Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-03-15
u. S. GUNNERS
DESTROY 4 MORE
CASING GROUPS
Upset Large Scale Attacks;
i French Air Scouts Locate
Positions

z With the American Army in
France. Tuesday, March IL (By Asso-
ciated Pressl,-Four groups OF Ger
man gas projectors, in addition to
the group OF 200 projectors already
reported destroyed, have been dis
covered and likewise blown to pieces
by the American artillery. Probable
German plans for n gas attack on
comparatively large scale against
The American positions northwest of
Toul have thus been upset.
The new groups of projectors were
discovered from aerial photographs
taken by American observers in
French airplanes. The effective ac-
tion taken against them was due to
the quick work of the observers. the
intelligence officers and the artiller-
lists in turn.
The American artillery on this
front has been more active than ever
in the past fifteen hours, and its
shells also found lodgment in num-
her of ammunition dumps, which
were blown up. Many extensive eX-
plosions are reported.
The correspondent. standing on
hill. witnessed one dump situated in
n wood go up in a brilliant flash and
IL great pun VI "illllSh SIiAOhSB Il ~
mendous report following a few sec
onds later. Explosions and fires also
were caused by our shells in villages
and a numDer in the woods behind
the enemy front.
During a retaliatory shelling for an
enemy bombardment in which a num-
ber of gas shells fell on our battery
positions, the American guns ST.
fenced certain German batteries by
pouring in Il fast and extremely ac-
curate fire. Our artlllerymen stayed
In their dugouts until the gas shells
began to fall, when they put on their
masks and manned the guns while
thus protected. Some mustard gas
shells were mixed with the others
that fell, and later a few of our men
walked through this type of gas
without their masks on.
Smash Second Line Trenches
The American artillery also tore
great gaps in the enemy wire, and
leveled various portions of the first
and second line trenches. forcing the
cremy virtually to abandon them.
Details of the recent raid, which
have Just been developed, show that,
while numbers of Germans were
killed by shellfire when the box bar
rage was in effect, and others later
by the creeping barrage, there were
also a few of the enemy shot here
and there during the time our men
were in the trenches. There were
many Americans among the raiding
party of four officers and seventy
men who did not see a single Ger
j. an soldier. All the men in the raid
seemed particularly impressed with
vhe way the American barrage
worked.
"It worked like a Clock said one
soldier whose home is in Texas. at
made you feel you could go right on
10 Berlin behind it. The only trou-
BILE about this show was we didn't
see enough of Fritz. He must have
beat it like a rabbit, because I did
rot see a single one all the way back
TO the second line, although some of
the other fellows did"
The men went in $50 yards on a
100-yard front. None of the Amer
leans was killed and none is missing.
1t is certain that five Germans were
killed in the lighting.
Artillery fire of quite a lively char
acter also is continuing in the sec
tor east of Luneville. SO far as is
known, the Germans have not vet
rccccupied their first and second
lines there.
Both the Lunevillc sector and that
Of Toul have been much occupied with
anipers to-day, as well as last night.
In the former sector, one sniper was
detected in a tree after a period in
which he had done fairly effective
work.
Yankee Plugs Hun Sniper
One of the American sharpshooters
crawled cautiously to vantage
point in No Mans Land and opened
up on him. The second shot hit the
German, whose body dropped to the
enemy wire, where it hung for the
rest of the day.
Northwest of Toul rife fire and
grenades dislodged a German from a
sniper's post in shell hole and also
silenced the enemy in a machine gun
cmplacement on the front lines who
had been annoying our men with
bursts of fire. The American ma
chine guns, by a crossfire, again
drove out the Germans from num-
ber of listening posts.
An American aerial observer in a
French airplane crossed the German
lines this morning at low altitude
and used his machine gun effectively
on the second line. Other Americans
were in the air all day, many of them
over German territory. One aerial
lattle is reported. The American OBJ
server emptied one gun at a German
~lane, but without apparent result,
as the enemy was hurrying toward
the rear. Another machine, in which
the American observers were manning
the guns went up to meet German
airplanes which had crossed the
lines but the Americans failed to
set close enough to shoot with any
chance of scoring a hit.
The Germans are doing much work
behind their lines. Additional
camoufiage construction is going on
there and an exceedingly heavy traf-
fic is in evidence at many places es-
pecially at night.
Military Cops Nab u. S.