time and again, however, and, although the objective of the raid was not gained, the mission was
accomplished, for all that day the enemy was forced to keep large reserves in the neighborhood
to repel the attacks which appeared ready at any moment to swarm ever the hill. Lieutenant
Campbell reached the American line with his reinforcements but was gravely wounded and
captured. He died eight days later in a German military hospital in Metz. The story of his last
hours was written to his mother in Texas by the German nurse who attended him.
The actual attempts to perform the raid occupied from 5:30 to 8:30, but throughout the
day the enemy was harassed. At noon Companies E and F withdrew to the edge of the woods
from which the first smash had been launched and formed for the expected counter attack until
orders came to rejoin their battalion. Many dead and loaded were left on the field that day and
the efforts of the officers and men to succor these unfortunates has a place among the record of
the very finest services of the war. Take the case of First Lieutenant Albert S. Johnson of
Company C, 345th machine gun battalion. When the last gun in his platoon had been knocked
out he and those men in his charge who had survived worked fiendishly as stretcher bearers, time
and again going forward with seemingly little chance to live through the barrage, which was
constant, but returning always with wounded men. And the first aid men of Companies E and F!
Their attempts to pull their comrades back from the treacherous plain where they had fallen were
not one whit short of heroic. Notably among these was Sergeant Orvis N. Purrington of B
company. Chaplain Charles B. Priest of the 358th Infantry was another who made trip following
trip forward. Out of his zeal has come one of the strangest stories of the drive. Among those
who wore foremost in the attacking line that day were Private Pantzar of Company F and
Corporal Rogers V. Deck of Company F. When they fell severely wounded they wore so close
to the German line that Pantzar was captured when a sortie by the enemy located the hole into
which he had crawled. Somehow Deck was undiscovered and for two days he lay practically
within the positions where the Germans were entrenched. On the second night he summoned all
his fast waning strength and crawled tediously across the fields in the direction of the American
lines. The third morning he had come within a few yards of an outpost at the 358th Infantry but
his strength was gone and he could not call. He was fast becoming unconscious when Chaplain
Priest, who had not been satisfied that all the wounded had them rescued and who had used every
daylight hour for further search, came upon him and brought him to the first aid station.
Corporal Deck was evacuated but died a few days later in the hospital. For their work both
Sergeant Purrington and Chaplain Priest were recommended for a Distinguished Service Cross
by Captain Birkhead, who took commend of the second battalion October 4.
The remainder of the regiment’s stay in the line was fraught with interest for the patrols,
which worked night and day out in front. The exploit of Sergeant Philip S. Bingley while
patrolling furnished one of the few humorous incidents of the tour. At the heed of a patrol from
K company Sergeant Bingley pushed so far forward that he came to within rifle shot of an
observation balloon back of the German lines. Working his piece so rapidly and accurately that
the observers thought the next shot would surely pierce the basket, he soon had a crew of
Germans hauling the sausage down to its bed.
While this narrative relates principally in the operations of the letter companies in the
Regiment, the spirit of the officers and men of the auxiliary companies was at all times as willing
and when the chance came the performance of these was as valorous. There was First Lieutenant
Harold P. Poser of the dental corps. His citation from the division commander reads, in part:
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