THE FIRST FIGHT

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 23, 26 January 1918, Page 6

THE FIRST FIGHT

AMERICAN LINES RAIDED

SMALL FORCE SWAMPED BY

GERMANS.

The following account of the first attack made by the Germans on the American troops in France was telegraphed by the correspondent of tho Associated Press:—

A small detachment of American infantrymen was attacked in the front-line trenches early on Saturday morning (3rd November) by a much superior force of German shock troops. The Americans were, cut off from relief by the heavy barrage in their rear. They fought gallantly until overwhelmed solely by numbers. The fighting in the trenches was hand-to-hand. It was brief and fierce in the extreme.

As a result of the encounter three Americans were killed and four wounded. A sergeant and corporal and ten men were taken prisoner. Two French soldiers, who were in the trenches, were also killed. The enemy lost some men, but the number is unknown, as their dead and wounded were carried off by the retiring Germans.

From the beginning of the engagement until the end the Americans lived up to all the traditions of the American army, the records showing the bravery of the detachment and of individual members.

The German raid oi^ the American trench was carried out against members of the second contingent entering the trenches for training. These men had only been in a few days. Before dawn the Germans began shelling vigorously the barbed wire in front of the trenches, dropping many high explosives of large calibre. A heavy artillery fire was then directed so as to cover all the adjacent territory, including the passage leading up to tho trenches, thereby forming a most effective; barrage in the rear as well as in the front.

The young lieutenant in charge of the detachment of Americans started back to the communicating trenches to his immediate superior for orders. The barrage knocked him down, but he picked himself up and started off again. He was knocked down a second time, but determined to reach his objective, got up again. A third time he was knocked down and badly shell shocked/ and was put out of action.

Soon.after the Germans, to the number, according to the report, of 210. rushed through the breaches in the wire entanglements on each side of the salient, ! their general objective barrage in the forefield having lifted for a moment. The Germans went into the trenches at several points. They met with stout re- ! eistance. Pistols, grenades, knives and bayonets were freely used. CONSIDERABLE CONFUSION. For many minutes there was considerable confusion in the trenches, the GerI mans stalking the Americans, and tha Americans stalking, the Germans. In one section of the trench an American private engaged two Germans with tha bayonet. That was the last seen of him until after the raid, when a dead American was found on the spot. Another was lulled by a blow on the head with a rifle butt from above.

Some of the Americans, apparently, at the beginning of the attack did not realise just what was going on. One of the wounded, a private, said: "I was standing 'in a cmmunication trench waiting for orders. I heard a noise back of me and looked around in time to see a German fire in-my direction. I felt a bullet hit my arm." The Germans left the trench as 6oon as possible, taking their dead and wounded with them. An • inspection showed, however, that they had abandoned three rifles, a number of knives, and helmets.

The raid was evidently carefully planned, and American officers admit that it was well executed. As a raid, however, there was nothing unusual about it. It was such, as is happening all along the line. There is reason for believing that the Germans were greatly surprised when they found Americans in the trenches instead of the French. Tile French general in command of the division of which the American detachment formed a part, expressed extreme satisfaction at the action of the Americans, for they fought bravely against a numerically superior enemy, the handful of men fig-hting until they were smothered. The bodies of the American dead were brought back to divisional heaquarters and buried with honours to-day. The wounded are at the base hospitals.