Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-31
IERICANS GIVEN
HEAVIEST TASK
RGrshing's Men Entrusted
Foch With Fighting
at Juvigny
SPLENDID SPIRIT SHOWN
Ncyon, Mined by Germans, a
Lake of Mustard and
= Poisonous Gases
By C. H. PERKS

OpscsoL Cable TO Evening Public Ledge,
Copnrioht. 1918. bu Ncw York Tintrs' Co.
with the French Army Near Noyon
Aug. 81.
Noyon lies before me eastward
Nesting around its great church and
quaint town hall, the square recalling
Z dignified past that goes back to
Charlemagne. None but actual COM
Uatants can yet enter the town. Pris-
oners say 1t was extensively mined
~ the ~retreating boches, and it is
most certainly a lake of mustard and
other poisonous gases.
The ext important active sector
~ the corner where the Ailette passes
near the Pierremande and the west
ern edge of the lower forest of Coucy.
The Disc valley cannot be in these
days Of powerful artillery what 1t was
IN he far past for marching armies.
q valuable corridor of invasion or
reaction, but it has evident strategical
Importance in the present juncture.
Here the French troops crossed the
Oise-Aisne Canal. They afterward
crossed the Ailette at Champs. On
either side of Champs a bridgehead
.-nver a mile wide on the Ailette was
secured.
Entrusted to Americans
Most grave of all is the attack further
south In the neighborhood Of Juvigny'
This part Of the enterprise had been in
trusted to American troops, whom I saw
coming up by a forced march the other
night, and I imagine the French gen.
eralissimo could not have paid a
greater compliment to ~Pershing's men
than to : give them this heavy task
heavy, for the country is cut with deep
wooded ravines where and in whose
many caves n quarries whole bat
talions can hide, and where the crucial
corner of the old Hindenburg line is
within long gun range.
The preliminary action on Tuesday
and Wednesday having arrested and set
back the boche attempt to recover lost
ground, we were Thursday morning on
the western border of Juvigny village.
This was. therefore. the first objective
and I ain assured that in capturing 1t
the Joung American troops showed
splendid spirit. 1t was virtually their
baptism of fire. They are to a large ex-
tent men recruited in Wisconsin and
Michigan. They had trenches for a time
IA . quiet sector in Lorraine and after
ward were in reserve during the
Chateau-Thierry fighting.
The town of Noyon was encircled by
= famous division. Tirailleurs. or Afri-
can native troops, attacked the center
from the Compiegne road, while zouaves,
Vho are professional soldiers Of French
race. pushed around to the northwest,
across the Roye road to the Ham road,
and ,around to the east of Landrimont
I - the slopes of Mount st. Simeon
< Good Progress Made
Good progress has been made, espe-
daily to the north of Noyon, where we
reached Hill Metre 81, right across the
road to Ham, near the villages OF Tar
lefesse and Happlincourt.
Further northwest We occupied the
twin villages of Beaurains, except the
ehateau, which is still holding out.
On the east Zouaves have driven their
way up to the south edge of the crest
a Mount Saint Simeon.
On the Ailette Mangin's forces lave
enlarged the bridgehead obtained by
the capture of the hamlets Of Vilette
md Courbesseaux.
A violent counter-attack at Champs
village was repulsed. Fighting continues
With ferocious intensity. The losses in
such a battle could not be light. but
the enemy has suffered with peculiar
aAverity in his incessant massed coun-
teF-attacks.
Among the new divisions he has
brought into action to defend the hinge
Of the Siegfried line ar the Fifth reserve
and Twenty-third, both of which had
had only a weeks rest before being
>sAsengaged. Prisoners agree In saying
that, their orders were to hold their
ground at any price.