The evening world. Newspaper, September 17, 1918, Page 12

ee ee eins ee ee ~ Eight Months at the Front ¥ y WWW SR, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1918 With the American Army “MOVING IN WITH THE BI'G SHOW” | To-Day’s Article, Second in a Series, Tells Story of | Americans’ Premier Attack on Enemy Below Soissons, a Surprise Which Folloived on the! Heels of Tons of Explosives Dropped Upon the Unsuspecting Germans. Spirit of Our Men Shown in Way One Company Took Boche, Machine Gun Position in Ten Minutes. By Martin Green (Sta Correspondent of The Evening World) ‘ Copyright, 1918, by The Prom Publiahtng Co, (The Now*York Bening World) Nt ilitary operations in France every action i# called a “show.” The British started ‘the “#show’ designation. When the American troops teached France they found the British referring to the “Gallipoll Show,” the “Mons Show," the “Ypres Show” and so on. | Our adaptable soldiers took up the phrase and now| we more or less nonchalantly refer to "shows" of our own—the “Chateau Thierry Show,” the “Soissons | Show." the “Cantigny Show,” the “Suippes Show,” the | “St. Mihtel Show,” for instance, ‘The descriptive word battle has no place in the wooabulary of the English- apeaking troops in France. Bince the Americans got into open warfare ono; “show” has proved to be pretty much the same as the . “shows” which preceded it except where the move- a ment involved crossing a river. France is full of #0-; arDy called rivers. None of them 1s very wide, but nearly | all are deep and swift, and any river, no matter how small, is a formidable | obstacle in the way of an advancing army | ‘ I me The retreating army blows up the . | bridges and destroys the fords, plants} Attacks and advances have been de machine guns and snipers on the| scribed in general outline #0 often| bank opposite the advancing army,| that it would be useless to go into 4 detailed description here. Sometimes! Places artillery in positions com- Manding the stream and waits for|4n attack is preceded by severai| the foe to try to cross, Consequent-| hours ef intense artillery activity which prepares the enemy for what is coming and also -diminishes, in Proportion to the amount of shella| dropped into his positions, his ability | to resist. Occasionally when a com plete surprise is contemplated there is fo preliminary artillery fire. Our Premier attack below Soissons wa one of this character. We fol! on our Unsuapecting enemy like a wildcat jumping out of a tree, Our infantry units were in place and euffcient artillory had been act up to make the start at the ap- pointed hour, 4.35 o'clock in the morn- ing. It would not be true to say! that nobody was nervous; everybody was nervous. There was a washed- out pink glow in the eastern sky and & cool westerly breeze rustied the leaves on the trees of the woods in which our forces were concealed. The forces of nature were with us, for a! jayer of mist, probably ten feet thick, caressed the ground. At 4.35 o'clock to the second, unaided by any audible or visible signal save a word of command, the gunners turned loose from cannon of all sizes which had been aimed, by calculation and scien- Ufle rangefinding, at the German po- sitiona a storm of high explosive and shrapnel projectiles. OUR FIRST ATTACK TOOK GER ly there is always a halt in advance when a river is reached. French rivers in summer are orderly streams, remaining within their own banks and attending strictly to their own busi- ness; but in winter and spring in their passage through level dictricts they overflow amazingly. The Marne, normally @ stream about as wide as the Harlem River at 145th Street, was from late November in 1917 to late March of this year from @ mile to two miles wide in many places eastward trom Chateau-Thierry along the line of the East Railroad. Where there is no river in the im-| mediate foreground an American ad- ee amounts to methodical, plod- | ding progress, so many metres, equiv- alent in marching to yards, in so many minutes, a halt, eo many more) metres in so many more minutes, and continuing through spaces carefully marked on maps furnished to com- manding officers. Sometimes, quite| often in fact, American soldiers cover | more metres in fewer minutes than | the time table and maps specify and sometimes the advance is halted by) machine gun or artillery resistance until the time table is divcarded; but | as @ general thing a regiment or a battalion or any other unit is sup- posed to go forward with close at- tention to prearranged plans. A New Nir Yorker watching from an elevated MANS BY SURPRISE. for sings ae os any 3 re tand out beautiful pictures of fash-|!