Evening star., 1918-08-04
STEEL AND RIFLE
T. BUTTS ROUT HUNS
Ferocious Fighting by Ameri-
cans Too Strenuous for
T.. Picked Enemy.
PEN PICTURE L0MG OURCQ
ny THOMAS NJ. JOHNSON.

WITH THE AMEKlI-h-> AiS.di O-N
THE OURCQ. August IA desperate
struggle. swayins back and forth Tor
the final possession of the Ourcq
heights east of Fere en- Tardenois
continued uuabated last night This
struggle bids fair to become one OF
the bloodiest of the war.
The ferocity of the lighting may be
imagined. 1t is shown by the small
number of prisoners taken, only forty
odd of the crack guardsmen having
been captured thus far. the number OF
Jaegers taken being even smaller.
From Fere zen -Tardenois to the Meu-
Mere wood, which has been cleared by
the splendid dash of the French
troops the fighting has ragged about
tiny clumpS Of woods Whlch SStFSeiS
show upon the map. but which afford
shelter for the scores or machine guns,
one sergeant counting SIX or these
guns within = radius OF twenty yards
Bayonets and Clubbed Rifles
In these shelters. scattered about
stone-walled farms, with such names
as Bellevue and Meurey, belying the
deadly work being done about them,
the fghtin- has been to the death,
with men coming to grips. hShting
with baypuets and dubbed rifles ana
using their knives
The artillery fire. too, has become
more intense and now the north Dank
of the Ourcq fairly spouts clouds or
black brown and gray smoke. From
the, edge of the Forest or Fere, the
whole river valley, between the'Sersy
and the ClergeS. seemed today TO ne
filled with steam, while the woods
beyond where the boche lay. were en-
veloped in a thick pail Of heavy CLOUDS:
Through this smoke the figures OF
our men could he seen occasionally
working in small groups along the east
bank toward Hill go, east of Sergy.
Evidently they were under fire, for
often they seemed in some ripe wheat
field TO became invisible and their
olive drab uniforms to be lost IN the
Ereat, oily clouds of smoke whlch
seemed TO spring from the ground
near a large clump of trees. Then,
seeminerly they started automatic
rifle fire and little puffs of blue smoke
jetted from the shell holes, aithouSh
pethaps they found the boches in the
shell hole and bombed them
Evidence of German Intensity.
Everywhere evidence was to be
found of the growing intensity of the
efforts being made by the Germans to
hold us up and their shells Were fall
ing more and more thickly in the rear
areas. Black shrapnel burst contln-
ually above our fences AS this
shrapnel burst above one of our OBJ
servation balloons. the American OBJ
server f!oated lightly into tree tops
near by in his glistening white para
chtte.
Sitting on a she'll hole, watching
the panorama, we saw rising up from
the slope of tine Ourcq opposite a
dense cloud of blue, umbrella-like
smoke. which ascerded majestically
from somewhere near Nillers-sur-Fc
then came the heavy boom of an ex-
plosion- Evidently this was supply
dump of some kind. Immediately
overhead there reared into view
three airplanes marked with the iron
crass and they opened up with their
machine guns on some troops on the
roae This lasted for a few minutes
only, however, for presently one of
thern ventured too low TO enter into
battle with our machine gunners and
it dropped like a plumnet into the
Ourcq.
Din of Guns Fills Air.
The din of our guns of many cali
bers filed the air. and soon there
after clouds of blush green vapor
came stealing up from the ground
near them, silently and stealthily.
showing where the gas shells eS-
ploded. The hot sun transformed
these clouds into many colors, but
we did not stay to count them. Some
one else was welcome to our shell
hole. :.
In all of this fighting the Ameri-
cans clearly bested the guardsmen
and the Jaegers. Sometimes we were
forced to give way a little and to
retire a bit from new-won ground.
pushing ahead a little farther be-
yond.
Today has seen no new villages
stor1ned. but some important woods,
like Les Jomblets. have fallen into
our hands. The last reports, too, were
that hills No. 800 and 23G. twin en-
inences of the ourcq heights, We're
still crowned by the Americans.
During the night, the boche tried
repeatedly to counter attack from
NesIes, but was caught by our bar
rage and smashed. Last evening our
troops had advanced their line SO that
it included Hill No. 230, and the Belle
yue farm and Les Jomblets.
g; g. Hurl Jaegers Back.
A strong counter attack by Jaegers
disiodged us momentarily, but there
upon the Americans instantly re-
turned to the attack and hurled the
Jaeeers back
This was typical Of the indomitable
spirit of our troops. This spirit was
well illustrated also in the fighting
yesterday for Grimpettes woods. This
taken five times, but did not become
ours definitely until 10 O'clock last
night Attacking troops Were enfiladed
from the right by machine gun fire,
but rushed into the woods four times,
shouting and yelling nightly, and four
times they came back again slowly
and Stubbornly. Then they reformed
again in the open and advanced for the
fifth time, their heads down like d
foot ball team going over the line for
n touchdown, and this time they went
IN to stay.
That was terribly strong patch of
woods. The Germans had hidden their
machine guns in the underbrush and
everywhere else where they might be
effective. American craftsmanship
was again called into play, but much
of the fighting was with the bayonet,
theitroops attacking being determined
apparently. to use steel. They had
just heard of the death of an officer
beloved by all and they wanted re-
venge-
But Three Prisoners.
Just three German prisoners, there
fore, came out of that wood. The
others died fighting. That was typical
of the Jaegers. Many of them came
from the regiment composed entirely
of fl,@ski troops, mountaineers with
mighty thighs, who leap with their
skis over the toughest country and
who are accustomed to taking des-
perate chances.
Yet, even these found the Ameri-
cans fine fighters, and one of the
prisoners apOlOgiZed for the fact that