Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1917-12-05
AMERICAN SECTOR
IS CLOSE TO METZ
9ERSHING'S BOYS GETTING THE
PRELIMINARY TRIALS NEAR
THE GERMAN BORDER.
HARDLY A "QUIET" REGION
Artillery Fighting Is Almost continu-
Gus Thsre-Sammies, II Is Hoped,
viii Take Part in Actual Restora-
ton Of Alsace-
BY EDWARD 8. CLARK.


ship has allowed the American people
To know the section of the French
front in which their troops are en-
gagged in the preliminary trials of war
fare. "A quiet sector" is the way in
which the first dispatches described
that section of the line from which
the Sammies made their first fOray
into No Mans Land.
This quiet sector" really is about
as noisy IA one as can be found from
Flanders to the tcsges mountains. but
the uproar for two years has been that
of artillery. with few ratings of rifles
and machine guns To "staccato" the
performance. Washington believes to-
day that the part of the front in
France where the Americans now are
fighting and where dulneSs hes
reigned soon will be scene of violent
battle action.
From one high point of vantage near
the sector where the American troops
are camping and trenching they can
look on Metz. They are close to Ger
many and some unfortunate few of
them already are in Germany. The
belief is strong in Washington that
an extraordinary effort will be made
by the Americans shortly TO take a
trench on their own account and to
double the score against the Germans.
When the first unanswered word
came that the Americans were at a
quiet point of the line everybody at all
familiar with the battle conditions In
France knew that our boys were close
to the Moselle river near the city of
Nancy. and not far from POnt-a-MOus-
son, the city of a thousand lombard
ments.
Scene Of Continuous 6ombardment
The Moselle river runs northward
through Pont-a-MoussOn and thence
on fifteen miles to Metz, the capital
of German Lorraine. In this general
sector are the woods of Champenoux
and the Wood of the Priest" In
these two little segments of the front
10 which Notwithstanding that the mill
airy word quiet" is applied, the fight
ing has been almost continuous since
August, 1914, and in many cases it has
been hand-to-hand.
In the Wood of the Priest (Bols lie
Pretre), the French and the German
trenches are so close together that Ii
good throwing arm can send a light
bomb from the one into the other. The
wood has been peaceful on one day
and an inferno the next. The Ameri-
cans getting into this place are as
sured of action.
Military strategists for three years
have been studying tie possibilities
of the case" in the valley of the Mo
selIe, valley in which oday the dis
patches more than intimate many of
the American troops are now under
fire. For long time the French have
had the heaviest kind of guns EN-
placed in this sector. An order given
from place of high command would
result any minute in a hurting of
projectiles weighing ton into the
city of Metz,
This city of German Lorraine, once
the property of France and which is
certain once more To be the property
of France. is guarded by II huge for
tifiCations which probably cannot be
taken by frontal assault. The eyes of
the French. however. are fixed on
Metz. They do not want TO destroy
it. but they want to take it, and If some
of the strategists are right, one day ii
will be taken intact unless the Ger
mans destroy 1t themselves.
Our Best Strategist shelved
Why is the war department al
lowing the ableSt American strate-
gist to remain in the semiobscur-
ity of Princeton university in this
day when the neen of man ana Il
plan is a matter of world concernf
Army officers of high rank must
have been asking themselves this ques-
ton ever since the war broke out and
it is known definitely that civilians
with some knowledge of military mat
ters have been curious concerning the
reasons for the seeming isolation of
this tried student of warfare
Mai. Herbert Rowland Sargent.
United States army, retired, is today
teaching the student body AT Prince
ton, while, according TO expressed
thought on the matter in Washington.
he ought to he either in the War col
'lege as On advisory chief or in the
field as a major general.
The war department does not dis
close its secrets and 1t may be of
course that Sargent has not been over
looked in the search for men who
may have within them the qualities Of
great planning.
Today the acknowl dyed need Of
the allied services is a grand strategy
scheme Of "coalesced campaigning.
Sargent's ability along strategic lines
is known. Therefore il is possible
that in the seclusion of the students
closet at Princeton he is acting his
part in the ar. bat if so the country
knows nothing about 1t, and in fact
suspicion in the case seems 10 be- that
this retired major and the possibilities
10 his case have been neglected.