Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1919-03-14

artillery preparation began at 80 p. m.
and at o'clock the 63rd Brigade pro-
ceeded northward across two kilometers
of open, sloping ground and drove the
enemy out of the Bois de Jomblets,
with the And Division. now able to
leave Sergy behind, well up on the line.
On the right Cierges was taken
promptly and the troops went far up
the hillside northeast of it. But un-
fortunately the 4th French Division, on
the right, had been as yet unable to
take the Bois Meuniere, while in the
center OF the sector of the 32nd Division
at distances northeast of Cierges re-
spectively OF one and two kilometers,
the enemy had two exceedingly strong
centers of resistance in the fortified
walls and buildings of Bellevue Farm
and Reddy Farm. So the Gath Brigade,
by driving forward, merely got itself
further and further into salient swept
by cross fire, and was obliged TO fall
back early in the night to a position
between Cierges and Bellevue Farm.
BY this time the German positions TO
the west, Immediately along the Ourcq
itself, were pretty well shaken. But on
the fronts OF the 42nd and 32nd Divis-
ions the strongest parts of their line,
along the hill crests north of the valley,
were still securely held-Hil 230, Belle
vue and Reddy Farms, the bits of wood
land called the Bois de Planchette and
the Bois Pelger, the village and chauteau
of Nesles, and the Foret de Nesles.
STRUGGLE FOR WATERSHED
If these places could be taken-and
all OF them were now within two kilo-
meters of the American front line-the
height OF land between the Ourcq and
Vesle rivers would be reached and it
was not probable that the enemy could
offer so strong resistance on any 9TH
er line for some distance northward.
General Ham accordingly ordered an
attack on the entire divisional front,
the outer fanks of both Infantry bri-
gades to advance on given objectives
while the right companies of the 63rd
Brigade should echelon to the rear just
west of Bellevue Farm and the left of
Gath Brigade should endeavor to en-
yelope this strong point
The maneuver was started early on
the morning of August l. The enemy
resisted desperately About o'clock
fierce counter-attack drove the troops
on the left out of the Bois de Jomblets
to their positions of the previous after
noon and, at the same time, the troops
on the right, after once capturing Hill
23O, were obliged to give it up again on
account of the machine gun fire from
Bellevue and Reddy Farms.
Furious artillery fire covered all the
American areas, hostile airplanes were
using machine guns on the front lines,
and observers reported such large con-
centrations of German infantry and
tanks in the vicinity of Nesles, moving
in the direction of the 32nd Division
front, that the corps command placed
all the infantry of the 2Sth United States
Division under the orders of General
Haan to prepare and hold a defense
line in case the attacking 32nd Division
should be stopped and driven back.
BOIS DE JOMBLETS RETAKEN
But the 32nd kept on, largely because
OF many such acts as that of Machine
Gun Sergeant Dougold Ferguson, 126th
Infantry, who, when the infantry near
him was held up by German machine