July 19-26, 1918: "A hurricane of fire, small arms, machine guns and artillery."

by Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

The 42nd Division Monument at the Croix Rouge Farm, Fere en Tardenois, France.  Photo by Maj. William Carraway

With the German offensive in the Champagne region blunted, Marshall Ferdinand Foch was at last able to launch a counter offensive to reduce the Marne salient. Accordingly, attacks by the French and 1st American Division to the west had pushed German forces and isolated those forces along the Marne River where the American 4th and 26 Divisions were also vigorously pressing forward with French divisions. By July 23, the Germans had begun to retire to a new line of defense along the Ourcq River[i] leaving behind enemy machine gun squads and rear-guard units tasked with protecting the German redeployment and harassing the advancing Allies.

Having moved out of the trenches of the Champagne Defensive, the 42nd Division was relieved from the French Fourth Army and assigned to the 1st American Corps, French Sixth Army[ii]. General Order Number 48 issued July 19, 1918 directed the division to proceed from their positions in the Chalons area and be prepared to participate in the exploitation of the successful counterattack against German positions carried out on July 18[iii].

For the 151st Machine Gun Battalion, the movement from the Champagne Marne positions to Camp Noblotte had been a study in exhaustion. Having lost many of their pack animals to artillery fire the Soldiers were compelled to carry their weapons and ammunition from their positions. Headquarters and Companies A and B moved with the 167th Infantry Regiment while Companies C and D traveled with the 168th. Accordingly, on the evening of July 21 despite enemy air raids, Headquarters and Companies A and B marched to Coolus where they entrained for Lizy-su-Ourcq. The next day, Companies C and D marched to Coolus and moved by train to LaFerte, arriving on the morning of July 24.[iv]

Map  at the Croix Rouge Memorial depicting unit positions and actions during the assault on the Croix Rouge Farm. Photo by Maj. William Carraway

On the evening of July 24, the Soldiers were loaded onto trucks for an all-night trip over rough terrain to Epieds. Jostled all night, the men had no chance to sleep and, upon arriving, had to unload all their equipment and march to their encampments while carrying all their gear. Headquarters and Companies A and D went into reserve positions near Courpoil while Companies B and C moved into front line positions in the Bois de Fere where they and their supported infantry relieved units of the 28th and 26th Divisions, the latter of which had suffered nearly 4,700 casualties while advancing eighteen kilometers.

The men of the 151st made the approach march from Epieds under fire in the rain while carrying their equipment and ammunition. Enemy fire struck an ammunition cart being pulled by Cpl. Julius Lyons of Company D killing him and wounding Pvts. Benjamin Keenen, Sylvester Furlow, Clifford Boden and Henry J. Pearson[v].

Final resting place of Cpl. Julius Lyons in the Oise Aisne Cemetery,
Seringes-et-Nesles, France. Photo by Maj. William Carraway

Cpl. Julius Lyons

As the 42nd Division neared the front lines, they were without guides and moving blind. Nevertheless, per Field Order Number 24, the 167th and 168th Infantry along with the 151st Machine Gun Battalion assumed a line of battle running east to west with the 167th to the left and the 168th to the right. The 167th placed its 1st and 3rd battalions into the line with the 2nd battalion in support. Company B 151st Machine Gun Battalion would move in support of 3rd Battalion while the regimental machine gun company would support the 1st Battalion [vi]. The regiments completed their passage of lines through the units of the 26th Division on the evening of July 25 with the French 39th Division on their right and the French 167th Division on their left[vii].

The next day, the 42nd assumed responsibility for the front occupied by the 167th. Their mission would be to push forward and facilitate the forward movement of the 39th Division in their advance. At 3:40 p.m. on July 26, the units of the 42nd Division received their warning order to commence the attack at 4:50 p.m[viii].

The Croix Rouge Farm in 1918 as depicted during the
Centennial memorial July 27, 2018. Photo by Maj. William
Carraway

Standing athwart the axis of advance of the 42nd Division was the Croix Rouge Farm, a formidable structure composed of a walled stone farm house and associated outbuildings defended by the German 23rd Infantry Division and 10th Landwehr Division[ix]. The Croix Rouge farm house was surrounded by open terrain into which the Germans set up interlocking fields of fire for their 8 mm machine guns. So well prepared were the Germans for the defense that trees at the periphery of the woods had been marked by paint at waist height to facilitate German targeting[x].

