AMERICANS IN WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19931, 27 April 1928, Page 12

AMERICANS IN WAR.

WHAT CHILDREN LEARN. LONDON PAPER'S REVELATION. Australian and N.Z. Press Association. LONDON, April 25. The Daily Telegraph reveals the extraordinary character of an American school book on tha history of the Great War. It quotes a scathing indictment by the Army and Navy Journal, of Washington, the staff of which carefully examined references in 107 history books to the part played by America in the war. The Journal gives the following extract from one school book as typical:— "It is a wonder the war lasted 15 minutes after we arrived. The Germans were dumbfounded. '• We took St. Mihiel in a few hours. Whole German battalions rushed from their dug-outs to escape annihilation. We charged across the river yelling like demons. We fought 1,200,000 men on a piece of ground three to five miles in area and drove them to the Rhineland.

" We gained every objective, smashed every counter-attack, whipped twice our number, and demonstrated that an American with six months' training was more than a match for a German veteran. We took the bit in our teeth, and nothing could stop us. The enemy quailed before the Americans at Soissons and fled at Belleau Wood. We opened Marsha! Foch's eyes. We used common sense and did not need an army staff. The tide of battle turned as soon as we arrived."