corps and divisional artillery harassed circulation and assembly points with gas and high explosives.
The 37mm. platoon of the 359th Infantry fired 600 rounds on Preny. The barrage was timed to advance
at the rate of 100 meters in 2½ minutes. The infantry found it impossible to keep up with this speed.
This fact enabled the German machine gunners to crawl out of their concrete pill-boxes after our
artillery had passed over and set up their guns to catch the advancing infantry.
The enemy defenses which the raiding party encountered were all that the name “Hindenburg”
implies. In the walls of Preny itself were several concrete machine gun emplacements, and dugouts in
the town were capable of accommodating a large garrison. There was a row of concrete pill-boxes at
intervals of one hundred yards along the ridge running west from Preny. Machine guns from these
positions, as from the woods to the north and west, completely dominated open space across which the
raiders were forced to pass. There were two lines of trenches: the first, Tranchée des Grognons, and the
second, Tranchée des Pepinieres, each defended by bands of wire. The men were not able to get beyond
Tranchée des Grognons, and only a few reached this position. None who reached it came back to tell
the story. Captain David Vanderkooi, Company F, 359th Infantry, sent a message that he had reached
this trench, and was not seen again, being wounded and captured.
The leading companies, after suffering severe casualties, retired to the jumping-off position, and
at 9: 50 A. M. orders were given to hold this position against counterattack, as the enemy had followed
up our withdrawal aggressively. The 343d Machine Gun Battalion had been moved to Côte 327 to lay
down a barrage on Preny and vicinity, and to be in readiness to meet this anticipated counterattack. The
battalion suffered from artillery fire, Lieutenant Walter B. Dryson being killed.
Every company officer of the 359th Infantry going into the action was a casualty, and during the
day the 2d Battalion, 359th Infantry, had five commanders. Captain Fred N. Oliver was wounded by
shrapnel fifteen minutes after the action began. He sent word to Captain Vanderkooi to take command,
but Captain Vanderkooi probably never received the message. Lieutenant F. B. Ferrais held the
command a short time, remaining on the job despite a wound in his neck by a machine gun bullet. After
the action, Captain Merlin M. Mitchell, Company M, was sent to take command of the 2d Battalion, but
on his arrival a shell burst directly in front of him and he was sent to the hospital badly gassed and
shocked. Captain B. M. Whitaker then commanded until the battalion returned to Griscourt for rest,
where Captain Tom G. Woolen was placed in command.
Five officers of the 359th Infantry were missing after the action. Two of these, Lieutenants John
C. Boog, Company F, and Oscar Nordquist, Company H, were later known to have been killed.
CaptainVanderkooi, Lieutenant Walter J. Wakefield, Company F, and Lieutenant James B. Morgan,
who commanded Company H, were discovered in a German hospital at Metz after the armistice.
CaptainVanderkooi was shot through the right arm and shoulder; Lieutenant Wakefield had a bad wound
in his lungs, and Lieutenant Morgan had been so badly mauled by high explosive that it was necessary
to operate on him five times. Lieutenant Oscar C. Key, Company C, was killed, and Lieutenant Lewis J.
Hennessey, Company A, was wounded. Both of these officers had been attached to the raiding
companies for the operation. Lieutenant Clifford Clower received a wound which later made the
amputation of one leg necessary. In addition, Lieutenant Leland F. Zilman, who was in command of the
combat patrol between the 359th Infantry and the 358th Infantry, was shot in the leg. Lieutenant Claude
W. Fisher, adjutant, 2d Battalion, and Lieutenant Peter E .McKenna, battalion intelligence officer were
lucky enough to return with only slight scratches.
The raid also robbed the 358th Infantry of one of its best officers, Captain Herbert N. Peters, who
was killed while commanding Company D. Lieutenant Robert E. Gilbraith, Company A, attached to
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