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Show STATISTICS OF Mmpuc 100,000 Detail Maps and 30,000 Photographs Used in Fight. 6000 Telephone Instruments Instru-ments Connected by 10,-000 10,-000 Men Under Fire. By FREDERICK A. SMITH. (New York Times-Chii-aso Tribune Cable. i.'oiiyrighi UU.i . WITH THE FIRST AMEKICAN ARMY. Sept. J;.'. It is possible now, more than ten days after this army striK'U its firs; ""low in Kram e -.o give an idea of t he immensity of' t;:e operation, based in fUuix-s obtained from offk'ia' sources and two iL-.ys" mo'.orinL: behind the lines. Tn order to take 1 J square miies and rventy-two villages, t he A m erica n army first evolved pre pa rat ions on colossal lines, the actual action bringing into t.ie pan hundreds of elements work ins: co-oi d inately and smoothly. The f is u res obtained are estimated by officers directly in touch with operations. First we issued I ",m.0OO detail maps cover-in? cover-in? the minutest detail of the cha racier ar,d terrain of the .St. Mihiel salient, including the nature of defenses, how manned, and by what enemy units. Tnese were corrected in some instances :s late as the day before the batt'e opened and were supplemented by ;:0.OVi photographs, all for the guidance of artillery and infantry, being scattered among the officers of the whole army a few hours before the zero hour. Five thousand miies of wire were laid in the Mi. Mihiel saiient. and on its borders be:ore the attack and immediately af ;er the Americans advanced. 6"'00 telephone tele-phone instruments being connected there-wi there-wi i h throughout the battle zone. When the battle opened in the morning of ;he 1.2th. a truck started north at . r speed of seven miles an hour, unreeling: wire across "No Man's Land" until it . reached a point where the reel had to : be carried by sisrnal corps men afoot, i Such work as this made it possible in i a recent battle for an American officer whose troops had flanked the foe trench?. ; ;n telephone back informing t lie artillery . of the exact location of the trenches i and in a few minute? bringing a deluge! of metal on the boche. Parried by Squads. j Telephone squads carried these lines j no to the fighting front Thursday mom-mar.- and soon a triangular battleground Telephone system was in operation ade- i oifate to handle the telephone business! r.f a town of lOft.wo. a traffic manager! he'inar necessary to help keep it going at j to efficiency. , The French lines were connected with j The main axis established th rough the i middle of the salient, lO.Orta. men beine : engaged and many phone exchanges were on wheels. Several thousand carrier picons supplemented the signal corps. '"We captured a tremendous quantity of ; boche signal supplies. n'lfi miles of Ger-man Ger-man wire, many switchboard, one radio ' tractor truck and numerous batteries. : Other signal corps also took more than K',000 feet of movie film war sienes and many thousand si; its. ! Extensive hospital facilities w.tp ar- j ranged, including thirty -five hospital t rains, sixteen thousand bed? in advance areas, a nd 55,00m others ba-k. Happily less than 10 per rent were needed and therefore our surgeons and nurses were enabled to give tie finest care to our wounded and every attention to the German wounded. In the course of the operation our gups fired approximately a million and a half ?he!s. 4800 Trucks Used. Forty-eight hundred truck brought :rn and supplies into trie lines, asis'ed bv miles of American railroads, standard and narrow na usre cars, pulled bv engines marked "lS. A." In addition to restoring a b'g territory with an u n pretend fn t ed small fore. the Americans liberated two railroads and a canal from the menace of the ioche artillery, ar-tillery, took 15, prisoners and the following fol-lowing spoils : One hund red and eleven guns, including twenty-five iarcrf caliber and seventy-eiE-h; Austrian seventy-seven?, seventy-seven?, also for;y-two trench P'OrUrs. I'fio machine suns, thirteen triKks. in-f in-f ' dins an ambulance, thirty