  [Month ended May 20, 1918] Seicheprey, in the Toul sector, was the scene on April 20, 1918, of the most determined attack launched against the American forces in France up to that time. A German regiment, reinforced by storm troops, a total of 1,500, was hurled against the American positions on a one-mile front west of RemiÈres Forest, northwest of Toul, after a severe bombardment of gas and high explosive shells. The Germans succeeded in penetrating the front-line trenches and taking the village of Seicheprey, but after furious hand-to-hand fighting the American troops recaptured the village and most of the ground lost in the early fighting. Next morning, after a brief bombardment, the Americans attacked and drove the enemy out of the old outposts, which they had gained, and thus broke down an offensive which, it was believed, was intended as the beginning of a German plan to separate the Americans and the French. The French lines also were attacked, but the Germans were repulsed and the lines re-established. The losses were the heaviest sustained by Americans since they began active warfare in France. In a dispatch to the War Department General Pershing indicated that the losses among his men were between 200 and 300. According to the German official statement 183 Americans were taken prisoner, so that the American casualties apparently came mostly under the heading of captured. Official reports of the German losses, according to a prisoner captured later, gave 600 killed, wounded, and missing. IN THE PICARDY BATTLE"Franco-American positions south of the Somme and on the Avre" were officially mentioned for the first time in the French War Office report of April 24, indicating that forces of the United States were there on the battlefront resisting the great German offensive. The report stated that an intense bombardment of the positions all along this front was followed by an attack directed against Hangard-en-Santerre, the region of Hailles, and Senecat Wood. The Germans were repulsed almost everywhere. Formal announcement that American troops sent to reinforce the allied armies had taken part in the fighting was made by the War Department in its weekly review of the situation issued on April 29. "Our own forces," the statement read, "have taken part in the battle. American units are in the area east of Amiens. During the engagements which have raged in this area they have acquitted themselves well." UNDER INTENSE FIREAnother heavy attack was launched by the Germans against the Americans in the vicinity of Villers-Bretonneux on April 30. It was repulsed with heavy losses for the enemy. The German bombardment opened at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and was directed especially against the Americans, who were supported on the north and south by the French. The fire was intense, and at the end of two hours the German commander sent forward three battalions of infantry. There was hand-to-hand fighting all along the line, as a result of which the enemy was thrust back, his dead and wounded lying on the ground in all directions. The French troops were full of praise for the manner in which the Americans conducted themselves under trying circumstances, especially in view of the fact that they are fighting at one of the most difficult points on the battlefront. The American losses were rather severe. The gallantry of the 300 American engineers who were caught in the General Pershing embodied in his report a communication from General Rawlinson, commander of the British 5th Army, in which the latter declared that "it has been largely due to your assistance that the enemy is checked." The report covered the fighting period from March 21 to April 3. The former date marked the beginning of the Ludendorff offensive along the whole front from La FÈre to Croisilles. It showed that while under shellfire the American engineers destroyed material dumps at Chaulnes, that they fell back with the British forces to Moreuil, where the commands laid out trench work, and were then assigned to a sector of the defensive line at Demuin, and to a position near Warfusee-Abancourt. During the period of thirteen days covered by the report the American engineers had two officers killed and three wounded, while twenty men were killed, fifty-two wounded, and forty-five reported missing. STORY OF CAREY EPISODEA correspondent of The Associated Press at the front gave this account of the part played by Americans in the historic episode under General Carey:
STAFF CHANGESMajor Gen. James W. McAndrew, it was announced on May 3, was appointed Chief of Staff of the American expeditionary force in succession to Brig. Gen. James G. Harbord, who was assigned to a command in the field. Other changes on General Pershing's staff included the appointment of Lieut. Col. Robert C. Davis as Adjutant General, and Colonel Merritte W. Ireland as Surgeon General. The General Staff of the American expeditionary forces in France, as the result of several changes in personnel, consisted on May 14, 1918, of the following:
President Wilson on May 4 pardoned two soldiers of the American expeditionary force who had been condemned to death by a military court-martial in France for sleeping on sentry duty and commuted to nominal prison terms the death sentences imposed on two others for disobeying orders. HEALTH OF THE SOLDIERSMajor Hugh H. Young, director of the work of dealing with communicable blood diseases in our army in France, made this striking statement on May 12 regarding the freedom of the American expeditionary force from such diseases:
This means that the American Army is the cleanest in the world. The results, according to Major Young, have been achieved by preventive steps taken by the American medical directors, coupled with the co-operation of the men. |
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