, but could not
stop them. They stamped out the German occupants with as little
compunction as one steps on a spider. The men came out of the woods
breathing hard and trembling from the reaction to their fury and
exertions, but they turned over no prisoners.
The machine gun crews were dead to a man.
Goward and Fales had been especially popular with the men of the
company, and their loss was felt keenly. Goward was distinctly of the
student type, quiet, thoughtful, scholarly, doing his own thinking at
all times. He had been noted for this characteristic when a student at
the University of Pennsylvania. Fales, on the other hand, was of the
dashing, athletic type, and the two, with their directly opposed
natures, had worked together perfectly and quite captured the hearts of
their men.
Both Goward and Fales are buried on the side of a little hill near
Courmont, in the Commune of Cierges, Department of the Aisne, their
graves marked by the customary wooden crosses, to which are attached
their identification disks.
From then on, the rest of the day was a continuous, forward-moving
battle for the regiment. Every mile was contested hotly by Hun
rear-guard machine gunners, left behind to harass the advancing
Americans and make their pursuit as costly as possible.
Lieutenant Herbert P. Hunt, of Philadelphia, son of a former
lieutenant-colonel of the old First, leading Company A of the 109th in a
charge, was struck in the left shoulder by a piece of shell and still
was in hospital when the armistice ended hostilities.
The 109th reached Courmont and found it well organized by a small force
of Germans, with snipers and machine guns in what remained of the
houses, firing from windows and doors and housetops. They cleaned up
the town in a workmanlike manner, and only a handful of prisoners went
back to the cages in the rear.
It was in this fighting that Sergeant John H. Winthrop, of Bryn Mawr,
performed the service for which he was cited officially by General
Pershing, winning the Distinguished Service Cross. The sergeant was
killed in action a few weeks later.
He was a member of Company G, 109th Infantry. All its officers became
incapacitated when the company was in action. Sergeant Winthrop took
command. The official citation in his case read:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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