that the entire battalion filed down the narrow railway through the woods and surprised and
captured one German officer and forty-nine men with several machine guns just as they were
preparing to go into action against the Americans. These prisoners fell to Company E.
Lieutenant Thomas E. Hazlett of Company E had been killed early in the advance. A few
minutes before he died his arm had been broken by a high explosive shell, which knocked both
he and Captain Brown to the ground and stunned them for several minutes. He was on his way
back for treatment when a second shell struck him. Shortly after Lieutenant Hazlett had been hit
Captain Charles B. Birkhead and a runner from Company F were pushing forward when they,
too, were wounded by pieces of a big shell which burst not more than twenty feet in front of
them. While struggling to regain their feet fourteen Germans filed out of a cluster of bushes
nearby and surrendered. They made up the stretcher detail which carried Captain Birkhead and
the runner back to the dressing station. Lieutenant John S. LeClercq of G company and
Lieutenant Chester A. Shingler of E company were also put out of action, the former wounded
and the latter gassed. Lieutenant Shingler’s last action before being carried from the field was to
raise himself on his elbow and give directions to his platoon sergeant, “and by force of his
example,” his citation reads, “assisted in the reorganization of his platoon in those trying
moments.” It was after the battalion had halted that Lieutenant Robert W. Tucker won mention
when “he personally conducted a convoy of ammunition supplies in trucks to the frontline,
disposed of the supplies under heavy shellfire, and brought the convoy safely back to the
reloading dump.”
The first Battalion had followed the advance of the second from the time that
organization had taken over the front line from the third Battalion, and by 4:30 o’clock in the
afternoon was in position just south of Andevanne. Here it was that Major Morrison received
orders from the regimental commander to pass to the right of the second Battalion and seize Hill
243. It was pitch dark soon after the movement was begun, but the battalion marched by
compass unerringly to the base of the hill. Suddenly the American artillery, which had been
playing a dirge on the emplacements with which they cote was so well provided, ceased and, at
the head of his troops Major Morrison started forward. So well was the assault calculated that
the major’s command post was established on the hill by 8 o’clock, although the Americans were
not alone in their occupancy as events of the next morning proved. Casualties had been suffered,
but nearly all of these came before the movement up the slope started. Heavy fire from east of
Andevanne was encountered and, just as darkness fell, it was necessary for the battalion to stop
and reorganize. Captain Gustave Dittmar and Lieutenant Lonus Reed of Company C and
Captain Mike Hogg of Company D, as well as Lieutenant Robert K. Campbell, had been
wounded prior to this reorganization.
Once the hill was partly occupied the battalion took up the tesk of systematically clearing
the Germans from the positions which they still clung to. Lieutenant Alfred L. Jones and a patrol
from Company D made the biggest catch of the night when they surprised and killed the crews
behind two big artillery pieces – 105’s – within an hour after they had reached the hill. Aided by
streaks of gray dawn early next morning the remainder of the hill was mopped up. A battery of
77’s as well as fifteen German artillerymen and two enemy infantry officers were captured.
Colonel Price immediately ordered the big guns turned around and they were soon belching
messages of the Americans’ achievements into concentrations of Germans in the woods beyond
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