. Illinois in the World War; an illustrated record prepared with the coöperation and under the direction of the leaders in the state's military and civilian organizations. forward. Laneshad been cut through the wire in front of the American defenses along lineslaid out by the intelligence section. Along the lanes down to Forges Creek,the men of the 132nd advanced. There,under cover of the barrage and a heavymist, two companies of Colonel Henry Chicago engineers, the io8th, hadbuilt bridges. The enemy was directing savage ma-chine gun fire at the river, but the aim wastoo high and the
. Illinois in the World War; an illustrated record prepared with the coöperation and under the direction of the leaders in the state's military and civilian organizations. forward. Laneshad been cut through the wire in front of the American defenses along lineslaid out by the intelligence section. Along the lanes down to Forges Creek,the men of the 132nd advanced. There,under cover of the barrage and a heavymist, two companies of Colonel Henry Chicago engineers, the io8th, hadbuilt bridges. The enemy was directing savage ma-chine gun fire at the river, but the aim wastoo high and the regiment crossed rapidlywithout casualties. Then, under protectionof a twenty-minute standing barrage, thelines reformed on the north bank of thestream and prepared for the first assault onthe German lines. As the rolling barrage started, theorder to advance was given, and the frontline battalions moved ahead, about 300yards behind the barrage. At 6:30 DiogenesTrench and the southern fringe of ForgesWood were reached, the right flank restingon the Forges-Drillancourt road and theleft touching the southwest line of the gun fire was encountered at the. ONE OF THE PASSERALLESACROSS FORGES SWAMP THE 132ND INFANTRY 325 edge of the woods but flanking platoons quickly silenced it, and the advancecontinued. Thus far the heavy fog had covered and aided the advance, but now moreconcentrated opposition was met. The enemys machine gun nests were nu-merous and cleverly placed. They were echeloned in depth in five lines andstrongly manned. Ihe infantry fire, however, was rather weak. It soon became evident that the advance could not be made in waves, therefore, were formed into small combat groups for oper-ation against strong-points and posts. In this way the advance was con-tinued. Bombers, supported by trench mortars, disposed of isolated posts,
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectworldwar19141918
