4C
THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: JUNE 8, 1919
Rainbow Division Breaks German Defense
System on Ourcq and Forces Enemy to
iletreat Back Toward the Vesle River
Alter Six Days of Constant Fighting Americans dyircom German Maze of Ma
chine Guns, But With Heavy Cost Over 3,000 Yanks Wounded Hills and
Vst Fields' Crimson With Blood of Boch.es and Americans Elsie Janis Appears to
r Cheer Last Horrible Week On Field Before Relief Came.
In this, the sixth installment of the "History o! tke Rainbow Di-
ion,h by Raymond 8. Tompkins,' th winning of th Baftle of the Ourcq
aeieribed. It r ffruellifi firht ana in which everv ounce of strength
cry bit of pluck and every art and artifice of the American lighters had
be put forth to win. but they won. .
, The loss was heavy, but the Rainbow ceaated not its losses when it
the Germans scurrvina- back toward the Vesle river and when - they
ew that the resistance in the Marne salient was broken forever.
After a week's steady fighting;, the Rainbow was sent from this battle
(res, hut the rest was brief. The next installment, which will appear
lnThe Bee Friday, takes the division into th great Meuse-Argonne drive.
By RAYMOND S. TOMPKINS
f It was growing dusk on July 28 when the Alabamans and lowans
n&Tiirt .Nrrrv inr tni iar rime mat nav ana neia 11. inc uciimn win-
lef shelled it savagely all night and clouds of bombing planes circled
found and around it, dropping tons of bombs, but the Rainbows huddled
cl&ser and closer behind ruined house walls and stuck.
Then early in the morning of the 29th the Prussian guard returned to
thw battle and in a final desperate charge drove the doughboys out of
-Sirgy for the seventh time; drove them back to the banks of the Ourcq.
Lost All Gained in Two Days' Battle.
tfhus after two days' fighting after
"tlfc German retirement from Croix
Rfcuge Ferme, the Rainbow had
nw.de no permanent gains and its
cfsualties had been heavy. Meurcy
' Firm, Sergy and Hill 230 were still
trman strongholds, commanded by
kchme cutis in other German
strongholds fasther on. Something
had to be done; ,
The thing that was done was tne
thing that, more than any one battle
move, broke the morale of the Ger
man army and bade fair, later on,
to turn its splendid rearguard action
into a rout.
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The Rainbow division, - having
fought nothing but stand-up fights
against a foe who could either be
bayoneted or sniped, - entered the
battle of the Oureq knowing nothing
of the boches perfection in machine
gun defense. The Germans simply
nhad the reach on them." No sol
diers in the world were more willing
than the Americans to come to close
quarters with the enemy and fight
it out with bayonets. The difficulty
the Rainbow was finding here on the
Ourcq was in getting to close Quar
ters without being killed or disabled.
Rushing through the open tip to the
concealed German machine guns in
the hope of frightening the gunners
into surrender, or of catching them
off their guard was sheer suicide.
That was now certain.
v Try New Strategy.
So then and there the Rainbow
conceived and launched a typically
American style of attack; launched
it as extemporaneously at a great
orator in the heat of a debate
launches an immortal phrase. It
claims no credit for having origi
nated it. In one form or another
the American divisions which had
fought in Belleau Wood and up to
Le . Croix Rouge Ferme and before
Soissonsyhad used the same method
of capturing German machine gun
nests. But the Rainbow knew
nothing about that. It had had no
schooling in such work. Without
time for either rest or schooling it
had come from a sector of patrols
and raids to a sector of defense, and
from there directly to a sector of
offense, and what it learned it had
to learn by bitter, costly experience.
What it did now, with Sergy.
Meurcy farm,, Seringes, Hill 220 and
the whole line of other flanktjipoJi
tions still in German hands after
nearly two days of fighting, was an
inspiration born of desperation; the
grim, determined desperation of baf
fled men bound to beat an opponent
at his own game, if it takes a life
time. ,.
Advance Indian Fashion.
Onthe morning of the 29th the
entire Rainbow division made a
general attack, not only upon Sergy
and Meurcy Farm, but upon the pla
teau between. It was not a rush
this time; it was a painfully slow
crawl. German machine guns blaz
ed from fields of tall, yellow wheat
on top of the plateau. From the
tall grass, a brown streak would
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suddenly shoot ahead for a yard or
two and disappear from view while
the German guns blated at it A
moment of quiet, then off to the left
another brows streak and a burst of
bullets from the wheat Then in
the center another, then another to
to right, until a half dozen men were
headed toward that single German
mathia gun. advancing in quick
dives, now left sow right now cen
ter! and whenever a man dived a
Volley of rifles from his comrades
answered the Sputter of the machine
gun. . m
And soon though it might be
a half hour Or an hour, and though a
sheaf of bullets might have caught
one of those brown streaks in mid
air so that it never dived againa
little ring of men in olive-drab would
be around that machine gun nest
and "a kill'1 would be on.
Iowan Routs Prussians.
One by one the, German machine
gun nests grew silent As the day
waned the clatter of them, like the
clatter of riveting hammers, came
from farther and farther to the
north. The lowans took Sergy.
