Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-11-13 | Page 1 | Americans Held Stenay at Close

ilifS MELD STEM! AT CLOSE j Could Have Taken It Earlier, Ear-lier, but Feared Killing Kill-ing Civilians. By the Associated Press. WITH THE AMERICAN FORCES ON THE SEDAN FRONT. Nov. 11 (7:30 p. m.). Stenay, on the right bank of the river Meuse, was Included in the territory terri-tory held by the American troops in the last hours of the offensive. Knowing that a hundred civilians were in the place, no serious effort had been ! made to take the town earlier, as thati would have required a bombardment. When the operations began early in the j day, the American line skirted a littlo wood at one corner of the town and was j within 600 yards of it at another. In j those places advanced patrols had been j stationed. It was not a solid lino and, while shells of all caliber shrieked their way from the American batteries over the town into the German lines and flanks and on the positions In the rear, it was not known wh ether the district had been evacuated. : Two correspondents of the Associated Press rode beyond the fixed positions on the front line along an excellent road, I passed the patrol and reached the city. The Germans had gone. The civilians were yet In hiding. The streets were wholly deserted. The correspondents were the first Americans to enter the place since it had been occupied by the j Germans. A few minutes later patrols moved- up i from other positions, and shortly before 11 o'clock American sentries were posted at the entrances to the town on the opposite op-posite side. By the Associated Press. WITH THE AMERICAN FORCES ON THE MEUSE, Nov. VI, 6:30 p. m. Blasting Blast-ing by American engineers in a road repairing re-pairing detachment caused the German high command to send a message to the allied high command Monday afternoon contending that the Americans had not ceased hostilities on November t. The message sent by wireless to the (Continued on Pago Eight.) 1 is AMERICANS HELD ' STEWAY AT CLOSE j (Continued from Page One.) abied bigl; command was timed 2 p. m. and read : " "Un the fro'ft't of Stenay -Beaumont along r!-e M'T.ae. Americans continue despite de-spite conclusion of armistice. Please order or-der the stopping of hostilities." The Americun answer to the German message read as fulows: "Received your radio. Orders have been t;iven lor the American activities signaled on the Stenay-Keaiimont front I to cease InmiediHtely." So the omrineers did n t blast during the remainder or Monday arternoon Early this morrjrng, however, they rc-sumvd rc-sumvd their blasting. The engineers are repairing a roadwav In the region of Stonay. They rushed in a qunrry Lmmeately after the armistice armi-stice conditions became effective, not thinking their blasting would attract attention. at-tention. The 'X' . iusions todny did not bring any m-sage from the Germans, so the engineers bkiHted with much energy. J endeavoring to make up for th lost time.