Evening star., 1918-07-18
AMERICANS DRIVE I
FOE OVER MARNE
IN THEIR SECTOR
Gen. Pershing Reports Sue
cess-TeIIs of Hot Fight
ing at Vaux.
U. S. AVIATORS DOWN
SEVERAL FOE MACHINES

SEVERAL FOE MACHINES
Gen. Pershing's communique
for yesterday reports that in the
American sector on the Marne
the enemy has been entirely
driven from the south bank.
Text Of Communique.
The dispatch follows:
HEADQUARTERS AMERICAN Ex-
PEDITIONARY FORCES. July IL
Section Ain the Marne sector our
troops have entirely rega;ned posses
sion Of the south bank Of the river.
Northwest OF Chateau Thierry the
enemy yesterday repeated his at
tempts of the preceding day to pene-
trate our lines near. Vaux. His attack
was completely broken up by our in
fantry and artillery fire before reach
ing our lines.
Yesterday. in the region Of THAI
court. hostile airplane was shot ooWn
| by one of our aviators.
Attacks Near Vaux.
"section BLNorthwest Of Chateau
Thierry, between the evening OF July IA
and the evening Of the 18th. the enemy
made determined but entirely unsuccess-
full attacks on our positions near Vaux.
During the night Of July IA to 10 ne de-
l,vered a heavy bombardment. which In
cluded the use of much gas and which
in the early morning developed into
a barrage on the Vaux area. Under
cover of this a storming party attack
ed the village. The system OF IN,
| filtration by groups was used and
some of these groups passed one OF
our advanced outposts northeast OF
Vaux. Our troops delivered wtthertng
| machine gun fire on the assaflants,
and counter attacked on the right OF
| the assulting party where the pene-
| tration had taken place. es~7-7.s : >
..At the same time our artillery drop
ped a barraSe In this section. to cut
Of the enemy's retreat The enemy
barrage and eighteen taken prisoner
i The attack was a complete failure. the
enemy at no time penetrating our
lines.
"on the evening of July Is the at
tacks in this region were renewed.
"a box barrage. which again in
cluded many gas shells. was placed by
the enemy on the Vaux region at $3.50
| o'clock in the evening and several
large hostile groups attempted to ad-
This attempt also collapsed. Our in
fantry fire and creeping barrage
from our own batteries again broke
up the assault"
Thirteen Enemy Aeros Downed.
i By the Associated Press.
| WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY ON
THE MARINE. July 17.-French OBJ
servers reported today that thirteen
enemy airplanes fell in the region over
| which an American pursuit squadron
was patroling and fighting Tuesday.
| within the American lines it had
been considered sure that the Ameri-
cans had downed eight and possibly
nine enemy planes.
| At the hour Of fling this dispatch
| there have BEEN no changes on the
J sectors of the battle front held by the
American troops or those where they
are fighting with their allies.
| The fighting continues sporadically
throughout the Marne region. and the
artillery activity Is rather heavy all
along the line.
| Extraordinary heavy artillery hre
has been in progress today on both
sides along the Marne front between
Chateau Thierry and Dormans.
East Of Rheims the American troops
in their sectors are holding all their
positions.
Rain Slows Up Operations.
A downpour Of rain over the battle
zones between Chateau Thierry and
Dotmans. on the Marine front. has
| served to slow up the operations since
early this morning.
the river bend district. the Americans
furtk1r improved their positions today.
Many Germans between the rail-
road and the south bank of the river
cape to the north bank at several
points during the night.
Foe Makes Slight Gains.
The American troops cooperating
with the French at a point where
counter attacks were carried out yes
terday were attacked again this morn
ing by the enemy, who. by reason of
tho nature Of the ground. was able
to make slight gains at some places.
pushed their way back.
The lines here have been wavering
back and forth for the past twenty
four hours. and the result Of the en-
tire operation is indefinite.
normal. The Germans there were @
Daytng low atter the minor, but never.
theless important, defeats thew had
suffered there in two consecutive days.
American Negroes in Line.
American negro troops are helpinr
to hold the allied line against fhe
fifth German offensive. They reoueet-
ed the favor of being permitted to
take over a part Of the line of attack.
though they had been holding afpfece
Of a French sector for the last three
months without relief.
Lieut.. John Macarthur Of Buffalo.
N Y. this afternoon drove down 4
two-eeater German airplane in q fieht
which began over the allied line near
Dormans and during which the Amer
ican pilot flew within 100 feet Of the
ground at places where German anti.
aircraft and machine guns abounded.
There were several bullet holes In
McArthur's machine. fred from guns
on the ground.
While returning to the American
line Macarthur encountered eight
i enemy machines. but fought all Of
them on and landed safely. He had
fired 500 shots during his travels.
(The machine driven down Wednes-
day by Lieut.. McArthur is the third
4 to his credit. His frst machine was
i sent down June IS between Pont-a-
L Mous0on and ThiAucourt and the Sec
i ond north Of Chateau Thierry July -