The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1919-02-27
ON PATROL WORK
Description of Hot Corner in
Argonne Forest.
Fierce Fighting for Victory Over .
Most Difficult Terrain-HoW One
Bunch Of the Enemy Was
Wiped Out.

1888
Ing in the Argonne forest Is wildly
described In Golfers Weekly by Ar
thur Ruhl, who shared the dangers to
which the heroic American divisions
were exposed In the taking OF that
difficult terrain. In the article from
which the following is an extract Mr..
Ruhl's viewpoint was that OF a GER
tain regiment which had two badly
decimated battalions on patrol work
In an exposed position. He writes
Tricky valleys were almost always
overlooked by some unexpected hill
top, from which any advance could
be enfiladed. Pending another gen.
eral attack, for which everybody was
waiting, the duty of the regiment was
to keep in contact with the enemy.
do so, and to find out all that could
be found out about the positions In
front of them and what was needed
to take them.
"The young majors were up there
now with the remnants of two bat
talions. Raked by machine gun fire
whenever a head showed, pounded by
artillery IL they showed themselves or
not, they had been at 1t now for forty
eight hours almost without rest. Half
Of their lei were gone, the rest were
hungry and tired, some of their wound
ed had been waiting for the stretcher
bearers for the two whole days. From
the army's point of view, the little
fight al a mere drop in the bucket
IA minor operation between attacks
The battalions were but part Of a
regiment, the regiment part of a bril-
gade, but half q division, and there
were half a dozen or more divisions
on this particular sector.
But for the patrols themselves
the steel point of the divisions spear
the clump of bushes across the way
that zirp-zirped every time a head
showed, that devilish high velocity
Austrian .SS which whipped In with.
out a moments warning, the wounded
moaning before their eyes, water they
couldn't get, the chow that was late
all these little things were every.
thing. They were all the war there
was. And 1t Is the sum of scores of
little white hot spots like this which
makes up n front, and the gameness
of the men In them which makes II
possible for some staff man sitting
comfortably in his quiet Office, miles
away, to write: Nothing unusual to
report
"Just after l arrived the major tele
phoned that they had caught, with
their machine guns, a bunch Of Ger
man marching across a clearing In
columns of squads Columns OF
squads the colonel shouted. and full
belts In their machine gunsp The
ones not moved down or able to es
cape-some thirty or forty-held uI
their hands in token of surrender. Nc
men could be spared from the har
assed patrol to handle any such mum
Der and get them back to the rear
the machine guns kept working.
THE woods were full Of obstacles
pill boxes or merely positions In rock.
or behind embankments, with conven
lent shafts running thirty Or fort!
feet down into the ground, into which
the crew might retire during artil
lery fire. Sometimes during an ad
vance In fog or thick brush they would
let the infantry filter through with
out firing and then turn on then
after they had passed. The few mel
left behind to hold such a position
sold their lives dearly. generally, ant
when our men had paid the price, Ii
casualties and time, they would no
even have the satisfaction of captur
ing something. The enemy a%rtiller,
would be far away, Of course; tn
bulk of the infantry withdrawn Z
new positions similarly strong. Their
would be nothing to show for the worl
done but two or three dead German
and an abandoned machine gun. /
was an economical bargain for one sid
and an extremely expensive one TO
the other-most of this Argonne-Meus
J fighting was that"