Omaha daily bee., 1919-06-15
THE BEES BUILDERS PAGE FOR 1919
A Omaha Greater Nebraska

squadrons had been put under Gen.
eral Pershing's command, and these.
with our own aviators. drove the
boche airrfen out of the sky.
|. The drive moved ahead like clock
work The old Seicheprey battle
field was taken by the Ohio infan-
try regiment without any trouble
On the right. the Iowa doughboys
encountered some resistance in the
woods northwest OF Flirey. There
were moments of stiff fighting for
the heights in the vicinity Of St.
Bassant, but to the men who had
beaten the German machine gun
ners on the Ourcq the defenders of
the st. Mihiel salient were easy, VIC
tins. t.
The Germans were taken almost
completely by surprise. What resist
ance they put UP was half-hearted.
Their wire fields were old and rusty.
Their answering artillery lombard
ment. during the actual pushing op-
Grafton at least, was a joke.
Rainbow's Path Difficult.
The path of the Rainbow through
the salient was probably the most
difficult in the whole First army.
A road zigzagged up through its
sector with six villages on it. and
villages, offering protection to ma
chine gunners, are notably hard to
take. But after St. Bassant, Essey
fell and then Pannes. and there the
Rainbow dug itself into muddy fox
holes and held on for the night.
Before them lay the villages of
Beney and ST. Benoit.
1t was at Essey that the Rainbow
men saw the French civilians they
had liberated-the first French civil
ians to be freed from German mills.
tary domination by an allied victory.
There were few wild demonstra-
tions-little hailing Of the deliveries
with flowers and flags. In the dis
NAL rain and mud the detected old
villagers silently watched the Amer
leans coming through; they were
broken-spirited old peoplc-few
cheers left in them. Forced sub
mission to brutality for four long
years had numbed them so that they
were unresponsive to one of ,he
most thrillingly significant happen
ings in history.
In Pannes there were big German
military sterehouses with qdeer
stores in them. The Rainbow rien,
hunting around for souvenirs. came
forth from these places, rainsoaked
and disreputable-looking soldiers,
carrying brand new, shiny patent
leather boots and wearing high silk
hats atop their old tin helmets. The
place was full of patent leather
boots, silk hats and umbrellas. It
was in Panres, too, that they got
a billiard table and a phonograph.
both unframed despite the allied
bombardment.
Next day the attack was resumed
and the line pushed through Beney
and St. Benoit to point just south
of Haumont. The Rainbow division
had advanced 10 kilometers, longer
distance than any other division in
the First American army, and had
shared in the reduction of the en-
tire St. Mihiel salient, liberating 240
square kilometers of French terri
tory and capturing 10000 prisoners
and 443 pieces of artillery.
But what was more important to
the tired, war-weary world. the First
American army, acting independents
", had demonstrated its ability to
carry on a major offensive not only
with success, but with smoothness
and a smashing directness that no
one would have believed possible at
that stage of its development. The
Germans had been swept from the
salient as quickly and as neatly as
though a broom had swished them
out.
Ito be continued in The Bee Fri
dav.l