The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1919-03-06
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.

/
The tricky nature of the fierce fight
ing in the Argonne forest is vividly
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.,
RuhPs viewpoint was that of 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 entiIaded. Pending another gen
eral attack, for which everybody was
waiting the duty of the regiment was
to keep In contact with the enemy,
push forward when not too costly to
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 head showed, pounded by
artillery If they showed themselves or
not, they had been ut it now for forty
eight hours almost without rest. Half
of their men 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 was mere drop in the bucket
"A minor operation between attacks
The battalions were but part of a
gade, but half a division. and there
We're half a dozen or more divisions
on this particular sector.
But for the patrols themselves
the steel point of the diEision's 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 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 it is the sum of scores of
little white hot spots like this which
makes up a front, and the gameness
of the men in them which makes 1t
possible for some staff man sitting
comfortably in his quiet office, miles
away, to write: Nothing unusual to
report
"Just after arrived the major tele-
phoned that they had caught, with
their machine guns, bunch of Ger
mans marching across a clearing in
columns of squads Columns Of
squads the colonel shouted, and full
belts In their machine guns! The
ones not moved down or able to es-
cape-some thirty or forty-held up
their hands in token Of surrender. No
men could be spared from the har.
assed patrol to handle any such num-
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 rocks
or behind embellishments, with conven.
lent shafts running thirty or forty
feet down into the ground, into which
the crew might retire during artil-
lery fire. Sometimes during an adj
vance in fog or thick brush they would
let the infantry filter through with.
out firing and then turn on them
after they had passed. The few men
left behind to hold such a position
sold their lives dearly, generally, and
when our men had paid the price, in
casualties and time, they would not
even have the satisfaction of captur.
Ing something. The enemy artillery
would be far away, Of course; the
bulk of the infantry withdrawn to
new positions similarly strong. There
would be nothing TO show for the work
done but two or three dead Germans
and an abandoned machine gun. It
was an economical bargain for one side
and an extremely expensive one for
the other-mOst of this Argonne-Meuse
fighting was that"