Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-26
No Wonder
Germany Quit
BY MAJOR FRANK C. MAHIN
OF the Army Recruiting Station

"One of the most daring and sue
cessful stunts pulled off during the
entire war was the manner in which
General Gouraud (French) broke
up the Boche offensive east of
Rheims on July 49, said Major
Frank c. Mahin, of the Army Re-
cruiting Station, 325 Market street.
The main part of General Gou,
raud's army was French, but he had
the American 42nd Division and the
369th Infantry (colored) attached.
as we'll as a few other American
units. You know on that date the
Boche started their fifth and last
offensive for the war and of all five
it was to be the greatest. Paris was
to fall, the French were to be
crushed and victory was to perch
on the German eagles shoulders.
before the despised Americans could
get their troops trained. But again
the Boche miscalculated. They at
tackled on a front of about so miles
on both sides of Rheims. Down
on the Marne near Chateau-Thierry
they ran into bunch of Yanks,
known as the 3rd and 2Sth Divisions,
who didn't have sense enough to
beat it when they were licked and
on the east friend Gouraud fooled
them to a fare-you-well, so the at
TACK DGI"SeIl lueSS lWO OullllS pei
force failed. Now our rotten poor
espionage, system which could not
compare with the efficient Boche
told us days in advance that the
attack was coming at 5 a. m, July
Is, and naturally such a piece of in
formation is of quite some little as
sistance. If you know beforehand
that man is going to take swipe
at you at certain moment his
| chances of damaging you severely
with that swipe are decidedly slim.
And so it was with this fifth often
sive. General Gouraud decided to
take a chance and do something
that had never been tried before, as
he knew just when the attack was
| to come. The night of the 14th he
moved every battery in his area so
that when the Boche bonn bardment
came they wouldn't know where his
batteries were and consequently they
would be fresh and untouched when
the Boche infantry came over. Fur
ther, he decided not to fire at them
and to just shell the tar out of them
then. Before the bombardment
started all our infantry drew back
from the first and second lines into
the third lines, giving about a mile
| and a half of trenches that were un-
occupied. For each group of guns
series of observation posts were
built as strongly as possible, con-
nected with the batteries by tele-
phones and also furnished with
rockets. One man was placed in
each post and he was to stay there
and be captured. That mile and a
half of trenches was divided into
| zones which were designated as tar
gets A, B, c, and so forth. AS the
Boche entered Zone A, the observer
telephoned back "A and kerbang,
came the most intense barrage pos
sible When they entered Zone B
the next observer telephoned b. the
artillery shifted their range and the
Boche continued to catch-well,
something unpleasant. Now all this
time the French and American in
| fantry were sitting back in the third
! line trenches laughing up their
sleeves while the Boche artillery
pounded that mile and a half of
trenches in front of them to pieces,
and no one was there to get hurt
except the observers. Our boys
were simply waiting in safety until
the Boche got close enough for our
rifles to get busy, but meantime our
machine guns, getting their firing
data in the same way as the artil-
| lery, were also barraging for all they
were worth. Finally a few shat
tered units approached the third line
and then our riflemen and automatic
rifles finished what the artillery and
machine guns had started. For
three days the Boche lay in front
of that third line trench and on the
| 18th, when the Allied counter often
sive started at scissors and on the
Marne, Gouraud. too. attacked and
drove the Boche back into his orig
inal lines. What was the result? /?
The Boche had lost about 100, 900
men to take a mile and a half of
shell-torn trenches and hold that
strip for three days. But think of
the nerve of General Gouraud in
abandoning two lines of trenches, in
putting all his faith in holding up
that great attack on the one third
line trench. If his scheme had fail
ed, all the valor of the boys down
on the Marne would have been of
no avail and the fifth Boche often
sive would have been success. But
it took one of the Allies to abso-
lutely break loose from all precedent
and risk everything on what he was