The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-07-31
ALLIES DRIVING
lBOCHE FORWARD
Continued from page u

| Continued from page IL
longer against the increasing a1lieo
forces.
| '"The German army couldn't hold
two months longer at the present rate
of losses" declared one German off
| Ger.
| A Prussian prisoner was found to
carry a letter written to his wife be
fore the battle. He wrote:
| The war is hopeless for US now
that we are opposed to these Zero.
cious Americans. who cannot be de
feated. Their artillery already has
caused terrible losses. We must be
annihilated by their infantry"
The American spirit and devotion
to duty is amazing even to those who
have watched the war and been on
the battle fields for four years. Time
after time the Americans have
charged into intense machine gun
fire, right through artillery barrages
and have driven back the Germans,
whose infantry cannot stand up in
hand to hand combats,
| An American lieutenant STUN bled
| into rolling kitchen at the roadside
behind the lines and asked for some
thing to eat. He trembled continu-
ally and private offered to help him
! to a hospital, but the officer refused
Never" he said. 'Pm going back
to the front with my boys. Pm in a
Stokes mortar outfit and got shell
shocked yesterday, so they sent me
back when / couldn't protest / tried
to get released from the hospital but
| the doctors refused, SO there was
nothing to do but escape. I've got to
go back to my boys"
/ Doughboys clustered around, watch
ing the lieutenant munching beans
from a mess kit borrowed from a prt-
vate. He's got the stuff" they
agreed, "but he ought to be sent back
to the hospital. It's crime to let
him go to the front"
Doughboys returning from the front
described how machine gun bullets
rained around them during their as
saults on the German nests yester-
day. One battalion finally drove out
the Germans after a costly charge up
hill In this advance a captured gun
was turned against the Boches, who
ran like rabbits, throwing down their
rifles and equipment and finally halt
F! ing around a new machine gun nest
This was stoTmed by the American
unit. After three Germans had been
bayonetted the resistance ended.
Rainbow Division There
[By Carl D. Groat, United Press
Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON, July 31-The rain
bow division is now helping to hold
the line near Fere en- Tardenois, Gen.
eral March announced today
This division, which in the early
days OF the German drive, around
Rheims, helped withstand the enemy
attack, arrived at it's new post within
the last two days to reinforce other
Americans there.
The third division. March said, is
now at Cierges, another point of yio
lent fighting.
Formation OF six new divisions, to
be numbered from Is to 90 is under
way at the following camps:
Logan, Kearny, Sewer, Beauregard.
Travis and Dodge.
Two regular army regiments viii
form the nucleus of each new divis-
ion. March said.
Transfer of fifteen regiments Of
national army cavalry to field artil-
lery has been ordered and these men
Will be used abroad at once, he de-
clared Formation Of these new units
will require creation Of many new gen.
eral officers.
General March stated that a cable
has been sent to General Perching. in
structing him to send casualties as
they occur, without any attempt to
separate them according to the en-
Sc NJ bo
given out en- toto as soon as received,
it was stated.
Reviewing the battle situation in
France, General March said that
since last Saturday the general sal
lent has flattened considerably. The
enemy retirement on Saturday was
very rapid amounting to three or
four miles on a twenty mile front, he
said
So fast did the Germans retreat
Saturday night that the allied armies
got completely out Of touch with the
front line and sent out cavalry patrols
to catch I'D with the advance fiehters.
The extreme west flank OF the en-
emy's line remains practically stable
now, while on the extreme east the
Germans have been able to reduce the
allied salient March said.
Whatever the German objective
may have been at the start and what
ever our hope was in the counter Of
fensiye. it is now evident, said the
general, that these aims have been set
aside and now the objective of
each army is the other army. Both
sides want to kill off as many men as
possible.
The holding back Of the jaws of the
allied trap by the Germans makes it
impossible, he added, for
us to expect to bag the German ar
mics. inasmuch as they have had two
weeks in which to maneuver their
way out.
March declared that details of the
of all the American forces
are now being worked out and in the |