Norwich bulletin., 1918-11-07
How Americans | Crossed the Mouse
Displayed Gallant Conduct in the Face of a Frightful Enemy Fire.

With the American Forces on the sedan Front, Nov. 6, [ D. m. (By The A. P).-The crossing of the River Mouse and the capture of the town of Dun by the Americans, when it's full details are known, will rank as one of the most gallant features of the entire operations northwest of Verdun
 The troops who accomplished it will be entitled to rank as heroes for their work was a strategic move of unusual 1 daring
 The crossing involved the forcing of way over the 160-foot river, a half mile wide stretch of mud and 6O-foot canal in the face of a frightful enemy fire.
 It also involved swimming by those who knew how and the pulling of oth- CTS over on ropes. Graphing irons ! were used to scale the sheer walls of the canal along which machine gun ners had been posted under the fire of i scores of batteries from the hills ad- i joining.
 ! The order to cross the canal came | at mid-afternoon Monday. The troops received their grim instructions under a sun Which was shining for the first | time in days. The men knew almost as well as their commanders the difii- l culty of the task and realized how well nigh impossible it's accomplish ment would be. Yet they never doubt ed or hesitated
 The orders were to send over one brigade first. and, if it failed, to send another, and others one after the other | II this became necessary. It was with dash that the Americans tackled the proplem. Theoretically they had the
 choice of crossings anywhere for five miles. Actually they were limited to
 one point, where two thirds of a mile of mud lay between the river itself and the canal that roughly parallels the river.
 The Germans were too firmly en-
 trenehed at all other spots They haG
 not protected themselves with trenches here only because they never dreamed
 that the Americans would be so darins
 as to try to negotiate the passage. Thi:
 was short distance north of Brieulles
 All the swimmers of the first brigade
 were first singled out and put in tht
 van. It was intended to attack in this
 way on the theory that the swimmer!
 were less likely to be hit by the Ger mans owing to the fact that they woult
 be nearly submerged. On the othel hand, they could carry with then
 ropes and other Daraphernalia for as
 sIstlng non swimmers across. Tn , building of pontoon bridges was pu } off until at least some American ele
 ments had crossed the river.
 Notwithstanding some losses ant
 the fact that the swimmers could no , defend themselves, many of then reached the west bank of the rive with lines which were drawn tau across the stream. Others fioated O
 rafts and collapsib!e boats. These me ! had less success than the swimmer. : because they were better marks fo the eneny's rifles, and the boats coul : easily be sunk even if their occupant I were not hit.
 Close to where the swimmers cross 3 ed the engineers began to throw oVe l.. i pontoon Boats and a tiny footpridgt l Tile pontoons were destroyed by tn
 enemy, but the bridge remained intac a and added materially to the constant s. ly increasing numbers of men arriv I ing on the west bank of the rive 6 Soon after dark the first brigade wa
 across the first barrier and niore me . were ready to make the journey :, The second phase of the perilou |. undertaking then began-the crossin |, of the three quarters of mile of mu
 stretching between the river and th . canal which. though it was under e tremendous enemy fire, was not hel 1 |, across the mud through the witherin a fire Their feet sank into the mu : and soon the pace of the men ws
 slowed down to laborious walk Ney
 ertheless, they got through, even if tl
 task caused some depletion in the
 numbers.
 ! The next phase constituted u Il crossing of the narrower but deep, IS canal with it's sheer sides and u d Germans almost at the very top of u
 eastern edge. The swimmers again g ]. into action and plunged through, no I, withstanding the enemy fire, al y, scrambled to the top. Here the mt n, divided their attention in driving (
 the enemy and helping non swimme l. across by the same method used at u
 river. Two bridges finally were la v, down by the engineers, greatly facil
 tating crossing.
 n, These two bridges withstood a Il, tempts of the enemy to destroy the
 and contributed largely to the spec I. ing of the Americans over. n, When the swimmers reached | .; edge of the canal they could not lal E. without the aid of grappling hool Il, which had to be caught on to the t d, of the wall edging the canal so tn Il, the swimmers could pull themselv
 up by means of ropes. It would ha e, been a hard enough task for men u J. disturbed by the enemy's guns, but r. accomplishment was almGst inco II, ceivably difficult under the violent e
 emy fire.
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