I
rAOK two
T UK GAZETTE-T1MK8. REPPXER. OREGON. TUrBSD AY. JAXt'ARY 2, 1919.
IK
Africans Strike Between River Meuse and Great Tangle of Forest
New Divisions in Bi'tle Yanks Who Push Ahead North
west A Verdun Never Knew Rigors of Win'er in France
The M!oA-inf! very interesting and graphic account of the battle of Argonnr
Fo-est j g'yen m "Stars and Stripes," issue of October 4, 191 8, and was hancVd
u; bv i idi'.on H jgh.es. Corporal Riley Juday, who participated in this battle,
sent the clipping o er from I' ranee.
At C:
- Fir-
th;
w !
V
in. y
ni:.;;y
since
war.
y.i
lirn
winter in France in l'he. The at
tack was launched without taxing a
sii.gle one of the really veteran div
isions of the A. K. F.
Wiiat. is more, two of the nevly
arrived divisions had never been in
In fere, had never entered
quietest sector, had never
world ducked iheir heads before the bau-
she.i wail i f a German shell nor
gion the night before heirrt an American ttun fired in
anger.
One of these two new comers and
n September 26. 191$.
,.r';ean Army, Pushed
: . !'. it', success at St.
i.-i, - , '. its second blow en a
; ;. -riii i est of Verdun .
"': and irovo t'c.e Germans from
y :. io':. and village, and from Hue
y a lull sod valley they had held een the
e tl.e fir.- weeks of the
,st ,1
such
con
course of g'xs a had had no pn.
cedent in V
ertcan Lister
f.hn second
-, and by
day the
finely this single
'tur.dred mill
Infantry, hk-h swarmed forward 0ne of these
fa. . will thrill a
n hearts back home
sree.i divisions, these
through tlie i.iisl of Thursday raorn-
slimen of tlie A. I'..
was met
V.n.i el
that day !
across se'
unstated F
Prussian Guard, and on
cased thoce famous troops
a.i kilometers of de-
It was a
ing
id.
ing, had fought its way far Into the on the first day liy a division of the
wild forest of Argonne. had carried
by storm 'he forbidding height of
Montfancoii, had restored villtge
after vil!p,e to France, and han
sea: mote n an t;, ;yu prisoners irot
tir.s' back through the chill Septem
ber rain to the waiting pens behinu.
The attack was made on a 2Q-mi',e
front. The c.'imir.'.ir.iniie;; of the iirs'.
two days announced that troops trom
lz Sta' c, ; - Per.::' ylvanin., Kansas,
Mi. GJi.ri. Ui ij, New aersey, Mary
lard, Vii;.i:ia, Oiogou, VV usiiiugivm,
Colorado, Wyo m iiit, and ;.intana
were participutin;; ir. the aeli
la ali ba' ' '.e-:inc there was
not a gunner a: l.i- lanyard, not a
co.'.lt sti ..:.'.i;:g to push bis kitchen
forward, not a doughboy t;vn..l..0
'on-.ii .us the ...... '
sight to carry with him to bis grave refuge when the shelling began and
out from under the edge ot the whence they had been afraid to comt
mist, swarming like a multitude of out, so deep-rooted was their con
ta'vny bees from some giant h.ve, viciion that Americans were accus
lut and on and up tlie hill the Jou;;!;- touted to boil their prisoners In oil.
'joy; went 'There they would be found by Yanks
In an instant, the wires hummed on a stin nullt for souvenirs,
with the nrvs. Signals flew from Two famished Hoc-ties emerged as
thr hill tops, pigeons sprang into the late as Saturday ft-oni a deep dugout
air with the tidings and overhead the :!::-.: "a- not more then a good rifle
hovering aircraft paused, wneeled shot from the dugout of a general
ird started back. Soon from each of commanding an American reserve
them would drop to some open 1old battalion.
a gleaming cylinder, traceable in its Aside from these shell holes 'and
passage through the air by i's flu-.- roninants of abandoned trenches, the
iering streamer w ..bit", messages waterless, foodless land for several
from the air to the waiting com- kilometers in depth offered not a
manders in the rear. ; vestige of shelter, not a hedge or
'(her on the Minute," even a clump of green behind which
a gun might iiide, or in the rcaut
The burden of all these messages proU,(.tioii 0f which a line of trucks
was pretty much the same at 'tig tlie mif,ht move unobserved.
whole 20 mile front. Take one
I O,,. IV ..II f ,. I'ill.ioo
nasr.ed baci; oy a corporal, squatting,
telephone in hand, at his look-out ,s for the villages which the first:
''it-ion. Me may have tried to keep ftw ,iays recaptured, some are so
his voice level and military. His completely obliterated that runners
report, as it was raught. on the type- pasMHl through them in broad duy
.vriter in some message center fai iiKht. never once dreamins ihut a
behind, will some day gather dust village had stood there. j
in the archives of the War Depart- ln0 meglfCnger. knowing that a!
ment at Washington It read: gU!!,.rars p. C. had been set up in !
