MEUSE BRIDGES DESTROYED BY GERMANS
IN the meantime the 1st Battalion, 357th Infantry, was advancing toward Sassey-sur-Meuse and came
under machine gun fire from east of the river. It was found that a storm arch had been blown out of the
bridge at Sassey, leaving a gap of about sixty feet, and that the foot-bridges at Sassey and Saulmaury
were destroyed. The 2d and 3d Battalions assembled south of Montigny. The P. C. of the 179th
Brigade was established at Montigny at 8:30 P. M., moving from Grand Carré Farm, which had been left
far behind in the rapid advance. The P. C., 357th Infantry, was also established there. During the night
patrols from the 357th Infantry went up the river as far as possible without entering the heavily gassed
area in the Bois de Sassey, and down the river to Wiseppe, where machine gun fire was encountered.
The 358th Infantry assembled in the Bois de Halles, but the regimental P. C. was not able to stay in
Halles the afternoon of the 3d on account of a gas concentration. It was also found that a number of
machine gun nests still remained north and east of Halles, and approaches to the town were swept by
their fire.
The period from the time our victorious battalions reached the bluffs overlooking the Meuse
River on November 3 until definite orders were received on November 9 to make a crossing and take up
the pursuit, was one of great uncertainty. On October 30 the 3d Army Corps had issued a “plan in case
of withdrawal of the enemy,” which was to be effective when the Germans began a general retirement.
This order provided that the 90th Division would cross the river at Stenay and pursue almost due east
toward Montmédy. That this would be put into force was generally expected. During the afternoon and
night of November 4 the 1st Battalion, 358th Infantry, moved up to Côte 205, a height half-way between
Halles and Laneuville (the latter town being across the river from Stenay), and sent patrols into
Laneuville, where similar patrols from the 89th Division were met. On November 5 the P. C. of the
358th Infantry moved to Boulain Farm, occupying the former P. C. of a German division commander,
and the 2d Battalion moved to Bois de Boulain in support of the 1st Battalion. On November 6 the 3d
Battalion filtered across the Wiseppe River and took up a position near the 1st and 2d Battalions in the
southeastern edge of the For
t de Dieulet.
Likewise, the artillery was moved forward to cover a crossing in that vicinity. During the night
of November 3 and the morning of November 4 the 313th and 315th Field Artillery regiments were
moved to positions east and south of Villers-devant-Dun in order to aid the 5th Division in establishing
the Dun bridgehead. But on the night of November 6, both regiments moved forward again to positions
near Halles, the 313th batteries being located near the town of Halles and in the Chenois Woods, and the
315th’s guns going into the ravine running north from Le Fourneau, just west of Bois de Halles. The
314th Field Artillery regiment, in liaison with the 179th Brigade, went into the Bois de Mont on the
morning of November 4, along the road running west from Mont-devant-Sassey, and remained there
during this period.
Engineering preparations were also made for this crossing. All the area between Laneuville and
Stenay was very low, and the road connecting these two towns was on an embankment. Between the
Stenay railway station, which is nearer Laneuville than Stenay itself, and the Meuse River proper, there
were a number of small streams, including the Wiseppe River. This Laneuville-Stenay roadway was in
the nature of a long approach fill leading to the bridge proper, and there were five openings in the fill,
varying in length from thirty to eighty feet, over the five streams. A reconnaissance showed that not
only had the main bridge been destroyed, but the structures spanning the small streams had also been
blown up.
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