¢ hangs from the car window and by | stand out bea } res ‘ash- position American troops moving for The German army ia front of us! projection into the hot, still air of a} about even with the forémost tank |one could stop us. But say, that fleld | moved. I'd be mighty thankful fur @ ton, waves his hand, and boys without wara with @ tank escort is irresiat. |! asleep. The first warning om ‘gre t cloud of yellow smoke. Later |we saw one man in advance crumple|was hotter than hell while we were |¢/garette or the makings.” i) But all day long a continuous In-| home faces to wave to wavo at ler Wly reminded of the systematically |°C™ 4h4 soldiers had was furnished'In the day we entered that wood, and |up and drop on his face in it, Benne Toa cete were canrontie toe dian Als in Khaki bas wound enake- [88% €8¢ She vicariously mothers pausing and moving columns of au- is sone of shells dropping and ex-| the sight of it shot my memory back | ‘Tho tank made a sudden tur “We knew the dust was betraying |{leld for wounded. The commanding }j%@ out of Camp Milly toward the | ‘em all. tomobiles bound north on Fifth Ave- ploding about them, over a space of twenty-two years and |jumbered toward him 1 we coull| our movements, so it was up to us to officer checked up and reformed hi8| sii ola gwitch line, Each khaki! back here are ‘Mothers’ Doorsteps” like nue in the afternoon, One almost aoe heavy artillery shelled the|imprinted on my brain a picture of | see a French soldier stick his head out| get across as fast as we could, Say,| men and wont out dated 19 coe In line ts bent under a huge barrack | tls at the other embarkation camps, looks fof a military policeman out beh pee positions in the rear our tight ; Lafayette Park in St. Louls the day |of one of the portholes and make mo- | did you ever hear wheat rustle? anhour {ater the tanks, which had| hag of overall blue, to be deposited in the is being duplicated manipulating a artillery laid down @ rolling barrage j After the great tornado in 1896. Sheil- |tions with his hands. The soldier who| “I never did until this afternoon.| gone through the wood by a narrow MaKe cars that will pull out with ao” dad “aa” somaneors, |Bebied.whion our troops walked into | fire on a forest, I found from obser bad fallen stood up, waved toward {IN tell all the world that the wheat |road were ready to start across an aah ied with soldiers in the, These last days with the folks will the fighting, So much for th tion, has an effect strikingly similar |the woods and dropped helo ore vy oudiy € other open space, and the begrimed, | coaches Reo vin VOR a the. source of. ples wee le WHY AN ADVANCE 18 REGUS oir ie cttaun @ general | ton, , RUDaIY GNSS | the woods And dropped again, And (he lout there: ¥ a loudly that it) eveat-soaked soldiers who had been |morning for the “Atlantic port.” To|/b¢ the source of pleasant recollec LATED BY “ZONES.” 7 oped to that of a terrific windstorm, nen | tank, which had halted for a monoat, |drowned the sound of the machine|on ‘the move without water or food|¢he aviators circling above it appears| tions for the boys when they get 5 It was alinost noon before the cor- ;we Feached the wood our artillery | moved on toward the woods, While] guns and the artillery. Anyway, that's! for ten hours, cheerfully started to] ii". wionitied blue centipede with|OVerseas. ‘The street along Camp The cnr gid a Pinan edvance |i Seater eat allowed to trail in| W4s shelling points a mile ahead, and | this ittie incident was transpiring the [how it seemed to me every time I! nake another advance meee fa Mills is ined with photografhers’ is regulated by zones is obvious. The |behind the fighting forces, Within | Mocks of birds, driven out by the tu- jentire German machine gun “ ; scan maacmael eae eens —<$<—<$<$——_—_— hacks, and 40,000 privates being front of the advancing column may |fifteen minutes from the time we left |Mult of the morning, were returr lconcentrated on the motionless tans | snapped for the family affords ex- be miles long. It is necessary that |ivision Headquarters we were in @ to seek their homes in the trees, many |and the soldiers to the rig h O | n Amon | 0 en itement and food for future smiles, the front be kept reasonably straight |French village which had becn oc. {of them to find that they were in the |took advantage of the lull | I ec n 'Y V4 oma ’ Aviators here in the last stages of alien to om, re when alta sebiea rf sepa Hat morn siaye with myriads of the people of | vicinity to rush ahead, some | Miss Blanche Galloway, A. L. A. Librarian, Has