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Show Germans Only 200 Yards I Away in Gobain I MEN FACE HOT FIRE I i Single French' Division' H Meets' Five German I Divisions. (By the Associated Press.) WITH THE FRENCH ARMY IN FRANCE, Sunday. SepL S The troops of General Mangin between the Aisne and tho Oise are virtually behind their old. wire entanglements in their il trenches of 1917. All along the edgo of the forest of Coucy and through tho western portion of the SL Gobain for- est the Germans are only 200 yards I'l away and in some places they are in I positions in the old Hindenburg lino that are plainly visible from tho- , heights west of Chateau-Coucy. ' The Oise-Aisne canal and tho river Ailettcvhich forms a sort of advanced post of their main lino at Fresnos, were wrested from the enemy after a I struggle of five days during which five different German divisions tried to hold off a single French division. The divisions that tried to prevent the crossing of the canal and river. the Associated Press correspondent was informed by a French officer, "ac-compllshed "ac-compllshed the greatest concentration of machine gun fire that has been wit-ncsscd wit-ncsscd in this war. The French trooos were obliged to faco that fire at twenty yards in order to cross the Oise-AIsno canal and the river Ailette. Pioneers throwing bridges over lho canal seventeen yards wide suffered not only from the quick firers but were in good range of Ger-man Ger-man grenades. 'It required two days to advance to the Ailette from Pont Saint Mard and four days to gain 500 IH yards of ground. The French engineers finally sue-ceeded sue-ceeded in bridging the canal and over the first bridge an enraged sergeant charged the Germans around a ma-chine ma-chine gun position nnd single handed made twelve of them prisoner. Twenty-two quick firers were fqund in Etuarnlssage wood. They were al- : most as thick in Yache wood nnd the more extensive timbered land fronting Coucy le Chateau la Villa Where the J French could get at them they charged and killed the Germans on their pieces 'M but many places were too well hidden or protected for a direct attack and It was necessary to shell them. , Coucy le Chateau and the height on ! which it stands were turned from the J north and flanked at the same time from . tho south whilo thousands of shells filled the ruins of the surround-tng surround-tng positions. Chateau Nogent to tho Southeast was taken about the same time and with it the Germans lost possessions on which they had spent a tremendous offorL They retired be-hind be-hind their three lines of barbed wire on tho line to Fresnes. The booty they left included locomotives, rail-road rail-road material of all sorts and u great number of guns. fl |