The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-10-11
FRENCH LEADERS
PRAISE COURAGE
Of AMERICANS
Yankee Troops Have Shown
Mettle in Most Trying and
Critical Battles Of War.

WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY
Oct 1.-THE two leading French
Generals-Mangin and Gouraud-are
loud in their praises Of the United
States army, and both base their opin-
ions on the performances OF Ameri-
can troops in the most trying and
critical battles Of the war to date
1t was the army Of General Gouraud
in Champagne which met and shat
tered the shock of the Crown Princes
hordes on July Is last, in the fifth and
last phase of the Kaiser battle" the
peace offensive" which was to i'm
pose German terms on a world In
arms by the capture of Paris and the
development of the allied armies
fighting in the arc between Chateau
Thierry and Montdidier.
Il am glad to give you my impress
sions Of the American troops for the
people OF the United States" said
General Gouraud.
America may well be proud Of its
army
He was not blindly laudatory in his
statements concerning the American
troops. He pointed out that in some
engagements American losses have
been heavier than they would have
been with veteran forces, but at the
same time he insisted on driving home
the point that the Americans had
achieved their detectives, accom-
plished what they set out to do, de-
spite casualties, and in face of the de-
termined opposition Of the enemy. He
asserted that, while an army receives
a certain amount of training behind
the lines, still great part OF the &C
tual knowledge Of warfare and a reali-
cation Of what 1t Is must be gained in
the ctual fighting line, with death
stalking at every turn and claiming
its victims at either hand.
General Mangin was just as enthu-
siastic over the attributes Of Ameri-
can troops. He said that the Thirty
second Division, commanded by Gen
eral Ham, and constituted OF troops
from Michigan and Wisconsin, was as
fine unit as the First and Second Di-
visions, which operated with his Tenth
army south of the Aisne near scissors
when Marshal Foch passed to the Of
fensive on July IS, three days after
Degoutte and the Third American Di-
vision south of the Marine had broken
the German drive on Paris.
Il am proud to have the Thirty-sec-
ond Division in my army" replied the
General. He referred to the Thirty
second as lies Tigres" (the Tigers)
when he asked for it, designating it
ly number. He had investigated the
record of the Thirty-second in the
fighting between the Marine and the
Vesle and was struck by the way the
troops pressed the retreating Germans
at every trun.
1t was against the Thirty-second
that the Fourth Imperial Prussian
Guards, commanded by Prince Eitel
Friedrich were thrown in.
General Mangin is a short, thick-set
man. his closely cropped hair bristling
large nose of an eagle and flashing
black eyes.
The American troops are epa-
tante," he said, they have done Won
derfully we'll in this battle, and it was
stubbornly contested every inch OF
the way by the enemy You have only
to recall what the Germans used in
this struggle for the Juvigny Plateau
and the heights north of scissors to
see the importance they attached to
the terrain. They have used their
best divisions here to the last man.
My staff officers and observers tell me
that they have never seen such
slaughter of Germans since the be-
ginning of the war, even in Flanders
in 1914, in the first battle of the
Marine, and in the worst days at Yer
dun. The enemy's dead are lying ev
erywhere in heaps and they are mute
evidence of the accuracy Of the
French and American artillery fire"