Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-03-02
AMERICANS WIN
FIRST Bic FIGHT
Repulse Germans and "Stfew the
Ground With Dead" in Front
OF Their Lines.

With the American Army IN France.
March 2-American TROOPS rppulaed q
strong German attack yesterday morning
IN the 81. Mihiel salient north of Ioul.
The Americans displayed tho greatest
personal courasc. bravery and energy
throughout the engagement and out
fought the surprised enemy from the IN
stant contact waa established.
The raid was complete failure, three
German prisoners remaining IN American
hands The ground IN front ni the Amer'-
can trenches was strewn with German
dead
Tho Americans also lost many killed
and wounded, including officers Among
the dead was a captain, who was graduated
from West Point in lni7.
During the attack n town behind the
American line was heavily shelled, and
there were sorne casualties there
A driving wet snow WAS falling when
nc Germans opened fire ON the American
salient with every weapon af thcu corn-
mand Scvnntv-ervrn heavy shells mud
gas shells fell in q whirlwind on the
trenches for half an hour Al tho same
time other enemy shells ~ great nutnher ~
were dropping on the American battery
positions.
The Germans. evidently thinking that
| the Americans IN this Section having Ind
one TASTE ~ gas a few days ago, would
| fear Il now. let loose great quantities ot
poison gas but the men put on ther
| masks and few were affected by IT, 80
| intense was the fire. however. that Tho
/ woods back uf the salient were shot ti
| picccs
At & o'clock the hayrage fire lifted M
| the trenches TO tho right of tho salient
ut.saFa
| 2i0 came sweeping forward under tho
| protoctlon of their fire They apparently
| expcctrd tn make a hir haul and jumped
| INTO what was left Of the trenches, but
| there found the Americans all ready for
| battle Ficrre hand-to.hand lighting
| began
nnc American captain rallied his men
with rifles and machine guns and went
| through the American wire entnngle-
| mcnta into No Mans Land and waited
there for the enemy. whom he expected
| to he driven out by his comrades IN the
! trenches.
lie was right, for soon groups Of the
enemy started back through the entanglc-
mcntS The Americans poured IN deadly
FIRE but the captain was killed during the
fight. being the hrst member Oi the 1917
class NJ West Point To fall
While the Americans IN 'front.' OF tue
wire cntanglenrncuts and shell holes
were still fighting desperately the Ameri-
can barragc fire began sweeping No Mans
Land. catching many running Prussians
who had had ough OF American methods.
The barrage ,pet back and forth, making
sure of doing nj possible damage TO the
foe
When the enemy had been driven back
out Of the positions, the bodies OF ten
German soldiers were found IN the Amerl-
can trenches. Two German officers were
entangled in the wire, and many bodies
were in sight. Eight were visible through
the snowstorm at one point.
The ground WAS Uttered with enemy
hand grenades. boxes of explosives tor de
stroying dugouts, and incendiary bombs
| which they had no opportunity To use
They managed to drop incendIary bombs
IN two dugouts, which were destroyed by
fire, but no Americans were IN them.
II the Germans captured any prisoners,
which Is doubtful, there were not more
than two or three, possibly from listen
ing post OF the missing men many were
probably buried. Digging for them Is now
proceeding and others may be accounted
for.
Two of the German prisoners were
wounded, the other was unhurt except
for a welt on one of his hands, where he
was struck by young American soldier
when he showed fight after capture.