Unique Posi -| on ie Batali petars going over ex- ex! cles require that one flank s! e as charged with thritis | France--homeles reaching the edge of the w A y : . : hibit their skill in the sky for the move faster than the other. A platocn | triumph and exaltation, HOW ONE COMPANY TOOK A/gaining shelter behind (rev tion at Pelham Naval Training Station. | benefit of sweethearts on the ground’ commander may be unable to see the| The American correspondents for MACHINE GUN NEST, we learned what had happened when | 66 a woman comes here the men | hew building built expresaly Uy then below, who are properly thrilled platoons to his left and right, may be /Months had been mingling with| The company which had been as-|the tank was diverted from Its cou can't take off their shoes | Mas worthy 2 ee eT And then while uncomfortably alarmed completely out of touch with the|American troops rooted in trenches | signed to advance across the wheat}and stopped. around the stove! She will in- | they went one better, added living| } A famous Italian flyer, before his © Gre front for a time, but he knows |#24 dugouts or meeting French and | field was preceded by three smali| The man who had nwasaCap.|terrupt the whole camp life!” This | quarters and asked her to come and| ath at Mineola, used to drive his that if he has kept pretty close to bis | BFtish troops coming back, With few | French tanks which cut wide, twist-[tain named C. 0, Dunn. «had | was one the objections offered to Wve at AOE OCD EAN Arner giant Caproni plane over to Garden schedule, that if his soldiers are, ap- |@*°e?U0ns We were making our debut | ing paths through the standing grain. | approached him and the F y having a woman installed as the ou OD ppd yee ei |City of an afternoon and circle the proximately, at a point indicated on |®> ‘lowers of an army going for. |The guns in the forward turrets of}dier in charge had called to hin A. IL. A, Librarian for the 10,000] gooiation Librarian, thé only wowan el that housed his inamorata, set the map by a blue line or a red line |“@™ through the enemy lines. }the tanks were spitting fire at the] tell his men remain in felt] men at the Naval Training Station] qt Pelham Naval aining Station | ting a romantic though dangerous ex- at, say, 8 A. M., three hours after | Though we were unarmed non-com- | woods. Behind the tanks the troops}until the tanks could get up ¢ jat Pelham, And there were lots of among 358 30,000 men tretnl | ample they went over the top, bis right flank |DMtants, Wwe felt, doubtiess, ag | strolled leisurely into the brown fleld. | wood and shell the , other SURLY arta eine aati “ tion has had Library Huts in forty- The folks from back home enjoy ail and left flank are supported, Theoreti. | ¢™Phant and militant as the fight. |The wheat was waist high and ripe,|tions, instead Lin w Jenly thought of when the authori- | [0 HAS Bad toon broad, in full, this excitement, and after Charlie's cally, every unit in an advance js |'P8 Me? ahead of us and around us, | and covered with dust which rose in} men to advan They took the ma. | Hes at Pelhain realized they ae ac ew ng a t ne’ oars chee one | departure they go back home, The costinually in liaison with the units|4P4 We felt, too, an indescribable | clouds as the tanks and soldiers gun positions ten minute | tually O K'd a woman's presence in mut In charge of a women, next time they come to New York it to the right and left either by con. |9¢RS¢ Of Satisfaction that It had worked through, About one-third of j thelr mida . ye fat your beck and call?” she was] *# will be to welcome Charlie on his tri- tact or through messages tranamittea (°U mend tort about eighteen of | the distance across the field had been| eEAR OF POISONED WATER » oO course the pr ity Ai een wath: asked In thesg mantess times it stirs | umphant return, after he has. aana by runn but such close communi. \4% Ut Of the tens of thousands of | covered when the German maching i deseay aso pty elalopal ce: etalioe'> ‘ nes imagination | - ‘3 what they told him to do to th 4 pars, Dt such oh mi mu inembaben veueitasé la tae tn | ned up. Instantly the sol KEPT MEN THIRSTY. n's Service came on Saturdays and| Mies Galloway laughed, To tell Atos lecatcer the are ONO AN AYE, Practica ble ir tat 1 in the United | guns opened up. Instant! We found the survivors of the com-| sundays regularly to serve ice cream | the truth, I felt very conspicuous at| mip. | eae. a wooded, hilly terrain such as prev.ily beineary to be able to send back the | dicrs dropped out of # but the in the woods, They had not} \i4 peal homemade cake to the 10,-| frat) The men didn't know why I ‘ : ji in al the districts in which gur troupe {NOT HAL the Bore froin hore were | tanks Kept on. We could wee the ma water since morning and thy] ant fees homemate ie Ana] Bast come, “OF course. they’ “knew i 4 , Newest Things in Science, mun pened 10 Vranoe fighting machine in the world : Hh of the wheat stalks or raising as ci ‘ jover in the hospital are Red Croasjof my uniform. But they thought A Now Zork fireman. 