AMERICANS ON MARNE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14711, 17 September 1918, Page 3

AMERICANS ON MARNE

EXCELLENT SPIRIT SHOWN

I was' able to visit for "a few minutes the American troops who took part m the Champagne • defensive, says the special correspondent of the Morning Post % writing just prior to General Foch's counter-stroke on the Marne. Tlie men engaged satisfied because they have definitely been at grips as infantrymen ' with the enemy. Like the troops m the rest of the sector, they had their full s hare of the artillery Aoi,» bardment and m repelling the enemy advance, and were able to deliver ,a conn, ter-attack which brilliantly succeeded. Their spirit was excellent. Under the pressure of overwhelming numbers they had been forced to fall back, but they clamored for orders to counter-attack, and when they received them they completely re-toolc their positions, being only restrained with difficulty from attempting to make further progress. In the course of the advance one, of the men observed an enemy . aeroplane overhead, and. firing at it with an automatic rifle, succeeded m bringing it down, a feat of which there have been only a. few parallels during the present' war. Comrades of the man declare that he brought the aeroplane down with his first shot, but the statement lacks confirmation.

The enemy found that "there was plenty of reason to fear the American troops, as is indicated by the following report which was received at headquarters from the officer m command of an Irish company engaged : "Boches have got a foothold here and our Hne a have been entered. They arc still heredead." V