Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-05-04

ASSOCIATED Press Correspondence
Nancy. France, April 1a.-"The rup
ture Of Saint Mihiel' is the soldiers
characterizat ton Of the wedge, at an
angle Of about As degrees that the
Germans have held in the French line
since September II is in th@
Woeuvre and its point rests al SAINT
Mihiel upon the lower extremity ~
the Heights of the Meuse. Near the
point are the Bots Brule, the Bots
daily and the suburb of Chauvon
court, all of which have had their days
of glory in the war. Along the lower
angle about 90 miles long Which runs
toward Pont-a- Mousson are the Bots
de Mort Mare, the Bots lie Pretre and
Flirey.
The upper part Of the angle about
the same length ran west OF Les
Eparges until the recent engagements
there that made the French masters
of the eastern extremity OF the
Heights Of the Meuse. From Les
Eparges it runs northeast and reJoins
the broken battle line near Etain. This
position was particularly strong for
the Germans as it had the frontier OF
Metz directly al its back. In fact IL
may be imagined TO represent the heac
Of an immense arrow that Metz
launched with all its might at Neroun'
and which glancing off from the great
est French fortress, lodged IN the
Heights of the Meuse at Saint Mihiel.
All round ii there has been heaV!
fighting since the first German ad-
vance and at Troyon, DeulouaTd ana
the Saint German Hill some OF lhs
bloodiest work of the war.
II was the Grown Princes army il
its attempt to get at Nerdun that in
denied the French line there by a
mighty rush while its artillery was
dernolishing the interval fort Of Tro
yon. 1t required $4,000 men to hold
it and a simple glance at the mao
and a reference TO the communicates
shows what the French are trying TO
do TO it.
At Les Eparges and toward Etatn
on one side of the angle and in the
Mort Mare Woods and lie Pretre
Woods on the other, they are gradual
ly closing in and making the angle
sharper. This work is SLOW and cost
~ to both sides Nowhere on the bat
tie front has the art of digging in AMI
the art of digging out been more high
ly developed The German earth
works here were first class under
ground Notifications and from them
the French learned what they had to
do. Weeks Of sapping> and mining
from both directions al the same time
were required to get at these sub
terranean fortresses.
The question was generally which
would get there first; sometimes they
met in their burrowing, like wood
chucks come together by chance. II
the Germans were masters in this sort
of warfare at the outset, the Frenca
were apt pupils. Their facility OF
Improvisation and remarka bic initia-
tive soon enabled them to do better
than their teachers-with their teach
ers' tools-otherwis the rupture Of
Saint Mihiel'' would be today what it
was in September.
General b, a specialist in the
engineering arm of the service, was
entrusted by Joffre with the work of
ferreting the Germans out Of their
burrows into the Woeuvre. His tas!.
is not finished but it is so well begun
that the Germans at Saint Mihiel ara
somewhat in the position of the man
who had the bear by the tail: they
can't let go without grave danger @
being captured, especially since the
taking of Les Eparges gives thu
French possession of the heights that
command the plains TO the east inside
the angle.
In the Woeuvre, not far from the
point of the angle, General R or
ganized a school of sapping and min
ing, where men at rest were exercised
in the construction and destruction Of
underground Notifications. There he
reconstructed Cor their benefit an exact
model Of the oest specimen of German
intrenchment. You must improve on
this,'' he told them. And, above all.'
he added, you must know how to
make it useless
A vertible museum of underground
warfare developed from this school
and it was visited by officers from all
sections of the battle front 1t has
now been abandoned because General
R and his ferreting troops have
narrowed the wedge and left behind
them line after line Of German