File:"With the help of God and a few Marines, (1919) (14579238959).jpg

Identifier: withhelpofgodand00catl (find matches)
Title: "With the help of God and a few Marines,"
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Catlin, Albertus Wright, 1868- Dyer, Walter A. (Walter Alden), 1878-1943
Subjects: United States. Marine Corps World War, 1914-1918 -- United States World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
Publisher: Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, Page & Company
Contributing Library: University of Massachusetts, Boston
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Massachusetts, Boston

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small plateau, inevery ravine and pocket, amid heaps of rocks,behind piles of cut timber, and even in the trees,and every gun was trained upon the advancingMarines and spitting hot death into them. These German guns in the wood were well placedto cover all zones with both lateral and plungingfire. No spot was safe from their spray of bullets.Quick action was essential, or our force would havebeen wiped out. But the Marines never faltered.They attacked those nests with rifles, automatics,grenades, and bayonets. In small groups, evensingly, they charged the machine gun crews and theirinfantry supports with wildcat ferocity, fighting likefiends till the Huns were dead or threw up theirhands and bleated Kamerad. Then they rushedon to the next one. The most eflPective method was to run to the rearof each gun in turn and overpower the crew. Buteach flanking position was covered by another gunwhich had to be taken immediately. It was a furiousdash from nest to nest, with no time to stop for
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HhJ AND A FEW MARINES 125 breath. In the thick of the m^lee the wild yells ofthe Marines were mingled with the constantcrackle of rifle fire like bunches of fire crackersexploding. Through the smoke of battle that drifted like fogamong the tree trunks, Sibley kept to his courseacross the southern section of the wood. His diffi-culties must have seemed well-nigh insuperable, forhis men were exposed to a constant flanking fire ontheir left, while they were obliged to keep their eyesto the front and take the machine guns from theflank or rear. But take them they did, one afteranother, and though many a brave man fell there inthe wood, they pushed steadily on across. There was dense brush in spots, where men got lostand found themselves isolated and cut off from theirsquads. The wounded dragged themselves to thicketsand depressions—any place where they could hidefrom those prying bullets and wait till there was timefor some one to carry them out. They were short ofwater and the suflFeri

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