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Show SIMS II BATTLE LINE ' PROVE WOHTH 1 Troops Are Certain to Be i Factor in Fighting at the ! West Front, Military Men Say. i REFUTE SLIGHTING TEUTON CLAIMS Sammies Adapt Themselves Readily to Modern Tactics Tac-tics in Warfare; Fearless Fear-less in Action. j By HENRY G. WALES, .Staff Correspondent International 1 News Service. WITH THK A-MKItlCA.V ARMY IN FR.A.NTL', Mareh 10. Thet pawt fortnight's fort-night's fiKhtlns hy American troops in three different Hectors of the west front ::hnws oonHutiively (lie imporiane of the CnH-pfl States army In tho world war and proven that. It will he a powerful fa '-tor on the fp'mt from the very Ht;irt. (. n-fulcs, t the same time, the Hermans' Her-mans' ran l einptuous HtHt omenta tliat it would require two veara to train even the MMiidleHt army to he ready to tako the Held. i In the Arnerk-an sector, north of Toul, in the r.orralin.: sector, and along the Cliemln de.s Pa mw, the A inert cans met the nhoek of parked German Mlorin troops, hurled thfiii hai-lt and inflfuted serious losses, a nd ei nursed from the conflict r.tuiling, ready and eager for another try. Many of I lie most optimistic military leaders and critics are surprised hy the aptitude the Americana show in picking up knowk'.K'e of modern position warfare war-fare forty months after the others had J been enuaod. The French and Ger-I Ger-I mans picked up the now tactics slowly, Imildin.Lf si rotifer intrenched positions as J I the enemy artillery ginw heavier, devising ; iikihUk against gas, then perfecting the masks as the panes became more powerful, power-ful, huildintc deeper dugouts as the pene-! pene-! i rat Ion of the high, velocity shells became rivh I er. Rut t ho A merleans entered the st rustle, in th thick of it, after three and a half years' fish ting-. Readily and ! ra pldly they adapted themselves to the advanced stapes of iieiout If ic fighting reached hy the others. Discard Obsolete Tactics. i i ,ro small part In the su?eess of the Americans so far is due to the fearless-! fearless-! n ess of the high command in discarding discard-ing tactics tha t have been found obsolete obso-lete and concent ra ring upon training in matters long proved effective. For example, ex-ample, the handling of pistol, rifle and ; ba.yonet is being drilled, drilled, drilled into the American troops, despite the . i reports current for three years that the ; , day of the infantry man with the guns us long since over and tliat the cartridge ' a nd the bayonet ha ve been superseded ! by hand grenades. i 1 Half a dozen defeats of German at-; at-; tempts to penetrate the American posi-; posi-; tions were due entirely to the fact that our troops have confidence in rifle fire. They stand steadily until the enemy is i well within range, and then open up a j ; deadly fire, causing htm to break for I : cover. J : The much-scoffed "elasticity front" also 1 has been adopted by the American com-; com-; mand, which refuses to sacrifice lives by I I holding advanced lines heavily manned, I i because heavy losses invariably result j i when the enemy concentrates his artillery I : or destructive fire against such lines, ! ; Instead, our troops are distributed with tli' aim of escaping unnecessary causual-: causual-: i Ties. Even though the enemy may be able ( to enter our front line, a counter-attack , . immediately ejects him. ; At this season. especially, the mud i 1 everywhere offers an excellent cushion for exploding shells, so although the men are , spattered with mud from bead to heels, they often escape the steel splinters. Their helmets also save them many wounds. American patrolling parties during the last -few weeks' activities showed the greatest ingenuity in carrying out their i missions. Men who n re usually talkative and laugh much ma in tain t ho strictest silence hour after hour and otherwise careless ones are crawling miles on their stomachs, following out their leaders' orders. Temperamentally headed soldiers show the utmost restraint. In every instance when' their officers ordered them to withhold with-hold fire because it would have been unwise un-wise to reveal the patrols' presence they refrained from shooting, even when an enemy patrol was very near them. The way the men are obeying orders, wearing steel hats, always keeping their gas masks strapped to their chests ready for use at an instant's notice, and keeping the masks on until the signal is given to unmask, excites the amazement of the officers, who feared that the inborn recklessness reck-lessness of Americans would make this difficult. Even the French and British had difficulties diffi-culties persuading their soldiers to wear the heavy steel hats, and it took many months before the men finally saw the soundness of the protection by the reduced re-duced number of casualties. The Americans, following the national custom, have thrown themselves wholeheartedly whole-heartedly into the actual fighting ready to follow suggestions and orders, and anxious to learn. |
