Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-28
Untried Americans
Beat Prussidn Guard


difficult to get up the artillery hur-
riedly over roads torn by four years
Of var This is progressing satisfac-
torily. and late in the day we put
full artillery actions.
The Germans are contcnting them.
with standing with great firm
ness against our advance giving way
we make it too expensive. IL
is believed that they are forming what
they hope will be a solid front along
the Brunnhilde line. running through
Grand Pre-. Ciiampigneulle. I.andres.
ST. Georges, Romangne, Sun Mont.
faucon. Brieilles, Haraumont and
Damvillers. This line has been long
in preparation.
The rain and mud have added
greatly TO the difficulties of both sides.
Secretary of War Baker was al the
front Thursday watching the drive.
German Artillery Active
Reports just coming from the front
lines indicate that the youthful .Ameri-
cans were making Roadway against the
crack German troops.
The German artillery became active
yesterday. Smelling the front lines and
back areas. 1t would be idle not to
expect stronger resistance as soon as
the can get more divisions on
this front. which undoubtedly they are
now doing with the utmost dispatch.
During the first twenty-four hours
of attack, the American First Army,
moving like clockwork on a schedule.
drove back the German line for almost
a uniform depth from the Areuse to the
Aisne. for some distances as great as
fifteen kilometers, but averaging about
ton tagnrIfar a.. = a.. g.l,AIt1a At.
French fourth army pushed it's front
over the Hindenburg line to an extreme
depth of six kilometers.
\ comprehensive survey of the prjs.
oners n material taken in the whole
battle Of the first day has not yet beer
made.
We downed twenty-five German air.
planes in the first seven hours OF the
battle.
The American attack was made Will
a great concentration Of I'M and air,
planes. Our ample supply OF guns en-
aoled US 10 gas far-back locations
where The Germans were reported con.
c~entrating. Thursday We broke up tive
such formations probably intended as
bases for counter-attacks against on,
men.
Numbers of large fires can he see,
back of the German line, either set b,
the foe or by our guns, the net resul
being the same in destruction of German
ammunition.
New Roads Made
Missouri mules and Michigan trucks
were jostling their way north owe
newly made roads-at least almost
newly made. Four years ago there wer,
good highways running north every few
kilometers along this front, but for four
warning years the stretches of roaC
running across No Mans Land ant
over the trenches have been unused L
travel. while Frenchmen n Germans
ave made shooting galleries of then,
Across some were big shell holes anC
masonry walls and miles and miles o
wire, and when the Germans departed
they exploded many mines, further tear
ing these highways to pieces.
ON the trail of our ~doushboys wer,
engineers with picks II shovels
Wagons could not be used to haul stone
so wrecked were the roads, and Gu
engineers carried stone in '~'slielte
halves on their backs to fiji up tn,
holes so that food and ammunition AN,
gun could be gotten up to help tn,
~doughbCys on ahead.
III slOul sdy a Notu lOI Nilt SiEtld
corps, that all-essential arm OF
modern army. Often before the Ger
mans were entirely cleared out Of vii
lagos, u signal men would have thei
telephone lines run. one youth told m
that the line he put up was shot dow
twenty-four times.
What did you do?" / asked.
He said: II put it up the twenty
fifth time
/ afterward learned that this no,
guided a squad TO a German machin
gune in the nearby woods, which ha
bothered his signal work. Because Il
led them there, the wire stayed up aftc
the twenty-ffth time.
Tanks Have Big Day
our tanks had a day of it. They ha,
most exciting times In the Valley of tn
Aire. They did tho work assignee
without much trouble. but when the.
reached the valley beyond Verennes
they found themselves blocked. Som
German rs got their range and mad
! it hot for them.
| talked to one young sergeant,
former South Dakota farmer. who wa
a GUNNER on one of the tanks. II,
had been hit by a bullets from a Ger
man anti-tank rife, caught in a ga
attack and then bowled over by an eX
ploding shell. He had been shooting a
some Germans retreating across
bridge, he said. when a bullet pierce,
the 'turret, hitting his hand on tn
machine-gun trigger.
II began pumping at them with IN,
left hand he said, "and got seven
when four gas shells went off RICH
around III The gas got the driver an
me a little bit. The gun went wrong.
climbed to the top of the tank and wit
an ~autornatIc pistol shot four more o
those Germans, when tho first thing
knew. Il was picking myself up twent
yards away. What was left of tn
tank was leaning up against a tree an
I lost my pistol, I. hope they can Civ,
mo another tank tomorrow"
The hardest problem for the tank
was the masonry work Of the Hinder
burg line, which often rose sharpl
several feet above the level of tn
ground.
Then, too, the Germans, had built ston
walls, REINFORCED with bars of steeI
across roads and streets forming PAL
of the line. One road had four of thes
walls in half a kilometer. We blaste
them away after the ~doughboys ha
climbed over them.
Then there were the traps which tn
Germans had built. They had hollowe
huge holes in the roads and covere
them neatly with a few inches of sur
facing, Tanks running over ther
simply sank out Of sight. We ha,
rather good duck avoiding these. an
when a tank fell into enc. two bi
trucks were hltched to 1t, and pulled
out.
Barbed wirs and Trenches
II Is difficult for one who has nc
seen the sight to imagine the quantit
OF barbed wire used and the extent q
the burrowing the two armies have don