Memoirs of 2dLt W. B. Jackson, USMC
IN THE ARGONNE FOREST
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For some time now the battle of the Argonne Forest had been going on with increasing success. So now a grand push was decided upon. Our outfit was transferred by hiking to that general area and on the night of October 31st we took up positions on the highway from Landresville to Landresville et St. Georges. A heavy rolling barrage was planned. Across the road behind us were 75s hub to hub. Around three on the morning of November 1st all hell broke loose. The noise was so terrific no voice could be heard, not even our whistles. I had to position my crews by manually leading them. Jump off time came and away we went. It seemed that Heinie had sort of lost heart. At least his resistance was not so persistent or determined. We moved along during the day at an almost continuous pace. However, late in the afternoon, as we were passing through a woods we came up against a fortified hill top from which machine gun fire pinned us down. Some time passed but finally the infantry was able to practically surround the hilltop. When grenades and mortar shells began falling on them from
all directions Heinie gave up and quit. There must have been well over a hundred of them and we captured something like 19 machine guns. They marched the Heinies down from the hill to a road that ran back the way we had come where them stopped them facing them towards the hill from which they had come. The skipper of the 16th said for my platoon to take charge of them and get them out to Brigade Headquarters. The 16th took off up over the captured hill. I went over to the German officer who appeared to have been their CO and tried to tell him with my High school German to have his men turnaround. I told him "wiedersteharn" which I later realized probably said to stand again rather than turn around. No soap. After some little time, he clicked his heels together, saluted and said "If the Herr Lieutenant will speak English maybe I can understand Him". After a few profane remarks about his delay in speaking up I asked him where he had learned his English. He replied that he had lived eleven years in Pittsburgh. He had gone back to fight the French and English and had never dreamed that the Americans would get into it. In the meantime it developed that they and we had some non-ambulatory wounded. I had no stretchers and no first aid men. I was wondering what to do as dusk approached. Finally, the German officer said that if I would let them his men would handle it. Without much thought I told him to do it. He turned and barked a few commands to his men who took off for the woods. Stupefied, I watched them wondering how I would ever explain their disappearance. Almost immediately, however, they returned carrying three limbs out of the woods. They had all just been issued new German great coats. They stripped these off, buttoned them ;up, reversed the sleeves inside out and ran the tree limbs through the sleeves down through the inside of the coats. Voila, we had stretchers. They placed the wounded on the stretchers and stood waiting. The German officer came to me, clicked his heels again and saluted. He said if I was willing he would like to move out as his countrymen would begin shelling at dark. I had assigned my ambulatory wounded as "guards". I told him to go ahead. He started them and then came back and told me not to stop on the hilltop. It was an aiming in point and his countrymen would shell it that night. Then away they went. My platoon went on up the hill. I told the 16th CO what the Heinie had said and that I was going to take my platoon on down the hill into the valley ahead. He said it was his belief that he should do just the opposite of what any Kraut told him to do. That night Heinie did shell. The 16th had several casualties but the shells all went over the heads of my platoon in the valley and we had no casualties.
The next day our advance became even more rapid. Very little enemy infantry resistance was encountered. Some machine gun fire but mostly it was artillery. Even this was not steady or aimed directly at our troops. It sometimes seemed fixed on hills or difficult spots for advancing troops. You almost felt that Heinie's will to fight was diminishing. So on through the 2nd and 3rd of November. The night of the third we endured a rather heavy rain. Most of us got rather damp and it made for a very uncomfortable night.
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