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Show AMERICANS CUT INTO HUN LINE i Harsh Notches Chopped in German Line East of Meuse to Grand Pre. ENEMY KEEPS ALERT Intense Barrages and Liberal Use of Gas by the 1 Enemy Forces. j WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY NORTHWEST OF VERDUN. Monday. Oct, 14. 7 p. m. (by the Associated1 Press) From east of the Mouse to the' vicinity of Grand Pre American forces 1 chopped a Berios of harsh notches In' the German line today. They kept up their swinging blows at the enemy i from early this morning until late this, afternoon. j Although tho action extended to the cast bank of tho Meuse, the most sav- J age fighting took place about Ro- . magno and wostwurd. where tho one-1 my is striving to maintain that sec- ( Hon of 'tho Kriemhlldc line running nortbwostorly from Romagne. The battle has been In and over the wire ; entanglements before this defensive position. Hanging on the wire tonight ( aro Germans whose equipment boars evidence that another fresh division has been brought up to moot the steady stea-dy pressure of tho Americans Thoro was some artillery preparation prepara-tion for tho American attack but it was not much heavier than that offered of-fered by the Americans In defense until un-til late in the day when there was a slight falling off In tho volume of fire. At that time there was a movement of artillery toward tho rear of the German Ger-man positions. uerman f-orces Alert i On the least Indication of movement In the American linos the Germans laid down a barrage of such intensity as Is ordinarily used only preliminary to an offensive. Not content with their artillery defense tho Germans i made an extraordinarily liberal use of! gas. Although tho gas clouds clung I tenaciously to the ground the Amerl-! cans were not seriously hampered, j Heavy rain and clouds prevented j airmen from giving assistance during tho battle. In spite of the drizzle, howevor, Several flying 'craft did get over tho lines latet in the day. They contributed somewhat to the success of the advance. Flying low they launched heavy gusts of machine gun fire on the enemy. The roads, woods' and fields over which tho men fought wore softened by the long rains and progress was difficult. Nowhero was there any apparent reduction In the spirits of the men. Machine Gun Fire The greater part of the resistance cast of the Meuse was from machine guns but In spite of them and the reinforced re-inforced German lines, the Americans straightened their line between the SIvry and the Magenta farm. Northwest of Romagne the Germans had fortified one bit of sunken road with machine guns In such a manner that It was regarded necessary to blast It away with big guns. The Germans had tunneled openings for machine guns through the banks on the sides of the road and every little tunnel vas 'lined with cement All attempts to take this position were fruitless unless the machine guns were silenced by direct hits, Fierce Hill Fighting Between Romagne and Landres-et-, St. George is a small hill covered with woods and the fighting was extremely Tierce along its slopes, to which were Joined the barbed wire defenses that strteched from Landres-et- St. George to St. George, a mile and a half further fur-ther west. These positions were deluged de-luged with American shells but were stubbornly defended by the Germans who rolled along their front clouds of gas and curtains of high explosive and shrapnel shells. Along the line from St. Juvin to St. Georgo more rapid progress was made but, in general, the operations were confined almost entirely to the main defenses along the center of the line. During the battle the Germans directed a harassing fire on numerous points back of the American lines. |
