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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36514-0.txt b/36514-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..acd93fd --- /dev/null +++ b/36514-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7150 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Army at the Front, by Heywood Broun + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Our Army at the Front + +Author: Heywood Broun + +Release Date: June 25, 2011 [EBook #36514] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: _From a painting by F. C. Yohn._ + +The battle of Seicheprey. + +"All through the night the artillerymen sent their shells, encasing +themselves in gas masks." (_Page_ 225)] + + + + +_AMERICA IN THE WAR_ + +OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT + +BY + +HEYWOOD BROUN + +FORMERLY CORRESPONDENT FOR THE "NEW YORK TRIBUNE" WITH THE +AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE + +ILLUSTRATED + +NEW YORK + +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +1922 + +COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +Printed in the United States of America + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + +I. THE LANDING OF PERSHING 1 + +II. "VIVE PAIR-SHANG!" 11 + +III. THE FIRST DIVISION LANDS 29 + +IV. THE FOURTH OF JULY 44 + +V. WHAT THEY LIVED IN 53 + +VI. GETTING THEIR STRIDE 66 + +VII. SPEEDING UP 81 + +VIII. BACK WITH THE BIG GUNS 96 + +IX. THE EYES OF THE ARMY 107 + +X. THE SCHOOLS FOR OFFICERS 117 + +XI. SOME DISTINGUISHED VISITORS 124 + +XII. THE MEN WHO DID EVERYTHING 134 + +XIII. BEHIND THE LINES 145 + +XIV. FRANCE AND THE MEDICOES 158 + +XV. IN CHARGE OF MORALE 168 + +XVI. INTO THE TRENCHES 177 + +XVII. OUR OWN SECTOR 189 + +XVIII. A CIVILIAN VISITOR 200 + +XIX. A FAMOUS GESTURE 212 + +XX. THE FIRST TWO BATTLES 224 + +XXI. TEUFEL-HUNDEN 237 + +XXII. THE ARMY OF MANÅ’UVRE 248 + +XXIII. ST. MIHIEL 266 + +XXIV. MEUSE-ARGONNE BEGINS 279 + +XXV. CEASE FIRING 291 + +GENERAL PERSHING'S REPORT 301 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +The battle of Seicheprey _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + +General Pershing in Paris, July, 1917 16 + +Buglers of the Alpine Chasseurs, assisted by their military +band, entertaining American soldiers of the First +Division 64 + +U. S. locomotive-assembling yards in France 154 + +Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly, formerly the American +Ambulance Hospital 166 + +Secretary Baker riding on flat car during his tour of inspection +of the American Expeditionary Forces 202 + +U. S. Marines in readiness to march to the front 244 + +The capture of Sergy 262 + + + + +OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT + +CHAPTER I + +THE LANDING OF PERSHING + + +A ship warped into an English port. Along her decks were lines of +soldiers, of high and low degree, all in khaki. From the shore end of +her gang-plank other lines of soldiers spread out like fan-sticks, some +in khaki, some in the two blues of land and sea fighters. Decorating the +fan-sticks were the scarlet and gold of staff-officers, the blue and +gold of naval officers, the yellow and gold of land officers, and the +black of a few distinguished civilians. + +At the end of one shore-line of khaki one rigid private stood out from +the rest, holding for dear life to a massive white goat. The goat was +the most celebrated mascot in the British Army, and this was an affair +of priceless consequence, but that was no sign the goat intended to +behave himself, and the private was responsible. + +Weaving through this picture of military precision, three little groups +of men waited restlessly to get aboard the ship. One was the lord mayor +of the port city, his gilt chains of office blazing in the forenoon +brightness, with his staff; another was the half-dozen or so of +distinguished statesmen, diplomats, and military heroes bringing formal +welcome to England; the third was the war correspondents and reporters +from the London newspapers. + +The waiting was too keen and anxious for talk. Excitement raced from man +to man. + +For the ship was the _Baltic_. The time was the morning of June 8, 1917. +The event was the landing of John J. Pershing, commander of America's +Expeditionary Force. And the soldiers with him were the herald of +America's coming--the holding of her drive with an outpost. + +When the grandchildren of those soldiers learn that date in their +history lessons it is safe to assume that all its historical +significance will be fairly worked out and articulate. + +It is equally safe to say that in the moment of its happening few if +any of its participants, even the most consequential and far-seeing, had +a personal sense of making history. Of all the pies that one may not +both eat and have, the foremost is that very taking part in a great +occasion. All the fun of it is being got by the man who stays at home +and reads the newspapers, undistracted by the press of practical matters +in hand. + +True, for the landing of General Pershing there was the color of +soldiery, the blare of brass bands, the ring of great names among the +welcomers. There was, of course, the overtone picture of a great +chieftain, marching in advance of a great army, come to foreign lands to +add their might to what, with