AMERICAN ARMY

DEFENCE OF THE MARNE

BRILLIANT WORK. From G. H. PERRIS. WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES, Tuesday (8.0 a.m.).

An American machine-gun unit and French colonial infantry were relieved from keeping the Marne bridgehead at Château-thierry, and covered with the same glory, the young and the old Allies have gone down to their respective camps to fill up their ranks and rest. The Americans set themselves up in a cantonment south of Châteauthierry. At 3.30 on Friday afternoon, the Germans were immediately threatening the town from the hills which surround it on the north and northwest. The machine gunners and the colonials were therefore sent across the river, and together they drove the invaders back to the outskirts. The dash of the latter troops is proverbial, and it is no small thing for them to say that the “Doughboys”, as our cousins apparently like to call themselves, showed the highest skill and coolness in and under fire.

At nine p.m. on Saturday, the Germans came on again, under cover of nightfall, from the north-west and along the boulevard beside the Marne. Here they again used a trick that has served them well during this offensive, throwing before them grenades which raised thick clouds of smoke, so that no precise aim could be taken till they were at arms’ length.

Arrived at the main bridge leading across the Marne to the southern part of the town, it was their turn to suffer a deadly surprise. A column of Germans was on the bridge when the central arch, and they with it, were blown into the air. The explosion was exactly timed.

The Americans, who had first covered with their machine guns the retirement from the north bank, now found sheltered posts from which they could command all possible points of passage, and for two nights and days they broke every attempt to use the old bridges or to make new ones. Their vigilance, energy, and sangfroid are warmly praised by their senior comrades, and their losses are less than those they inflicted on the enemy.

ATTACK ON THE OURCQ. WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES, Tuesday (2 p.m.).

The battle blazed out afresh last night along and south of the Upper Ourcq, and the struggle is raging as I write, with a violence due in part to the fact that both sides have brought up many guns, and in part to the desperation of the Germans, as once more they see victory slipping out of their hands. Tactically the chief feature to-day is the attempt of the enemy to support the attack on the Ourcq by a thrust further south along its tributary, the Clignon, a small stream following a marshy valley westward to the middle course of the Ourcq. Here most bitter combats have taken place, and continue about the villages of Bouresches, Torcy, and Neuilly-le-poterie. At the latter point the Germans tried to get round southward, but were effectually stopped in Neuilly Wood, a mile south of the village, by Americans. In all this fighting the enemy’s losses have been very severe, for in every case we had the best defensive positions, well supported by machine guns and “75’s”.

I spoke yesterday of the importance of the French stand to the south-west of Soissons, both as limiting the enemy’s access to the Aisne Valley and as narrowing his approach to the Ourcq Valley. A slight withdrawal to the line of the villages of Pernant, Saconin, Missy, and Vaucastille yesterday did not materially weaken this buttress of our front, nor is it seriously weakened by a further short fall back this morning between Pernant and Missy, for which the enemy has had to pay dearly. We still hold Troesnes and Faverolles, and the prospects of Von Boehn reaching Villers Cotterets are not bright enough to cheer the drooping spirits of Berlin.

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