100 Years Ago

AUGUST 8, 1918

Forward with the Americans

New murder traps have been set by the Germans to catch unwary Americans in the towns and cities from which the enemy has been driven. On the floors in houses were found glass bulbs or bladders, full of phosgene gas to poison our men when entering. Other deposits of the same gas were left in tiny bags under helmets, as the Germans know that souvenir collecting is a passion of Americans. The captain who led the advance patrol of 30 Americans into a captured town saw in the dining-room of a small hotel a loaf of bread on the table, with a knife sticking in it. Suspecting a snare, he called upon a German prisoner to withdraw the knife. The effect was a violent explosion. A bomb had been left in the loaf, but only the prisoner was injured. When the captain reached the hotel a German officer came out, speaking excellent English, saying he desired to surrender. The American pulled out his revolver and jumped back barely in time to escape a rain of bullets from a machine-gun hidden under a cellar door.

Machine-guns, which have practically supplanted rifles with the Germans, are the bane of the overseas soldier, yet the Americans throw themselves against the pernicious weapons with almost superhuman audacity. Set up in rocky nests, clumps of bushes, or along ridges commanding fields of uncut grain, they are handled by an experienced enemy who keeps his presence of mind and offers the most desperate resistance before his opponents can come to hand-to-hand conflicts, where the superiority of the fresh and well-fed American troops always manifests itself

In the operating room of a hospital left by the enemy were some rolls of crepe paper, which the Germans have been using for dressing wounds, showing they have little cloth left. We also discovered that some burned bits of harness, instead of leather, were made from composite paper and hemp. A number of motor-cars burned and abandoned by the Germans in their flight had iron tires, indicating that the enemy was out of rubber. Millions of dollars’ worth of German supplies have been destroyed by the retreating enemy. The horizon at night is a succession of gigantic red patches, with occasional roars of touched-off ammunition which they could not remove.

100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/the-scots-at-buzancy-nf6zvbw5z

AUGUST 2, 1918

The Scots at Buzancy

A week ago I suppose there was hardly a soul in Scotland who had heard of Buzancy, which is one of the gates of the plateau on its western side. Today there is no prouder name borne on the colours of the eight famous regiments by which it was stormed. The Scottish Division has done no harder fighting during the war. The violence of the struggle was frightful. A great deal of it was hand-to-hand fighting in the streets. At the end of the day two bodies were found locked together in death. One was a German officer, in his hand the revolver with which he had shot his opponent. Our man was still holding the rifle with which he had bayoneted the officer as he fired the shot which killed him. The village and the sandstone caves were stiff with machine-guns. At one place there was a high wall which had to be crossed. Our men got over it by climbing on each others’ shoulders, and dropping on the other side in face of a terrible fire. The enemy showed no trace of the failing moral which is too freely talked about. Almost to a man they resisted to the very last, and after the battle several German machine-guns and one Tank were found with the men dead at their posts, and a ring of our dead and wounded close up to them.

The division had already had a strenuous time. They were brought back from Arras after seven months in the line, entrained at 2 in the morning and then moved to their new quarters in motor-omnibuses and, at the end of a 10-miles march, ordered to attack at daybreak. After a great fight, though exposed to galling machine-gun fire on their flanks, they reached their objective, consolidated their position, and held it till the morning of the 26th. Next day came the order for the attack on Buzancy and the high ground beyond, and by midday on the 28th the first wave was through and the objectives attained. Then, however, there was a hitch, as the troops on the right, in spite of the most gallant efforts, could not advance, and were compelled to fall back.

The difficulty about the position is that it is enfiladed by German heavy batteries. The valleys behind the lines are doused with gas, and as, except in the caves, there is almost no shelter, the troops have need of philosophy, as well as courage, to stick it as they do. The whole countryside is horribly devastated.