Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1918-11-07
YANKEES SWAN
RIVE R MEUSE IN
FACE Of ENEMY
Those Who Could Swim
Crossed First and Pulled
Others A ross With Ropes
Canal Crossed in Same Way

tsY MORNING JOURNAL sPEcIAL LEASED wiREl
With the American Forces on the
Sedan Front NOV. (by The Associ-
ated Press)-The crossing of the river
Meuse and the capture of the town OF
Dun by the Americans. when its fun
details are known, will rank as one
of the most gallant feats of the entire
troops who accomplished it will be
entitled to rank as heroes. for their
work in militarily crossing the stream
was a strategic move of unusual dar-
ing.
The crossing involved the forcing
of q way over the 100 foot river a
half mile wide stretch OF mud and a
60-foct canal in the face of u fcightful
enemy fire. II also involved swim-
ming by those who knew how and the
pulling of others over with ropes
Graphing irons were used to scale the
sheer walls of the canal, along which
machine gunners had been posted,
under the fire of scores of batteries
from the hills adjoining.
Swimmers Led Way.
All the swimmers of the first bri-
gade were first singled out and put in
the van It was intended to attack in
this way on the theory that the swim
mers were less likely to be hit by the
Germans owing to the fact that they
would be nearly submerged, on the
other hand they could carry with
them ropes and other pharaphernalia
for assisting swimmers ucross.
The building of pontoon bridges was
put off until at least some American
elements he'd crossed the river.
Notwithstanding some lOsses and
the fact that he swimmers could not
defend themselves many of them
reached the west bank Of the river
with lines which were draw. taut
across the stream Others floated on
rafts and collapsible canvas boats.
The second phase of the perilous
undertaking then began--tht crossing
of the kilometer of mud stretching
between the river and the canal
which, though it. was under a tre-
mendous enemy fire. was n 1T l,eld by
infantry. The Americans stumbled
across the mud through the whitening
fire. Their feet sank into the mud
and soon the pace of the men was
slowed down by a laborious walk
Nevertheless they got through, even
if the task caused some depletion in
their numbers.
Swan Canal.
The next phase constituted the
crossing Of the narrower but deeper
canal with rs sheer sides and with
the Germans almost at the very top
of the eastern edge The swimmers
again got into action and plunged
through Notwithstanding the enemy
fire and scrtmbled to the top. Here
the men dvidcd their attention in
driving off the enemy and helping
non swimmers across by the same
method used at the river. Two
bridges fina ly were laid down by the
engineers. greatly facilitating cross
ing. These two bridges withstood at
tempts of tie enamy to destroy them
and contributed largely to the speed
in getting tle American troops over,
When the swimmers reached the
edge of the canal they could not land
without the aid of graphing hooks,
which had 10 be caught on to the top
of the wall edging the canal so that
the swimmers could pun themselves
up nv means of ropes 1t would have
been hard enough task for men rn-
disturbed iy the enemy's guns. hit
/ its accompl shment was almost inr~a-
ceivably difficult under the violsnt
enemy fire. ~