The Butler weekly times and the Bates County record. (Butler, Mo.) 1918-1950, 1918-11-14
I I3oURI TROOPS in THE
ssspICK OF FIGHTINGr xON /.
ARGONNE FRONT !,

PICK OF FIGHTINGr ON
81 ARGoNNE FRONT
Ion Paper Says RAttie Which Is
4ercely Contested Ia Forest i
Like Duel Fought to =
Finish in . Pitch
Dark Room.
E But the pick Of the fighting from a
EdsSnatic point of view, says writer
tin the London Telegraph in describ
EiuG fighting done by Americans in
ltke Argonne Forest, in which sector
Ethe Thirty fifth. including Missouri
lnnd Kansas troops, has been en-
gagged; was undoubtedly the progres-
Esing, with various setbacks, in the
Forest OF the Argonne. A doel
tfonght to finish in pitch-dark
Er6oms has about it a certain element
torp Horror, but it does not differ
kgreatly from a battle fought in a
EfoFest darkened by an almost impen-
Ietfable foliage, where a foe may Turk
sEbehind every tree. And the extra
'tordinary darkness and the density OF
lfthiA forest is complicated by the
kstfangeness of the ground on which
III stands. That resembles nothing s.
EMdeh as the backbone and ribs OF a
i fIxt fish, if all the ribs on one side
,kwefe shortened to half their length.
The backbone of the forest, run
tning nearly north and south, is about
Hos feet high, and the ribs represent a
yIseries OF ridges and ravines, short
Land almost perilously steep, on the
nh
llsngth and somewhat less abrupt on
1.-THE western slope.
II All OF it is thicRfy covered with its
u dense mantle of trees as a skin with
n fur, save here and there where the
1 sf6n is rubbed bare The ravines are
IsoT abrupt that one can almost step on
1.-THE top OF the trees Immediately be.
meath one. and they follow each
lother in such a ceaseless succession
that, though the length along tht
4 backbone is about twenty-five miles
ltfae distance up and down The ribs
would be al least fifty.
To advance against an enemy re
Gently in possession OF such countr,
would be sufficiently paralyzins
task, but the enemy has had it to'
wears an,l has dug for himself abso
Ilutely mansions beneath the hillsides
with porches of stone, by which EN-
[trance is given to stone-linet
ltrenches on the one hand and on th'
fpther to- series of capacious. chan
elhers, papered and floored with NOR
Etised timber. and furnished will
d suites in oak, walnut and mahogany
Ipitfered from adjoining chatteauS
land lux,,riously lighted with electric
: lily, plain evidence that the Boche ex
Ipected to inkabit them for man.
4 fmonths to come.
+ But more formidable than his dug
, touts and trenches IS the. wire he ha
!, l,woren endlessly among the trees
There must be hundreds upon hun
dreds OF miles of it, till in places
: Hooks like the work of some incon
. lceiyable spider, woven at least tw'
ago, since through it weeds AM
grasses have. grown 3 feet and NOR
Linz height, making the savage en-
Enlightenment a still pore serious. oh
fstacle by core ealing it. :
f II is through such country tina
!. tAmsffc al, troops have been fightin
their way literally foot by foot
ttIOOpS young Ill years anu JO""6 -
experience. in depressing darkness
death may be in ambush be
hind any of its myriad trunks, AM
the rattle OF machine guns is mul
, tiplied and magnified by the trees t.
J deafening and maddening snarl o
thunder.
And in this dark maze of wood ant
8 hill every man knows how small arr
: his, chances. should he fall unseen b!
J unfriendly eyes, and even when thu
interchangeable stretcher bearers hav'
found him. the task OF getting hin
out of that malign and treacherou
gloom to the cars. which may b.
miles. away, is one of daunting mag
nitude.
How, indeed, the wounded are be
ing retrieved even the men who arr
their saviors seem scarcely to know
but they admit it is an exhaustive
business; but it is one, as / can ties
! tify which has been magnificent.
performed and at tho little dressin,
. stations on the edge of the flores
most fervent tributes to their res
: cuers may be heard from the mel
who have been hailed back out of it,
, chill obscurity to the tender treat
ment of this warm, kind world.
| The progress made by the troops
in the forest is evidence Of how LITTLE
heed they have paid to the fate which
so easily might befall them, for, il
spite Of deadly wire and still deadliel
fire, they have gone almost as stead
lily forward as their comrades outside
So Overwhelmingly complicated is tina,
| ceaseless succession of ravine ant
ridge that even the Germans are moi
completely at home in it, and some o.
our men have actually been captured
! twice and each time taken with then
captorA--St. Louis Globe Democrat.
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