Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 141, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1918 — AMERICAN SOLDIERS NOW HOLDING 38 MILE FRONT [ARTICLE]

AMERICAN SOLDIERS NOW HOLDING 38 MILE FRONT

Washington, D. C., June 21. American soldiers are now holding the fighting line for a distance of thirty-eight miles on the western front, according to information given members of the house military committee today at the weekly conference with Secretary Baker and' Gen. March, chief bf staff. Patrols of the enemy suffered considerable losses northwest of Chateau Thierry and in the Woevre region, .Gen. Pershing reported in his communique of yesterday. In the Chateau Thieny and Woevre region and in Lorraine artillery fighting continues. With American Army In France, June 20 (delayed).—At dawn today American troops stormed German trenches and machine gune nests in front of Cantigny in the Montdidier sector. Those of the German garrison who remained to fight and carry out their orders to hold the positions at any cost were killed by rifle and machine gun fire and bayonet. . , The American artillery put down a heavy 'box barrage on the rear of the enemy positions. A few minutes later the infantry swarmed over the top and rushed the trenches. Some of the Germans had tried to escape through the barrage, crashing to their rear, but few of them got through, for numerous German dead were found later. One machine gun nest containing eight men, which had been sprinkling Cantigny for several days, was blown up by a direct hit from a trench mortar /bomb. The enemy’s artillery has been more active on the Toul sector since the heavy gassing to which the Americans subjected them yesterday. The Germans have thrown about 6,000 shells along the American front in the Woevre.