With a gallantry not exceeded in the annals of the war, the Second division kept at its task. When one enemy machine-gun nest was captured, they found themselves targets for others, whose gunners, discovered, had withheld their fire until the moment when it would be the most effective.
Another grand assault was ordered by General Lejeune.
The Germans made a determined resistance. They put in fresh troops and subjected the American lines to a terrific artillery bombardment of high explosives and gas shells. Directly in the path of the advancing Americans was a large wood. Although the wood was not yet cleared of the enemy, the American line here was farther advanced. Many prisoners had been taken.
A third attack resulted in the capture of still more prisoners and many machine-guns. In the meantime the Ninth infantry, on the right of that part of the field where Hal and Chester found themselves, had advanced its position to the northern edge of the Bois de la Jardin and was digging in to beat off a possible counter-attack. In fact, the entire Third brigade, assisted by a battalion of the Second engineers, was strengthening its lines as well as possible under heavy enemy machine-gun and artillery fire.
The defensive part played by this brigade was very difficult. Its losses were heavy as a result of enemy shell fire and gas bombardments, to which the Third brigade could not at the moment reply. Its duty now was to hold its lines. Its present action was confined to a rifle and machine-gun duel with the enemy.
To the south, the First brigade also was hotly engaged. It had advanced in the face of a terrible artillery and machine-gun fire until at hand grips with the foe. Then ensued one of the fiercest struggles of the war.
As in other encounters, the Germans proved no match for the Yankees at hand-to-hand fighting. They resisted desperately, but gradually were driven back. The Americans, with wild cheers, pursued them closely.
General Lejeune’s center, composed of the Second brigade, with an additional battalion or two of artillery, also was meeting with greater success than the Third brigade, which, for the moment, had been checked.
The advance was pushed with desperate energy, and the Germans could not hold their ground in the face of the withering American fire. The German center faltered, then broke.