Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-05

FIGHTING u. s. SOLDIERS DEFEAT
TWO CRACK PRUSSIAN DIVISIONS

within our range of vision surely
history had been made, for there the
story of Verdun was written. The bat
tlefeld between the forest of the
Argonnc and tho Meusc may be en-
titled. perhaps, to rank as the most
vital battlefield of all 1t mas not been
the scene Of the sensational and spec
tacular advances in which one side or
the other has swept forward in a day
1t has not been a field Of maneuvcr,
but rather the pivot upon which many
great battles of the world have hung
or hinged
Go back to 1914. when the German
hordes which were pouring down from
the north faced the line on which Joffre
fought the battle Of the Marine. In
that distant day the pivot Of the line
was the fortress Of Nerdun, which was
surrounded IN three sides but resisted
all German efforts to reduce II. In that
battle French soldiers, some of them
fighting along the heights with their
backs to Germans. had the most inn
portant part in turning the tide. al
though not so spectacular and perilous
as further west in front of Paris. But
II the Germans had got Nerdun, If the
Germans had battered their path down
the Mosclc Valley, would Joffre have
been able to win the battle of the
Marne?
Nerdun Frances Barrier
The Germans did not make another at
tempt on Nerdun until 1915, but thc
world remembers the 1916 story of the
forest of the Argonne and the valiant
though vain efforts Of the French to
throw the Germans back in that jungle
of death. II was in the Bois de Gruerie
and about Vauquois that the btterest
fighting took place. Names like Nnu-
uuois, lie Harazee. lie Four dc Paris,
and La File Morte are memories IN
the breasts of all French fighting men,
and there is immense sentimental signt-
fcanCe to them in the American success
in the northern Aisne and the Meuse.
Some of the boodieSt fighting of the
war occurred in 1915, in the French ef-
fort to drive the Germans from Nau-
duois. which now is in the doughboys
hands.
1t was the French purpose then to win
back the important point of Montfaucon.
In the same year. the Germans tried
vainly to force their way on to the
heights of St Menehoud and for "A sal
lent TO the west of Nerdun similar to
the st Mihiel salient to the east. This
probably would have won Nerdun for
them
I, will i've remembered that the Crown
Prince started his attempts on Verdun
on February ~. on the right bank of
the Meuse. and after terrific fighting and
enormous losses. got TO Forts Douaumont
and NauX. and penetrated as far south
as the village of Fleury. the extreme
pont of the German advance. on the
left bank Of the Mcusc German opera
tions did not begin until the month of
May. The object here was to advance
the lines south to join with Fleury. then
capturing Dead Mans TIill and Hill 304
The Crown Prince gained these two
strategic points, but got no further.
Line Stationary Four Years
1t will be recalled in the fall of that
year the French began a countCr-cam-
paign to free Nordun. In October Cen
era! Mangin, lnow commander Of the
famed Tenth French army then corps
commander succeeded in rctakng Forts
Douaumont and NauX, then two battered
mounds of tortured earth. In December
an attack on a larger scale forced the
Germans back to about where they start
ed from in February, except on the left
bank OF the Meusc. Hin 30i and Dead
Mans Hin were retaken by the French
on August, 20, 1917. and the bochc put
BACK on the ANOCOurt-fOr fOrReS line, "ulCH
he held until the Americans hit him on
September 26, 1918. That part of the
German line running from Avocourt to
the Argonne had been stationary vir-
tually for four years until General Per-
shing went at it.
Defense system on Heights
This line. as it extends from the val
ley of the Are to the Mouse, has been
reached by the Americans in the vi
cnity Of Brieullos This system is part
of the general German defense series
extending from Douai south to La Fere.
and thence east to the Meuse. Across
the Meuse it extends by way of Etain
to the vicinity of pagny -Moselle,
Reducing the st. Mihe salient, the
| Americans put the Germans behind this
line between the Meuse and Moselle,
and now between the Asne and the
Meuse either on it or directly in front
of it, Between the Argonne and the
Meuse the enemy's main combat zone
was bounded on the south by the lower
| edge of the Hinderburg line and on the
north by the Iiolkcr Stelung, running
! through Ivory, EpiuOnyillc and Mont
fauCon to the Meusc.
NEW DhTTT EER0NT