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Show IE LOSSES "THT IN RENT lEUptES Correspondent Visits Scene of Desperate Struggle i Between Americans and j ! Kaiser's Troops. HUN DEAD LYING AROUND IN HEAPS Bellevue Farm Turned Into a. Shambles; Japanese r Soldier Fights to Death With Prussians. By Universal Service Staff Correspondent. 1 WITH THE AMERICANS ON THE OURCQ, Aug. L (Delayed.) Six hours after the Prussian guards pulled out of Bellevue farm; just north of Cierges, this morning-, I visited the scene of the thirty-six -hour struggle between a battalion bat-talion of American ex-lumberjacks and the kaiser's picked troops. ' The dead, of course, were still un-buried. un-buried. Even the wounded of both sides were still about, and the -work of mercy was just beginning. I was surprised to find that such a desperate struggle had cost only so few casualties. An American officer explained ex-plained to me that it had been a battle between relatively small forces, but that it was a battle to the death. American and German artillery, alternating, alter-nating, battered the hamlet, which was formerly the headquarters of the German general, Von Wichuras. A few remaining remain-ing houses testify that it was a village a week ago. The fighting, however, took place mostly outside Cierges. Few Americans Killed. Only a few Americans fell in the course of the gallant charge down the slopes and through the wheat fields into the village. In the outskirts, especially on the north side of Cierges, the Prussian machine gunners stood ready to receive the Americans. Their guns were jammed by our boy 3 before they could break down the attack. So the lumberjacks leaped among the Teutons and frightful carnage ensued. It was a fight with cold steel all the way through. I saw more" bayonet wounds among the dead and wounded than ever before. Germans and Americans lay side by side, transfixed trans-fixed by broken bayonets. S.ral bayonets which had been with-,yn with-,yn ha.d saw teeth filed in the blades. The bayoneted Germans outnumbered the Americans 10 to 1, owing to the fact that the Germans were serving machine uns when the Yankees came upon them. 'tted With Dead. The stretch between Cierges and Bellevue Bel-levue farm was dotted with dead Prussian Prus-sian guardsmen sniped by Americans. The German corpses presented a ghastly ghast-ly appearance. The faces were pinched and drawn, and washed white by the pouring rain. Bellevue farm itself was turned into a shambles. As the German battalions were forming for counter-attack there, they were caught by the American gun fire. The courtyard of the farm Is littered lit-tered with torn and twisted bodies, sometimes some-times three deep, where a shell had exploded ex-ploded among a knot of fighting men. Between Bellevue farm and Chamery only a few Germans caught en route lay dead, except on the Dereddy farm, which became another burying ground for the elite of the kaiser's army. Prussian reserve battalions here were caught by the American gun fire and were mowed dawn. Even the near-by fields were dotted with bodies, where shrapnel caught those trying to escape the shell fire. In the outskirts of Cierges I saw dead Prussians lying beside their machine guns one even had his cartridge belt clutched between his fingers wearing the white brassard of the Red Cross. They hafi pretended to be ambulance drivers or stretcher bearers. Japanese Died Fighting. I saw a dead Japanese soldier of the American army, his hand clutching a bayonet stretched out toward a couple f Prussian machine gunners opposite nim. His comrades told me they had seen the Japanese knock out a German pun crew with a German hand grenade. Ho had a half dozen, "potato mashers 'ied to his waist." Hill 230. off the high road beyond Bellevue farm, was practically taken without a struggle, although a handful of gunners were bayoneted when refusing refus-ing to surrender to the Americans. P was found that the enemy had withdrawn with-drawn nearly "ll his guns, but he was forced to abandon hundreds of thousands of shells and hundreds of machine guns, and even live horses, though the animals in most cases were shot dead. Huns Burn Villages. ! Dense smoke clouds rising from rifsLant llapes show the enemy is burning' places i-ahead of us. Aerial observation is k1 Krnipossible, owing 'to a practically fot.tinuous downpour. American troops entering: Nesle wood captured several batteries of fiold guns as well us six-inchers. The Americans smothered the remaining German ma-chine ma-chine pun nests, sufferinp: no casualties. Advancing eastward from Cohan the Americans traversed Gaisv wood, encoun-U-nnR only the feeblest artillery fire. German prisoners assort that all German Ger-man shells have been blown up. Allied artillery is beinsr brought up with remarkable speed as the advance goes on. |