Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1919-07-31
GERMAN SPIES
BOTHERED YANKS
Enemy Learned Valuable Secrets
No Matter How Carefully
Guarded.
Center ON AMERICANS
Germans Sent Smoothest Secret Ser
vice Men to Camp on Trail Of
Americans as Soon as They
Landed.

Paris.-American newspaper CORE
Spondents abroad are now permitted
to relate some of the troubles the
Americans experienced with the great
German spy system.
No army in the world war had a
harder fight against the smooth-work-
Ing, far-reaching Teuton espionage sys-
tenn than did General Pershing's war
riors. The Germans concentrated q
large number Of spies against the
Americans Immediately after the first
Yankee contingents landed in France
and kept augmenting their numbers.
The American army was made the OBJ
ject of the spy offensive because the
Germans recognized that, if the war
continued until the summer of 1918
and then Tapped over into 1919 it was
the American army that would figure
largely in allied operations. They
wanted to find out what kind Of an
army Pershing had, what the morale
of the individual soldiers was, what the
stats were planning and what DISPOSE
ton was being made of American
troops behind the western battle front.
Hard to Keep Secrets.
In spite of all precautions and in
spite of contre-espionage forces, Ger
man agents undoubtedly collected a
large amount of valuable information
behind the American lines to supple
ment other odds and ends they had
from the reports of their land and air
observers and from other sources.
Officers tried hard to keep the Boche
from learning that one American unit
had been removed from the line and
supplemented by another. That was
information that the German intelli-
gence officers wanted for their "Order
of battle" maps, by which they kept
track of the exact disposition of all
enemy troops in the line and reserve.
One night elements of the Seventy
seventh division, from New York city,
slipped quietly into line in the Bacca-
rat sector, relieving other units Of the
FOrty-secOnd division, which entrained
for the west to help repel Hindenburg's
last great offensive. There was every
need for secrecy. But when men of
the Seventysevehth peered across "no
mans land'' at daybreak they saw
hoisted from the German trenches this
sign, printed in English:
"Good-by, Forty-secOnd division!
Welcome, Seventy-seventh! !"
There were other instances of the
same kind; but the thing was not all
One-sided. Often the Americans knew
that Heinie was slipping in a new out
fit, the number of the outfit and just
what kind of stuff it's men were made
of, and they made important use of
that information.
Much Trouble in AIsace.
American troops that saw service In
the mountainous Alsace country had
the greatest difficulties with the spy
evil. Behind the FrancO-American
lines were a large number Of people
who were German-bOrn and who re-
tanned their sympathies for the kaiser.
pOrtunities for spies because Of it's
billy, wooded nature. On several
nights, when American troops were en-
tering the trenches to relieve other
units, rockets and colOred lights shot
up from hills behind the American
front. The German artillery promptly
responded to this tip by pounding the
American communication trenches,
knowing that they would be crowded
with men passing forward. The hills
and woods afforded such excellent hid
ing places that it was next to impos-
sible to attempt to trap the men who
had touched off the lights. The situa-
ton in Alsace was all the more diff
cult because the French government
desired to avoid offending the Alsatian
villagers by making arrests.