Picking up both guns, each man carrying his allotted piece in
manoeuvres, the party of thirteen started along the river for
the main bridge. Reaching the vicinity of the approach, they
discovered their plight. The enemy was almost upon them. Still
carrying their guns, they jumped down, taking cover under the
stone parapets at the river's edge. Thus they worked their way
down to the iron bridge, though the Germans on the very parapet
above were marching into a hail of American machine guns from the
south bank.
B Company did not know that a detachment had not escaped. The
German attack remained at its height, and the enemy, despite its
losses, kept sweeping toward the iron bridge. Bissell and his men
attempted to cross under their own fire. Three were immediately
wounded. They retired, picking up their wounded.
The Lieutenant knew that B Company's guns were across the bridge,
and he approached as near as he dared and yelled repeatedly. B
Company's officers finished the story, which was narrated and
corroborated by the Lieutenant and others at the rest camp today.
The first B Company knew that Americans were opposite was when
they heard a voice calling "Cobey! Cobey!" Cobey was the other
Lieutenant.
This time the German attack melted. B Company's guns ceased fire
long enough for Cobey to cross the bridge and lead the Lieutenant
and the men to safety. Throughout the remainder of the night the
enemy vented his rage by heavy shelling. The next day, June 2, the
heavy shelling continued. The enemy had picked up his dead and
wounded across the river under cover of darkness and could be seen
occasionally flitting from house to house.
Sniping was continuous between the French and Germans. Machine
guns were silent during the day in order not to give away their
positions. Nightfall was so quiet that the Americans were not able
to understand such warfare. They thought all war was noisy.
However, at 9 o'clock at night the enemy made a fierce rush for
the iron bridge. Fifteen minutes of heavy machine-gun firing
squelched the attack and the shelling was resumed. The heavy
bombardment continued.
"GOT" WHOLE PLATOON
On June 3 the Sergeant in charge of one of our platoons at the
iron bridge saw a German platoon of about fifty men forming on
top of a hill. They made a beautiful target, according to the
Sergeant's story today. He and his companions believe he got them
all.
The enemy brought more artillery up by night and began a terrific
shelling to culminate in what appeared to be an attempted attack.
The French artillery sprinkled the opposite bank of the river with
a barrage which the "novice" American fighters called beautiful.
They thought it was less than a hundred yards away, and stood up
to watch it, and there wasn't any attack.
The French engineers on this night laid a charge under the iron
bridge while the American guns laid down a leaden protective
barrage. When the charge was detonated the Germans rushed forward
from the house to ascertain the cause of the explosion. It was
here that a prearranged petrol flare lit up the vicinity like day,
and again American machine gunners had what they insist on calling
"targets."
"I was impressed by many things," a company's Captain said. "First
of all, the coolness of every man, and especially of a young
Georgia theological student who had been drafted, who on the third
day complained because the boche shells kept mussing up his gun
position. Second, the attitude of those wonderful French colonial
troops with us. They gave us inspiration. They said we gave
them inspiration; so it was a fifty-fifty exchange. Third, that
beautiful French barrage and our wonderful 'targets.'"