The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1918-09-06
AMERIGIpkkE VERY
!. APT IN PATROL WORK
Soldiers Are Daring Enough to Nen-
ture Past the Lines of the
Germans.

With the American Army in Lor-
raine, Sept. ga quiet sector"
said an officer OF an American di-
vision holding position so .desig-
mated, appears to be part of the
front where nothing but scouting,
patrolling, shelling and gassing are
going on, with a little bombing and
fiame-throwing to vary the monot-
ony"
In quiet sector the American
soldier gets his first experience of
war. Some of the relatively small
things n>this war look so big TO the
new rnSn that he is inclined to take
them forSbigger Ones" said an Amer
icHn gepdraE "and it is important for
4gth the new soldiers and the young
>oeicer 10. get familiar with the little
TfH ghtfblnesses the Germans send
OFT So as to get the proper proper
tfonx xAetween them and real attacks"
- PatrSfs. are large contributors to
the war diary Of the divisions in this
sector, and the American soldier is
spafticularly apt at it. 1t is no Sc
cret for the Germans that he is al
ways ,at it and that he is venture
some enough to push into their lines
and into the villages back OF them
The Germans find their wire cut in
!. most unexpected places, even live
wire in some cases. A patrol caught
at this dangerous work found itself
In the range Of machine guns and
had to roll back under the wire and
across No Mans Land with bullets
whistling over their heads. Another
patrol pushing into German COM
manding post and finding it vacant
dragged am officers trunk back over
the shelf holes to their own trenches.
The .natTol is expected to do moth
ing moTs than bring in information
The ordersCare to avoid contact with
the enemy, st-patrols often meet
and occasionally are obliged to fight.
OnSsman of an American patrol.
ture of sn-, his comrades and
oners. m-he enemy. had gained
,ting information that he
to take back if he could
VI DSel taken from nlm
these / managed to conceal n
a grovrenades.. Slyly removing
Germ 1m one OF them as he was
TN, across No Mans Land, he
,eainst the other, let it
gap IN t,rihted back to safety.
bee ttheops are rendering great
Ssersft> .n4,a s-.work, getting over the
ground between the lines without
!. seeming to touch a thing that pro-
Tduces noise, and bringing back most
useful information
Men in observation posts and cap
tive balloons furnish detailed infor-
< nation of everything they see going
on back of the enemy's lines. From
their reports the war diary registers
daily count of the number OF trains
and the number of cars in each train
seen on the lines OF communication.
A count is also kept OF columns of
smoke with the hours and minutes
when they are observed.
| Working parties are counted and
sthe direction of their movements
foted, sometimes leading to the dis
covery of new emplacements for
neaVy artillery. An aerial photo
graph showed recently where a
battery found in this way had been
completely destroyed by our fire.
The men out scouting or on pa
troll. in the listening posts or obser-
yation balloons quickly sharpen their
faculties of observation, get better
grasp of the significance of little
things and their relation to big ones
Their sense Of proportion develops
and they are no longer to he misled
rs to the scope of the enemy's oper-
ations.