The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1928-11-15
A CORRESPONDENTS
RETROSPECT
WTON C. PA KE

Ten years ago today quiet settled
over the greatest battle front the
world has ever known and peoples ev-
erywhere rejoiced at the coming of
peace.
Attacking without cessation for
nearly two months along a great
curving front that stretched from the
English Channel to Lorraine, Allied
forces under command of Marshal
Foch at last had brought the Germans
to their knees. The Kaiser had abdi
Gated and fled. Ludendorff had re-
signed and fled and war-weary Ger
many was in the first stages of revo-
luton.
Belgians, British, French and Amer
leans had linked arms in the final, If
resistible advance. Each country takes
just pride in the role its army played
in the closing days of the World War,
but Americans must certainly be par
doned if, in the light of what hap
pened in the Meuse-Argonne and of
postwar German admissions, they be-
lieve that, to put it conservatively, it
was the powerful thrust of the green
troops from the United States that
halted the war before winter.
Through the thick Argonne forest,
over ground that for centuries of Eu-
ropean warfare had baffied well-train-
ed armies, the Americans had been
slowly fighting their way since Sep
TENDER 26. Their advance was against
the pivot of the whole German front
from the North Sea to Switzerland, a
threat to the vital enemy line of COM
munications that ran through Sedan.
The Germans reacted accordingly.
Further north they could give ground
to Belgians, British and French, but
here they must hold at any cost if
their beaten armies were to escape in
tact from France and Belgium.
So into the furnace of the Meuse-
Argonne they poured their best divis-
ions, seasoned veterans, the Prussian
Guardsmen who fought bravely and
tenaciously until, in the early days of
November a crushing blow crumpled
their front. Armistice morning found
American doughboys looking down
upon Sedan from the heights at the
outskirts of the city-the goal of this
greatest battle in which American
troops were ever engaged at last
achieved.
In that final thrust to Sedan that
began at $50 on the morning of No
yember l there occurred incidents that
probably to this day are not generally
known outside army circles. A feat
that for sheer audacity ranks with
any accomplished on the western
front during the whole war was the
march by the Ninth American lnfan-
try at night through a woods full OF
Germans to a position four miles be-
hind the enemy's lines.
In the pell-mell rush to Sedan, wher
the last German positions had beer
stormed, veteran American division
the First, suddenly appeared as iron
nowhere, rushed across the front OF
an entire army corps already advanc
ing on Sedan, upset the progress Of
the movement and threw units into
confusion-a miX-up or mlsunder
standing of orders that to this day
never has been satisfactorily explain
ed and will be the subject of debate a
American Legion conventions forty
years from now.
An American brigadier-general
now Maj.-Gen. Douglas Macarthur
until recently in command OF the
Third Corps Area, with headquarters
in Baltimore, hurrying up with nj:
troops, was arrested as German sp!
by the military police of the veteran
First division because his officers cal
had been in too many rains, had los
its stiffening and made him look, 81
the military police explained, like
queer guy"
The Argonne drive, it may be re
called, had opened on September 26
with, on the whole, splendid result
for the first few days. But by Octo
Der / it had slowed down to walk
The Germans were defending thei
positions desperately. Some OF gu
inexperienced troops were finding
great difficulty in mastering strong
ly fortified trench systems. The lac
of good roads and the weather wer
other factors.
Throughout October the American
had kept battering away in limited OF
fensives and local actions, taking thi
wood here and that village there.
was dreadful business with heavy cas-
ualties, but it had to be done. In
Germans finally were driven froI
Grand Pre- to the Aire river, wher
they had long held up the advance Q
our left. The Kremhilde Stellun
trench system, probably as strongl
fortified as any on the whole wester