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was one of those spontaneous affairs of a populace desiring to show their joy and appreciation to the
soldiers who had freed them from the oppressive yoke of German Slavery.
All afternoon the townspeople had generously showered the GI’s with champagne, cognac and
their best wine. Towards the evening everyone was in a mood to celebrate. When a drummer, bugler
and accordion player sounded a call from the village square, everyone assembled there. A parade
through all the streets of the town followed, ending up in the square. Here the accordion player sat
down on a box in the middle of the street. Couples formed and the biggest celebration in France got
underway as dancers shuffled over the cobblestone road. Officers and men forgot the war as they
danced until early hours of the morning with the friendly French lassies. It was a dance that will live
long in the memories of those who were there.
Then between the 28th and the 31st, the Battalion moved mainly by motor some 60 miles ending
up in the town of ST MASMES. En route we crossed the Marne river. At ST MASMES, the entire
Division was immobilized by a lack of gasoline.
On September 1, following an order from Division G-3, Company I moved out to take care of a
reported 200 Germans in a woods 30 miles to the southwest. After searching all day and finding
nothing, Company I returned to its positions around ST MASMES. The only good part about the entire
junket was that the Company got to see Reims as they had to pass through it both going and coming.
After four restful days during which we had movies, hot chow, and fresh oranges, the Battalion
moved out by foot on 5 Sept. We covered about 15 miles by 1800 when we stopped, ate hot supper, en-
trucked and moved on another 64 miles by motor. This last truck ride continued until well past midnight
and took us through VERDUN and ETAIN. Everyone was very wet and tired when we closed in
DOMMARY BARONCOURT. From here, we moved off at 1000 on the 7th with Company I acting as
Regimental Advance Guard. March objective was the town of FONTOY. We covered about 1/4 of the
way when Company I ran into some Krauts in a woods just outside of MONT. The AT platoon set up
one of its 57's and scored a direct hit on one Kraut as well as knocking out an MG nest with just two
rounds, the going was pretty rough so Company L was set in to aid Company I. At 1500, Regiment
directed us to break off the fight and continue towards FONTOY as 2nd Battalion would be up soon to
contain the Germans in the woods. The march continued uneventfully till dark when we cleared
TUCQUEGNIEUX, a large mining town. Company K ran into considerable resistance just outside of
town and dug in under intense MG and mortar fire. Company I then moved up on K’s right and dug in.
The Battalion remained in this position on the 8th as a German Panzer Brigade had hit our rear
supply lines near MAIRY and had to be wiped out. A French civilian reported the next town ahead of
us – TRIEUX – cleared on the 9th and patrols verified this by 0900. These patrols also reported the
town was heavily mined and booby trapped. It took until 1200 before this was cleared up and the
Battalion moved on. Then Company L took off and after some very rapid moving reached the edge of
FONTOY by dark.
It took all three Companies to mop up FONTOY by noon of the 10th. Company K was written
up in the October 7th issue of Warweek for the manner in which they fought through FONTOY. Then I
and K Companies moved on to the high ground on both sides of the industrial town of ALGRANGE.
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