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Monday, Sept. 29, 1919. THE GREENVILLE DAILY NEWS. ELEVEN

[picture of a man]

COL. ALBERT L. COX,
Commanding 113th Field Artillery, 30th Division.

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26th, this Regiment made an advance
in the outpost system of the Hinden-
burg line, thus straighening it pre-
paratory to the big drive against the
system itself that was to come with-
in a few days. Having held the line
for five nights and four days during
which it suffered heavy casualties, the
118th was relieved by the 60th Bri-
gade on the night of the 27th. Hav-
ing reached the main defenses of
what has been termed the most pow-
erful defensive system erected on the
Western Front, the enemy was dis-
puting the possession of every foot of
ground, his machine guns becoming
very active and harrassing.

The following description of the
enemys position, taken from the re-
port of operations of the 30th Division
gies one an idea of the task confront-
ing the 30th.

"The position occupied by the
enemy in front of the 30th Division was
not only of great strength but pos-
sessed many unique features. Begun
in 1914 and improved further in more
recent periods, it formed one of the
strongest positions of the famous
Hindenburg system. In addition to
several heavy belts of wire and a
very complete trench system, skill-
ful advantage had been taken of the
great natural obstacle of the St. Quen-
tin canal to make the position as near-
ly impregnable as possible. As this
canal had a most important influence
on the plan of attack and upon the
battle itself, it is believed that it
merits some special description."

Here follows a detailed description
of the canal. In front of the town of
Bellicourt, the waterway runs under-
ground through a tunnel. In describ-
ing the tunnel the report continues.
"This tunnel runs for 5 3-4 kilometers
at a depth undergrounf varying from
15 to 20 meters. It is ten meters
wide at the top, 18 meters wide at
the water level and is strongly built
of masonry. About half of this tun-
nel and some 500 yards of the St.
Quentin Canal were in the 30th Di-
vision sector of attack."

"The canal and tunnel together are
of particular interest as an obstacle.
The tunnel itself could provide abso-
lutely safe shelter for a division,
while many underground tunnels con-
nect it with the various trench sys-
tems, thus permitting reinforcements
at any time of any portion of the
trench system. In addition to the
canal and tunnel this portion of the
Hindenburg line included a system of
trenches, generally three. Wide belts
of strong German wire protected the
entire system, even the communication
trenches being heavily wired; forward
belton were frequently in the form

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of deep triangles 50 to 150 yards in
depth."

"It is believed that there are few
position so well adapted for machine
gun defense as the sector just de-
scribed. The enemy had taken full
advantage of the natural feature of
the ground and during his four years
occupancy had improved them to such
a degree as to render the position ap-
parently impregnable to a formal at-
tack."

Faced by an enemy driven to its
strongest defense system, this Divis-
ion in conjunction with the 27th
American Division on the left and the
VIV British Corps on the right, at-
tacked on the morning of September
29th. Under a heavy artillery and
machine gun barrage, the 60th Bri-
gade followed by the 117th Infantry
in close support, began the attack at
5:50 A. M. The morning was very
foggy which caused some confusion
in the advance but worked to the ad-
vantage of the attacking troops as
their movements were concealed from
the enemy.

In spite of the terrible opposition
encountered from the beginning of the
attack the advance continued, a great
deal of the fighting being done by
small groups of men who would gath-
er together in the fog. Numerous
machine gun posts were captured, af-
ter some bloody bayonet work. By
the afternoon of the 29th, when the
Austarlians [Australians] passed through the 30th,
the objectives had been taken and
most of them held. The 177th Infan-
try on the right was on its objective
and joined up with the 46th British
Division. The 119th Infantry was oc-
cupying the Le Catelet Nauroy Line
and the 120th was in the town of
Nauroy. The advance had carried
the Division over the tunnel and canal
and through the villages of Bellicourt,
Riqueval and Nauroy. Having ad-
vanced 4,200 yards on a 3,000 yard
front, the Division had acheived what
had been deemed impossible, a break
through the Hindenburg line.

During this advance 1481 prisoners
were taken while the ground was
covered in places with the enemy dead
and wounded. The casualties in the
30th had been quite severe, the Divis-
ion suffering heavily from enfilading
fire from machine guns.

In attempting to describe the ac-
complishments of the Division in its
first offensive action of any impor-
tance, credit should be given to the
tanks and artillery that so ably as-
sisted in the victory. As the Divis-
ion artillery had been sent to some
other section of the front upon its
arrival in France, the 30th had been
supported by British artillery ever
since reaching France. In the attack
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