Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-11-30
BOURBON WOOD IS
/. SPL|NTERED BY FIRE
Of GREAT ATTACKS
Buildings of Prize City of
Cambria Are Visible Through
Fog-GermanS Try Violently
to Stop English

WITH THE BRITISH ARMIES IN
THE FIELD. Nov. 2S.-Crown Prince
Rupprecht fed thousands of his best
men into the reeking NAV Of the Brit
ish lion today.
The PruSsians seldom fought with
such desperation as they battled last
night and early today-vainly. bloodily,
frantically striving to wrest Bourbon
wood from the British.
The wood is a mere bundle of sticks
now. Its great trees have literally
been splintered by high explosive,
smashed down by tanks, uprooted by
shells What used to be a pleasant
grove of grateful shade is now a bare.
scrawny hump, 5000 by $500 yards out
of the salient showed forward into the
very vitals of the German line. It's
very base must by now be soaked with
the blood of fighting that has ragged
over its top.
The Germans uncorked a countryside
of gas in their attempts to shake the
British grip behind the Hindenburg line
today.
Shells containing the powerful as
phyxiating vapor were distributed by
German guns over wide areas immedi-
ately behind the British positions. No
damage was done and the shells gave
the enemy no advantage
AS this dispatch is caDled the British
line has apparently shifted to west OF
Fontaine Notre Dame, but positions in
Bourbon wood are standing secure de-
spite the enemy's most desperate efforts.
The enemy frenziedly Shelled Bour-
lon wood all Of last night and deluged
the lines south of that position with
Notwithstanding Anneux, Graincourt
and Demicourt. 1t was as though the
enemy were enraged by his failure in a
vigorous attack around Tadpole copse.
south of Inchy.
This afternoon the lines on both sides
were practically unchanged
Germans U=e Gas
This dispatch is written just after
my return from a sight of Cambria.
The buildings of the prize city are visi-
BILE even in today's thick weather, from
where the British line sticks its steel
menacingly forward.
On the other side of the Bourbon
ridge, toward Queant, the Hindenburg
line that was, looked like a prison yard
from the keepers tower. so commanding
is the ridge position.
! II is small wonder Rupprecht is now
desperate as he sees this vital domi-
mating point in British hands.
AS 1 stood south of the wood the
rattle of rifles came from the right. j
of noise from infantry fighting.
Then the machine guns on both sides
Joined their staccato rattles in fever
lish crescendo. A sally had been tried.
And over all came the crash of great
explosives.
The Boches are taking no chances
| of letting British reinforcements come
up. Minute by minute they are busy
| crumpling every known road. or every
known track by which they think fresh
British troops may enter the salient.
High explosive shells are used great
monsters that dig deep craters.
The British guns do not hesitate to
reply. Back on the German roads
Bvng's shells must be making life mis-
cradle for the Boches.
| AS this great artillery duel reared
there was a sudden cyclone blast OF
rattling hail. We peered out over No
Mans Land to see six British planes
sweeping, swerving and careening II
seemed almost touching the heads OF
the Germans just across. Their ma
chfns guns spat venemously as they
raked the lines. They were far too low
| for the German anti-aircraft guns tc
touch them-and they moved too fasi
for the surprised Germans to twist their
machine guns upward and fire at them
Down along the line they zig-zagged
like angry hornets. Then came more
three together, a couple-half a dozer
one lone one. Throughout the late
afternoon they kept it up until dark
ness erased the line Of the enemy
| trenches.
| MO German Airmen
1 did not see a single Prussian air
man all day. The sky was filled with
| British flyers.
| AS this is written Bourbon village
is the center Of the fighting-for the
moment. The main street is in ruins.
1t practically marks the division line
between the two sides-a division line
that Is constantly overrun by Prus-
SLAMS, that is swept by a hail of fire.
| Byng's Tommies carried their way
| into the village from the south, but
were slowed up by desperate masses OF
the enemy.
! Machine gun nets in La Folie wood
for a. time interfered with the British
| swing forward-but British artillery
got on the job to attend to this little
matter and TIE Tommies continued on
ward.
Near midnight the Prussians flung
] themselves on the wood-then firmly
held by the British. AT the precise
moment of their attempt. British flares
| illumined every man in their massed
1
| the brilliance of the light.
! Then came the roar Of machine guns
literally as one voice of death, that
sliced the massed shadows into culver
| ing, twisting, groaning groups while
other knots ran back vainly trying to
outspeed the searching shower of lead
| A few minutes before an attack In
front of Fontaine Notre Dame, British
detachments scurried out and raided
German positions south of Bourbon
They actually established a place in the
German lines. More British leaped TO
the breach, the Tommies poured through
and beyond they came upon group
of a major and seven or eight other
| British officers with a number of Brit
ish troops who had been holding out
against encircling German attacks on
every side since late Saturday.
The little group nearly exhausted
from incessant fighting, but still strong
enough to cheer their rescuers, had by
daring ruse communicated with the
British lines from which they were cut
off. They were carried hilariously back
to the British positions, hailed as heroes
Tobacco Habit Banished