Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-08-20
With AMERICAN FIGHTERS
Vivid Description Of Scenes on the
Battlefield.
S0LDIERS WHO ONLY GO FORWARD
Terribly Ho. Work on Firing Lines
Enemy Puts UP Strong Resistance
But Nothing Stands Before Terrible
Determination.

c;,n sector where the Germans are be-
ing driven by our boys back upon the
ALsn,. river is OF the most intense ma
ture.
Edwin l.. James, whose cable dis
patches to the New York Times are
sn viyldly descriptive as TO take the
reader into the midst of battle, witt
rmg TO his paper says:
The present artillery engagement Is
the largest in which the Americans
have. taken part. We have been un-
usually successful In getting our
guns up and in place, and they are
raking enemy areas clean back 10
the Aisnc ranging on roads ana lines
OF communication. Judging from the
work some gunners did between the
tmrcu and the Vesle the enemy Is
having an unhappy time OF 1t.
German artillery work hampcrcd
our bridge makers yesterday, nut
nevertheless they made progress. The
nature of IN" fighting 10y the foe Is
shown by the fact that our men IN
f'isrncs today are much pcstered bS
German Snipcrs, who remained hid
den in .arrets. and are picking OH our
men here and there. Thcs" warriors
yet no quarter where Americans To-
cate them. As this Is written the
town has not yet been entirely clear
cd.
The retreat in which they left such
lnr..,. quantities of munitions behind
xny.. the Germans n chance they did
moi overlook TO play one of their Ia
yorit, kinds of warfare on tn" Am"ri-
cans. All through the villages ana
rarmhn,iscs he left Internal machines
one of his especially devilish ar
rnnvcmcntS was placing an amount oi
high explosive in n conspicuous spot
connected with an ordinary telephone
wire. reaching ahead into his lnr
When hc believed Americans wcr"
near the train, he would set off the
explosive by electricity.
Numerous Internal machines were
arranged In dugOuts SO that any one
stepping inside set them on. feSt"r-
day "a pile Of ammunition exploded
two dnys after the enemy had left the
SPOT. II is believed il was set on 10y
a time bomb arrangement. Such man
traps were found I'm many places yes
trr,Iay and warnings against them
were issued to ali our troops.
The Americans yesterday made
prompt use of some Of the captured
Boche material. Because of our rapid
advance we had need Of extra engi-
neers to work on the badly sheifed
roads. A whole regiment OF pioneers
was equipped out of stock OF tools
left behind by the Germans. Incl
dcntally in the German materials left
1000. 900 good II shells have been
counted.
Ilidendorff. In statement Sester-
day. said that II they were German
villages which were being left behinu
il would bc dolorous but fortunately
tbc villages left were not German
According to the view in this army
civilized person would have said that
any villages behind a German retrea'
were dolorous villages. What the
German invaders did not do to the
French villages south of the Nesle
the American and French shells COM
plct,d. II seemed almost a sacrifice
10 level so many pretty little places
but roch knew II was Il greater sac
riI,g, TO allow the enemy Ia stay IN
them and lay plans Ia attack Paris.
The whole countryside Is pockmark-
ed with shell holes 10y tens OF thou
sands, many formerly fair fields hav-
ing so many shell holes that one can
literally step from one to another
Some of these fields are bloody
fields. One | SAW yesterday | can
never forget.
To east, to west. and north OF the
rn,d Iny IL wheat field from when
the enemy had harvested the grain
before the hattie came. To the south
of the road hundred yards away
loy n stretch Of woods. North OF the
vbcnt field WAS large wood.
In a small field south of the road
loy a row of bodies OF Americans
where German machine guns on the
s,uth side al the road had opened on
them. What could cause greater
thrill than to walk forward to the
rood and see the bodies Of the Ger
man machine Eunncrs in their nest
d,s,i from hayonct Wounds?
TN the north side Of the road were
durouts with American spades lying
obout which told that our men had
made them. and then fifty yards
AWAY and stretching back lay dead
Germans.
That scene along the road told an
eloaucnt story. The Americans had
charged toward the road. only to be
met 10y German machine gun fire
Rushing on and suffering losses
they had bayoneted some of the gun
ners and put others to flight. They
had then taken positions on the north
side Of the road and met n counter
attack. killing the Germans | saw ~
ing beyond The whole story OF the
battle lay there plainly.
Far north OF the road out OF the
wheat field could be seen orderly
rows OF shell holes. where our accu-
rate artillery had laid down a creep
ing hsrrage, behind which the troops
had moved to the foes positions al
the edge OF the wood. Here and
there lay the body of n boy In brown
who had paid the great price.
On the edge of the wood walk
cd and there was a picture that will
ever linger. In pit perhaps fftI
feet lonS. twenty feet wide. and ff-
teen feet deep the Germans had es-
tablished a strong position with EN-
placements in the sides for machine
guns-maybe twenty Of them.
There in the bottom Of the pit ir
utmost confusion lay fifteen or so deat
Germans and perhaps ten Americans