The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-02-23

pie warning of the impending attack by the Germans ano prepared surprise for them in the form of an "elastic defense in which, having tremend- ous depth of elaborate trenches behind him. he retired all his troops from the front line, except delaying attachments, and massed them for resistance on the intermediate line from which, if too hard pressed, they could again retire to the still stronger second line. The results were that. when the blow fell. the enemy wasted much of his long preliminary bombardment on the light | ly held front line, after which the | three attacking divisions, rushing upon. 1t at 4:15 a. m, were held up long | enough by the delaying attachments ! to suffer severely from the French and American counter barrage, to lose 1 their impetus and to arrive before the ! real combat positions at about a. m. I Here, however, they made manful ef- forts to storm the lines held by ths French and three battalions of the Forty second division But their at | tacks. repeated often and furiously. were of no avail. One battalion of the l66th United States infantry alone re- | pulsed seven attacks before 1t:30 a. m., and by noon the Germans, stag | gering under frightful losses, had been thrown back everywhere into the old
 
 | allied artillery, familiar with every an- l gle and dugout, directed a searching | fire.
 MORE OF 42D BROUGHT UP During the afternoon two and half battalions more of the Forty-second di- vision were advanced into the inter- mediate position. But, though the ene- my made one more general attack that evening and several local attacks next day, maintaining vicious lombard ! ment of the front and rear areas all the | time. the force of his effort had been practically expended on the morning of I the first day by the 18th he was mal1-
 ing no aggressive movements and by
 the 18th he began withdrawing his at-
 tack divisions.
 1 Acting similarly upon the evidence, 1 the French command withdrew the Forty-second division, whose losses
 had been about 45o killed and 1850 wounded or gassed, and it was taken 1 to Le Ferte-sousJouarre, where it trested two days and then went by 1 trucks to the relief of the Twenty
 sixth division in the Foret de Fere. At the time of the arrival of the | t'orty-second on the line the contrac-
 ton of the salient had resulted in | gradually so narrowing the fronts of
 the divisions that some of them could
 De taken out. The Eighty-fourth bri- !
 front given up by the Twenty sixth di- vision, all the artillery of the latter re- 1 ma1ning in the sector to support the fresh brigade while the Eighty-third
 brigade took over the sector of the
 167th French division, with all the ar
 tillery of the Forty-second division in support.
 l The changes consumed the day and
 most of the night of July 25 and noth- 1 ing much was accomplished except to | develop by force the fact that the ene- my's positions were strong, especially
 La Croix Rouge farm, which evidently
 could not be taken in direct attack ex- 1 cept at heavy loss.
 ENEMY GARRISON SURPRISED ditch leading up to it from the woods
 was discovered, however and two pla-
 toons of the 18th infantry, taking this hidden way early on the morning of the 18th, surprised the garrison, killed or captured them in a hot melee, and turned their machine guns in the other direction, eastward across the fields, to shoot at the Germans in the woods. l In the afternoon in spite of greatly
 increased intensity in the enemy's she'll
 ing with phosgene gas and high explo-
 slves, general advance of the 16Sth in-
 fantry on the right of the farm and of
 the 167th on the left of it succeeded in
 netting considerable gain through the
 upward sloping woods and fields, though
 much of it had to be relinquished a little
 later owing to the cross fire from the
 German machine guns in the angles of the woods.
 The enforced retirement was success fully carried out through the bravery of
 such men as Col. s. F. Mannin, 167th infantry, who, being in charge of an au- tomatic rifle squad from which he had lost several men, while he himself was | a1 hic platoon until it was forced back, when he remained behind alone and covered it's retirement finally escaping himself
 with nine wounds in his body
 BACK TO OURCQ LINE Despite momentary reverses, however La Croix Rouge farm was the key to the position and, having lost it, the enemy during the night evacuated this front. falling back nearly six kilometers to the strongest defensive line he had
 yet taken up behind the Ourcq river. Sacrifice machine gun attachments were left behind to fight the allied advance
 at La Croix Blanche farm and othel isolated defensive positions, but nothing | greatly delayed the forward movemen,
 of the Forty-second division infantry marching in regimental columns, or the
 scouts and French armored cars recon | noitering ahead of them down the long | open slopes extending from the Foret dt
 Fere to the Ourcq, until about o'clock Yin the evening, when the armored cars | { gained contact with the enemy by com ing under machine gun fire on the ban' | of the little river. The infantry ther came to a halt for the night about z | kilometer southwest of the stream. It was evident from the map and mori | so from reconnaissance, that if the en | emy elected to stand on the positions ht ! now occupied, the lines were drawn fol a stubborn conflict. On the side of tho : Ourcq opposite the Forty-second division
 the hills for the most part devoid o1
 timber, sloped back gradually from thu
 struggling village of Sergy, in the valley
 to heights of from 40 to 80 meters above
 it on the plateau to the north and east
 These heights to the east had flanket
 protection for the troops opposing thu
 Forty-second in a group of small, de
 tached woodlands. the Arbrc les Jomblets
 the Bois De La Planchette and the Bois
 Pelger.
 RAMPART BEHIND WET DITCH
 On the other flank creek, the Ru Dt
 Pont Brule came down from the east . holding in it's valley near it's junction with the Ourco. Meurcy farm and thu
 patches of woodland called the Bois Cola: and the Bois Brule and further up, tn, village and the chateau of Nesies. Be ' hind Nesles, the edge of the forest O :, the same name sloped almost down to th' :! creek, while, on an open crest still fur :, ther to the right, the village of Seringe Il commanded Meurcy farm.
 : In effect, Sergy and its plateau wer | a rampart behind the wet ditch of tn