Meantime the foe gave renewed attention to the Toul sector. One new form of attack came from a German aeroplane, which dropped rubber balls filled with liquefied "mustard" gas. The effect of these novel air missiles was not serious. The gas merely infuriated the troops, and when the Germans heavily attacked the American positions with shell fire, gas shells were hurled at the enemy from American batteries. Four gas attacks ware launched at the Germans, whose guns were presently silenced.
The Germans later responded by concentrating a heavy gas attack on a town behind the American lines. No wind was blowing and the fumes of the "mustard" gas from the shells hung low over the lines for a long time. The batteries firing the gas shells were located and the American gunners retaliated with doses of gas twice as large as the American positions received. In fact, two towns held by the Germans were so heavily gassed that one of them, Réchicourt, north of Xivray, one of the American targets, was abandoned.
German snipers in this sector were also a constant worry to the Americans. As fast as one nest was silenced, another was found, and the task of wiping out the nuisance had to be repeated. In one instance, a group of American snipers discovered an enemy nest close by and promptly opened fire on it. The Germans replied with their rifles, and then fired about three dozen or so of grenades. Apparently the Germans had come to stay and did not intend to be chased out. One of the American 37-millimeter gun teams then got into action against the nest, and owing to its accurate fire no more Germans were seen at this particular point. The Germans were frequently presented with examples of the accuracy of the fire of these 37-millimeter guns. An enemy machine-gun emplacement which had been annoying the Americans was located and then the battery of "little fellows," as the guns were known along the front, got into action, firing rapidly. They secured a number of direct hits and destroyed the emplacement guns.
These small guns, which are about the size of a one-pounder, were easily moved from place to place even in the trenches. They also secured direct hits on the junction of communication trenches as men were passing, and into the entrance of the dugout which a number of the enemy were seen to enter and from which smoke was issuing. None of the enemy was seen to come out.
In April the Germans attempted an ambitious local operation against the Americans northwest of Toul. They planned to enter the third line positions, it was subsequently learned, and for this purpose they sent a special battalion of 800 shock troops equipped with wire, dynamite, intrenching tools and other implements for adapting trenches to their own use. The attack was preceded by a violent bombardment of the American positions, lasting three days. Hundreds of shells fell, many of them charged with gas. At sunrise on April 10 the German infantrymen signaled their batteries for a barrage, and under it they started out for the American line. They were selected from the best men of three regiments and were preceded by shock platoons. The American gunners did not wait for any rocket signal from their own side before getting into action. They immediately started a counterbarrage, which caught the advancing Germans before they could reach the American wire entanglements. The German officers sent their troops through the answering barrage, with the result that fewer than 200 of the 800 troops succeeded in making any advance. Only two reached the American line; both were captured and one died immediately after from wounds.
The fighting developed on no-man's-land. American outposts moved to the first line and with other infantrymen and machine gunners waited for those of the attackers who survived the American barrage. As the raiders neared the Americans poured a deadly fire into them, then climbed out of the trenches and engaged them with grenades and in hand-to-hand fighting. The enemy was driven back to his own lines, suffering serious casualties from American heavy machine-gun and rifle fire rained on his men as they fled. No-man's-land was strewn with German dead; several bodies hung on the barbed wire after the enemy retired; and numbers were killed by American guns before they could leave the German trenches. The fight lasted two hours in a heavy morning mist; but the American gunners found their aim despite the poor visibility.
It was a crushing defeat, and two days later the Germans, smarting under it, sought to avenge it by reorganizing the 800 shock troops, which were filled out by picked men from other units, and ordering them to take the American positions. As before a violent bombardment, accompanied by gas shells, signalized the attack. The German guns kept up a harassing fire all night, and with dawn came the infantry attack, directed against French troops who flanked the American forces on the left in the forest of Apremont. While this engagement was proceeding the Americans launched a counterattack on the German line, moving forward behind a perfect curtain fire. The enemy, driven out of his trenches, was forced to fight in the open. A deadly machine-gun and automatic-rifle fire was poured into the Germans, who offered stubborn resistance at first, but latter retreated to their second line, hotly pursued by the American troops.
After an interim the Germans resumed the attack at a point farther to the right. The American barrage fire cut them off, but the German officers drove their men through the exploding shells until a few succeeded in penetrating the American front line. A counterattack by the Americans ejected the enemy, driving him back to his positions.
The struggle lasted throughout the day, and was the first all-day battle in which the Americans had been engaged. Their loss was slight. They lost no prisoners, but gained thirty-four of the enemy. The prisoners taken belonged to six different organizations. Five were Uhlans, and all were carrying haversacks well filled, as if in preparation for a protracted stay in the American trenches, corroborating the stories told by prisoners previously taken, who said that the Germans had been ordered to penetrate the American third line at all costs.
Several deeds of individual heroism marked the engagement. In one case a young lieutenant, with three men, attacked nineteen Germans who had penetrated into one of the American trenches. The lieutenant called on the Germans to surrender. One of them raised his pistol, as if to shoot, but the lieutenant shot him through the head, upon which the others lifted their hands high in the air and yelled "Kamerad." The lieutenant marched the prisoners in to the rear and then returned to the front and resumed the command of his platoon.