Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1918 — FRENCH CAPTURE FOE SPYGLASSES [ARTICLE]

FRENCH CAPTURE FOE SPYGLASSES

German Observation Points Are Methodically Taken in Daring Attacks. HEROIC WORK OF BLUE DEVILS First Spyglass Seizure Is Credited to Chasseurs Who, In Sensational Attack, Wipe Out Powerfully Fortified Salient by Surprise. With the French Armies in the Field. ■—French troops are methodically taking away the German spyglasses. One by one, enemy observation points or advantageous positions have been carefully spotted by the French command and effectively eliminated. Though French official communiques Issued have registered merely local actions, these have had for the main objective that of snatching the binoculars from the Teuton eyes. A brief artillery preparation, a shrill whistle In the first-line trench, and the Poilus have bounded “over the top” in actions of signal importance In Alsace, north of the Chemin Des Dames and north of Verdun at Hill 344. Nearly 1,400 prisoners and valuable war material is the “by-prod-uct” of these local, strategical drives. Won by Blue Devils. The first “spyglass” seizure was that of the “Schonholz,” a powerful fortified German salient jutting Into the French lines in Alsace, serving the double purpose of German observation of the French organizations and preventing the French seeing in the direction of Altkirch. On the afternoon of November 7, after a brief but violent artillery preparation, three companies of the French Chasseurs —Blue Devils —attacked the Schonholz, completely, wiping out the salient In a fierce fight lasting into the night. - The enemy desperately counter-at-tacked, but failed, leaving in all 120 prisoners, including six officers, in the hands of the Blue Devils. Complete ’ German losses, high because of their fierce effort to retain a position which they knew to be of extreme value, were estimated at at Iqpst 600 men. The following day a French general pinned military medals on the blue tunics of two adjutants and a corporal for exceptional valor. Though there were no such medals in the district the general sent a fast automobile to find them, wherever possible, and the. little presentation ceremony in an Alsaclan village was a happy aftermath of a victory that took from the Germans priceless observations which had bothered the French for two years. The French command next decided that the Germans were seeing too much north of the Chemin Des Dames. Consequently following a brief artillery deluge, four companies of Poilus passed to the attack against the enemy lines forming a salient between the small River Misotte and the route of the German-held village- of Jouvincourt as far as the village of Ville-au-Bols. Here the enemy held valuable observation post? overlooking Jouvincourt and ground each of the Mlette.

Under low-lying clouds and in a “pea-soup” fog, the former preventing all aerial work and the latter preventing enemy observation., of the ad-* vance, the French Infantrymen, in less than an hour swept over positions on a front of 1,500 yards and penetrated to a depth of over half a mile. They wiped out the salient, took all the observatories. and captured 475 prisoners—a number almost equal to half of the entire attacking force. Six German officers and 45 under officers fell into the net The third and most important French action of November was in a region where constant hellish fighting has been the daily routine —Hill 344, on the right bank of the Meuse, north of Verdun. Here a drumlike artillery roar has never ceased, night and day,

for nearly three months. German attacks and French counter-attacks, almost daily since the latter part of August, have had small place in the communique because of their routine nature. The enemy’s positions permitted him to make constant infantry “nibbles” into the French lines on the northern flank of Hill 344, and to disturb French organization which he could see in the rear. Surprise Attack Successful. French strategy in eliminating the enemy’s advantageous positions in the region of Hill 344 has probably never been employed before in this war. Taking advantage of the conditions peculiar to the region, French guns of many calibers at 6:30 Sunday, morning, November 25, concentrated their deluge of steel on a three and one-half kilometer front opposite Hill 344. The thunder of this artillery preparation, though violent, was unnoticed amid the constant medley of air vibrations which had become a habit to German ears for almost three months. Just four hours after the beginning of the concentration of fire, screened by its own habitual noise, at 10:30 a. m. the French guns lengthened thwr range, and barraged the German rear while the Poilus went over the top. The surprise was complete. The advantageous positions which it had taken the enemy over eight weeks to gain were wiped out in not much more than eight minutes.