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Show YANKEES QUICKLY END EXISTENCE OF GERMAN IMPOSTORS WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY ON THE AISNE-MARNE FRONT, July 28. (By the . Associated Press.) The "battle of the woods" has ended, and the Germans Ger-mans have been swept from the forests 6f Fere and Ris. Toward the last of this four-day struggle the Franco-American advance became so rapid that the retreat re-treat of the Germans was greatly disorganized. disor-ganized. The edge of-the German salient to the south and southeast of Fere-en-Tardenois was ground down by the -whirl of the allied al-lied troops and dulled to an extent that German weakness was indicated at many points. The first indication of this was seen Saturday, when the enemy retreated re-treated so rapidly that the Franco-American troops entirely lost contact with him. In the battle of the woods the stiffest resistance the Americans ever experienced in this kind of warfare was encountered. Franco-American troops were compelled to contend constantly with a rear guard action consisting principally : of machine gunners, most of whom, dressed in green clothing, had nests in trees. Day after day during the fighting .the allied troops bucked the German machine gun nests, using artillery and machine guns and some gas against them. Resorted to Tricks. In the rear guard fighting, which was carried on to permit of the withdrawal of the heavier German guns, the enemy resorted re-sorted to numerous tricks, such as carrying carry-ing machine guns in stretchers when endeavoring en-deavoring to reach some points under the allied fire. "When they realized that their stretcher trick had been discovered the Germans resorted to otier means to deceive. de-ceive. The Franco-American infantrymen and machine gunners were notified by their commanding' officers to be on the alert for Germans wearing American or French uniforms, several instances having been reported where the Germans did thia. On one occasion the soldiers were notified noti-fied by field orders that Germans had appeared ap-peared in tunics of French and American soldiers. Rushing across an open place in the forest when the Germans nests had been discovered, one German, acting as a leader and speaking perfect English, yelled to the American machine gunners, "Pon't shoot; there are Americans in that thicket." Impostors Wiped Out. , The Americans were at the edge of the forest, peppering . .wood. They ceased when a detachment appeared. The de-tachment de-tachment entered a forest to the right of the Americans and in a few minutes a hail of machine gun bullets came from that direction. The Americans quickly realized that they had been duped and turned their machine ma-chine guns upon the impostors, wiping them out in short order. Intelligence officers in the American army say numerous cases have been reported re-ported by soldiers of encountering individual Germans wearing American uniforms,. and in some cases "of Germans wearing merely an American or French tunic, presumably having obtained them on some other front. The allies have lost few prisoners in the battle of the woods and the Germans were unable to obtain uniforms from the dead, owing to their retreat. |