New Britain herald., 1918-08-17
BATTLE OF XIVRAY,
 THERE WAS AFIGHT
Americans Showed Best Qualities
 There, French Say

With the American troops in France, June 29. Correspondence of | The Associated Press) .--ThouGh the 1 American troops have had three en- agreements in the Toul sector during i the past three months men in the di 1 vision say "thcrc has been just one fight"
 The biz raid on Apremont in April they call the Apremont affair."; they refer to the attack of Seicheprcy, ten 1 days later as the Seichcprcy thing; ! but the morning of June 16 at Xiv ray" they say, there was d fight" This distinction does no wrong to the defenders of Apremont and Seicheprey. The men did their best there, and that best was good as could be expected under the cirCum- stances, but their best then was not so good as their best at \ivray. That is the significance given to tho dis tinction by French officers. They say that it was at Nivray the men hold ing the sector showed they had learned how to do what must be done in the front line.
 Xivray has a similar meaning to the Germans in that sector if the evidence of prisoners may be trusted.
 
 creased respect for the fighting quail ties of the Americans and betray deeper awe of the American ma chine gun.
 1t is no disparagement of the work the ordinary rife did there to say that the quick-firers decided the issue. Two. companies of infantry, without dugouts to shelter them held their grounds on the right of the position through a heavy artillery preparation and kept the enemy from bringing up endorsements through out the fight. Meanwhile in the center at Xivray and on the left, the ma chine gunners did the rest.
 The enemys plan according to prisoners, was to force the village, destroy tho defense works, make the place untcnablc and take prisoners. The effort was well organized and might have succeeded but for the 1 work of the quick-firers.
 Six hundred men advanced to the l attack in no less than a dozen differ | ent columns, led by two hundred picked BaVarian Storn1ing troops. They came up on the right flank, on left and on the center under cover of smoke, making dark nightf still darker. They crept up the ravines and slipped through the hOllowS. The sharp ears of sentries alone prevent ed total surprise.
 Their guns laid down heavy box barragc that presented the reinforc- ing of the front line. One platoon, led by Lieutenant Doan, from Maine got through the first curtain Of fire. Doan even went through the second with some volunteers. but that was all the help that could be sent to the 226 men that were holding the slime at tackled. They were only one to three but they fought in d way to surprise and dsnay the six hundred Germans.
 One machine gun section In the village was reduced to two men, Monfort Wyckon and John Flynn, Their gun damned and Flynn kept the Germans off with his revolver while Wyckoff got the quick-tirer go- ing again They held their ground to the end. Two other men, unable to get a sight at the Germans from their trench climbed the parapCt and stood there erect firing their auto matfcs from the shoulder. Two infan- fantrymen crawled out of a shell to get better aim.
 Two hundred is conservative es- innate of the German losses for our men buried forty-Seven of them on the field and there were more corpseS in the tall grass facing the posi- ton out of reach. Thus tho Germans lost nearly as many men as they had facing them during the fight
 One of the heroes of the day was d cook who had been dismissed from the service on account of loose habits with respect to drink. When sober he was possessed of an astonishing