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Show NOW THE AMERICANS ARE WAR CRAZY. In Germany the plain people must be kept guessing as to the part the United States is playing in tho war. The kaiser announced somotlmo ago that the Americans would have an unimportant place in tho war; that they would not fight, and if they desired de-sired to enter tho conflict, they could not cross tho Atlantic. Today tho Frankfort Gazette is quoted quot-ed as saying tho struggle must continue con-tinue for the fatherland, as any sign of desire for an understanding on the part of the European allies is "counter-balanced by the war crazo In the United States." One day wo arc charged with being too soft to fight, and the next accused of being so eager to meet the enemy as to be crazy. This sudden shift of judgment by the German editors Is traceable to what has occurred on the west front in tho past sixty days. Up to the time the American marines met the Teutons Teu-tons northwest of Chateau Thierry, when the Crown Prince was on his road to Paris, the Germans were considering con-sidering tho Americans as a joke-They joke-They must have thought of the American Ameri-can forces as they did of the Russians, Rus-sians, and were looking forward to brushing them aside as they did the troops of the czar. But here is a recital re-cital by Major General Georgo Bar-nett, Bar-nett, commandant of the marines, covering cov-ering tho movements of his fighters on June 1 and 2, which helps explain why the Germans now think we are war crazy: "Up from Meaux the road went straight to the front with glimpses of the Marne. And it was a living road of war troops on foot and in tho lumbering lum-bering camions. French dragoons trotting by them with their lances at rest and the officors as trim as though they had just stepped out of the barracks; bar-racks; trains, ambulances, guns from the 75's to the 210's, staff cars whizzed by, and a trail of dust that coaled the men in the camions until they looked like mummies. "Holcomb's battalion arrived just in time the next afternoon, so that the order could be carried out by rushing their trucks up to our line and deploying de-ploying them out from the trucks to their positions. "So it was Juno 1 when we took up the support line with French troops, hard pressed by the Bochc, holding the line out in front. The news was that the Boche was coming. "Our position then linked up on tho left in front of Champillon with the 5th, who in turn had the 23d on their left. The 5th and Wise's battalion in line, while we had the 1st and 2d, with Sibley in support. On our right' were the French. The next day, the 2d, the French began to drop back, tired out and outnumbered, and that afternoon, after-noon, by prearranged plan, they wero to pass through, and our line was to become the1 front lino. "The French who were in support of tho 5th and at one time were thrown into tho line, could not, and cannot today, grasp the rifle fire of the mon. That men should fire deliberately delib-erately and use their sights, and adjust ad-just their range, was beyond their experience. ex-perience. The rifle fire cortainly figured fig-ured heavily in the toll wo took, and it must have had a telling effect on tho morale of the Bocho, for it was something some-thing they had not counted on. "As a matter of fact, after pushing back the weakened French and then running up against a stone wall defense, de-fense, thoy were literally up In the air and more than stopped. We found that out later from prisoners, for the Gormans never knew wo were in tho front lino when they made that attack. at-tack. They were absolutely mystified at the manner In which the defense had stiffened up until they found that our troops were in line. "The prisoners vary a lot. Some arc fine, big chaps, but many look like retired re-tired farmers; are undersized, and some run down to 17 years. At first they thought wo were Canadians, but tho last lot say nil the Germans know we have about 700,000, and they say they don't want to fight us, that wo givo them no rest and our artillery punishes them terribly. I "We've found lots of letters and diaries and the diaries are interesting. They start off with the 'Gott-mit-uns' lines and boast of what they will do to the big Americans. Then thoy tell of lying in the woods under a terrific firo and about the big Americans who seem to know no fear. Then they end a complete story of disillusionment." And so it is with all Germany at last a shocking awakening and disillusionment. disil-lusionment. fC |
