08/28/2026
Leonidas and His Spartans
30 days of fighting at Fismette and it’s sister city Fismes had transformed the small towns into a crumpled wasteland. Buildings collapsed, rubble and barricades littered the streets, and a constant presence of high explosive and gas shells forced the men of the Keystone Division to fight underground through a maze of basement tunnels. The night of August 26th into the morning August 27th men from the Second Battalion, 112th Infantry faced a hellish fight beyond anything they had before experienced.
As dawn broke over Fismette, a heavy German barrage began falling on the town with an intensity never before seen. This “Box Barrage” cut off the men of Second Battalion and pulverized their positions. The rubble and debris swallowed up the automatic rifles and stashes of grenades, and they were forced to retire from their outposts into the basement cellars. As the barrage lifted, the men of the battalion peered out from their subterranean positions and saw a stream of German soldiers pouring into the town from all directions. German troops worked their way through the town at a high rate of speed, lobbing grenades into American positions and covering the streets with their flame throwers. Doughboys still reeling from the shock of the barrage valiantly fought back and collapsed into small pockets or defensive lines across the town. Lieutenants, Sergeants, and even privates fought tenaciously against the attacking “Boche”.
Lieutenant Ben Turner of H Company grabbed seven men from his platoon and two automatic rifles and determined to make a stand. With their backs to the river, they poured fire into the advancing German soldiers from the basement of a collapsing house. German soldiers called out demanding they give up their defense, but Turner yelled back “Surrender? Hell, I should say not” and told his men “We will fight it out.” For hours the men of Turner’s “Spartans” as a Philadelphia newspaperman would later dub them held off the advance on their position, watching other survivors of their battered battalion swim the river back to safety. But a few men could only do so much and Turner saw the situation was futile. With their only route across the river closing off and a German slug in his arm, he ordered his remaining men to withdraw “You men clear out; I will stay awhile and follow later." As they parted at the river’s edge, he handed his Sergeant a note with his wife’s name and address on it “beat it with the rest, boy. I am going back to that house...” Although wounded himself, Turner shouldered a Chauchat and covered the retreat of his men. As the squad of “Spartans” heard the patter of his automatic rifle cease they feared for the worst, but Turner emerged dripping from the Vesle, organized another defense in Fismes, and hurried to the CP to give his Commander a report on the fighting.
The action on August 27th was a disaster in many ways. 230 men manned the Fismette defenses at the start of the attack. 127 were captured, 75 killed, and the remaining handful made it back across the river. Intelligence failures, lack of coordinated support, and a command that refused to allow the withdrawal of an exposed salient in the line all contributed to heavy losses for the Second Battalion. The repercussions of that dark day reverberated through the Regiment, Division, and Corps command all the way up to General Pershing. While often portrayed as a complete collapse, the men of the Second Battalion fought valiantly and with extreme bravery in the face of an overwhelming attack. Along with the handful of stories carried across the river that day are many more buried with the brave defenders of Fismette, lost to the histories and records of the Division.
