Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-08-18 | Page 9 | French Holding Front Rigidly

jura mm ! First Army Comes to Stop as Heavy Artillery Is i Brought Up. (New York Times-Chicago Tribune Cable, Copyright.) WITH Tl-m FHKXCH ARMIES. Aug. 17. The. battle on the front of the first French army has come to a natural stop, tile French having obtained the two heights, St. Claude farm and Kcouvillnn farm, which, for an army advancing from the south, constiluie the key of the whole position in the Thieycom-t hills, and hav-i hav-i j tlt thus secured their riKht from the dancer of an .attack from the fastnesses of "little Switzerland," today the whole front is I'rst. The French have to reconstruct re-construct roads and bring up heavy artillery ar-tillery and amiminit ion. and their men, ra!"l,r four du s of fie.hting, are In need of rest. Our enemy is in the same state. He is now installing himself comfortably for further resistance in the old lines of 1014-1 T, and can congratulate himself on his luck in finding such a powerful defensive de-fensive line ready to hand in the rear of his retreating army at a moment when his overtaxed troops were in the greatest lued of it. The trenches are still quite utilizable; the wire entanglements apparently are as solid us ever, and in the last two days between Cnnijy-sur-Matx and IjC Pres-sierderoye, Pres-sierderoye, our troops found themselves up against first-cinss trench warfare positions, posi-tions, against which wg shall he able to make no headway until we have brought up our heavy guns and started on them In the old-fashioned manner of 10 J 7. Behind the old French lines is a narrow N'o Man's T,and. and behind that lie old Cerman lines, of which the enemy can make use when he is ejected from ours. Kolh lines rim fur across the Thiescourt Massif to Ribecourt, in the hills of the Massif. The enemy is making full use of the former French works wherever they lend themselves to his needs. At Bel-va.l, Bel-va.l, and on the Kcouvillon crest, French troops are in touch -with the old line, and both sides are using abandoned trenches. The fighting in the hills of the last few days has been an affair of gas and guns from the German side, and of slow, difficult advance with rifle and grenades on the side of the French. The valleys and low lying woods were filled with gas to such an extent that our men hardly flared take off their masks for two days. The German holds his front extraordinarily extraordi-narily lightly witli men, very heavily with machine guns. Soldiers say the machine guns are as numerous as men. Well behind be-hind the . machine' gun- line is a second and stronger line, and behind, that a third. Our men had to advance under fire, encircling each machine gun in turn, and destroying it, thus compelling the enemy to go back in a ragged line, which he reformed at ttie first opportunity. ' In spite of the difficulties they had to contend .against, General Humbert's men persisted until they had driven the boeho from ttie St. Claude plateau, which, from a height of over aaO l'eet, commands the Thiescourt wood and the Flcouvillon crest on the further side of the Massif, yr.hich. at a similar height, looks down uion the valley of Divette. Heyond Bel- ' valour troops gained a footing in the park of the chateau of le Pressierderoye, for which Frenchmen and Germans fought like demons in the battle of the last f. w days of April. Between t lie St. Claude crest and the Kcouvillon crest the fiont runs across to a Massif of "1 0 1 ; yards or so, mostly from the old French line. v . For the moment General Humbert can X real content with-vhat has been won and vy save, his men a breathing spell.'''