They got some machine guns in 'a
near-crest of Hill 220, from which
they could fire' jnto the German
waving wheat fields and the bodies
of some of them had floated down
the Ourcq.
But neither losses nor German
reinforcements could stop the Rain
bow division, now that it had start
ed. The Foret de Nesles lay before
it full of German defenses, and
from the woods on Hill 220 machine
guns still raked the positions of the
168th. At 9 a. m. on the 30th, Colo
nel Screws and his 167th Alabam
ans started through the wheat to
ward the Chateau de Nesles, and
with the aid of the sniping guns of
the 26th division's artillery, blasted
out machine-gun nests, crossed the
plateau and dug in close to the cha
teau. The 168th had to dig in after
progressing about 300 yards.
In Muercy Farm, Colonel Mc
Coy's New Yorkers could only dig
and seek shelter from the withering
fire down the valley of the Ru du
Pont Brule. Light field batteries
and machine guns played constant
ly on the ruins and unceasing duel
.went on between them and the
161st artillery from Minnesota. The
most the 166th could have done was
hold, and they did that with heroic
tenacity.-
That night, the Ohioans of the
166th finding Seringes a rather hot
t
I ill $ M Tjifr
,M Truv'-ir mi i m Yiim -m&mmmusmmei&atom&m
Sergt. B. B. Hamilton, left, (infantry) ; Sergt. Warren Hamilton (cav
alry), center; Private Harry Hamilton (field artillery), right.
It was Sergt B. W. Hamilton of Company M, 168th infantry, who
wounded while out ahead of his own line, was attacked by 10 Prussian
guardsmen. He shot five and the rest ran away.
This photo was taken in July, 1916, at Camp Dodge, la., shortly after
the Iowa National Guard had been mobilized at tHe time of the Mexican
crisis. The Hamilton brothers, all lowans, had nit seen each other for
more than five years and met for the first time on the day the snap
shot was taken.
nests in the Arbe les Jomblets and
the Bois de Planchette.
Here on Hill 220, Sergt. B. W.
Hamilton of M Company, 168th in
fontry, wounded while out ahead of
his own line, was attacked by 10
Prussian guardsmen. He shot five
and the rest ran away.
The Aalabamans got well on to
ward the top of the plateau, and
the 165th, unsuccessful at Meurcy
Farm with the new "Indian meth
od" of attack on machine guns, call
ed for a long concentration of artil
lery fire on the place, and finally
their Irish tempers got the best of
them and they went at it with their
bayonets as they had gone over
the top in Champagne. They killed
the German machine gunners in
hand-to-hand fighting.
In the afternoon, Colonel Hough's
men of the 166th regiment, stormed
Seringes on its high, bare hill. It
was a gallant charge across i,:uu
meters of ground entirely without
cover, while machme-srun nests
flanked it and heavy fire came from
the village. Instead ot talcing it by
direct attack the Ohioans worked
around it and took Hill 184 to the
northwest. From there they silenc
ed the machine guns in Seringes and
then went down and bayonettea tne
gunners who were left.
Huns Chained to Guns.
It was shortly after this, you will
remember, that stories became cur
rent about Germans being found
chained to their machine guns in
the woods. There also began com
ing from German sources stories of
inhuman cruelty of American sol
diers. There had been many other
stories heretofore, bearing on the in
human treatment of German soldiers
by their officers, and there had been
much German propaganda intended
to counteract stories of German
fiendishness and cruelty.
But behind those stories in those
days of late July and early August,
1918, was something more than
propaganda. There was looming up
in the German army a feeling of
terror of these quick, forward,mov
ing men in olive drab, who were
not afraid even of the wonderful
German machine guns, but who
dived and wriggled toward them and
were suddenly all around them in
desperate little rings.
German gunners were being
chained to their guns; it was becom
ing necessary. And since men at
bay will always fight for their lives,
the fights around the machine gun
nests in the battle of the Ourcq
were nearly ' always fights to the
death. The Rainbow division took
few prisoners in that battle; its rec
ord of prisoners captured through
out the war falls short of the rec
ords of one or two other divisions;
it usually fought to kill. That was
the cruelty of which the Germans
spoke. .
Germans Send Reserves.
With this advance of the Rainbow
through the first of the Ourcq's
great defenses, "the German high
command, too, became alarmed for
the dignity of its retirement from,
the Chateau Thierry'salient. It be
gan putting id reserves. Opposite
the Rainbow there was now, from
left to right the 10th Laudwehr
division, the Sixth ' Bavarian re
serves, the Fourth Prussian guard
and the 201st. Nowhere else along
the whole fighting front were Ger
man troops massed so densely as op
posite the Rainbow, the 28th and
the Third American divisions at this
stage of the Ourcq battle.
By 8 o'clock on the night of July
30, Colonel Fatrchild, the Rainbow
division surgeon, had reported the
losses in wounded atone as 3,276
men from the beginning of" the
fighting at La Croix Rouge Ferme.
Of the killed no record could be
kept at that time. The brave men
wiui had died ware out thera in thai
place to hold, worked a ruse. They
deserted the village. During the aft
ernoon enemy patrols, filtering in
to it, found it empty. More came
in, and still more, until by nightfall
a large body of them was there,
probably preparing new machine
gun positions, if not preparing a
counter attack.