16 thei ine One “show” 1s pretty much like| “yrom an observation post t I ee ee eters {ney AichOk (itl ee N nurses, Yet the canteen workers are|‘A. L. A.’ on my sleeve stood for ventor of a helmet with a dry battery another, because every attack has ibe |wniet ine meniey ae eeat 8 a tree, | spur a of Aust wh wey thelin the canteens of German capt restricted to certain hours bi-weekly | American Ladies’ Assovlation.” at's [light in front for illumination and . Rteekata tall). sn ans had ac. | ground but the water was salty ! y A pas are tinh! halloway's "A. T, uniform, by is a al same general object—to kill, wound or | commodatingly left intact, we aan SNe ee aoe un rok Gul ovate SRecaigs *Y/and Red Cre are Vantly| vee te isthe Lacan, Martelven for signalling by passing red or green capture as many of the enemy as pos- | company of our soldiers dk if of | : eealich: that. tha were afraid ¢ H ere many) pound up by r WithiO} have seon it on the street, ft is a glass in front of its lens, sible and force the uninjured to run|ine edge of a vulley preparatory in| retticne were vtawlit hat the} wells in the unit had | tier own quarters. | Jerig one of natural color panes with | raat 0 Ve a valle »reparatory to | soldiers were awling along the | eovered since lers ha me We oy ne ¥ oO “A. L. A.” brassed on the sleev: ‘ for safety. It was my good fortune to| crossing a wheat fleld to attack a|eround, W uid mark thelr prog: | been Insued +t rma tguttes at the A. de A, Library Hut! eg atior hats ns MP MYL, no, work of service to the men she |. SPraving of pulverized coal into the follow in the frst prepared exteusive| machine gun nest in the woods on | ress by the dust which was disturbed 1 and there sengdcauara snd carting books around the whole |” Miss Galloway within a month after |forgot about the objection to hay- | fire boxes of steamship boilers by a attack on the Germans launched by | the opposite side from se Samanta Gach be Leesa : Hales prouaes aly PA tons, wil: she got on the job had circulated {ing women around, pand apparently | new process produces such intense the A . % $ | om our heir ‘ »| nw all the wel va wells |have the nO! pins t {10,000 books, This was despite the |every one else at Pelham followed | t aaha ye ts ror ans in France and to wb | artillery were passing over our heads wy top of field by a were muarded } th nimand.| (us thought which gave them un-lTaot that her equipment had not ar- | suit, On Sept, 18 the A. I. A hut, | teat that the ashes literally serve other advances subsequently, |and bursting i the woods Where thu| westerly bree The German ma-| ing oMcers feared they had been poi. | “S8¥ Moments ' 4a).|tived. At onc opted the |the gift of the camp in recognition of | Melted and run down out of the way, yé and save for minor isolated incidents |German machine gur are conceaied, | chine gunnera. saw the dust, too, andleoncd indicates the standing of In the mean time Miss Blanche Gal-| slogan of the A. L. A he book a|the value of the A. L. A. work under | . 28 of the human interest sort J cannot |Qccasionally a sheil+would h ee oes o Sian spies aoned Indicates the standing of the|loway qu got on the job, If rh®) man wants, not a substitute.” Miss Galloway, is to be formaily| The discovery by a London sejent- ‘4 4 cas) shellswould hit @ tee! directed their fire at it, After about} German ary as & foo in supposedly | met with opposition, she Was too busy| In order to have books near the /opened, It will house 10,000 books, ist that oxydizing the surface of recall any variation of tactics wh'c | and the sight of a mass of branches; ten minutes we saw a number of sol-| civilized warfare. to notice it. With the result that in-|men when wanted she established | with open fireplace, easy lounges 1.4.) i side of a couple of months thi book stations throughout the camp and chairs and adjoining living quar- &!