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
When the Hun grip was torn loose from the positions along the Ourcq, he
had no other good stopping place short of the Vesle, so he lit out for
that river as fast as he could move his battalions and equipment. Again
only machine guns and sniping rear-guards were left to impede the
progress of the pursuers, and again there were times when it was
exceedingly difficult for the French and American forces to keep in
contact with the enemy.
The 32d Division, composed of Michigan and Wisconsin National Guards,
had slipped into the front lines and, with regiments of the Rainbow
Division, pressed the pursuit. The Pennsylvania regiments, with the 103d
Engineers, and the 111th and the 112th Infantry leading, followed by the
109th and then the 110th, went forward in their rear, mopping up the few
Huns they left in their wake who still showed fight.
It had begun to rain again--a heavy, dispiriting downpour, such as
Northern France is subjected to frequently. The fields became morasses.
The roads, cut up by heavy traffic, were turned to quagmires. The
distorted remains of what had been wonderful old trees, stripped of
their foliage and blackened and torn by the breaths of monster guns,
dripped dismally. In all that ruined, tortured land of horror on horror,
there was not one bright spot, and there was only one thing to keep up
the spirits of the soldiers--the Hun was definitely on the run.
Drenched to the skin, wading in mud at times almost to their knees, amid
the ruck and confusion of an army's wake, the Pennsylvanians trudged
resolutely forward, inured to hardship, no longer sensible to ordinary
discomforts, possessed of only one thought--to come to battle once more
with the hateful foe and inflict further punishment in revenge for the
gallant lads who had gone from the ranks.
All the time they were subjected to long-distance shelling by the big
guns, as the Hun strafed the country to the south in hope of hampering
transport facilities and breaking up marching columns. All the time
Boche fliers passed overhead, sometimes swooping low enough to slash at
the columns with machine guns and at frequent intervals releasing bombs.
There were casualties daily, although not, of course, on the same scale
as in actual battle.
Through Coulonges, Cohan, Dravegny, Longeville, Mont-sur-Courville and
St. Gilles they plunged on relentlessly.
Close by the hamlet of Chamery, near Cohan, the Pennsylvania men passed
the grave of Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, who had been brought down
there by an enemy airman a few weeks before and was buried by the
Germans. French troops, leading the Allied pursuit, had come on the
grave first and established a military guard of honor over it and
supplanted the rude cross and inscription erected by the Germans with a
neater and more ornate marking.
When the Americans arrived the French guard was removed and American
soldiers mounted guard over the last resting place of the son of the
onetime President.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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