Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-28
AMERICAN TRICK
FOOLED GERMANS
Foe Knew of Coming At
tack Four Days, Cap
tured Officers Say
CAUGHT SHIFTING ARMY
Teutons Led to Believe the
Thrust Would Be East
of Verdun
CAUGHT SHIFTING ARMY
By CAMERON MACKENZIE

| WIN the american ARMIES IN frbHce
Sept. 2s.
It has become fairly evident to just
what degree the American attack was
a surprise to the enemy From captured
German officers, it is learned that for
four days before the blow was delivered
1t was known that some sort of thrust
| was coming But by a variety of
adrot diversions the Americans be-
guiled the enemy into the belief that
the direction of the push would be off
to the eastward of Nerdun. toward Etain
and perhaps even against Metz,
| Acting on that belief the enemy be-
! gan shifting troops and guns, and Thurs
| day morning when the attack was made
found him rather caught betwixt and
/ between the sectors, east and west Of
( Nerdun.
In neither of the first two opera
| tions of Pershing's army have the Ger
mans been able to calculate accurately
| points in the advance. There was that
which was described as stiff ress-
tance," which phrase has come to have
after the American experiences in
! Chateau-Therry and St. Mihiel sectors
an almost conventionalized meaning. 1t
signifies the employment by the Ger
mans of their thoroughly unpicturesque
machne-gun tactics.
! In all the engagements of Thursday
they had no other form of fight ex-
cept, of course, the use of artillery to
offer. and Americans discovered and cir
cumvented more than forty different
types of machine-gun emplacements.
Such resistance is stiff but 1t is a far
cry from the day when the enemy troops
would stand with fxed bayonets to holo
back the attack.
In the present far-hung assault upon
| the enemy the First American Army
must needs have had it's part Still
flushed with their success in cleaning
out the st. Mihie salient and with a
tirelessness most characteristic of theii
superabundant youth, General Pershing's
boys went forward early Thursday morn.
ing in the region of Verdun. trudginp
quietly and purposefully up the immor.
tai Via Sacra-along which only a trnC
more than two years ago French legion.
went singing to certain death--ant
streaming like endless hordes of brown
ants across the most sanguihary battle
field Of the Old World
The United States new army of younf
veterans attacked on a front of twcnt,
miles, and with rare expedition took po
sltions for which in 1916 the German
crown Prince mercilessly expended
treasures of blood 1t is not yet posi-
BILE to supply any save most meager de
tails of this second independent opera
tion of the American army. At 1l:3l
Wednesday evening the heavy artiller,
began. and for three hours maintained .
fire that seemed as deliberate, ominou
and methodical as human fate. At thu
end of that time lighter artillery insert e,
lfg n I'll.
: into the symphony of battle, and the,
Tor another three hours the air whis
pered with swishng shells more mvs
: terious, invisible and trying than ghosts
and the heavens above ratified like
beaten tin pan.
weather Favored Americans
Early in the night there had bee,
rain, but, as If favoring the American ms
II cleared before II o'clock and the yisi
bility greatly improved. and when a
ESQ the field guns set to work the,
twinkled and danced as fascinating as
myriad or hrefies all along the wild
semicrcular sweep Of valley that lie
immediately beneath the Verdun forts.
The infantry advance was made in
cold, uncertain light at $3.50 Thurs
day morning. From Fort de Marie. on
or the principal OF Verdun defenses,
was possible at first to observe yer
httle' Now and again some particular
virulent American battery would far
up to reveal briefly a column of dar
gnome-like figures pressing forward q
perhaps dust cloud Of some speedin
lorry but there was little else until fu
dawn arrived Then thin BLUSH al
tumn haze promised fairly clear da,
and that promise was later fulfilled
From the position upon which | stoo
II was possible before midafternoon {
watch in blackish brown bursts the prC
gressive, steady demolition of towns an
villages in German hands and to trac
. out In shell plumes, which mounte
upon not distant hiil-like shapes c
suddenly sprouting trees, the network {
enemy trenches.
Counter-tire was not severe. and
, the matter of gunners the American
seemed to have easy mastery of the si
uation. That does not imply that III
German infantry, included in which wa
, AT least one division of Prussian Guard
and one of the most trustworthy ia.
gers divisions, did not have stubbor
resistance to offer, for at most points
| did. However, such were the vim an
dash and eagerness of the doughboy
that before midday they had prett
well overrun their objectives along II
, entire reach of their front.
5 Bold Rush of Americans
The whole performance OF the Amer
, cans was more than up to the dauntle'
, traditions which during the last sun
mer they have been setting for then
selves. With fearlessness and llgh
| hearted courage to which only the mo-
| rare tribute would be adequate, the
| went into an attack which was in n
sense a pinching operation such as the
| had learned to exercise in the Chateal
| / Thierry and st. Mihie sectors but
| brutally direct forward thrust. Thei
was no falterlrfg, no doubts. but alon
the entire line a bold swift onwar
rush.
One division there was that acquitte
itself with conspicuous gallantry. 1t
| not permitted to reveal what that d
| vision was or the part Of eXtende
American front upon which it operate
This much, however may now be told
That particular division was Il
months beneath the tutelage of the Bri
ish army, and was in fact hand-raise
by IL. In its fine achievement of Thur
day morning, it did its preceptors mo-
infinite credit.
| Tanks of American design were use
for the first time in the attack ives
ward from Verdun They behave
splenddly. In the fighting which o
Cured for the capture of Vauquois,
| village standing upon commandir
III emlnence and one for which the Ge
mans in the old days paid an emo
NOUS price, these new products Of Amer
/ can Ingenuity crawling forward und,