was received that the Germans had broken into the northern part of Château-Thierry, having made their way through the gap they had driven in our lines to the left of the town and then pouring along the streets to the bridge, intending to establish themselves firmly on the south bank and capture the town.

The American machine gunners and French Colonials were thrown into Château-Thierry together. The Americans immediately took over the defense of the river bank, especially the approaches to the bridge. Fighting with their habitual courage and using their guns with an accuracy which won the highest encomiums from the French, they brought the enemy to a standstill.

Already wavering under the American fire, the Germans were counter-attacked by the French Colonials and driven from the town. They returned to the attack the next night and under cover of darkness crept into the town along the river bank and began to work their way through the streets toward the main bridge. At the same moment a tremendous artillery bombardment was opened upon the southern half of the town.

When within range of the machine guns the Germans advanced under the cover of clouds of thick white smoke from smoke bombs, in order to baffle the aim of the American gunners. A surprise, however, was in store for them. They were already crossing the bridge, evidently believing themselves masters of both banks, when a thunderous explosion blew the center of the bridge and a number of Germans with it into the river. Those who reached the southern bank were immediately captured.

In this battle in the streets, and again at night, the young American soldiers showed a courage and determination which aroused the admiration of their French colonial comrades. With their machine guns they covered the withdrawal of troops across the bridge before its destruction, and although under severe fire themselves, kept all the approaches to the bank under a rain of bullets which nullified all the subsequent efforts of the enemy to cross the river. Every attempt of the Germans to elude the vigilance of the Americans resulted in disaster.

During the last two days the enemy has renounced the occupation of the northern part of Château-Thierry, which the American machine guns have made untenable. It now belongs to No Man's Land, as, since the destruction of the bridges, it is not worth while for the French to garrison it.

Against their casualties the Americans can set a much greater loss inflicted by their bullets on the enemy. They have borne their

full part in what a French staff officer well qualified to judge described as one of the finest feats of the war.

Some very fine work [said the special correspondent of the London Times] was done at Château-Thierry on May 31 and June 1 by American machine-guns, acting under the command of a well-known French fighting general. I did not see the general, who had had no sleep for four days. But his Chief-of-Staff was most enthusiastic about the services rendered to the division by our new Allies. They had only just arrived in their billets south of Château-Thierry when they were rushed up to the town, together with French Colonial troops billeted alongside of them, as soon as it was threatened by the enemy. They at once threw themselves into the defense, taking the bridge over the Marne especially under their protection, and thanks to the way in which they supported the French counterattack with their machine-guns the enemy were driven right away from the town.

The next day at 9 o'clock in the evening the Germans took advantage of darkness to steal up to the bridge through the suburbs on the west side of the town, masking their approach with smoke grenades which made machine-gun shooting very difficult, the town meanwhile being subjected to heavy bombardment. The Germans succeeded in reaching the bridge, and some of them, who were promptly made prisoners, even got to the French side. But the bulk of them were destroyed by an explosion thoughtfully arranged for them by the Americans as they were in the act of crossing the bridge, and from that time on this machine-gun unit has shown such vigilance in watching the bridge as well as in preventing all attempts to construct temporary substitutes that it has been impossible for the enemy either to repair the bridge or to get across in any other way.

Before the incident of the explosion the Americans had shown extraordinary courage in holding the position and enabling the French who were evacuating the north part of the town to get safely over to the south bank. The Colonials who were pretty competent judges are particularly keen about their coolness and courage under fire as well as their deadly execution and the thorough way in which they have guarded approaches to the river. They have done their work so well that the Germans prefer not to occupy the part of the town which has been evacuated. It is not, say the French, a healthy place for a picnic. Ner, as a matter of fact, was the American post on this side of the bridge. But what they have done was worth the loss it

cost them, not only because it enabled the French troops to get away from the town and has prevented the enemy from establishing himself in it, but because in one action it has earned for them the affectionate admiration of the French by whose side they are fighting. These are allies worth having. That is what the French feel and say, and every Englishman will agree with them.

Speaking at the Printers' Pension Fund dinner in London on June 7, Premier Lloyd George said of the American soldiers in France:

I have only just returned from France and met a French statesman who had been at the front shortly after a battle in which the Americans took part. He was full of admiration not merely of their superb valor but of the trained skill with which they attacked and defeated the foe.

His report of the conduct of the American troops, a division that had been in action for the first time, was one of the most encouraging things I have heard, because they are coming in steadily. There is a great flow, and we are depending upon them, and the fact that we know that when they appear in the battleline they will fight in a way which is worthy of the great traditions of their great country is in itself a source of support and sustenance and encouragement to all of those who with anxious hearts are watching the conflict which is going on in France.

On the night of June 3, the Second Division took over the French lines, and on the morning of the 4th faced the Germans from Belleau Wood to Bouresches village. The first work assigned it was to drive the enemy from observation points. At five o'clock on the morning of the 5th, therefore, the 1st and 3d Battalions of the 5th Marines, with the 167th French on the left, assaulted the edge of the wood and the crest of the hills near Veuilly, captured them by seven o'clock, and took a hundred and forty prisoners. The left having advanced the center of the Division started forward and at five o'clock in the afternoon the 5th and 6th Marines with the 23d Infantry attacked from a point east of Bussiares to Bouresches. All night the two armies went forward and backward in the thickets and among the bowlders of the Bois de Belleau and