there was a slaughter in the German lines. Then when the German
infantry crossed to our front line trenches (now entirely vacant)
they were smashed up because the French guns were firing directly
upon these positions, which they knew mathematically. And those of
the Boche who went down in the dugouts for safety were killed by
the gas which the Frenchmen had left there for them.

"This battle--the supreme German drive--raged over eighty-five
kilometers (51 miles). West of Rheims the enemy broke through the
line, but they did not break through anywhere in Gen. Gouraud's
sector. Stonewall Gouraud stopped them. The American units which
took in the defense that was so successful were the 42nd Division,
including the gallant 69th of New York, who were to the west of us,
our own little regiment, and the American Railroad Artillery.

"That was the turning point of the war, because soon thereafter
began Marshal Foch's great counter thrust, in which the 1st and 2nd
American Divisions participated so wonderfully about Belleau Wood,
Chateau-Thierry and that district. Gouraud in my belief, turned the
tide of the war, and I am proud that the New York City colored boys
had a share of that vital fight.

"Right here I may say that this orphan, urchin regiment of ours
placed in the pathway of the Boche in the most significant battle
the world has ever known, had only thirty-seven commissioned
officers, and four of those wounded, had to be carried in
stretchers to their positions in the trenches in order to direct
the fighting."

Colonel Hayward was himself in the hospital with a broken leg.
Disregarding the orders of the surgeons he went to the front line on
crutches and personally directed his men in the fight. In all of his
written and quoted utterances since the war, he has refrained from
mentioning this fact, but it is embodied in the regimental records.

Shortly after the French national holiday, the 369th was sent about 15
kilometers west to a position in front of the Butte de Mesnil, a high
hill near Maison en Champagne, occupied by the Germans. Around that
district they held half a dozen sectors at different times with only one
week of rest until September 26th.

Artillery duels were constant. It is related that near the Butte de
Mesnil the regiment lost a man an hour and an officer a day from the
shell