"Troops over the top with a yell a cenain town which looked impos
on the minute." ;ng cr.ousii on the map, found when
It meant that the line which had m caiae to the place that only a
held at least that much ground for part of one wall of one house re-
four long years and which had not niaiued to identity it. Against this
moved an inch either way for more wall, a telephone was placed,
than a year the line "as moving at "Where is the divisional P. C?"
last, and toward Germany. the runner asked of the officer at the
I!y the end of the sixth day the
Yankees in the Argonne had pushed
on in some places to a depth of 12
kilometers, and everywhere held
fast their new won territory, despite
an ever stiffening resistance which
took the form of repeated small
scale counter-attacks and the turn
ing loose on the Americans of all
the German tricks in machine guns.
shrapnel, hand grenades, ruinueu
wei fers and gas. !
On the extreme right the troops
working up along that curve in the
meandering Mouse, which fairly
pocketed the enemy, had pushed
through the troublesome w oods above
Septsarges and reached almost as
far as Brieeulle. Toward the center
ih.e lofty height of Montfaueon was
serving American observers as a
waichtower, and the battle line had
passed (.Merges. !
line in the Argonne they have named
the Krlemliilde line, in honor of a
bouncing lady who figured large in
the Niebelungen Lied.
Herbert Walbridge came in on
Thursday last from Camp Lewis. He
spent a short furlough here visiting
his mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Wat-bridge.
BOTH HEROINES
DESPITE WEALTH
(88 ta SSSWSigiffl."IMWg
Then, as the Infantry rushed for
ward, smothering oc passing by the
telephone.
"You're in it now,"
replied the
rear guard machine gun
ne3ts and officer with a grin.
; 1'rgin to Spe.ik.
2:30 on Thursday mora-
Jat. from every rid.e and hi:l
froiti '..'- M"it-o to the Arjt.-r.ne,
S,a:.t,hi,ruu t. ..pea it. From far
'o the
uei' i
know and
heartened b,
his own .r.
fighting vie
that to the
giu a av.d
ahead.
west in ('haninanne and from
he u..i. o.' '.'crduu .uere had
:a.: ths ji::.d ;'. II;:::.:'. .".tlus t.ir
three hourr. oast, and now and again
".f iur rn rrr.t rlr'!" had gone
- w Hng overhead.
The day had been one of shilling
louds and occasional autumnal rain-v.-
h re clear
did not and the stars were brilliant, but over
.vho was not iranin: e'.y :ite land a heavy " mist lay like
the Unovledr
at a.
i .
.'.ortu ine iirii.isli, Bel
Yankees were lurgtng
Xov.s Flashed ly Wireless.
cl 'h. a fh'lVitis mist through
y'g left the French were whivth the ever-thickening iraltic
irio'T':' rhamntne; crept silently along the roads that
-j .... t. . eid.
'men, quite suddenly, all the guns
spoke at once, . t was the beginning
of a three-h;,ur bemhardment whicn
smashed German ruad ; and wires,
vutc'. ujrman batteries, sought out
i a. id i-uiverized Ge. .r.an P. "', fell
j i I;e a rain of d'-ath cr r.i.iving Ger
j nun troops, r.nrt drive s.-ut'liiig un
,;!",' srntifd all Uviu-t cr atures over
there.'
; o Answer A v. likened.
Ke knew that he and his v.e-o
taing p.irt !n the largest tnidnen
military mi.-veiuc... .' ' Western from
had ever known thaw they were
taking part in a battle which, with
Intervals of quiet and taut ex.)ev
tane, a.:e.i.-i.e.: t'rf-m i. 'l'aine to the
North Sea.
The Impression of a rain of blows
under the enemy's sti. pitied head
war i-onvyed thr-nrrh t't v. -roni
the hi;;li wireless station on tne Eiffel
Tower, in Taris, which sped t.i the
utlcrmost reaches of tlie tingling
tr-. nt ik. i Lilly thi ..ce;- .r. ;;:'0.-.,
in other sector;; of Frum-f. b it ;;;s-i
th. v; 'A:. : i ucrr-.:-.! -Mi-r in far
Mf'-edo: ia and the Hly L'md.