their coming, was then a world in arms. +The future might see, blended with the gray hulk of the _Baltic_, the +shadowy shape of the _Mayflower_ coming back, still carrying men bound +to the service of world freedom. + +But what they saw that morning was, after all, a very modern landing, +from a very modern ship, with sailors hastily tying down a gang-plank, +and doing it very well because they had done it just that way so many +times before. + +The Royal Welsh Fusiliers were down to give a military welcome, with +their mascot and their crack band. The lord mayor, Lieutenant-General +Pitcairn Campbell, Admiral Stileman, and other men from both arms of +England's service were there, not to feel of their feelings, but to make +the landing as agreeable and convenient as possible, and to convey to +General Pershing, with Anglo-Saxon mannerliness and reticence, their +great pleasure at having him come. + +As soon as there was access to the ship General Campbell and Admiral +Stileman went aboard and introduced themselves to General Pershing. They +met, also, a few of the American staff-officers, and returned salutes +from the privates who made up the Pershing entourage of 168 men. + +There were congratulations on the ship's safe arrival, which reminded +General Pershing and some of his officers that they wanted, before +leaving the ship, to pay their respects to the skipper who had carried +them through the danger zone without so much as a sniff at a submarine. + +This done, the little company of officers walked down the gang-plank, +talking cheerily of their satisfaction at meeting, of their hard work on +the ship, of the weather, and what-not, all the while the soldiers on +the decks behind them waved hands and handkerchiefs in a general +overflow of well-being, and finally--set foot in England! + +One may not go too far in describing the contents of a general's mind +without some help from him, but it's a fair guess that if General +Pershing is as kin to his kind as he seems to be, the very precise +moment of this setting foot in England escaped his notice altogether, +and was left free for the historian to embroider how he pleased. For +General Pershing was in the act of being led to the salute of a guard of +honor by General Campbell. And almost immediately after that precise +moment the Welsh Fusiliers' band began the "Star-Spangled Banner," and +again it's a good bet that General Pershing and his staff thought not a +thing about England and a lot about home. + +But so the historic moment came, and so it went. And presently the +American vanguard was finding its places in the special train to +London. + +Perhaps England knew that a great hour was in the making, for her +rolling green hills gave back the warmth of a splendid sun, and her +hedgerows and wild blooms braved forth in crystal air. Those of the +newcomers who saw England first that afternoon thanked their stars +fervently that England and democracy were on the same side. + +In mid-afternoon the train reached London, and here the Americans were +greeted, not alone by soldiers and England, but by the English. The +secret of their coming, carefully kept, had given the port civilians no +chance. But they knew it in London and the station was crowded to its +doors. + +General Pershing stepped from the train as soon as it stopped. +Ambassador Walter Hines Page came over to him, both hands outstretched, +and asked leave to introduce another general who had taken an +Expeditionary Force to France--General Sir John French. Other +introductions followed--to Lord Derby, General Lord Brooke, and Sir +Francis Lloyd. And there was a hearty handshake from a fighter who +needed no introduction--Rear-Admiral William E. Sims. + +Inside and outside the station the civilians cheered. None of them +needed to have General Pershing pointed out to them. He was +unmistakable. No man ever looked more the ordained leader of fighting +men. He was tall, broad, and deep-chested, splendidly set up; and to the +care with which Providence had fashioned him he had added soldierly care +of his own. + +He might have been patterned upon the Freudian dream of Julius Cæsar, if +Julius was in truth the unsoldierly looking person they made him out to +be, whose majesty lay wholly in his own mind's eye. + +The gallant look of General Pershing fanned the London friendliness to +contagious flames of enthusiasm. He and his officers were cheered to +their hotel, the soldiers were cheered to their barracks in the Tower of +London. + +At the hotel they found three floors turned over to them, arranged for +good, hard work, with plenty of desk-room, and boy and girl scouts for +running errands. Squarely in the entrance was a money-changer's desk, +with a patient man in charge who could, and did, name the number of +cents to the shilling once every minute for four days. A little English +lady who visited America complained bitterly, just after arrival, "Why +didn't they make their dollar just four shillings?" thereby summing up +the only really valid source of acrimony between England and America. +The money-changer made the international amity complete. + +Once installed, General Pershing and his staff fell to and worked, +continuing the organization that had been roughly blocked out on the +_Baltic_, and building up the liaison