Battalion S-2 Earns Distinguished Service Cross (10-13 AUG 1918)

Between Aug. 10–13, 1918, 1st Lt. Lee Chase Fletcher, a battalion intelligence officer with the 111th Infantry Regiment, 28th “Keystone” Division, fought with the regiment’s troops in the village of Fismette, France. His selfless actions during the battle earned him a Distinguished Service Cross.

Lee Fletcher was born in Gillett, Pennsylvania, in the 1890s and graduated high school in 1911. After attending Union College in Schenectady, New York, he taught at nearby Spring Valley High School. In April 1917, already in his late twenties, Lee enlisted in the Army and was sent to an officer training camp at Madison Barracks, New York. After completing his training, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. By the time he arrived in France in May 1918 with Col. Edward C. Shannon’s 111th Infantry, he had already been promoted to first lieutenant.

In June, the 28th Division arrived approximately 50 miles east of Paris. Although part of the American III Corps, it was under the overall command of the French Sixth Army commanded by Maj. Gen. Jean Degoutte. Colonel Shannon assembled his regiment at the village of Saint-Denis-lès-Rebais late in the month. Some of the regiment’s platoons saw their first action on July 1; by mid-July the entire regiment was committed in the Battle of Château-Thierry.

Throughout the month, a series of Allied offensives had pushed the Germans to a position on the Vesle River, and by August 4, the American 32d Division had helped capture the town of Fismes on the south bank of the river. The 28th Division’s 112th Infantry then relieved the 32d and established its headquarters in the town. Under Degoutte’s orders, the regiment was to cross the lone footbridge over the 45-foot-wide Vesle and take the town of Fismette on the north bank. The Germans, however, were dug in on the steep hillsides to the north, east, and west of the town, and the 112th was forced to withdraw. On the morning of August 7, following an artillery barrage on German positions, the 112th attacked again. The next few days consisted of desperate hand-to-hand combat and a series of attacks that destroyed the town of Fismette.

On the night of August 9, the 111th relieved the 112th. Although exhausted and suffering from several days without rations, early the next morning, the men of the 111th crossed the bridge intent on seizing the Germans in the hills surrounding Fismette. Under intense machine-gun fire, however, the men fell back to the town to await reinforcements. Two days later, on August 12, the 111th again attempted to take the heights, sparking a German bombardment followed by a ground assault by elite stormtroopers armed with flamethrowers. In the midst of the fighting, Third Battalion S-2 Lieutenant Fletcher organized a detachment to defend an important position in the town and then personally raced on foot to the rear to correct friendly artillery fire that was falling short of the enemy positions. His actions helped the Americans hold their own positions and reduced the number of casualties. Although the 111th was relieved on August 13, the fight for Fismette continued throughout the month.

On August 26, while still engaged in fierce fighting in the Fismette/Fismes area, an optimistic Lieutenant Fletcher wrote in a letter to his parents,

We are resting in a wood right in front of some heavy artillery back of the lines, and when they fire it lifts us right out of bed. . . . Germany knows she is fighting a losing fight. And the Germans are simply scared to death of the Americans. We pour artillery on to them until, as one prisoner said, ‘It just hailed’. The YMCA got some cake to us today, so we will have a feast.

Unfortunately, Lieutenant Fletcher died in combat less than a month later. He was buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in northern France. His actions at Fismette earned him the Silver Star, which was posthumously upgraded seven months later to a Distinguished Service Cross.

Article by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian. New issues of This Week in MI History are published each week. To report story errors, ask questions, request previous articles, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: TR-ICoE-Command-Historian@army.mil.

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