The y i oof ot euch cmcertoil flght
ln;,' fouiu be read on every slope and
cres . on '!;:' Am j. .;. trout. It
could be acted in die ic-b!eii:s with
wl. li:h the fJormon artillery made
an , i. - t our own during tiie that
twj days of the battle. It ccr.lu
be ii ited in the scramble with which
reserves came to the rescue on the
this d ar.d fourth days and in the
na.ttre cf thse reserves.
Here was part of a division of
which the other part was mixed up
with the French in Champagne. Here
was another division that had been
caught and thrown into the gap ou
itc way fr. m Alsace to some part of
the German line in Flanders that had
been shrieking for Help.
On Memorable Ground.
And in all that battle-line from
Yc.i!;::; to the other side of the great
forest there was not a Yankee who
dM not know lie was lighting on
ground hallowed far beyond our
power to add or detract; that he was
stinting out from Hill 304 and Le
Mort Homme of tragic memories;
that he was advancing from blighted
' There was no answer. If there
had been, it could not have been
j heard. For as many mile a.-; um.
1 pui.u .-co, by t.'.ie nr.'riad. eeaceioss
ilanbes in the night, . r.r own .Tans
.';: cursing from every crest and
' rltmn. 1 1 nrt you could hear tlie
: ( hi..: .':' 11!' OW'Il ; hcl!.-, lite Cl'llO
from i'.i'i to iiiil, th" h;;;h swishint,
. i :e water 11; tl;c swamns, tae
angry ;a,.tU; a?aini th- hosliav'.u
tiiid even, lametiuies, tlie shriil,
; sharp cnmmr.nds, in aril like f... .
c'ail signal;; from some nearby bui
tery. iiut as the lury r eacuuu u.,
cie'-'cendo toward dawn, all !!:.;;
over-tones were lost in the instaal
succession of the slu.ts.
T'.ie cargo or many a ship, the
strain and sweat of many a steve
dore, the sale of untold thousands of
Liberty bonds, the toil of many mil
lions of devoted hands came into
their own in that bombardment.
Its intensity can bo estimated from
the fact that the count of the rounds
fired on one-third of the American
front amounted to 10, OHO from the
iarger guns and 70,000 from the 7;Vs.
Its sound can be guessed by tlie
fact that when, after dawn, tin
firing subsided somewhat and t'.ie
butteries were content to shoot only
ne gun a minute, it seemed to the
idlers underneath as though a
itrange, restful hush had settled over
the world. One of those toilers, a
driver on the high seat ot an ammu
nition truck, shivered inside his
': ather jacket and confided to his
rounding up the msorganized Ger- Of other towns, such as Cuisy and
man troops wh so retreat had been Montfaueon or Bethlncourt, more Is
cut off by the barrage, every othei left, but not. enough on which to
arm of the service took up the strain build anew, and sometimes you can
of moving forward. At the end of recognize the church, whore weeds
the second day. the counter attacks s-rcw rani; through the stones of the
began, came thicker and faster In tht, floor, only by the remnants of
days sueco-'ding as the resistance painted angels littering a heap of
stiffened, brought with them fierce, stones which was once an altar,
close band-grenade lighting as the itut it was neither in terms of
battle line swayed back and forth, battle nor in terms of restoration
Bra for the first two days, it was a that this terrain presented its most
matter of pursuit, snd for all the serious problem during the first few
Army, the sleepless task of kesping days of the battle. It was in terms
up with the Infantry. 0f traffic.
Moving Up Stmts Early. ! Roa,is over wlllch n0 Vehl.c,8i 0hd
passed since the summer of 1914,
That movement had begun at mid- roa,iH recognizable after four years
; ight 'he night before. At midnight oniy a3 serpentine paths weaving
some battalions of 75's had fired a disconsolately among the shell holes,
few rounds and then packed up to roa(is in which mine craters yawned
start forward through the mud and paat an hasty bridging, these had to
darkness, starting so early that be- reCcive and bear during the first
fore sundown they were pitched on three days a volume of heavy, cease-new-
hillsides and, without waiting t ie31. traffic that would have worried
for camouflage or good emphice-;a (iozen Lincoln Highways.
ments, were firing steadily into tne
ie:eding German lines.
