The Fourth Division; Its Services and Achievements in the World War (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ...sky, before even the anti-aircraft batteries had seen him, he dived down on the first balloon. There was a sputter of machine gun fire, now joined by the anti-craft fire from the ground but the aviator, to the thousands of eyes watching from below, had apparently missed his target for, as he left, the balloon appeared to be still unharmed. Suddenly a figure beneath a white parachute was seen falling to earth--the observer had jumped. And then a streak of flame burst from the silvery back of the balloon and soon it was descending to the ground, a mass of fire. Meanwhile the observer in the second balloon had jumped while the German dived toward him. There was another streak of flame and then another mass of burning wreckage. A third, however, escaped, the men on the ground pulling the balloon to earth before the German reached it. He was soon on his way back to his own lines. 197 On September 27 th the attack was resumed at 6:30 A. m., with the support of one battalion of the 77th Artillery, less one battery. Two batteries of the 16th Artillery joined in support between 9:00 and 10:00 A. M., one battalion of the 13th about 10:00 A.m., and the other about 1:00 p. M. The direction of attack for the two regiments now began to diverge slightly. The 47th inclined toward the town of Brieulles-sur-Meuse with two battalions in the front line and one in support; to the latter was attached Co. "A," 10th Machine Gun Battalion. The 39th pushed on in the original direction with one battalion in the front line and one in support; its remaining battalion was in brigade reserve. When the troops left their fox-holes that morning they soon found that the German resistance had greatly increased compared with that of the previous day. Where it had been...