The next day, the Germans, throwing fresh reinforcements into the battle, counter-attacked furiously. Between the Valley of the Aire and Cierges, the Americans had to fight hard for several days, in order to resist the pressure of the enemy and to hold the ground they had gained. On the 29th and 30th violent fighting took place round Apremont. The Germans, reinforcing their artillery, fired great numbers of gas shells. They stubbornly defended the approaches of the “Kriemhilde” position, which from Champigneulle to St. Juvin, through Cornay, Fléville, and the woods of Gesnes, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Cunel and Fays, reached the Meuse in the Brieulles district. Thus the first stage of the attack was over. The Americans had forced the Germans to abandon their first and second lines and had captured 9,000 prisoners and more than 100 guns. The Period of Attrition (_October 1-31, 1918._) The advance effected during the first stage of the attack brought the American infantry face-to-face with fresh German positions, strongly defended, bristling with machine-guns and automatic weapons, organised one behind the other and connected up with one another. These positions had to be reduced bit by bit. The smallest wood or the least depression of the ground was utilised by the Germans with the greatest skill. In the woods they made use of a new type of auxiliary defence-works--barbed-wire entanglements (Maschendraht) about nine feet in height, fastened to trees or to stakes six inches in diameter. The Americans on their side attacked desperately, and succeeded in gaining the disputed ground, step-by-step, thereby laying during the whole month of October the foundation of the operations which in November were to end in the enemy’s capitulation along the whole front. On October 1, a hard struggle began which lasted several days, with alternate advances and retreats. The French, finally breaking the counter-offensive on their flank, advanced along the Valley of the Aire. On October 1 they occupied Binarville, Condé-lez-Autry and Vaux-lez-Mouron, after capturing considerable material, including 200 narrow-gauge trucks and numerous trucks of normal gauge. The Americans, on their side, in spite of the machine-guns, barbed-wire, and counter-attacks supported by tanks, pushed forward bravely. [Illustration: SECOND STAGE OF THE FRANCO-AMERICAN ATTACK, SHOWING PROGRESS MADE UP TO OCTOBER 30 (30/10)] On October 4, Pershing launched an attack along the whole Army front. On the right, the American 3rd Corps advanced as far as the Brieulles-Cunel road, which, however, it failed to pass. In the centre, the 5th Corps reached Gesnes. On the left, the troops of the 1st Corps advanced on the Forest of Argonne and reached La Viergette. On the edge of the forest the same troops made an advance of about two miles, reaching the outskirts of Fléville and capturing Chéhéry, as well as Arietal Farm on the north of Exermont.