1 he pace set. for them can be That, is why the pioneers both
j ranged by the fact that one regiment- , Engineer and Infantry went for
al aid station, after patching up the days and nights without stopping to
. first wounded at its old stand untilleep or eat. That is why the clink
j 9 on Thursday morning jumped for- of pick and shovel working ahead of
! ward eight kilometers and was at the trucks, working under the trucks,
work in Coisy by noon of the first will ever be music in the ears of the
day. By sundown of thatfirst day the American Army. Theirs was the
i Infantry lines in some places had task of getting the guns up, and get
gone forward mo re than five miles, them up they did, faster in some
: a :i! through the'maze of'tramc which places than in others, but still the
i pifMrtred the cra;;v roads, the urgeiu guns moved on through the rain,
.Most difficult of all had proved tlie
Forest of Ant. nine itself, but into
this treacherous woods the New York
troops had fought their way foot by
foot for a distance of over five miles.
Fought their way? Hewed their way,
lather, for the Forest of Argonne is
t-tich a wild tangle of ancient trees,
rank underbrush and barbed wire as
no American doughboys have had to
face since the first troops went into
the trenches. j
Chopping a Way Through.
The path would baffle a rabbit,
and the machine guns are strewn
through the woods like snakes in the
grass, but somehow the Infantry have
pushed and fought and cut and chop
ped their way through.
Ahead of our line on the sixth day,
the Germans had retreated to that
third retirement position which they
left half constructed in the late
autumn of 1917, a position strong in
its natural defences but reinforced
to no such extent as the Hindenburg
line, with which it cannot be tacti
cally compared. It is rather a con
tinuation of the retirement position
to which the Germans were driven
when the Americans sliced off the
St. Mihiel salient. This retirement
.A,. 'CffVA' X ....
51'
,1
it V s'Yiw '
Carrying on in their war bit
until asked to discontinue. Mr.
Vincent Astor and Mrs. W. K.
Vanderbilt Sr., two of America'
wealthiest and best-known social
leaders, have just returned from
France. Doth "tended tables" in
a "Y" hut at the front. Iloth
braved dangers, and never asked
for relief. Itoth were decorated
by the French authorities They
are here seen getting their first
glimpse of the "beautiful lady."
the Statue of Liberty, In New
York harbor, as their boat arrived.
In Terms of Traffic.
fields immortalized by those dead steering-wheel:
soldiers in horizon blue who stood
fast there throughout the bitter
iiii.nths of 1016 and said of the in
vading horde: "They shall not pass.'
Ahead of the doughboys, and
hi- 1. :;;;
rcn, that village on a hilltop wiiii'n
is the highest point between the
Aisne and the Moose, and from
whose church steeple, one visible
for miles and miles around like a thousands of synchronized
"Oh, Lord, thanks be I m not on
the other end of that noise."
Just before ilnun.
That noise readied Its most deaf-
to them, loomed .uonttan-1 enng enmax m uio oisi m mnmi-un
before the zero hour. That is Hie
jeriod of most, painful orpectancy,
when anxious eyes follow the creep
ing minute hands mi thousands upon
message ran back: "Guns before all
els;?, and then f.iod for the guns.
RaMons second, ammunition first."
To get the Etuis up, meat ami
eilVi. e ii;;i.v. vai l'y?ry'Jiing ex-
,ert anibu;aif,js must wail. If
horse.? dragging the 75's through the
mud should be d or, having djne
their level best, should drop from
: s;i i. -.1 hi human muscics
.;i:is. push Ifeo SUH3 on their way.
tf a big gun should capsize in sonic
'.ell hUe red dcsrtiir cf moving uti
is av-hiaod nositlnn. then it must
nake thai i.i.cl. h..ie its pohi.ioa ami
irrt Pre from there. 'More than once
i;ese things happened.
The problem of moving up tlie
ns and th.; other supplies was
aiade both supremely important and
'.upremely ditiicult through the first
hree days by tlie nature of the ter
rain over which the Americans were
fighting one of the most difficult
battlefields in Europe and by the
condition in which four years of
battle had left that terrain.
Here was a stretch of French
country-side all little hills and val
leys. In the summer of 1914 it was
beautifully carpeted with green,
field after field of well husbanded
farms, with here and there a golden
wheat crop embroidered with scarlet
poppies, and here and there a village
of stone homes with red-tiled roofs.
Now it looks as though the hand
of some grotesquely gigantic leper
had reached out of the Fast and
touched it. It Is a dead country.
There are no homes, no life, no
verdure. Here and there sonic
crumbled stone where a bouse once
stood, here and there the blackened
nd the ammunition followed.
