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| The 307th Infantry, on their way to war, from the collection of the Imperial War Museums |
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| Captain Blanton Barrett |
The intent was to surprise the enemy with a daylight raid and thereby obtain information thru capture and observation. But either thru knowledge or by chance, the Germans had prepared against this maneuver and the surprise was reversed.
Waiting until our patrol was fairly within their lines, and then partially surrounding them, the enemy centered upon our men a deadly fire of rifles, machine guns, and grenades. The raiders fought valiantly in return but were outnumbered four to one. After an hour’s fighting, seventeen of our party, including Captain Barrett, lay dead, and sixteen were captured. Of the twenty-one who returned, thirteen were wounded. We were informed by two German prisoners captured a few days later that seventeen Germans had been killed.
The Company moved on May 5th to the armory of the 22d New York Engineers in New York City to await final orders for the parade of welcome arranged by New York City.
We formed for the parade near Washington Square at 8:00
A.M. next morning and at 10:00 A.M. we marched out to Fifth Avenue and swept up that thorofare to the acclaim of a million throats. No greeting could have been more sincere, no welcome more impressive, and this, our last hike as Company B, was a march of glory.
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| The last hike, up Fifth Avenue |
Words & Music by Mike Power 