Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1928-03-21

AMIENS, France, March. 21.-P1E
Ten years ago today began the bat
tie in which the first American
troops fought in front line trenches
in the World war.
On March 2l, 1918, Field Marshal
Won ~Hindenburg Of Germany hurled
az the allies on the Somme front
the gray hordes he had been assemb-
ling all winter, in a mighty effort
TO strike a decisive blow before the
United States could assemble enough
forces TO be of material aid to the
allied cause.
Five days later, on March 20, with
British reserves all but exhausted. a
small force of American doughboys,
who had been working on bridges
behind the British lines, exchanged
their shovels for ~bayonets and hand
grenades and became the first
American troops to fight shoulder to
shoulder with tire British and French
In the front lines.
They were a part of the Sixth u.
;. Engineers and the Twelfth and
Fourteenth Railway Engineers. With
parts of the Seventeenth, Twenty
second. Twenty-eighth and One Hun
dred Forty-eighth U. S. acre squad
rons, they made up the American
representation in this major engage
ment Of the war.
The German offensive on the
Somme opened nc 5 o'clock in the
morning with a stealthy gas attack.
quickly followed by the roar of
heavy artillery. Field Marshal Haig
had not learned until the last or
February that the push was TO be
toward Amiens, a ~throbbing railway
center back OF the British lines, and
there we're few reinforcements at
hand.
The green American boys heard
the beginning Of the German bar
rage. the booming which gradually
grew into a roar. They saw the few
British reserves picked up and car
ried forward.
Ludcndorff and Won Hindenburg
had planned the Somme offensive all
winter. They had reorganized the
German army and its tactical meth
DDS toward speed and mobility,
moved their armies from the Russian
and Italian frcnts. and massed huge
stacks Of ammunition and supplies
FOR a surprise move which they
hoped would prove a decisive blow.
Won Hindenburg was striving des-
rerately 70 hold the advantage he
had gained. He knew that the ad-
vent Of American troops, swarming
into France in rapidly increasing
numbers, would destroy II. There
was no time for additional prepara-
ton. He decided the blow should
fan IN the area between Arras and
LaFere in an attempt TO take Amiens.
which would probably involve the
loss OF everything north OF the
Somme river for the allies and
would separate the British and
French armies.
The German machine ploughed for
ward, the infantry advancing behind
the ~unceasing curtain OF artillery
fire. The success in the north was
not marked. but farther south the
German Eighteenth army gained six
kilometers west of st. Quentin. On
March % the advance gained mo-
mentum as the German general staff
threw the bulk Of its strength TO
the south. The next day the
Eighteenth army crossed the Somme
At Ham. IL was now charged with
the major mission Of separating the
British forces and concentrating the
push against Amiens.
At this jurcture Won Hindenburg
decided to deal his master stroke,
hoping 10 impair the morale Of the
French BY demoralizirg Paris. He
opened fire on TIE French capital
with long range cannons. big Krupp