The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-07-08
GRAPHIC ACCOUNT
OF FIRST BIG FIGHT
American Officer Tells Of
Courage Shown in July
Fourth Battle.
GUNfIRE IS WONDERFUL
Men Sleep Soundly Three
Hours Before Starting to
Kill Teuton Foes.
BY the Associated Press.

Nv the Assoc1dteu PFeS.
WITH THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE,
July Last night the Associated Press
correspondent slept on the ground
among the troops Of one star company
OF Americans who played a prominent
part in Thursdays great show. From
the men and officers he heard the details
OF this first great fight of the Yankees
on ,thc British front.
Some facts have been told before, but
the story as related by one Of the off,
GERS contained many new features con-
corning the activities of our boys. He
tod it In a simple manner. without
frills and without Boosting. And here is
what he said:
The Americans went into the line
after a hard march, The Fritzes I'M
doubtedly had no inklins that the at
tack was to be made. At midnight
Wednesday We were sent forward to
lie out, ready for an advance at 10
o'clock Thursday morning.
Many of our boys were tired when
they reached the positions and despite
the fact that they were jusA embark
ing on the biggest adventure OF their
lives--a leap into the unknown-they
threw themselves on the ground and
slept soundly. 1t was an encouraging
| sign to us. for 1t meant that the men
were not jumpy. They never show any
| sign Of nerves, as matter OF fact
No sleep for the Omcers.
For us officers there was no sleep
during that three hours wait. There
were conferences to be held with the
ltop nd
sibillty was Weighing heavily on us. We
knew that our lads would come through
| clean, but we could not help being a bit
| anxious.
we had TO admire the GOODNESS of the
| Australian officers. who told stories and
laughed as II nothing was going to hap
pen. though we Americans knew that
shortly before the kickoff the gunners
would put down a barrase which would
be the signal for all hands on the Job.
! "A few minutes before the barrage
was due the allied artillery opened with
a harassing Are and we American off,
! GERS were out among our men hotfoot
| to keep them steady. fearing they might
mistake this for the barrage.
Then came the barrage, and We never
dreamed there could be such gunfire. II
was tremendous. The gunners certainly
did wonderful job.
The infantry started to advance. My
men were headed for Hamel village. and
| our first trouble was encountered in a
4, broad bel, OF barbed wire In front of
the Boche forward line of defences. The
tanks had opened the way through most
| of this, but in spots some of our men
were held up for little.
| II saw a funny thing here. One OF
| my corporals. who had been guard
officer IN a penitentiary. and who has
a reputation for being a hard customer
in fight got hung up in the wire.
He had no cutters and so sat down on
the ground and started pulling the stuff
from his legs. barb by barb.
Corporal "showed EN-"
"A Boche turned a machine gun on
him and was making things hot, but
the corporal kept on pulling the wire,
meantime roaring curses at the Huns.
Frame a trick like this on white
man, win you? Let me out OF here and
I'll show you
These were some things | heard him
yell, with lot more less complimentary.
He finally got out. but his uniform
looked as II he had been run through
a threshing machine. What he did 10
the Boche after that was plenty.
About this time a German she'll ex-
ploded near US and two Of my men went
hurting through the air. ! thought
sure the poor fellows were done for. but
in a minute I heard one Of them call
over to his pal: Hey. John, are you
dead
From down among the churned up
ground near by came the response No.
Are YOU
Calls 1t "Only Helping"
I'VE got through the barbed wire very
we'll and reached the Boche front line
trenches. They were thinly held and
/ we cleared them out with bombs anc
rifles, on the jump. We hardly stopped
: here at all, but passed over toward the
village.
you understand that when l speak OF
we am talking about the Yankees anc
the Australians, for We were only help
ing in the show.
! THE support trenches. which had dug
outs, were more strongly held. but w
cut our way through without much
= difficulty. 4 lot OF Huns Yere be!nl
killed or captured by this time. From
the direction OF Hamel the German ma
chine guns and rides were working hart
and there was plenty OF stuff coming on
, way.
when we reached Hamel we foun
. a lot or dugouts nlled with bocnes an
their snipers up trees with machine guns
We cleaned them all out systematically
. One of our sergeants, with an America
. private and an Australian, came upo
a dugout containing four German officer
and some men, The officers started I
come up and one of them pulled re
volver The sergeant shot him throug
the head and two OF the other officer
\ who started to fight were killed. TIL
others surrendered.
y "In another dugout one of our SCI
geants and three privates capture
sixteen Germans Just TO the left c
+. Hamel an Australian corporal and tw
prsvates cleared out another dugou
containing numerous Germans.
in the centre of Hamel we capture
n a company headquarters. saw
t mighty fne thing here. A daredev
t | Australian officer climbed to the TO
5 of a building and raised a big Frenc