Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-05-01
IN
ST. M|H|EL AREA
ARE G0PHERL|kE
Success in Wedge Thrown
Into French Lines Appears
TO Rest With Army Which
Can Best Weld Tools.
tA.socIated Pres. Correspondence,

'hHso'tutru tffht turFekpoHdeucc.l
Nancy France, April l5.-~"The
rupture Of st. Mihiel." is the soldiers
characterization Of the wedge. al an
angle OF about As degrees. that the
Germans Rave held in the French lire
since September Il is in the Woeuv-
re and It's point rests at st. Mihiel
upon the lower extremity Of the
heights OF the Meuse. Near the point
are the Bots Brue. the Bots d'Ailly
and the suburb of Chauvonconrt all
Of which have had their days Of glory
In the war. Along the lower angle
|ufout twenty miles long which runs
toward Pont-a- Mousson are tho Bots
de Mort Mare, the Bots le Prctre 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 ii
runs northeast and reiolns the broken
battle line near Etain. This position
was particularly strong for the Ger
mans as It had the frontier of Metz
directly at its back. In fact 1t may
lie imagined to represent the head
of an immense arrow that Metz
launched with all its might at Verdun,
and which CHANGING off from the
greatest French fortress. lodged in
the heights of the Mouse az st. Mi
hiel All around II there has been
heavy fighting since the first German
advance ana at Troyon. Dieulouard
and the st. German hin some of the
bloodiest work Of the war
Crown Princes Army Made Break.
u was the Crown Princes army. in
iis attempt to get ~ Verdun, that in
dented the French line there by
mighty rush while its artillery was
dcmolishng tho interval fort Of
TrOy0n 1t required so. 600 men to
hold Il and simple glance at the
map, and a reference To the com
muniques shows what he French arc
trying to dc "a II.
At Les Epargts and toward Etaln
on one side of the angle, and In the
Mort Mare woods and La Pretre
woods on the other they are gradu-
ally closing in and making the angle
sharper. The work is slow and costly
to both sides. Nowhere on the battle
front has the art of digging i'm and
the art of digging out been more high
ly developed. 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 TO get at these subterranean
fortresses
The question was generally which
would get there first. sometimes they
met in their burrowlng. like wood
chucks come together by chance II
the Germans were masters In this
sort of warfare at the outset, the
French soon enabled them to do bet
ter than their teaehers-with their
teachers tools-otherwisf the "rup-
ure of St 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
the Germans out of their
burrows into the Woeuvre His task (
is not finished but it is SO well begun !
that the Germans at St. Mihiel are !
somewhat in the position of the man /
who had the bear by the tail. they |
can't let go without grave danger Of [,
being captured, especially since the |
taking OF Les Eparges gives the |
French possession of the heights that /
command the plains to the east inside 1
the angle.
In the Woeuvre, not far from the |
point of the angle. General r. .
organized a school Of sapping and I
mining, where men at rest were ex-
ercised in the construction and de- I
of underground fortified |
tons There he has reconstructed for I
their benefit an exact model OF the |
best specimen of German entrench- (
ment. You must improve on this, /
he told them. And, above ALL" he !
added. you must know how to make !
il useless"
A veritable museum OF underground |
warfare developed from this school |
and il was visited by'officers from all !
sections of tho battle front. 1t has !
now been abandoned because General !
R. and his ferreting troops have !