The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1918-09-10
ONLY ONE FIGHT.
SAY YANKEES, IN
3 ENGAGEMENTS
Distinction No Wrong To De-
tenders OF Other Places
Where Affairs Occurred.

the UlVlSlOii Say thtfe mas Deen luSt
one fight"
The big raid on Apremont In April
they call the Apremont affair" they
refer to the attack on Seicheprey, TAX
en- ten days later as the Seicheprey
thing" but, the mrOning of June Is at
Xivray, they say There was fight"
This distinction does no wrong to
the defenders of Apremont and Seiche-
prey. The men did their beet there,
and was as good as, could be expected
under the circumstances but their best
thsn, WAS not 30 good as,ithsir best
sat Xivray. That is the Significance
given TO the distinction by French of.
iicers, They say that 1t was at Xivray
the men holding the sector showed
they had learned how to do what must
be done in the front line.
Xiyray has similar meaning to the
Germans in that sector If the evidence
OF prisoners may be trusted. The men
captured there show increased respect
for the fighting qualities of the Amer
leans and betray a deeper awe of the
American machine gun.
1t is no disparagement of the work
the ordinary rifle did there to say that
the quick-firers decided the issue. Two
companies of infantry, without dug
outs to shelter them held their
grounds on the right of the position
through heavy artillery preparation
and kept the enemy from bringing up
reinforcements throughout the fight
Meanwhile, in the center at Xivray
and on the left the machine gunners
did the rest. ! u. <
hsryeT.s.prp acbrdins, "a ,pris-
oneis ,Ikak ttiorH He &e illageihearoy
the'defetce' Work. make the piace" !" un.
'tenable and take prisoners. The ef.
fort was well organized and might
iN hass sNseffesed but for the work of
the nuickfrefs. ,s,
1, Six hundred men ;adsanced to the
aftack in no less than dozen differ
ent columns, led by two hundred pick
ed Bavarian storming troops. They
came UP on the right flank. on the left
and oh fha center under cover of
smola. 2uaaking a. dark night s,still
darkfr, IHeg Srept up the ravines and
slipped, Through the hollows. The
| sharp cara of sentries alone prevented
a. total surprise.
Their guns laid down a heavy box
barage that prevented the reinforc.
ing of the front line. One platoon, led
by Lieutenant Doan, from Maine, got
through the first curtain of fire. Doan
even went through the second with
some volunteers, but that was all the
help that could be sent to the 225 men
that were holding the line attacked.
They were only one to three but they
fought in way to surprise and dis.
may the six hundred Germans.
One machine gun section In the vii
lage was reduced to two men, Monfort
Wyckoff and John Flynn. Their gun
jammed and Flynn kept the Germans
off with his revolver while Wyckoff
got the quick-flrer going again. They
held their ground to the end. Two
other men, unable to get sight at the
Germans from their trench climbed
the parapet and stood there erect fir.
Ing their automaties from the should
er. Two infantrymen crawled out of
a shell to get better aim.
The Germans had lost a third of
their COO men when growing daylight
| impaired the effectiveness of their
smoke screen and they began to re-
tire. The fifty odd unwounded Ameri.
cans left ont of 225 went over the top
after them.
Two hundred is conservative esti
mate of the German losses for our
men buried forty-seven of them on the
field and there were more corpses In
the tall grass facing the position, out
of reach, Thus the Germans lost near
ly as many men as they had facing
them during the fight.
One of the heroes of the day was q
cook who had been dismissed from
the service on account of loose habits
with respect to drink. When sober
he was possessed of an astonishing
amount of perseverance. He had foil.
ed all efforts of the officers to put
him out of the division. He left one
regiment to appear in another He
passed from one company to another
until he had reached the last one.
If he was thrown out of that It was
all over with his soldering. He was
one of the volunteers that went
through both barrages and he stayed
through the fight giving first aid to
the wounded under the sharpest fire
from the assailants.