Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-03-11
SUCCESSFUL DRIVE
Continued from page one)

at the Americans. They were given
short shift. Grenades and incendiary
bombs were hurled into the German de-
lenses, blowing the dugouts and pill
boxes skyward.
Passing between the second and
third lines, more dugouts and unex-
pected bill boxes lwere encountered.
The Sammies, their leggings pants and
wire, pushed forward. Before the door
of a dugout, some infantrymen, arm
ed only with ~bayoneted rifles and PTS
toll shouted:
"Come outiO
The only ,lanswer was "a revolver
shot through q loophole. At that mo-
ment, some g%renadiers, running up,
drew back their arms, took aim and lei
fly. There was a sheet OF flame and
the ground was shaken by the explos-
ions.
A fraction of a second later there
was no dugout-no boches.
The pill boxes weret hand ed the
same way though. they were harder to
crack.
Cleaned up Third Line
When the raiders reached the Ger
man third line they found the demoL-
ton even more complete than in the
previous two. There wasn't a sign OF
life.
They cleaned up the third line, TAX
ing a thorough search for military doc
uments and other bits of information
From the American trenches, a white
rocket appeared. It was the signal to
return. The gait in going back is what
ever the men set for themselves.
The German barrage had now start
ed, kicking up mad bursts OF explos-
ions between the Americans and their
trenches. 1t was everybody for himself
to walk or run through the barrage'
hop over the parapet and drop into
his own trench.
The captain looked at his watch. 1t
was lust AZ minutes since the whistle
had sounded above the din of artil-
lery explosions, sending the men over
the top.
On another sector, no dugouts OF pill
boxes were found intact. The raiders
penetrated beyond the third line and
captured two wounded prisoners.
American soldiers operating with
French in the section where five prls-
oners were taken in a third sector,
walked across No Mans Land with
out opposition, laughing and joking
at the lack of sentry fire.
Wanted to Go On
They cleaned up the enemy trenches
in short order and were anxlous TO 60
hut withheld when the German bar
rage started to fall. A sergeant shout
ed: 'FGet out of the way! Let a
run who can runl
The Americans dashed back to their
own trenches, their leggings and pants
torn to tatters by the barbed wire en-
tanglements.
With our artillery roaring and enc
nv shells bursting in u front lines,
the companies assigned to the raid had
taken their positions at 4:45. All were
cool and anxious to go.
The Zero hour was 5;05.
After being called to their posts,
the men chatted and peeped over the
to see the effect of our fire,
With their barrage roaring ahead
the Sammies started their march boche-
ward at a steady even stride. There
was no running. The men marched as
on parade.
They soon began -eneountering she'll
holes, and SeNeral Sllppcu IN up ~
their hips. Their bunkies, with out
stretched hands, aided in pulling them
out.
Attacked by Airplane
The objective of one company was
in q shell shattered woods.
where nothing but splintered trunks
of trees Which raised their Jagged
limbs toward the sky in a mass OF
debris were visible.
Then a new noise was heard above
the rumble of the barrage-the roar of
he exhaust Of a bache airplane, as it
suddenly appeared above the raiders
md swooped down toward the woods.
The rattle of its machine gun could
De heard above the other noises as it
swept 50 low thSt the Yankees, look
.ng upward, could see the faces of
he aviators.
The machine gun bullets clipped
the trees, as the infantrymen
aised their rifles and banged away
It the plane.
Then our barrage became too hot
md the airplane sailed into the SKY
d-iSapnpayc1 III