Newport daily independent., 1918-11-02
AMERICANS DELIVER FRENCH.

With the American Forces in France, Oct. 20.-(Correspondence of The Associated Press)-It was three American privates who gave the French civilians of the German occu- pied village of Thiaucourt the great est thrill of their lives. For four years they had been waiting and then | the Americans came.
 When the three privates an ad vanced guard of swarms of other Americans in their wake swung in to the war-torn village of Thiaucourt not soul was in the streets. But within a few minutes news spread among the seven hundred civilians that the Americans were there and men and women and children came in droves from cellars where they had been hiding in terror for two days and nights. And from other cellars and dugouts there came six hundred | 00TIIldu SOlulCiS WliO WC1C NSAA5AtoSS. with the idea of giving up.
 The offensive of the first Ameri- can army, which wiped out the St. Mihiel salient, began on Thursday morning and it was Saturday after noon when the weary Americans reached Thiaucourt, hungry and fa- | tigued from fast walking in their eagerness to keep pace with the fleeing Germans.
 1 As the Americans poured into the village and the French realized more and more that again Thiaucourt had come into her own, men stood in the street and cried openly and women sat about on doorsteps and bits of wreckage caused by shells and wept until near exhaustion. And in the confusion the children cheered but even some of them, the older ones realizing what it all meant, cried too
 and kissed the hands of the officers and men.
 l What food they had on hand the
 French turned over to the Americans,
 the villagers insisting upon the Americans taking all they wanted
 of what they had. So in the streets and in the houses; some of them
 occupied only few hours previously by German officers and men, the Americans made themselves at home, I for a short breathing spell, and the
 French population of the village en- deavored to satisfy the appetites of their deliverers.
 From the time the Germans reach ed Thiacourt in September, 1914, un- 1 til few days after the village had been retaken by American troops the
 civilians were entirely without fresh | meat of any kind excepting now and then a chicken or a rabbit which
 were raised in cellars without the
 knowledge of the Germans. All the
 cattle in the region ofTriaucourt were
 taken by the Germans, but the cows
 being left to furnish milk for babies. l Until the United States entered
 the war food was sent to Thlaucourt
 by way of the Netherlands by the \ American relief committee and later
 by a Spanish relief committee. Ihis
 consisted principally of bacon, flour
 sugar, beans, peas and some cocoa
 Two boxes of condensed milk were re-
 ceived in Thiaucourt each month and
 now and then shipment of salt meat.
 Twice several boxes of American
 shoes arrived for the inhabitants and at long intervals there were small shipments of clothing.
 N During the four years occupation
 by the Germans none of the civilians I| was allowed to leave the town. How ever, on one or two occasions indivld- uals were permitted to visit near by village to attend the funeral of relatives, accompanied by soldier l guard.