Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-08-15

Xivray Battle on Houl Sec.
tor Only One Of Itnport-
ance, They Declare.

With, the American Troops in
France, June 3S:--(Correspondence
Of The Associated .press)-Though
the American. troops have had three
engagements in the Toul sector dur
Sing thaspast three months men in the
division say there has been just one
fight"
The big raid on Apremont in April
they call 1.-The. Apremont, affair."" they
refer TO the attack on s%eicheprey. ten
tNavs later as "the S~eicheprey thing"
{ but. tina morning Of June 1S at
xivray," they say, there was d fight
This distinction does no wrong to
the defenders OF Opremont and
%seichsprey. The men did their best
there, and that beat was a good as
could, be, expected under the circum-
stances, but their best then was $50
good as their best at Xivray. That
]tinetion by French officers. They say
that It was at X1vray the men hold
ing the sector showed they had learn
\ ed how to do what u be done IN
the front limo.
xiyray has. q similar meaning to
1.-The Germans in that sector II. the evil
dence II; prisoners may be trusted.
creased respect for the fighting quail
ties Of the Americans n betray a
deeper awe Of the American machine
gun.
It is now disparagement Of the
work the ordinary rifle did there to
say that the quick-f1fers decided the
issue. Two companies of infantry,
without dugouts to shelter them held
their grounds on the right OF the po-
aration and kept the enemy from
bringing up achievements through
out the fight. Meanwhile. in the CEN
ter at xivray and on the left. the
machine gunners did the rest.
r.. The ,enemy's plan according to
prisoners, was to force the village
destroy the defense works. make the
place untenable aud take prisoners
Il The effort was we'll organized and
work OF the quick-frers.
Six hundred men advanced to the
attack in no less than a dozen differ,
ent columns, led by two hundred
picked Bavarian' storming troops
They came up on the right flank, OF
the left and on the center under cover
of smoke, making a dark night still
darker. They crept up the rayine.
and slipped through the hollows
vented a total surprise.
Their guns laid Town q heavy boz
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
9 Doan even went, through the secons
1 with some volunteers. but that wa
s 225 men that were holding the lin
= attacked. They were only one t
three but they fought in a way to sur
t prise and dismay the six hundre'
Germans. -
One machine gun section in the vii
lage was reduced to two men, Mon
fort ,Wyckoff and John Flynn. Thei
y gun damned and Flynn kept the Ger
g mans-oH~with his revolver whit
9 again. They held their ground to tn
end. Two other men, unable to &c
a sight at the Germans from thed
trench climbed the parapet and stoo'
n there erect firing their automatic
= from the shoulder. Two infantryrnel
81 crawled out Of a shell to get~a bette
y aim.
: The Germans had lost a third o
= their 800 men when growing dayligh
impaired the effectiveness of thed
y smoke screen and they began to re
tire. The fifty odd u~nwounded Amer
g leans left out Of 225 went over tn
> top after them.
/. Two hundred is q conservative es
. innate of the German losses for on
men buried for~ty-seven of them o
!" the field and there were more corpse
in the tall grass facing the position
out of reach. Thus the Germans 10:
= nearly as many men as they had fac
ing them during the fight.
= One of the heroes Of the day was
cook who had been dismissed fror
the service on account of loose habit
: with respect to drink. When sober h
" was possessed of an astonishin
amount of perseverance,. He ha
AL foiled all efforts Of the officers to pr
n him put OF the division. He left on
regiment to appear in another. H
passed from one company to- anothe
until he had reached the last one.
n he was thrown out Of that it was a
over with his soldering. He was or
4. Of the volunteers that went throug
both barragee andthe stayed ithroug
the fight giving first aid to the wound
ed under the sharpest Are from til
a~seai1ants.
: HUNS POOR SPORTS;
KICK WHEN ENGLISH