Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1917-12-05
AMERICAN SECTOR
IS CLOSE TO METZ
PERSHlNG'S BOYS GETTING THE
PRELlM MARY TRIALS NEAR
THE GERMAN BORDER.
HARDLY A "QUIET' REGION
Artillery Fighting Is Almost continu-
Gus There-Sammies, 1t Is Hoped,
Will Take Part in Actual Restora-
ton of AIsace-Lorraine.
BY EDWARD 3. CLARK.

BY EDWARD B. CLARK.
| WaShingtOn.-An amiabe censor
/ snip 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 one as can be found from
| Flanders to the Vosges 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
lighting and where dizziness has
| 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
trench on their own account and to
| double the score against the Germans.
| When the first unanswered word
came that the Americans were at
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 Bombardment.
| 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
to 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 (Bois lie
Pretre), the French and the German
trenches are so close together that
good throwing arm can send 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 the possibilities
| of the case" in the valley of the Mo-
selle, a valley in which today the dis
| patches more than intimate many of
| the American troops are now under
! fire. For a long time the French have
| had the heaviest kind of guns en-
| placed in this sector. An order given
! from a place of high command would
result any minute in 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 1t
will be taken intact unless the Ger
mans destroy it themselves.
Our Best Strateeist sheIved.
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 need of man and
plan is a matter of world concern2
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
| tiers have been curious concerning the
reasons for the seeming isolation OF
| this tried student of warfare.
Maj. 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 be either in the War col
lege as an advisory chief or in the
| field as a major general.
The war department does not dis
r1ose its secrets and 1T may be of
course that Sargent has not been over
g rL.S,
may have within them the qualities of
great planning.
Today the acknowledged need of
the allied services is 81 grand strategy
scheme of "coalesced campaigning"
Sargent's ability along strategic lines
is known Therefore it is possible
that in the seclusion of the students
closet at Princeton he is acting his
part in the war, but If so the country