Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-08-24
ONLY ONE F|GH1," ON FOUL
 SECTOR, YANKEES SAY
Americans Date Events Before Or After the "ApremOnt
 Affair.""

With the American Troops in France, June 29 Correspondence of
 The Associated Press) Though the | American troops have had three en-
 gagements in the Foul sector during the past three months men in the division say there has been just one l fight"
 The big raid on Apremont in April they call "the Alpremont affair."" they refer to the attack on Seicheprey, 10 days later as "the Seicheprey thgin; !" but, the morning of June 16 at Xiyray," they say, there was d
 This distinction does no wrong to the defenders of Apremont and Seicheprey. The men did their best there, and that best was as good as could be expected under the circum- stances, but their best then was not so good as their best ct Xivray. That is the significance given to the dis tinction by French officers. They say that it was at Xivray the men hold ing the sector showed they had learn ed how to do what must te done in the front line.
 Qivray 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 jeans and betray a deeper awe of the American machine gun.
 It is now disparagemcnt of the work the ordinary rifle did there to say that the quick-fifers decided the is- sue. Two companies of infantry, without dugouts to shelter them, held their grounds on the right of the posi- tfon through a heavy artillery prep aration and kept the enemy from bringing up reinforcements through out the fight. Meanwhile, in the cen- ter at Xivray and on the left the ma- chine gunners did the rest.
 The enemy's plan, according to pris- oners, was to force tte village, de- stroy the defense works, make the place untenable and take prisoners. The effort was well organized and might have succeeded but for the work of the quick-fifers.
 Six hundred men advanced to the attack in no less than ,a dozen diff ferent colums, led by two hundred picked Bavarian stOrming troops. They came up on the right flank, on the left and on the center under cover of smoke, making a dark night still darker. They crept up the ravines and slipped through the ho!iows. The sharp ears of sentries alone prevented a total surprise. Their guns laid down a heavy box 'barrage 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 a way to surprise and dismay the six hundred Germans.
 One machine gun section in the vil- lage was reduced to two men, Monfort Wyckoff and John Flynn. Their gun damned and Flynn kept the Germans off with his revolver while Wyckoff got the quick-firer going again. They held their ground to the end. Two other men, unable to get a sight at the Germans from their trench, climbed the parapet and stood there erect. firing their automatics from the shoulder. Two infantrymen crawled out of shell to get better aim.
 The Germans had lost a third of their 600 men when growing daylight impaired the effectiveness of their smoke screen, and they began to re- tire. The fifty odd unwounded Ameri- cans left out of 225 went over the top after them.
 Two hundred is a conservative esti- mate of the German losses. for our men buried 47 of them on the field and there were more corpses in the tall grass facing the position, out of reach. Thus the Germans lest nearly as many men as they had facing them during the fight.