The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1918-12-26

MeuSe-the resistance was Dltter, the
outcome doubtful, the fighting nasty.
But one by one the bastions fell. The
first to fall was St. Georges, for all
their mazes of barbed wire and their
gafrisons of gunners, so that within
an hour the excited observers were
reporting long columns of prisoners,
hundreds of them trotting back
through the mist to the waiting
cages.
Further to the west, Champigneul-
les held out all day, and so did the
Bois des Loges, that sinister little
forest near Grandpre, which resisted
capture even after 10000 rounds of
ammunition deluged it's bristling
underbrush. But once this final line
of defenses fell, the way was clear,
and for the troops that had broken
through there remained only the task
of breathless and exhilirating pur-
suit.
Some resistance, to be sure, was
encountered all the way. Machine
gun rear guards there were, and not
merely these, but skillfully placed
and bravely manned batteries of
light artillery sprinkled through the
copses and ravines of Ardennes to
delay the pursuit, much as an escap-
ing man twitches chair down be-
hind him for his pursuer to stumble
upon.
The Tricolor Reappears.
But the Americans pushed on at
full speed, capturing battery after
battery, reclaiming town after town,
inexpressibly heartened on their way
by the sight Of brave, gray little tri-
colors fluttering' once more from the
windows of many a good French
home, which for four black years had
been forced to shelter comfort low
ing German officers.
By the fourth day they had gone
more than 20 kilometers. Sedan
lay nearer than Montfaucon. Beau
mont was theirs, and they were
abreast of Stenay. AS for the fam
Gus Mezieres-Longuyon railway shut
tle-artery of the German occupa
tion-it was not merely within reach
of an occasional shell from long
range gun. 1t was at the mercy of
our ordinary heavies.
AS for the Kriemhilde line, that
formidable stretch Of reinforced
crests to which the Germans had re-
tired early in October and from
which it had been so desperately
hard to drive them-the Kriemhilde
line lay behind.
By the end of the second day it
was glowing with thousand Yankee
campires, and the troops settling
down there for even few hours
rest were scornfully described by
those in the line up beyond Buzancy
and Fosse as loafng in the S. o. S.
The American communique of No
vember wound up with this SEN
tence:
"In addition to regulars, there
were in this attack divisions COM
posed of National army troops from
Texas and Oklahoma; from Kansas,
Missouri, Colorado and New Mexico;
from New York, from New Jersey,
Maryland and West Virginia; from
Maryland, the District of Columbia
and Virginia."
But the story of hte German re-
treat from the Kriemhilde line has
not been fully told till the roll has
been called of all the divisions which
have fought in the Argonne since
September 26. For that advance
was but the third phase of the one
battle, the battle itself, of course,
but part of a greater battle extend
ing from Verdun to the border Of the
Netherlands.
To some of the troops which had
shouldered part of the original bur-
den of the battle-to the New York
division, for instance, which had
driven the Germans foot by foot from
their strongholds in the evil old for
est of Argonne itself-fell now the
distinction of sharing in the final
| pursuit as WELL But others, who had
gone through with some of the most
bitter fighting of the war, were not
present in the line-did not happen
| to be present in line-when the great
| break came.
Chase, Not a Battle.
They shared, nevertheless in that
victory. When a wall, hammered a
dozen times by a battering ram,