New Britain herald., 1918-03-04
ASSAULT ON OUR
 TROOPS REHEARSED
Germans Had Complete Map Of
 Sector They Attacked

With the American Army in 1 France March 1 Associated Iress) A plan of attack, including 9 man 1 of the American positions, indicating every dugout, which was removed from the body of the Prussian Cap l tain who led the recent assault upon 1 the sector northwest of Toul, shows how completely the Germans prepare their raIds-4if, in fact. this was but simple raid, not having as it's ulti- 1 mate object the retention of a por- tion of the salient.
 The map goes into such detail as to show every machine gun emplace- ment, every trench. and every de- pression in the ground within the American lines. At the bottom there is simply line drawn, labeled: Our front line" Along this line are five Nest"
 Four rehcarsels were held for the attack, and the troops who made it were specially picked from new ar rivals in the sector. They were told that the Americans were in front of them.
 After the artillery had nearly lev eled our positions the Germans start ed out from their nests each of which contained 40 infantrymen, one Lieu tenant, and three pioneers to preceIe the infantry and five to follow it. The two groups on our extreme right went around this flank, and the group on the extreme left carried out a similar movement there. The two groups in the center had planned to attack directly, but the American de- fense changed all the plans. When they were met by the heavy machine gun fire from our lines they SEW 1t would be impossible to gain a footing there, changed their direct on and followed the other groups around the flank. The duty of the pioneers pre- Ceding the infantry was to clean up any wire that had not been broken by the artillery, while the pioneers who followed carried large quantities of explosives for the purpose of cleaning up the dugouts.
 Germans Don't Want to Fight.
 Official reports of the interrogation of the prisoners taken by the Amer jeans show that all of them did not believe Germany would win the war. One of the men told the intelligence officers he presumed that the AIneri- cans. like the Germans, did not want
 
 quickly changed the Germans point of view by informing him that all of the troops in the attacked positions were volunteers.
 One prisoner, whose home is in German Lorraine, said he thought the F'atherland would lose tho war, but he hoped not He knew nothiGg about the Americans except that they were in the war, the German newspapers not printing much on the subject he said, and being slew to reach the front lines because of mail congestion.
 This prisoner said he was con- vinced that the recent strikes in Ger many were caused by desire for peace, adding that all Germany wanted the war to end. He was cer- tain that an offensive was coming, but did not believe it would be launched before April l.
 None of the prisoners had seen any of the German tanks, they said. All of them added that they w'.1e glad to have been taken prisoner, especially by the Americans, because they believed they would be well treated.
 The prisoners accounts showed that the sector opposite the American position was commanded by General Sta1zmann.
 The correspondent talked with a dozen of the American wounded lyihs on their hospital cots. Every one of them was anxious to tell of some deed of heroism performed by his fellows, but displayed great modesty | regarding his own exploits. One youth, whose home is near Savannah, Ga, and who seemed to be not more than Is years old, told this story: In Shower of Shells. "I was in the front lint when 1t seemed like every shell in the world 1 started coming our way. Where the | Germans got them is more than