He wrote in his diary this simple story of his fight with the battalion
of German machine guns:
"On the 7th day of October we lay in some little holes on the roadside
all day. That night we went out and stayed a little while and came back
to our holes, the shells bursting all around us. I saw men just blown up
by the big German shells which were bursting all around us.
"So the order came for us to take Hill 223 and 240 the 8th.
"So the morning of the 8th just before daylight, we started for the hill
at Chatel Chehery. Before we got there it got light and the Germans sent
over a heavy barrage and also gas and we put on our gas-masks and just
pressed right on through those shells and got to the top of Hill 223 to
where we were to start over at 6:10 A.M.
"They were to give us a barrage. The time came and no barrage, and we
had to go without one. So we started over the top at 6:10 A.M. and the
Germans were putting their machine guns to working all over the hill in
front of us and on our left and right. I was in support and I could see
my pals getting picked off until it almost looked like there was none
left.
"So 17 of us boys went around on the left flank to see if we couldn't
put those guns out of action.
"So when we went around and fell in behind those guns we first saw two
Germans with Red Cross band on their arms.
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