#8S lessens its reflecting power has made one “show” stand out fr m! scattering und falling would pr Senegal She Me wt: Where the Last ‘‘Goodbys’’ Are Said SCENES AT GARDEN CITY, L. I., WHERE MOTHER, SISTER AND SWEETHEART “SE. “SOWING AIS SWEETHEART wear HE HAS LEARNED AEF SE WHO CoULd RD TO COME ‘ AWAY WITH Wy A SMILE” cede {diers arise and start forward on une | When they were “We had orders to cross that field, : Soo Bergeant, gna ne NO HAAN FROM CAMP MILLS. - 2) NS ICA TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 17, Camp Mills “Farewells,” A Word and a Hand Wave At “Mother’s Doorstep” It’s Just a Fence Where the Road Crosses the Switch Line at Garden City, but It Gives the Young Soldiers’ Kin Their Last Chance to Wave Goodby as the Troop Train Leaves for “an Atlantic Port,” and Many Are the Sacrifices Made to Give Him That Last “God Be With You!” By Will B. Johnstone Copyright, 1918, by The Press Publishing Co, (The New York Brening World), ITH three embarkation camps, Mills, Merritt and Dix, located in W immediate vicinity, the New York district has been invaded by an army of mothers, fathers, sisters, brotaers, sweethearts and wives of our outgoing soldier men. | They come from all over the country to give a last godspeed to the | boys as they entrain for the mysterious “Atlantic port.” Brave hearts that go and braver hearts that bid them to go wring the utmost out of the | few fleeting moments left, whether in the crowded-in gayeties of a “fare- well furlough” in town or in the last kisses and handclasps, the last | whispered prayers or the last words filled with strengthening cheer. And what this means to the soldier boy can only be imagined after talking to some less fortunate lad from “way out there” whose parenis “couldn't afford to come on and see aim off,” and whose homesick lone- ‘conscientious objectors” suds and visited the hosp! cidsg that nothing short of 2 whele Becks the men asked daily with |ters for someness is rendered sharper and n | pal's folks.’ Accommodations around these camps are at a premium, and at what cost some mothers pay to linger to Say the final goodby no one knows. You hear of a mother doing kitchen work for a family near Mills in order to Another embroiders handkerchiefs to sustain herself lin the prohibitive zone. Soime borrow money or sacrifice everything to | get to New York to “see Jim off.” boy be with ber Vieit Garden City, Tenafly or Trenton on the eve of the troops’ depart | ure and witness the crowds ke Garden City, I. 1, for in | aki colored never-ending stance. ‘The town is filled to over-| crawl ‘oss thi ad the despair of flowing, especially on the “last Sun Ai motoriate, a like te agate laay.* Bronzed youths stroll the|cant to the 1 Her boy is shaded avenues with their parents.| breaking camp. at time do you |The “Ola Man" and the “Old Lady”| expect to pull out, Charlie?” is asked. they were formerly called, but now| “I don't know, mother,” is the reply. y are “Father” and “Mother."| A} At some time between evening and of reverence creeps in as the | sunrise Charlie will march to the Mt- time grows short tle station in an interminable column | Youthful officers, “back home| °f Sduads to entrain, and his mother who have become serious, | Will be standing there along the road apable looking men overnight, go|*¥4y waiting. She may wait the night ut acfoot or a-flivver, forming the} OUt as has been known, so as not to entre of family eyes that are filled | miss him, When the column fil out with pride and awe at “Liew finally, her sensitive eye may pick Henry’ sudden dignity and grave | Out HER boy, a brown necdle in a bearing. |khaki haystack, If 80, his eyes are | The tree-lined approach, to | “front” and she cannot to him, |ereat, pillared hotel is choked with| Nd she follows the short hike to the Shelia lespreading verandas| Station. She notes what coach he eyes ce who can welfenters and takes her place at the afford to come t evening the| fence that divides Clifton Road from, cae ta br pageant of mil-| the waiting train, Others do the sam |\tary splendor, Sometimes Command-| thing. The mother from the kitehen ling Gen sent, always gal-|2"4 the mother from the great hotel te oat hing Major Gold. {Stand side by side here, for tho Jteat, Capt, Silverbars and Lieuts.| Colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady are Putices and Crossguns, mingled with| Sisters: under the skin now. Tt Is | occasional British, French and Italian| the “Mother's Doorstep,” this fence, : from where final farewells are said officers in colorful trappin Against inthe Aapacd ph ik this martial background, handsomely he departing sons golng forth to \ battle, As the frain pulls out, Char- gowned wives, sweethearts or sisters | Galloway and her led to the invention of lenses Wansmlt more light than Miss }ob re poignant by the presence of “his