AMERICA ENTERS THE FIRING LINE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 30, 30 October 1917, Page 5

AMERICA ENTERS THE FIRING LINE

PRACTICAL TRAINING FOR STERNER WORK

. , New York, October 28. A Paris message announces that tome battalions of Americans are now in the first-line trenches, and that the American artillery is shelling the Germans, The American Headquarters in France has announced that the American troops have been sent to a. quiet sector on the French front, for the continuation of their training. They are to constitute' a nucleus for the instruction of later contingents. The troops are satisfactorily adapting themselves to the conditions. A United Press correspondent at Ainorican Headquarters writes:—"The 'Sammies' are fighting in the trenches alongside the poiltis, with the greatest camaraderie. The infantry restlessly awaited orders to advance from the village where they had ■ assembled, and marched through the streets at nightfall, some of the men singing in an undertone. The Americans are most enthusiastic. The first shell-case fired is to be sent to President Wilson."

The Washington correspondent of the "New York Times" points out that the troops are in the trenches for observation and training, and their presence cannot bo regarded as the Teal beginning of American participation in the fighting. They will later be replaced by other contingents in order to accustom the whole of the troops to the conditions of the trenches and the danger zone, and the shook of shellfire.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.