Thick woods in the vicinity of the Croix Rouge Farm would negate the ability of machine guns to provide supporting fire to the advance, thus, the machine gunners of the 151st would advance with the attacking infantry forces.

The Iowa National Guard Soldiers of the 168th Infantry Regiment advanced to the right with the 1st Battalion in the lead. To their left, the 167th Infantry Regiment of Alabama National Guard Soldiers advanced with the 1st and 3rd Battalions on line. 

In his post-war diary, Walter Binford, A corporal in Company B of the 151st recalled the attack on the Croix Rouge Farm.

“We crossed the road and entered the woods to be greeted by a hurricane of fire, small arms, machine guns and artillery. We continued advancing, crossing two trenches and reached the edge of the woods. In the middle of an open field lay La Croix Rouge Farm. After a moment to gather our bearings, we started on the charge to the Farm. The moment we left the woods, a barrage was laid between us and the Farm and machine guns played on us. We got to the wall of the Farm yard, which was occupied by the enemy and could not get in, so we sat down with our backs to the wall, catching our breaths, when one of our shells hit the wall and blew a hole in it. We dashed through the hole and came face to face with the enemy. One soldier put his rifle to shoot me and I fell to the ground, the bullet went through my shoulder. I rolled over, and drew my pistol, took a shot at him and missed. He fired at me again but missed and ran over to bayonet me. I emptied my pistol at him hitting him just in the "nick of time". The remainder of the enemy ran to the woods on the other side of the Farm and the Farm yard belonged to us. We set up our machine guns at various vantage points. I took my gun out of the Farm yard and put it along a hedgerow and opened fire on an artillery piece that was firing at us from the edge of the woods. We were so close to him that he could not lower the gun enough to hit us and the shells were bursting behind us. Man after man fell, either killed or wounded, until there were only a handful left on their feet.”

Sergeant Paul B. Minter, Company B, 151st
MGB.  Georgia Guard Archives

While Binford and his platoon moved with the assault force, Sgt. Paul Bryants Minter, a section leader in Company B had established his two machine guns to provide supporting fire for 167th Infantry Regiment. Minter led his section forward, selected firing positions and personally positioned both of his guns then proceeded to direct fire amidst a hail of machine gun and artillery fire. Minter continued to direct the fire of his section until he was killed. He would posthumously receive the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions becoming the only one of 36 members of the 151st MGB nominated for the DSC to receive it.

The 151st MGB suffered six casualties in the assault on Croix Rouge Farm. In addition to Binford, Pvt. Will Bryant, Pfcs. Frank Burnett and Howell T. Whiting and Supply Sgt. Arthur Peavy of Company B were wounded. Casualties would likely have been much higher, but many of the exhausted machine gunners, laboring under the weight of their equipment through uneven wooded terrain were unable to keep up with the advancing infantry and were thus unable to effectively bring their guns to bear on the objective. Meanwhile, the attacking Infantry Regiments suffered terribly.  More than 65 percent of the 1st Battalion 167th fell in the assault, and the 1st and 3rd Battalions combined could barely muster a single battalion’s strength.

View of the Croix Rouge Farm in 2018 looking North.  Photo by Maj. William Carraway

With the Croix Rouge Farm strong point in American hands, the Germans withdrew the last of their elements to their Ourcq River line on the evening of July 26-27[xi].

Next Chapter: “Kill or be killed”

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[i] Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J. Heer Printing Co., 1936, 320

[ii] American Battle Monuments Commission. 42D Division Summary of Operations in the World War. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 18

[iii] Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J. Heer Printing Co., 1936, 315

[iv] Peavy, Arthur and Miller, White, The 151st Machine Gun Battalion 42d (Rainbow) Division: A Battalion History and Citations of the Rainbow August 13, 1917 to April 26, 1919. J. W. Burke Co., 1919, 9

[v] N. P. Parkinson and Joel R. Parkinson, Commanding Fire: An Officers Life in the 151st Machine Gun Battalion, 42nd Rainbow Division during World War I (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub., 2013),, 87-88

[vi] Frazer, Nimrod T. Send the Alabamians: World War I Fighters in the Rainbow Division. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2014, 111

[vii] American Battle Monuments Commission. 42D Division Summary of Operations in the World War. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 19

[viii] Ibid, 20

[ix] Frazer, Nimrod T. Send the Alabamians: World War I Fighters in the Rainbow Division. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2014, 111-112

[x] Ibid, 113

[xi] Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J. Heer Printing Co., 1936, 325.