“At 5.25 o’clock on the morning of October 31 ‘Fritzie’ on watch along
the Lys River was rudely awakened from his dreams of German beer and
sauerkraut to face a typical go-get-’em barrage. It was a typical
American barrage. Five minutes of drumfire. Five minutes of hell,
fire, and damnation. Five minutes of terror. Across the Lys River
scurried the Ohioans. Paddling in the icy water on logs and planks,
the ‘doughboys’ went over, carrying rifles and machine guns. Engineers
began to build bridges. For a few minutes the Germans hesitated, but
it didn’t take them long to decide. Back they went to previously
arranged positions. Here they planned to stop the infantry, but they
were mistaken. In twenty minutes the Ohioans had reached their first
objective. Three hours later they passed their second objective and dug
in for the night. As they dug in the Germans dug out and started for
the Escaut River. On the second day members of the 37th Division drove
on through Cruyshautem and Huysse to the banks of the Scheldt (Escaut)
River. Here, under a veritable rain of shrapnel and machine-gun fire,
they established and held the only bridgeheads to be erected over this
river during the war.”