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Show FlB GERMANS UXJPIK American Troops Laugh at Hun Protests Regarding Regard-ing Shotguns. 3y FRAZIEB HUNT. (New York Times-Chicago Tribune Cable, Copyright.) WITH THE FIRST AMERICAN ARM V, Oct. 27. The German pretest against the use of shotguns by Americans Ameri-cans mopping up enemy trenches during attacks is taken In the light of a huge Joke by soldiers of the Seventy -seventh division, who, in the fight in the Argonne forest, found dumdums in the cartridges taken from Boche dead and prisoners. In a recent visit to division headquarters. Major Genera.l Robert Alexander showed me a clip of five cartridges, three of which were handmade dum dums. Apparently, Ap-parently, a Boche had taken a file and cut a V-shaped nick a quarter of an inch into tho steel jacket. The other two cartridges In the clip were untouched, un-touched, making it a matter of luck whether the American hit would receive a small, clean wound or have a great hole torn in him. Many such clips of dumdum bullets are found even on prisoners. pris-oners. The officers of another American division di-vision recently on the front line exhibited ex-hibited blunt -nosed steel cartridges that differ greatly from the needle -pointed regulation bullet. Some say these rank with dumdums. German body armor was used to a considerable con-siderable extent in the recent desperate fighting through the Argonne. It resembled re-sembled somewhat the old-fashioned armor of the Middle Ages, protecting the chest and extending a short distance be-I be-I low the waist line. It was heavy enough to turn a rifle bullet at long range. Camouflaged helmets were also used by the Germans in this battle, big potlike pot-like steel hats, painted many colors, blending with the fall tones of the leaves of the woods. In the great battle along the American Ameri-can front in the Argonne and along the Meuse thirty of the finest German divisions di-visions have been thrown in. Among these were Identified the crack First, Third and Fifth Prussian guards. From a single sector eight different divisions were rushed to stem the American attack. at-tack. Orders captured show the Germans Ger-mans were instructed to hold the line, no matter what the cost. This thirty-mile front is still the pivot of the whole battle line from Switzerland to the sea. It Is the hinge that the retreat to Germany swings on. If the Germans are unable to stop the American advance, the most important railroad lines will be cut and the whole army in the great pocket of the lower portions endangered. Medical officers point out an interesting fact in the recent unusual proportion of American casualties being only rifle or machine gun wounds. This assures our high command that the German reserve re-serve supply of shells is running low. Rifle wounds are much less severe than shell wounds and as high as SO per cent are returned to service after a few weeks in a hospital. The percentage killed is very low, due to the slacking up of artillery ar-tillery action. During the recent fighting the allies have daily captured at least one of the presen t sized German divisions. The present Boche division has been reduced to around eight thousand men. Today Germany has only some forty divisions total reserve, of which only two are really fresh. |
