But the Negro lads let them have grenades, accurate rifle fire and a hail from some concealed machine gun nests.Sergt.Bob Collins was later given the Croix de Guerre for his disposition of the machine guns on that occasion.
While holding the sector of Hauzy Wood, the 369th was the only barrier between the German army and Paris.

However, had there been an attempt to break through, General Gouraud, the French army commander, would have had strength enough there at once to stop it.

About this time everyone in the Allied armies knew that the supreme German effort was about to come.

It was felt as a surety that the brunt of the drive would fall upon the 4th French Army, of which the 369th regiment and other portions of the American 93rd Division were a part.

This army was holding a line 50 kilometers long, stretching between Rheims and the Argonne Forest.