Even had the roads been perfect
from the start, the traffic problem
j:::;! have still been eu nueus, and!
those who went through it will never
t'uget tlie paralyzing congestion,
.'"very one helped. Every one had to
: e'.p. The sight no one cauld stand
was the spectacle of a long train of
eiiibula'.ices stalled in the rain, the
drivers raging, tho onlookers cursing,
only the wounded within silent and
nneomnlaining save when one of
them might reach out and ask for
a '. inoke or a pull on a passing
canteen.
Perhaps, when it meant just a
short but impassable blockade, an
officer would leap down from a truck
ad cull for volunteers. "These men
have paid the price," he would call
out in the darkness, "and we've got
to see them through to the hospitals.
Maybe we can cut a road through
this wire and mud that will skirt
these foundered trucks blocking the
way. Pitch in, everybody."
Road Built in Twinkling.
Then down from the trucks, out
from under tarpaulins, emerging
here from a hastily made bed beside
the road or there from a roadside
kitchen, the volunteers would come.
The improved road would be made
in a twinkling, the litters would be
carried across its torturingly bumpy
surface, the ambulances would
trundle after and a little later the
train of wounded would be creeping
its way to beds and warm food
and expert, compassionate hands.
In such traffic jams, when an oc
casional ill-advised cart full of
officers' baggage would he chucked
II 111
finger pointed to Heaven, the Grown
Ptince watched in 1916 the vain
blaURirter of L is countrymen.
Now that watch tower is but
crumbled stone crumbled Btone ot
At 5:311 the first Taint sign ot dnwii
would be. showing in tlie east, the
long waiting would be done, the In
fantry would be up and over the tap.
And every one behind iliem, from the
stump of a blasted tree. For tlie ! ruthlessly to the side, and when stub-
watci-es. rest there is only a scorched, bbak j born drivers must be coerced to breed
countryside, pitted with shell holes ; in them then and there the right com
which some has been spread and , generals to the cooks. Knew in ins
packed to make a road over whieii i proud and confident heart that for a
American kitchens are trundling j time there would be only one prob
with slum and coffee for American lem. For all the rest, there would
doughboys. ! he only the problem of keeping up
, .... . With the doughboys.
Never Munv a l iench Winter. j T)en 5..J0 came and an observer,
But to those Americans whose ; crouched in such a vantage point,
prayer every morning and every j say, as any one of those look-outs
night of their lives is that this young' which indent the parpapet on the
Army shall do the home folks proud crest of Hill 304, must needs strain
the factor in this battle of greatest ; his eyes through the mist that
Interest is just the fact that the blanketed tho valley below. The
initial attack on the whole 20-mile trenches and those within them were
front was launched by divisions of completely hidden from view. Then,
which not one couid tell what a a few moments later and it was a
and mine craters like the face of tli
moon.
From these shell
rear-guards turned
holes
their
munity spirit, the strong-armed M.
! P. was the king of the road and the
German hero of the hour,
machin.: Every cross roads clamored for
guns on the backs of the advancing him over the wires. Things went
Yankees. From them, as the mists best where the M. P. at the corner
of the first morning cleared away, was a square-jawed, hard-boiled
Germans emerged In batches large Yankee who, when a truck seemed
and small, to be taken into custody disinclined to do his bidding on the
by the mopping-up parties and senl instant, would waste no words but
to the rear to swell to thousands the. draw his gun Riiggestively and say:
number of prisoners captured on the
first day.
i Still the Prisoners Come.
I Not only that first morning, but
"You do what I tell you or I'll
blow what little brains you've got to
the other end of Hell."
At the End of the SLxth Day.
With roads laid under and in
off and on through Thursday, Friday front of the moving traffic, with such
and Saturday, little groups of them m. P.'s to straighten out the tangles,
would trickle out of the underground 8i0 wly through the mud and rain the
hiding places whither they had taken gun8 moved up,
Cattle Baying for
Swift k Company
Swift & Company buys more than
9000 head of cattle, on an average,
every market day.
Each one of them is "sized up" by
experts.
Both the packer's buyer and the
commission salesman must judge what
amount of meat each animal will yield,
and' how fine it will be, the grading of
the hide, and the quantity and quality
of the fat.
Both must know market conditions
for live stock and meat throughout the
country. The buyer must know where
the different qualities, weights, and
kinds of cattle can be best marketed
as beef.
If the buyer pays more than the
animal is worth, the packer loses money
on it. If he offers less, another packer,
or a shipper or feeder, gets it away
from him.
If the seller accepts too little, the live
stock raiser gets less than he is entitled
to. If he holds out for more than it is
worth, he fails to make a sale.
A variation of a few cents in the price
per hundred pounds is a matter of vital
importance to the packer, because it
means the difference between profit
and loss.
Swift & Company,
U. S. A.