between English and American army +procedure, begun by the help of British and Canadian officers on board, +by frequent conferences with England's State, War, and Navy Departments. + +The day after the arrival General Pershing went to "breakfast at +Windsor," the first meeting between America's fighter and England's +King. Here, at last, the momentousness of the matter found voice. + +King George, having done with the introductory greeting, said earnestly: +"I cannot tell you how much your coming means to me. It has been the +great dream of my life that my country and yours would join in some +great enterprise ... and here you are...." + +After this visit, prolonged by an inspection of the historic treasures +of Windsor Castle, General Pershing made the rule of unbroken work for +himself and his officers till his task in London was finished and he +should leave for France to join his First Division. + +He made what he expected to be a single exception to this rule. He went +to a dinner-party, at which he met Lloyd-George, Arthur Balfour, just +back from his American mission, and half a dozen others of commensurate +distinction. He found that his exception was no exception at all. The +English do not merely have the reputation of doing their real work at +their dinner-parties--they deserve that reputation. Staff-officers, +telling all about it later on, said that it could hardly have been +distinguished from a cabinet meeting, or a report from the Secretary of +State for War. So were the final plans made and the business of the +nations settled. + +Concerning all these meetings and all the national feeling that was +behind them, General Pershing and his officers were of one voice--that +England's welcome had been precisely of the sort that pleased them most. +It was reticent, charming, too genuine for much open expression, too +chivalrous at heart to be obtrusive. + +What with spending most of each twenty-four hours at work, the American +vanguard finished up its affairs in four days. And early on the morning +of June 13, long before the break of day, General Pershing and his +officers and men boarded their Channel boat, the _Invicta_, and set sail +for France. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"VIVE PAIR-SHANG!" + + +THE _Invicta_ came into Boulogne harbor in the early morning, to find +that her attempts at a secret crossing had amounted to nothing at all. +Everybody within sight and ear-shot was out to show how pleased he was, +riotously and openly, indifferent alike to the hopes of spy or censor. + +The fishing-boats, the merchant coastwise fleet, the Channel ships and +hordes of little privately owned sloops and yawls and motor-boats all +plied chipperly around with "bannières étoilées" fore and aft. The sun +was very bright and the water was very blue, and between them was that +exhilarating air which always rises over the coasts of France, whenever +and wherever you land on them, which not all the smoke and grime of the +world's biggest war could deaden or destroy. + +The _Invicta's_ own flags were run up at the harbor mouth. Again the +lines of khaki-colored soldiers formed behind the deck-rails, and again +the chieftain from overseas stood at the prow of his ship and waited the +coming of a historic moment. + +When the _Invicta_ was made fast and her gang-plank went over, there was +a half-circle of space cleared in the quay in front of her by a +detachment of grizzled French infantrymen, their horizon-blue uniforms +filmed over with the yellow dust of a long march. + +Behind the infantrymen the good citizens of Boulogne were yelling their +throats dry. When General Pershing stopped for an instant's survey at +the head of the gang-plank, with his staff-officers close behind him, +the roar of welcome swelled to thunder and resounded out to sea. When he +marched down and stepped to the quay, there was a sudden, arresting +silence. Every soldier was at salute, and every civilian, too. In that +tense instant a new world was beginning, and though it was as formless +as all beginnings, the unerringly dramatic and sensitive French paid the +tribute of silence to its birth. The future was to say that in that +instant the world allied on new bases, that men now fought together not +because their lands lay neighboring, or were jointly menaced by some +central foe, but because they would follow their own ideal to wherever +it was in danger. An American general had brought his fighters three +thousand miles because a principle of world order and world right needed +the added strength of his arms. And never before had American soldiers +come in their uniforms to do battle on the continent of Europe. + +The moment's silence ended as startlingly as it began. Bands and +cheerers set in again on one beat. The officers who had come to make a +formal welcome fell back and let the unprepared public uproar have way. + +General Pershing and his officers walked through aisles strenuously +forced by the infantrymen, to where carriages waited to carry them +through the Boulogne streets. + +It must have seemed to the little American contingent as if every +Frenchman in France had come up to the coast for the celebration. + +From the carriages the crowds stretched solid in every direction. The +streets were blanketed under uncountable flags. Every