The Sentinel=record., 1915-05-09
THE BURROW GAME ALONG WAR FRONT
TRENCHES PREPARED TO BE USE. FUL, BUT ALSO MADE TO
 BE USELESS AT CALL
Something of the Extreme Tension of Burrowina Men in the Ground Close
 Together in Fighting the Lines Back.

Nancy, France, May S-"The rup. | ture of St. Mihie' is the soldiers
 characterization of the wedge, at an | angle of about 45 degrees. that the l Germans have held in the French line | since September 1t is in the Woeuvre
 and it's point rests at Saint Mihiel up-
 on the lower extremely of the Heislts | of the Mouse. Near the point are the 1 Bois Brule the Bois d'Ailly and the
 suburb of ChauvOncourt. all of which | have had their days of glory in the
 war. Along the lower angle about | 20 miles long which runs toward Pont-
 a-NTousson are the Bois de Mort Mare,
 the Bois Ie Pretre and Flirsy.
 The upper part of the angle about
 the same length ran west of Les Epar- ges until the recent engagements
 there that made the French masters of | the eastern extremity of the Heights
 of the Mouse From Les Ilparges it runs northeast and rejoins the broken
 battle line near Etain. This Gosition
 was particularly strong for the Ger | amns as it had the frontier of Metz
 directly at it's back. In fact it may be | imagined to represent the head of an | imense arrow that Meaz launched with l all it's might at Verdun, and which l glancing off from the greatest French
 fortress, lodged in the Heights of the Mouse at Saint Mihiel. All round it
 there has been heavy fighting since | the first German advance and at Troy | on, Deulouard and the Saint German | Hill some of the bloOdiest work of the
 war.
 It was the Crown Princes army in | it's attempt to get at Verdun that in
 deEted the French line there by a
 mighty rush while it's artillery was de-
 molishing the internal fort of Troyon. 1 It required S0000 men to hold it and
 a simple glance at the map. and ref
 erence to the communiques shows
 what the French are trying to do to
 it.
 At Les Eaprgas and toward Etain | ol one side of the angle, and in the
 Mort Mare Woods and Le Pretre
 w oods on the other, they are gradual | ly closing in and making the angle
 sharper. This work is slow and costly
 10 both sides Nowhere on the bat tie front ahs the art of digging out
 been more highly deyelo) )ed The
 German earthworks here were first
 class underground Notifications and | from them the French learned what
 they had to do. Weeks of sapping and mining from both directions at the
 same time were required 10 get at l these subterranean fortresses.
 The question was generally which l would get there first sometimes they l met in their narrowing, like wood chucks come together by chance If the Germans were maSers in this | sort of warfare at the outset the l French were apt pupils. Their fla | clity of improvisation and remark l able initiative soon enabled them to | do better than their teachers-With | their teachers tools-otherWise the 'rupture of Saint Mihiel" would be today what it was in September. General R...., a specialist in the | engineering arm Of the service, was
 entrusted by Joffre with the work of l ferreting the Germans out of their burrows into the Woeuvre. His task
 is not finished but it is so well begun that the Germans at Saint Mihiel are somewhat in t8e position of the man | Who had the bear by the tail they
 cant let go without grave danger of being captured, especially since the
 taking of Les E3arges gives the | French possession of the heights that
 command the plains to the east inside 1 the angie.
 Tn the Woeuvre, not far from the point of the angle Gen. R.. organ ized a school of sapping and mining.
 where men at rest were exercised in | the construction and destruction of un- derground Qualifications. There he | had reconstructed for their benefit an
 exact model of the best specimen of German intrenchment. You must i'm | prove on this" he told them. And,
 above all," he added, you must know
 how to make it useless"
 A yeritable museum of underground
 warfare developed from, this school 1 and it was visited by officers from all
 sections of the battle front It has
 now been abandoned because General R.... and his ferreting troops have narrowed the wedge and left behind
 them line after line of German trench es, most of them blown up before be. ing captured Now on both sides of
 the angle they are finding trenches al-
 ready made for them. All they have
 to do is to repair the blown up sec tions and throw the bank of dirt from their side to that of the Germans. Behind and in front of the battle front, and between the many lines of trenches that have mashed the land SCa Ia pf tha Wopuyra l{tIa mounds