Part 9 (1/2)
Never from this moment to the end of the war did it change.
This Highland division showed its appreciation of the American division by the following order that was sent to our higher command:
Headquarters 1st Division, AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES,
FRANCE, August 4th, 1918.
General Order No. 42.
The following is published for the information of all concerned as evidence of the appreciation of the 15th Scottish Division of such a.s.sistance as this Division may have rendered them upon their taking over the sector from us in the recent operation south of Soissons:
15th Scottish Division No. G-705 24-7-18
To General Officers Commanding, FIRST AMERICAN DIVISION.
I would like on behalf of all ranks of the 15th Division to express to you personally, and to your staff, and to all our comrades in your splendid Division, our most sincere thanks for all that has been done to help us in a difficult situation.
During many instances of taking over which we have experienced in the war we have never received such a.s.sistance, and that rendered on a most generous scale. In spite of its magnificent success in the recent fighting, your Division must have been feeling the strain of operations, accentuated by very heavy casualties, yet we could discern no symptom of fatigue when it came to a question of adding to it by making our task easier.
To your artillery commander (Col. Holbrook) and his Staff, and to the units under his command, our special thanks are due. Without hesitation when he saw our awkward predicament as to artillery support the guns of your Division denied themselves relief in order to a.s.sist us in an attack. This attack was only partly successful, but the artillery support was entirely so.
Without the help of Colonel Mabee and his establishment of ambulance cars, I have no hesitation in saying that at least four hundred of our wounded would still be on our hands in this area.
The 15th Scottish Division desires me to say that our hope is that we may have opportunity of rendering some slight return to the First American Division for all the latter has done for us, and further that we may yet find ourselves shoulder to shoulder defeating the enemy in what we hope is the final stage of this war.
Signed: H. L. REED, _Major General_ _Comdg. 15th Scottish Div._
By Command of Major General Summerall: H. K. LOUGHRY, _Major, F. A. N. A._, _Div. Adjt._
The Highlanders cheered as the wounded Americans pa.s.sed by them. One lieutenant called out to me, ”How far have you gone?” I answered, ”About six kilometers.” ”Good,” he said. ”We'll go another six.”
After the battle the division was withdrawn to near Paris. Many of the officers came to see me, where I was laid up with a bullet through the leg. Major A. W. Kenner, the regimental surgeon, who had again distinguished himself by his gallantry, and Captain Legge were both in, looking little the worse for the wear.
CHAPTER IX
ST. MIHIEL AND THE ARGONNE
”'Millions of ages have come and gone,'
The sergeant said as we held his hand; 'They have pa.s.sed like the mist of the early dawn Since I left my home in that far-off land.'”
IRONQUILL.
During the next couple of months, while I was laid up with my wound, the regiment first went to a rest sector near Pont-a-Mousson. There replacements reached them, wounded men returned, and they gradually worked up to their full strength again.
They enjoyed themselves fully. It was one of those sectors so common on the east of the Western Front where by tacit agreement little action took place. The nature of the country and its distance from the great centers of France made many parts of the front impracticable for an offensive either by the Hun or ourselves. In these sectors a division such as ours, worn by hard fighting, or a division of green or old men, held the line, a handful of men on each side occupying long stretches. A few sh.e.l.ls would come whistling over during the day and that was all.
Everybody used to look back on their pleasant times in this sector. They got fresh fish by the thoroughly illegal method of throwing hand grenades in some near-by ponds, while fresh berries were plentiful even in the front line. It was midsummer and the weather was pleasantly warm.
Altogether, if you had to be at war, it was about as comfortable as possible.
An odd incident of this period occurred to a recruit who was sent out the first night to a listening post. In the listening post was a box on which the guard sat. At some time during the previous night the Germans had crept up and put a bomb under this box. After looking around a little the recruit felt tired and sat down on the box. A violent explosion followed. Right away a patrol worked out from our lines to see what had happened. When they got there they looked carefully through every ditch or clump of bushes in the vicinity, but they could not find a trace of the man. He was reported as dead, blown to bits. On the march up into Germany that missing recruit reported back to the regiment on his return from a German prison camp. Instead of being blown to pieces he had simply been blown into the German lines. When he came to, he was being carried to the rear on a stretcher, and he spent the rest of the war as a prisoner, little the worse for wear, except for a few scars.