, 1918-07-11

throwers, aeroplanes, smoke barrage,
machine guns, automatic rifles and
heavy trench mortar batteries played
their part in the battle of Cantigny.
What the Americans did not have of
their own they borrowed from the
French, for they were French tanks
which led the way in the early dawn of
Tuesday morning. French batteries
shared with the American in preparing
the path.
1.-THE attack was planned for weeks
ahead, each man was rehearsed in the
part he was to play, and when the
great day came each movement was
made within five minutes of the time
schedule hat had been drawn up long
In advance. 1t was at 6:45 in the
morning that the first men advanced
with a rolling barrage ahead of them
and GO to it, Yanks!' as their battle
cry.
'In the anxious minds of those who
watched there was just one question
did the Germans know? Had they been
prepared? For on Monday morning
two of u boys who had known what
was coming because they had been
carefully rehearsed in their part of 1t,
had been taken prisoner in a trench
raid. Had those boys been made to
tell by the Huns devilish methods of
extracting information from unwilling
persons in their power?
THAT was the question, and in the
complete surprise with which the on
rushing Yanks were received when their
barrage lifted could be read a resound-
ing negative. In all the new-won posi-
lions that night there were cheers for
the two who, no matter what the pres
sure, had told nothing.
THAT answer could have been guess
ed when, 30 minutes after the first ad-
vance, the Americans were in posses
sion of the village and the first mes
sage over the uncut wires came back,
We're here. Everything o. K This
message was confirmed by the first re-
port which a, swooping aeroplane
brought back and the first CHEEKY
word of reinsurance which came back
on the leg of a carrier pigeon.
while the special detachments Of
flame-throwers were hopping up the
cellars of Cantigny and the main body
Of h troops was pressing on to the
furthest detectives beyond the village
itself. the first detected string of pris-
oners began to arrive behind the
American lines. They were later es-
corted by French cavalrymen t o barbed
wire pens, from which coops they would
be withdrawn later for questioning.
There were youths among them, and
then many in their late thirties, men of
fair physique, fairly well clad. The
American attack had caught them I'M
awares and at a disadvantage because
one regiment was relieving another at
the time. They testified that they had
been getting n hot meal daily in the
first lines and that coffee and canned
sausages were the chief diet. They
were mostly from the Russian front,
n there was one among them who
was no German at all, but a Russian
Pole. who said that three months ago
he, together with many of his people,
had been drafted against their will in
to the German army. He fairly wept
for joy when he found two Polish
Americans among his captors.
The attack on Cantigny bore no i'm
mediate relations to the major opera
lions n progress on the Aisne, but was
none the les affected thereby. 1t be-
came evident afterwards that the Ger
mans had removed many of their heav-
Ter guns from the Montdidier region,
presumably for use in the concentra-
tion further to the east. Indeed, every
part Of the line where American troops
are ~entrenched has shared in some
manifestation of the big German often
sive, If only to receive some part of the
display of force or some one of the
feints made as an accompaniment to
that offensive"
The Sun can furnish you with the
best In engraved correspondence paper.