The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-07

Brieulles.
 All the swimmers of the First brigade were first singled out and put in the van. It was intended to attack in this way on the theory that the swimmers were less likely to be hit by the Ger mans owing to the fact that they would be nearly submerged. On the other hand, they could carry with them ropes and other paraphernalia for assisting inonswimmers across. The building of pontoon bridges was put off until at least some American elements had crossed the river.
 A perfect rain of fire from the Ger mans met with swimming Americans. The enemy had enSconced himself on the east bank with carefully selected machine gun positions, which Eaked ev- cry point of the bank, where effort to land could be enfiladed or met with di- rect fire.
 Some men were Killed in the water. More were drowned after having been wounded, for no unwounded man dared stop to rescue a comrade if. the ma neuver was to- be successful one. 1 SWIMMERS GET OVER 1 Notwithstanding some losses and the fact that the swimmers could not de- fend themselves, many of them
  !. with. lines which were drawn taut across the stream. Others floated on rafts and s.. eollapsible canvas boats These men had less success than the swimmers, because they were better marks for the enemy's rifles and the boats could easily be sunk by bullets even if their occupants were not bit. i Close to where the swimmers crossed ! the engineers began to throw over ! Yanf t0af hfsid donc The pontoons were destroyed by the enemy. but the bridge remained intact and added materially to the constantly increasing numbers of men arriving I on the west bank of the river. Soon 1 after dark the first brigade was across ] the first barrier and more men were ready to make the journey.
 The second phase of the perilous .un- 1 dertaking then began-the crossing of l the kilometer of mud stretching be- I tween the river and the canal, which, though it was under a tremendous 1 enemy fire, was not held by infantry I Thei Americans stumbled across the l mud throu gh the whitening fire. Their I feet sank into the mud and soon the pace of the men was slowed down to 1aborous walk. Nevertheless, they 4 got through, even if the task caused some depletion in their numbers.
 SWIM CANAL
 The next phase constituted the crossing of the narrower but deeper canal with it's sheer sides and with the Germans almost at the very tor of the eastern edge. The swimmers again got into action and plunged through, notwithstanding the enemy and scrampled to the top Here the men divided their attention in driving ief the enemy and helping nonswim. T srs across by the same methods used m he river. Two bridges finally were lafA down by the engineers, greatly 5gciA ating crossing. These two arsGI ss withstood attempts of the ] eaeea Ao Destroy them and contributed 4a@ssg y theN speed in getting the tfoopS over.
 swimmers reached the i et ttse canal they could not land MI pf the sid of grappling hooks | wa1a1 hGa tc be. caught onto the tor of thu vaii aa@sng the canal so that 1 the sgf laseSs eefld pull themselves up by .tseaN8 sof r0ees. It would have been lao tnohsa a task for men un- disturbed 5S tlie asl emy's guns, but its 1 accomplish ueNf vas almost inconceiv-