box car?, 'our ioromoiivcs, five aiFsnn. forty wagons and thirty-six narrow sace . ar. Th" quantity of capture,! munition? Mil 1 tne?t i mn ted. bur one spot alone "i elded i.i.i.rx'.A .sheila for seventy-sevens ?nd in rounds of riHe ca rtridiie?. T;vcif thousand hand Grenade? were found in one r.ijvc Four ammunition dump? were taken in addition to all tni.u. bur The quantity is no e e?t ,m-i ' ed. Iarge quantities Gf food, ir thins, trink'-t and many do 'inr.em j bring the total which makes our first venture as jn individual unit assume characteristic A rr.erican pro port ion?. Jn four (.b thf- American airmen, mariv usinG plane? made in Amerba. ;nd equipoe 1 y. i : h A rneri'-a n i ns : ru men t ?. made more ft. an '.'.?.) sortjea, totaling nice than J ''"' hours, e r, L-;t sin:; i ri e vti -tv-five combats at:d hrinsjjns down nine p'aneo af'arne. fiTty-four oth'-rs out r,r enntreij and sfTf.ine t',hr'v baboons already dep. r i bed i n '-on nee t ion w , t :i 'be (-,- ro, . evr-ioi : s r.f f .ieuter.a n t Fra ni; f -u ke, v.' bo sin"'- has added seve-al more. Barrages Dropped. h'ir pur.-u; " gt o; droned ': ; ft;. fi-.'-r 'he advrin.-r line?, f j ; , i t a i ng Mi-f Mi-f t or; H Of the r, ,- r , t i on cort S. nt i -ser-.pr? r,d pilots firing n nrc than fi,-f'''M fi,-f'''M round-, rna-diiri' cun- :akirg tr;nij-"i tr;nij-"i trams on eijeriy ro.trU ;iur a'lh k-i k-i n z ft r : i i le ry and rnn; i -o-. e T1 j -back of ;'ne r;-rnan line.. T ':. .,-n. tu many small bounc at ruf-rt- . . ' i ; m r: Our airmen reported m rned ;a ; ely anv change? in the e n c rr.y ' : i if- - rn ea n w h i le In k i ng Kino photographs an) making vfual re nr-.n.i ri' e in some in-Mames Tl''y kiiometf-rs beyond 'he foci" line. M ore t r,an 1 ,,I''I Iiorni-i n g ra id wer mrde to t' " bo'-hfj r-ar il'f.i'f unf.ivor- J ar-ie weaM.er. tin largest b.-'ng ratlio.idj it- n i e rs, bridges, e ; t M ore t i ia n fe vc n r. ton.s of bombs were dropped in four days. Fa'doon? made seventy-nine ascensions for a total of 2w hours in air, spotting fii'tv-five hostile batteries in addition to o:her incalculably valuable assistance. French pianes' made about bH0 individual in-dividual sorties, being always on hand when a combat was staged or when otherwise other-wise needed. On this side of our line? there i? a sufficient suf-ficient number of military policemen on duty at cross -roads to police a town of K".0CH. Fourteen thousand Prisoner? have been questioned and the following is a fair summary of their statement?: tJermany cannot understand why America Amer-ica wages this vigorous warfare, unless we want Indemnities or colonies. Smile at Americans. Thev smile at our assertions of fighting for democracy against militarism, which is aimed directlv at their cherished beliefs. be-liefs. They suspect we want to secure our debts by victory, saying American officer? offi-cer? seem to be more snor'.smen than wan'iors and Germany hopes if they can kill more Americans our country will tire of ihe novelty of war and demand peace. A si n i f i cant c ha n 2. e in the G er ma n prisoners of predictions of the outcome of the war is tiia t they formerly were announcing an-nouncing bravely that German-.- would win, but now are contenting t hemse.ves bv faying "you cannot win the war.'" They indicate tha t the food situation in Germany is belter than in the period from last January to April when it was very serious. Lately trey admit they can patch ther uniforms and practice every economical device for conserving food and war materials mate-rials but cannot make new individuals to reinforce their man-power. Since the middle of July nine German divisions have been dissolved because thev were too shattered for teorganlza-t:on teorganlza-t:on and now are being absorbed by other unit?. Ha if the prisoners were u stria ns. 70 per cent of these heing Rumanian. 1 The foregoing will s now that ihe terrific ter-rific American arguments have failed to convince the Germans in our swarming prison camns and shows that Fritz needs I more treatment. |