The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1919-10-31
BATTLE0FC HATEAU-THIERY
TOLD BY PARTICIPANT
Detailed Account of First Major Engage
ment Of American Troops in France.
Caldwell Boys Participated.

Bordeaux. was written and signed.
halted the German push but in turn
pushed back with startling effect, and
the historic order was thrown into
the Wastepaper basket.
lWhy? Well, for one thing, their
backs were against the wall. Then,
too, there had suddenly reappeared in
command that old butcher" General
Mangin, who, though quite the finest
assaulting general the French pos
sessed, had been hidden under bushel
somewhere ever since the disaster Of
the Champagne offensive of 1917. And
above all, who doubts for a moment
that the French fought better for the
heartening knowledge that, not far to
the east of them, the American troops
were into. the business at last and
| fighting like the very devil?
For the Americans had not been
content to stand still. On their little
sector, at least, the Allied moveywas
forward. They determined on the cap
ture of Belleau Wood and the high
lands round about, a decision of their
own which was acquiesced in rather
than originated by the French. In the
natural reaction against the exuberant
enthusiasm which that enterprise
evoked, there have since arisen some
whispered questionings as to whether
the two kilometer depth recovered by
the Americans was we'll taken and, in
deed. whether or not there had been
any real necessity for the advance at
all.
The first questions is more difficult
to answer than the second. 1t might
as well be admitted now that to many
of the most cool-headed and seasoned
of the French observers the blood
there poured out was reckless BUSH
ness, and onlookers around the head
quarters of General Degoutte, under
whose corps command we were, se-
cretly expressed the opinion that,
with three battaiions of trained French
Infantry and shrewd concentration
of artillery on the high and difficult
portion of Belleau Wood, it should
have been possible to do in short
order and at small expense what a
comparatively. large number of Ameri-
cans spent many days and many lives
in doing A good deal of this attitude
may be safely accounted for by the
French disposition to doubt the true
generalship of any preson so unfor-
tunate as to have been born outside
| the domain of the French republic.
This disposition, to be sure, was de-
rived from theIfact that French gem
ius indisputedly ran to generalship.
The crisis of 1914, for instance, found
France possissed of half dozen gem
erals, any one of them of sufficient
stature to command Allied attention.
or for that. matter to command the
Allied host.
Then, of course, wariness was
scarcely predominant characteristic
/ of American tactics. Just as the Eng
lish in the first battle of the Sommc
lost thousands of troops taking a GER
tain machine gun nest which, in the
summer, of 1913, they took with a
mere handful of troops, so the Ameri-
cans plunged ahead at first much as
a man, when he so minded, plucks up
nettle with his bare hand-a1ways a
painful process and not always me-
cessary one. 1t was tendency which
| abated in time with the more expert
enced divisions, but unquestionabiy II
existed in the early summer Also
unquestionably it brought to the tired
Allied line needed ginger and helped
to leayen the lump of caution in a
host into whose uttermost ranks the
notion of Strategic retreating" had
seeped disastrously.
There is no attempt here to esti-
mate how much of the American
losses in June were .traeeable to mex
perience, but it is decidedly interest
ing to note that to the thrifty, sad
dened French. the operations which
all our own onlookers cheered SC
frantically were source OF consider,
able alarm. For the French had long
been thinking in terms OF perilously
diminished reserves, and could no,
realize that a limitless reservoir OIL
men had at last been opened to them
that brand new stack of chips had
been put on the table.
| So there were great shakings of the
head---even of such sympathetic and
experienced heads as that of DIR. JOS
eph A. Blake and his kind when the
spunky American wounded began to
swamp the hospitals in Paris. Among
the expatriate Americans who were
none too pleased with the watchfu
and independent administration OF the
| A. Z. F.. there were great cluckings
in corners and many audible predic-
tons that, when the American public
learned what was going on, shat mar
Pershing won't last the summer out
They foresaw for lis such giddy sue.
cession of commanders-in-ch as
kept French army politics interesting
throughout the war
Going on to the second question.
and leaving aside the matter of morale
was the Belleau Wood enterprise ever
necessary? Gould not the Americans
more prudently have waited until the
taking of the wood should fall easily
into large advance such as was or,
dered on July l8. In considering that
question, it should be remembered that
it can usually be asked cautiously oil
any indecisive undertaking. The de-
cision as to where and when you, shall
pick a quarrel with your enemy is
always more or less arbitrary. Yer
dun. for example, became Of prime i'm
portance not because Of any intrinsic