El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1919-02-01
NEGRO TROOPS
WERE To HAVE
SMASHED HUNS
Foch Planned Assault by
the Ninety-third Division
On Electric Wires.
MEN GIVEN RUBBER
GLOVES, CLIPPERS

nARIS. France, Feb THE SD d.
1 vision. A E F.. composed Of three
regiments Of negro troops. which was
in line n Alsacs when the armistice
was signed. was 10 have taken part
in a demonstration against Altkirch
and 1Iulhouse. which marshal Foch
intended to launch simultaneously
with his Lunevi1Ie drive on November
10, II hostIlities had not ceased
To enable the Americans to pene-
trate the massed electrified barbed
wire entanglements emplaced by the
Germans. the French army had pro-
vided the three negro regiments with
rubber suits. boots and gloves and
newly adapted long handled wire cut
tiers. The 93rd division had rehearsed
wire cutting with its new equipment.
practicing on wire charged with a
high voltage and found tbs rubber
paraphernalia and the improved cut
ting Instruments entirely practical
Wire FurIOng Deep.
The battle front in Alsace had been
practically stationary for four years
and a half. with the exception OF the
Hartmanswillerkopf fighting. and the
enemy, IN order to hold his positions
with the smallest expenditure OF man
power had set up the most formid-
able barbed wire entanglements any
where between the North sea and the
Swiss frontier. In some places the
solid belts OF wire were a furlong in
depth. with machine gun emplace-
ments scattered through them and
with only a few tOrtuOus traverses-
All the forefieid wire was electri-
fled, the current being generated in
the rear by water power and con-
nected up with the entanglements By
copper wire lines. The wire was d.
vided into fields OF 100 foot wide
fronts. and each OF these segments
was independent OF the ones adjoin-
ing. The next belt Of wire .echeloned
in depth. overlaDped the other two,
so that unless a tremendous volume
Of gun fire was brought 10 bear on
the wire fields and they were smashed
completely on a broad front there
being electrocuted-
War DOGS Killed
Many messenger dogs used by the
Germans were killed by touching the
electrified strands Of wire, and when
ever French or American raiding
tanglements they wore the rubber IN
sulated clothing, even their steel hats
being covered over with rubber
hood
The launching Of drives from Lune-
Vile and the Belfort regions stimuli
taneOusly would have caused the en-
envy TO believe that It was a con-
weighing attack aimed 10 capture or
destroy his armies in Alsace-Lorraine
and 10 regain the lost provinces by
force Instead OF that. however. the
Belfort stroke was merely a feint.
the main blow from Luneville toward
Chateau Sali1s aiming TO sweep vest
ward instead Of eastward after Il
had penetrated TO a sufficient depth.
Would Have Trapped Huns
Such an operation. with the Ameri- [
can first army astride the principal
German lateral railway system at Sc
dan. would in all probability have
permitted Foch's storming columns to
sweep northwesterly behind Luxem-
hourg and thus round up nearly the
entire German armies in France and
Belgium It was because the German
general staff foresaw the menace and Z
realized It was powerless to cope with
it, that Hindenburg and Ebert accept /
ed the ignominious armistice terms. I