The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1917-10-18
AMERICAN OFFICERS TAKE PART in
ATTACK ON CROWN PRINCES FORCES
Form an Actual Part of the French Fighting Units That Took
German Positions After They Had Been PuIerzed by Ar
tiIery Fne-AIthough Men Dropped on Every
Side Not an American Was Hit.

Paris-United States army officers
assisted in the recent French drive
against the crown prince to the north
of Verdun when positions along 10
mile front on both sides Of the Meuse
were wrested from the Germans.
This was the first action in which
Americans, 'as part Of the United
States army, figured, and the brilliant,
smashing, rapid success of General
Petain's forces in this section is re-
garded as a happy augury of future
activities Of the American army.
The officers who were engaged
were more than observers-the United
States army has had representatives
with the various forces in the field
ever since the war started. The
American officers formed an actual
part of the French fighting units that
bounded over the shell-shattered
parapets ten minutes after dawn
broke, and strobe slowly forward to-
ward the pulverized German posi-
lions, In the wake of the celebrated
"creeping barrage" of artillery fire.
Steel helmets on their heads, re-
volvers in hand, their field glasses
slung around their necks, gas masks
handy, and their uniforms stripped Of
all marks denoting rank, the Ameri-
can officers accompanied the French
platoon and battalion leaders, learn
ing at first sight and directly under
fire how crack "shock troops" are led
TIT naks In, a0An off g Vy0
Although French soldiers fell dead
and dying all around them, and a
number of French officers were hit
also, not one American was even
wounded. They advanced from the
original French positions south of the
Mort Homme, on the left bank of the
Mouse and south of Hill 344, on the
right bank, clear up to the most ad-
vanced trenches captured by the won
derful French infantry.
Order Comes to Charge.
At half past four o'clock in the
morning, after waiting all night in
the front line positions, they heard
the word passed along the trenches
by the under officers for the men to
get ready. They saw the war-cal-
loused French soldiers shake them
selves from slumber in the deep dug
outs-sometimes 40 feet underground
where they had been sleeping, I'M
mindful of the hideouS uproar Occa-
stoned both by their own and the en-
envy artillery. They saw the "poilus''
adjust their long, slender bayonets to
their rifles and gingerly feel the hand
grenades in the belts around their
waists. And then they saw them line
up along the firing step of the trench.
At q quarter to five the shrill whis-
ties of the subofficers announced that
the infantry attack was on-that the
soldiers-mere flesh and bloOd-had
started to finish and clinch the work
performed by the thousands of giant
guns In the rear.
Almost the first thing the Americans
learned was that nowadays troops do
not charge" from trenches at double
quick time" In the first place, the
condition of the ground over which
the troops must advance is such that
they cannot move rapidly. Pitted with
shell craters, one to thirty feet deep,
gouged with pits caused when mon
strous mines were exploded, and knee
deep in the most clinging mud in the
world, the ground offers every obsta-
Gle to rapid moving.