American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1918-09-17
UPHILL FIGHTING WORRIES
YANKS NO MORE THAN RIVER
Crossing of Ourcq Followed by Exul-
tant Race TO Gain Crest.

The spectacular retreat of the army
of the German crown prince from the
Ourcq to the Vesle was not made un-
ill after the enemy had spent the
greater part of five days in a grim eff
fort to make his stand on the line
stretching from Fere-en-Tardenois to
Ville-en-Tardenois.
Unlike the cr~oss-country fight of the
week before, here was no mere con-
flict with machine gun nests left in
the German wake to make slow and
costly the allied pursuit, but a case
of picked German divisions ranged on
the heights and ordered to hold those
heights to the last against all corners.
To the proud watchers from the
other side of the Atlantic, the most
interesting part of that line was the
part stretching east from Fere-en-
Tardenois, for there the American SOL
diers were most numerously engaged,
there the Yankees were pitted against
the famous Prussian guard, the best
the Germans have.
Beat Two Guard Divisions.
1t was M. Tardieu, Frances high
commissioner to our capital, who told
the world that an American division
on the Ourcq had met and defeated a
division of the Prussian guards.
When the history of that American
division comes to be written with all
the freedom of retrospect, it may be
added that in the course of the great
battle which began on July Is, 1918,
that division, before it stopped to
catch it's breath. had met and done
battle with two divisions of the Prus-
sian guards, of which, it is said, there
are but five altogether.
1t is probable that the fighting the
p, Americans experienced between July
81 and August 3 will be studied at
school by your children and your
grandchildren as the Battle Of the
Ourcq, but that un~pretentious creek
had little to do with it except as
through the centuries, it had worn
down the land till there sloped away
to the north of it a gradual hill most
difficult to storm.
No one will understand the Battle
of the Ourcq who does not keep in
mind the fact that the mere rushing
the stream itself presented nc
difficulties and that the real fight was
the fight to possess the heights beyond
OMill DdSu lOI HtlEntos
nIt took one battalion only 30 min
>A1tes to dash down the southern slope
VS. the river, and entrench itself a
rsst of the first slope beyond. l
se forces engaged there five
. Sthe bittterest fighting to NOV
sfR&F smeter further to capture Serg.
T4nd Seringes, and make the heighti
.%tenable for the Crown Prince
$Sces.
FOR the Americans engaged, l
9reant, after the first rush, an artil
1~sy battle of the heaviest kind, grea
ns brought into play, while neithe
side could boast the deep entrench
.nents of the older lines. In addition
70 the steady, poisonous ra~t-a-tat-ta
Of machine guns innumerable and tn
roar of the larger pieces, the thunde
of that battle was augmented towar
the end by the reverberations of am
hamilton dumps. where the German
we're feverishly trying to destroy thei
own costly accumulations because the
knew they could not get away wit
chem.
It has been said that Seringe
changed hands several times. AS
matter of fact, the American artiller
blasted the Germans out of all bI
one corner of the town, and. afte
hopping it up, the American infantr
withdrew to avoid the answering nj
from the German guns. The enem
chung to his corner until he made h
retreat from that entire sector O