Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-29
Yankees Escape Trap
By Fierce Fighting

cans may take credit for this further
dampening of the Crown Princes
plans. We have to keep up the hard.
est kind Of pursuit against the tip of
the German salient, and It Is our men
who have driven the enemy back on
the Ourcq and out of the forest OF
Fere and the forest OF Riz. The
French are operating on our right.
Our fighting has been constant and
effective and a great aid TO General
Foch in this operation.
Bitter Fight in Forest
The bitterest fight the Americans have
had in the last twenty-four hours has
been in the forest of Fere. where a
Rouge farm. cleared space Of ten acres
In the midst Of the wood Friday after
noon late we took this farm by sheer
n,an-power. our men rushing in upon the
lient they did not do so quickly. rather
than suffer the losses we have inflicted
since they quit Chateau-T -Thierry. There
are two answers to this. First. that the
Germans knew nachine-gun warfare In
German machine gunners. who fought to
the end. Once there. they we're the tar
get for more enemy machine guns,
almost surrounding the farm, and Satur-
day morning withdrew.
The attacking force got re.enforce-
merts and toward noon. after an tnten-
sive artillery concentration on the farm,
leaving only ruins, we advanced on a
front that not only covered the farm, but
also the woods for a kilometer on either
side. This advance was completely sue
cessful. We kept on through the forest
of Fere for a distance of four kilometers,
and at 3 o'clock in the afternoon cap
tured Fresnes, good-sized village.
where the retreatins Germans had left
strong rear-guard machine.gun nests.
Machine Guns in Trees
All along the Americans toughest op-
position has been the German machine
eunners in trees. These were pickeo
fighters and game men At their posts
they kept their guns going until the
Americans killed them. have not
heard of one of these tree-climbing
machine gunners being taken prisoner.
There seemed to be an understanding
between them and the Americans that
it was fght to the death. The Ger
mans captured on the ground said the
monkey machine gunners had been tod
to hold the post at all costs. The Amer
leans took It for granted that such war
riors were not expecting quarter. They
paid the last penalty for the heavy cost
to us.
.Aviators early in the morning report
ed heavy movement to the rear by the
Germans before our lines. and prisoners
taken in'the morning said they had re-
ceived orders contemplating falling
back for from two to four kilometers
for two days. Checking of the line
showed thfs would take the enemy back
over the ourcq in front Of the Ameri-
cans.
find that the German command had
planned to retreat by system OF
sacrificing large number of machine
gunners as they have been doing for
the last Ave days. These men are pu,
in their places to do or die. Mostly they
died, but certainly they were game.
They had been supplied with all the am-
munition they could shoot in two days.
and told to hold the line. Butt our
advance was too strong for their plans.
They did not get a chance to shoot all
their ammunition. and the machine gun
ammunition taken by us will amount
perhaps to tons.
Germans Desperate Fighters
To those who assert that the morale Of
the whole German army is poor, I would
point out that these men won the admi-
ration OF the American soldiers, who
certainly are no hero-worshipers. Ger
tainly, most Of the German army have
not their grit, but what they did shows
the Kaiser still has eune good fighters.
1t is these men, the nonkameradi ding kind.
that form the backbone of any effort the
Kaiser may make in the future. They
are desperate fighters, but were con-
quered by the Americans.
Two of them. manning a machine gun
which our men had passed in the ad-
vance, opened upon a passing colonel.
knowing that to do so was certain death.
They missed the colonel and got the end
they knew would be theirs when our
dCughboys got a line on them.
1t might as well be admitted that 1t is
only these machine gunners who have
enabled the German Crown Prince far
from the scene of their endeavors, to
withdraw his guns and stores and infan-
try without great losses in captured
That his withdrawal has been regularly
conducted there Is no denying, nor does
this detract from the efficiency of our
troops whose pressure forced the un-
willing retreat.
glance at the map will show what
the Allies have accomplished In the last
ten days. since the German line swept
from Scissors down east to the forest Of
illers-Cotterets, through Belleau.
through .Chateau-Thierry, south Of the
Marne in the Conde region and up
through Neuilly to and In front of
Rheims. 1t appears that more than half
of the terrain In the German salient ten
days ago is now in Allied hands
The map also shows that 'Fereen-Tar-
denois Is under Cur firing control. The
Germans have very poor lines Of COM
munication for stand along the Ardre.
The Soissons-Rheims railroad is useless
to them
yesle Line FavoFs Stand
For holding positions back of vesle
the conditions are much more favora BILE
for solving the difficulties Of the German
situation. There are many who think
the Crown Prince will try to stop the
Allies on the vesle, along which the
Scissors Rheims railroad gives a good
line to position. Certainly no doubt he
will be able to make a better organized
resistance than In the last week.
One might well ask why. IL the Ger
mans intended to withdraw from the sa-
rear-guard actions would iIifiict certain
costs on the French and Americans. but
there was more potent reason.
When the Crown Prince started the
hard-luck drive which took him south of
the Marne and then right back again he
had showed into the salient between the
Aisne and the Marne enormous stores
Of ammunition and supplies, as we'll as
many hundred guns. which were to have
served his troops while they took Eper-
nay and swung around toward Paris. II
was extremely necessary to get those
supplies out Foch had cut his railroad