| Show I 4 Huns in Wheat Wh ai 1 Field Cut Down j Yankee Patrol H Surprising Surprising- ng Episodes EPisodes Feature Battle Battle of Belleau I j t Wood and Vicinity J 11 By Iy Lowell Mellett I United Pre Press Preas s Staff Correspondent orB Note The Note The following Is the fire of two mall mail stories by Lowell Mellett awi c constitute what is probably the most detailed and accurate description deceived In this country of the now famous battle of ot Belleau wood and the m move move- move move- ve- ve preceding It Many surprising episodes not contained In any cabled dispatches are arp given elven in these stories the second of which will be carried tomorrow Yr t THE AMERICANS ON 1 HE THE MARNE June 25 By Mall Man Passed by Censor Censor Heres Here's Heres the story tOry of ota a thousand American boys in the battle of Belleau wood Bois des desi i rk They composed a bat- bat whose number cannot be given because of the censorship part of a brigade which cannot be named for the same reason tl tsMay May 30 they were ordered to leave iC Courcelles six mlles mites southe southeast st of and at 5 a. a m. m the day they were on the road in motor trucks An all day ride took ethem tb m to Gandelu two miles mUes northwest northWest northwest north- north west of la Poterie where arrived at S p p. p m m. Thence were ordered to hike back to r reaching aching that town tired enough to to sleep in a field despite frequent bombing At daybreak they took the road to Pyramid farm and spent the night there Next morning they were ordered to Marigny a n tune tulle and a half naif south and east of Poterie a Neuilly- Neuilly Poterie a-Poterie a- a for third line support sup- sup sport port and by afternoon were established 1 in the third line from Neuilly Wood to hill a front of about a amile mile extending from a mile mlle southeast of Poterie la eastward FRENCH FRENCH RETIRE t Bf The night was comparatively quiet 1 lilt but t the next day the French under orders started retiring before the German icerman advance A colonel of French ordered the Amerlean American Amer Amer- f lean ican n battalion commander to fa fall fallback back This he did not n t do do Tile The French infantry and andi i company of colonials passed through the American line That hat day dd About 1500 men men In all J vent nt through hr ugh r Hr The third line helo hel heli i by the Americans Americans Americans Ameri Ameri- cans then became a first t line without without with- with out Immediate support Through the light the Germans sought to to feel them out and daylight revealed that tithe the he Germans had crept through the wheat hea field which the line faced A machine gun and ninety men were discovered in a diamond formation the gun at the point o of the diamond Coward ward the Americans Half a pla pla- thirty toon Americans attacked Americans attacKed and captured the gun The Germans attacked attacked at at- f tacked several times in small groups always ways losing men and gaining nothing lOthing That evening the Germans started I heavy shelling compelling he the abandonment abandonment abandonment aban aban- I of three command posts successively suc suc- The next day June 6 5 the theline theline line was kept intact despite heavy shelling At 2 o'clock the next morning mornIng morning morn- morn Ing the One Hundred Sixteenth French infantry came in and relieved the Americans who withdrew to the I i j woods north of du Chatel a amile I mile south of hill 14 They spent ithe j the day and part of pf the night there I j I under orders to proceed to a point I II I near hill a mile east and sli slightly I II north of hill northeast of the I Torcy Lucy-Torcy road I I IThe I The situation In c big ravine and wheat fields facing facing- them looked suspicious suspicious sus sus- I and a reconnoitering platoon sus-I sus i headed by the colonel himself went j lout out to investigate They got within five-eighths five of a mile of of the town of I Torcy half a mile northwest of hill when a blast of rifle and machine machine machine ma- ma I chine gun bullets was turned loose on them from the left Some Som dead and wounded was the result They drooped flat the road and immediately im im- mediately heard bullets flying over- over hoad J d and plowing up th the ground These came from the right where the Germans were suspected c ed of being but the first shower from the left I could only oly have come fr from m American recon recon-I I troops A private from the reconnoitering reconnoitering recon recon- platoon ran straight across I 1 to the American Americ n position and stopped their firing He f found und the deleted I regiment there I I NEARLY WIPED OUT I II I I Meantime another platoon had sali sallied sal sal- i lied Hed forth to the aid of the men men In the j i road Just as the Germans on the right attacked across the field The Germans were beaten off and the I reconnoiters returned to their poT po- They hey relieved a battalion of their own I brigade which had been caught in Ina a wheat field while att attacking at- at t tacking the dav day before and practically wiped out This was when the discovery discovery discovery dis dis- dis- dis covery was first made of the German practice of filling the wheat fields thereabouts thEreabout with machine guns I IThe The night was anent in n holding off I II German attacks The next day June 7 7 they underwent heavy shelling and I I the following day and night were continually continually con con- con 1 being by machine gun guns guns' I Ifie fire fie and one The night of I the eighth they were told they would attack the next m morning |