And all this time Colonel Hough's
men were hanging to the edge of
Hill 184, and when darkness had
fallen they surrounded Seringes, at
tacked it from every side and in a
fierce hand-to-hand battle mopped
it as clean of boches as a new bath
room floor.
The 168th fought its last fight of
the Ourcq campaign on August 1,
when it took Hill 212. It was a ter
rible task and the fight lasted all
through the hot day. The whole
regiment was in the battle at one
stage or another, with Maj. Claude
Stanley's second battalion leading
the first attack, Maj. Emory Worth
ington's first battalion relieving
Stanley, and the third battalion un
der Maj. Guy Brewer coming in to
ward the end of the day. The third
battalion was the first to get a firm
foothold on the hill.
Germans Start Retreat.
It was Private Burke, Major Brew
er's personal orderly, who carried
to regimental headquarters at La
Motte Farm the message that Hill
212 had at last been captured, after
three runners who had started with
the same message had been killed
by German artillery. Shells fell in
the whole Ourcq valley that day like
rain.
Hill 212 commanded the Foret de
Nesles, which was now the only
strong position the boche had left in
his whole Ourcq system. French
and American artillery, concentrat
ing upon it, silenced the . German
batteries and they began to with
draw. And on the. night of August
1 the German infantry pulled itself
together quietly, and silently stole
away toward the River Vesle. v
The Rainbow had outwitted, OUt
gamed and outfought the bast Sol
diers in the German army. They
were now in full retreat from the
Ourcq. 1
The pursuit started next morning.
The 168th exhausted after six days
and nights of constant fighting of
the hardest kind, was revealed by
the 117th engineers from California
and South Carolina, -commanded by
Colonel Kelly. This regiment, ready
now to attack as infantry, as they
had been ready to defend in the
Champagne, carried on the chase
with the Ohio, Alabama and New
York infantry regiments.
That day the Rainbow advanced
through the Foret de Nesles nearly
five kilometers beyond the point
from which it had started in the
morning. The Germans in their
hurry to get away blew up great
ammunition dumps, but the Kain
bow came so closely upon their
heels that they deserted nearly 30,-
000 shells which the division captur
ed intact.
Lived in Posthole.
A line running between Mont St.
Martin and Chery Chartreuve was
the limit of the Rainbow's advance;
between the first-named point and
La Croix Rouge Ferme the distance
was 1 kilometers tne longest ad
vance by any division attacking be
tween Sqissons and Rheims. There
a relief of the Rainbow by the
Fourth division, which had been pro
gressing during the pursuit, ' was
completed, but the artillery stayed in
position for several days assisting
the Fourth to maintain a footing be
yond the Vesle river.
ihe weather was hot. and the
country full of ruined villages, dead
unburied bodies boche and Amer
ican and thousands of dead horses.
The men were dirty; baths were
next to impossible. But instead of
being withdrawn from the salient,
which seemed on the verge of be
coming a pest hole, the Rainbow
division was held in reserve for
nearly a week. Sickness broke out.
Elsie Janis Appears.
And into the middle of this filthy
backyard of war, with its sicken
ing smells and sights and its un
kept, lousy men, there bounded on
a fine afternoon one Elsie Janis
fluffy, beautiful, pipquant not at
all unlike a goddess just stepping
out of the clouds for a bit to see
what all this rough-house was about
down here below. That's what it
seemed like to the Rainbow divi
sion. They hauled a wagonbed into an
open field and made a stage on it,
and there jblsie Janis danced and
sang before a vast concourse of un
washed doughboys, who suddenly
remembered that there was such a
thing in the world as a pretty
American girl and were somewhat
awed and saddened at the remem
brance. An aeroplane came whir
ring overhead while Elsie Janis
sang "Oh You Dirty Germans!" It
came so low that you could see the
black Maltese cross on the lower
planes. But nobody minded.
(To be continued in The Bee
Friday).
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Recent sales of homes and vacant
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Dundee home at . 4845 Farnam
street to John F. Hecox, vice presi
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$11,000.
Dundee home at 4650 Dodge street
to Peter M. Ccnklin for $5,000.
Dundee home at M650 Dodge
Street to Hannah Morskovitz for
$10000.
Home in Mcntclair addition at
3223 Hamilton street t4 John P.
Cummins for $6,000.
Dundee home at 1300 No. 52 ave
nue to Anna B. Van Knuth for
$6,250. !
Dundee hotoe at 1310 No. Slst street
to Neal Jones, managing, editor, Of
Omaha Daily News, for $5,650. ' !
Home in Lockwood addition to
Raymond E. Davis, vice president,
O'Brien-Davis-Coad company, for
$13,000.
Dundee lot to George E. Grimes,
who is building a home, for ,$1350.
Dundee lot to Otto Nilson for
$1,2000.
Dundee lot to Herman Hull for
$1,650.
Dundee home to Walter S. John
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Dundee home to T. H. Simms,
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Home m Glen park addition, near
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Home in Montelair addition to
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