Evening star., 1939-08-16
District Guard
Continued From First Page.

ment Hospital Station, in Col Vim
ups own back yard on the battlefield.
Gen. Woodcock, at the time, was on
his way to Groveton, where his troops
had been ordered into reserve after
fighting the Regular Army Black
forces for two days in the Brents-
vile sector.
Other Officers Bagged.
Other officers captured included
1t. Col. Evans, executive officer Of
the 10th Field Artillery Regi-
ment major in his command, and
Pvt. John Blake, Col. Vinup's driver.
When the capture had been COM
pleted the tanks turned around and
sped away over the same route by
which they entered in order to
avoid their own possible capture.
Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth
Division National Guard troops, to-
falling 1900 men, were confronted
with a new battle situation when
they marched into the field today.
BY command of Sd Corps Area
headquarters, which controls the
mimic warfare on Bull Run battle
field, the National Guard divisions
were moved into new line of bat
tie facing the northeast. The Regu-
lar Army forces of $500 men, acting
as the attackers of Washington,
had their backs to the Nations
Capital
Col. Bright Explains.
Col John Fulmer Bright, COM
mander of the 1st Infantry, Virginia
National Guard, accounted for this
situation by explaining that the
enemy would have to fight our army
before it could attack Washing
ton, regardless of its present po-
sition." Col. Bright, who is Mayor
OF Richmond and physician as
we'll marched at the head of a
long column of his own troops, who
moved into the area west of Manas-
sas early this morning.
The enemy" went to work early,
under the cover of heavy fog, and
constructed pontoon bridge over
Occoquan Run at David Ford for
movement of it's forces.
The Blacks" began a smashing
main attack upon the blue" forces
at 1875 am. The 91st Brigade, 1st
and 116th Virginia Infantry Regi-
ments, took the mechanical assault
standing up and then launched a
counterattack
The capture of Gen. Woodcock
and the other officers illustrated the
speed of the Black" mechanical
units and their ability to accomplish
daring maneuvers.
Shortly after the enemy tanks
retreated from the Bristow sector,
just half mile from 29th Division
headquarters, the 121st Engineers
of the District National Guard were
ordered into the field to block the
highway approaches from Nokes-
vile Alden and Greenwich west of
Bristow. They were supported by a
battalion of the 1st Maryland In
fantry, one of Gen. Woodcocks units
which has been in action since the
big push began Monday morning.
Engineer men resting along the
Bristow-Brentsville highway at the
BristoW Railroad Station leaped into
action and fired with rifles on
enemy planes when they flew over
head on reconnaissance. Enemy"
planes are identified by black tails.
The Black attack, commanded
by Brig. Gen. Maxwell Murray,
commander of the Provisional Divis-
ion of the Regular Army opposing
the Guardsmen, was distinguished
this morning by its wide f1anking
movements.
Black artillery was rattling in
the hills at Richelieu, north of the
29th Division troops
The center of battle, however, was
south of Manassas in the Buck Hall
sector. A message to the 29th Divis-
ion Intelligence Section indicated
'the decisive enemy blows will be
struck by tanks" with the possibility
the tanks that took Gen. Woodcock
might enter the engagement some
where near Bristow.
Gen. Murray's men were staging
a comeback on the field of battle to-
day, their motorized units darting
here and there in swift moving as
saults. They had been hurled back
2 miles yesterday by the Blues"
who pulled a double development
movement, rare military attack.
In the vanguard of the 29th Divi-
sion, which includes the District
National Guard, were the 1st and
5th Infantries, Maryland National
Guard. In addition to fighting each
other, the Blacks" and the Blues"
were fighting the heat and the
dust. The 2t9h Division seemed,
however, to be standing we'll the
strain of four-day battle maneu-
yer. Maj. Gen. James K. Parsons,
Sd Corps commander, and Army
umpires in charge on the field called
time out at 2 pm. yesterday and