The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-09-19
Heroic Advanca Rx French.

y. With the French Army In France
/ Wednesday, Sept. IS.-GeneraT Man
gins army attacked along the front
| northeast Of scissors today and cap
| tured the Colombes farm on the pla-
| teau east Of SAncy and south of the
| point where the Chenlin des Danes
| branches off from the road leading
from Scissors to Laon..
! A strong counter attack led by
| grenadiers Of the Prussian guard
was repulsed by the French, who
drove the enemy back of the road
| leading from the plateau of Ange
| Gardiene to the Colomhes farm.
| This road is less than a half mile
| from the Chemin des DANES.
| This success puts the French in
| possession of part Of the important
plateau of Ange Gardiene, which
| commands the ridge along. which
runs the famous Ladies way for
a considerable distance. 1t also
drives deeper the wedge south of the
| Hindenburg positions in the st. Go
| balm region and facilitates operations
| in the direction of Pinon which was
| held by the French until the German
| offensive late in May.
Tremendous Task.
The fighting in this region has
days. A glimpse Of the action around
] the. Colombes farm obtained from a
| point giving a view of the Chemin
| des Danes and Fort Malmaison, as
well as the plateau to the south on
which the farm is situated, gave an
| idea of the tremendous task Gen
| Mangin's men have undertaken.
| The soldiers could be seen bound
ing from shellhole to shellhole and
| trench to trench. From the great
distance between them and the OBJ
| server, the only means of distin-
! gushing the fighting forces was that
the French were advancing east
ward and northward upon the mass
| of ruins that marks the location OF
| the Colombes farm.
The splendid qualities Of individ-
ual Initiative of the French soldiers
found ample play in this advance
and the French again demonstrated
their mastery over the enemy. For
| the distant observer it looked like a
battle between individuals. Rarely
were there more than two men seen
above ground at the same time
| line Of artillery curtain fire which
was plainly marked by columns OF
smoke that gave the outlines Of the
battlefield.
In. Face of Machine Guns.
Every one Of those men creeping
and Ieaping forward over the up
| feaved ground was advancing in the
face of machine guns cleverIy CON
cealed and strongly protected They
went on just the same, until they
surrounded them or rushed at them
conuuering by their courage and in
dividual intelligence the formidable
| defensive organization on which the
Germans have spent their best ef-
forts for four years. The earth
works Of the Hindenburg line are
stronger than anything of this kind
| hitherto constructed but the soldiers
behind them have not today the game
| fighting spirit that they had a year
or even six months ago.
/ Prisoners now are complaining
that they are frequently left in the
front line to shift for themselves
! Rarely do their officers stand by
them when they are attacked, they
say.
gun crews are ordered to hold po-
sitiOns and discover some time af-
| terWard that the troops behind them
have abandoned the field. They at.
| tribute the concealment from then
of the retreat of the infantry to the
fear entertained by their Officers
that they might be tempted to aban-
don their posts il they knew thai
they were to be sacrificed.