window held its +capacity of laughing and cheering Frenchwomen. + +Children ran along the streets, shrilling "Vive l'Amérique!" and +laughing hilariously when their flowers were caught by the grateful but +embarrassed American officers. + +When the special train to Paris had started the officers mopped their +faces and settled back for a modest time. But they reckoned without +their French. Not a town along the way missed its chance to greet the +Americans. The stations were packed, the cheers were incessant, the +roses poured in deluges into the train-windows. + +But at the Gare du Nord, in Paris, the official French greeting was too +magnificent to be pushed aside further by mere populace. + +There were cordons of soldiers drawn up in the station, stiff at +attention, making aisles by which the French officials could get to the +Americans. There were officers in brilliant uniform, covered with medals +for heroic service. There were massed bands, led by the Garde +Republicaine. "Papa Joffre" was there, with his co-missioner, Viviani; +Painleve, then Minister of War, and presently to have a while as +Premier; General Foch, Marne hero, now generalissimo, and Ambassador +William G. Sharp. + +These, with General Pershing, Major Robert Bacon, a member of Pershing's +staff and lately ambassador to France, and two or three other +staff-officers, found open motor-cars waiting to drive them to the Hotel +Crillon, on the Place de la Concorde, the temporary American +headquarters. + +Dense crowds of soldiers patrolled the streets leading down to the Grand +Boulevards, through which the distinguished little procession was to +take its way, and other soldiers lined up at attention in the +boulevards. + +Paris turned loose, with her heart in her mouth and her enthusiasm at +red heat, is not easily forgotten. On this June day her raptures were +immemorial. They were of a sort to call out the old-timers for standards +of comparison. + +Every sentence now spoken in France begins either "Avant la guerre" or +"Depuis la guerre." Nobody can ignore the fact that with August, 1914, +the whole of life changed. To the old-timers who wanted to tell you what +Paris was like the afternoon Pershing arrived, there were only two +occasions possible, both "Depuis la guerre." + +The first great day was that following the order for general +mobilization, when exaltation, defiance, threat, and frenzy packed the +national spirit to suffocation, and when the streets flowed with +unending streams of grim but undaunted people. Tragic days and relief +days followed. But the next great time, when tragedy did not outweigh +every other feeling, was that 14th of July, 1916, when the military +parades were begun again, for the first time since the war, and in the +line of march were detachments from the armies of all the Allies. + +The third great French war festival was for Pershing. The crowds were +literally everywhere. The streets through which the motors passed were +tightly blocked except for the little road cleared by the soldiers. The +streets giving off these were jammed solid. American flags were in every +window, on every lamp-post, on every taxicab, and in every wildly +waving hand. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information._ + +General Pershing in Paris, July, 1917.] + +Although the soldiers could force a way open before the motor-cars, no +human agency could keep the way free behind them. The Parisians wanted +not merely to see Pershing--they wanted to march with him. So they fell +in, tramping the boulevards close behind the cars, cheering and singing +to their marching step. + +Only when General Pershing disappeared under the arched doorway of the +Hotel Crillon, and let it be known that he had other gear to tend, did +the city in procession break apart and go about its several private +celebrations. + +But all that afternoon and all that night, wherever men and women +collected, or children were underfoot, it was "Vive l'Amérique" and +"Vive le Generale Pair-shang" that echoed when the glasses rose. + +When General Pershing, after the tremendous experience of his European +landing, asked for the quiet and shelter of his own quarters at the +Crillon, his intention was that his retirement should be complete. He +said flatly that a man who had just witnessed such a tribute to his +country as Paris had made that afternoon was no better than he should be +if he did not feel the need of solitude. + +But the inevitable aftermath of the great event the world over is the +talking with the newspapers. And sure enough, no sooner was General +Pershing safe in his retreat than the Paris reporters were knocking at +the door. The American correspondents who had travelled over from London +on the _Invicta_ had had emphatic instructions to stay away, story or no +story. But one distinguished Frenchman broke the rules, and to François +de Jessen, of _Le Temps_, General Pershing did finally give a statement. +How reluctantly one may see from the statement's contents. + +"I came to Europe to organize the participation of our army in this +immense conflict of free nations against the enemies of liberty, and not +to deliver fine speeches at banquets, or have them published in the +newspapers," said General Pershing. "Besides, that is not my business, +and, you know, we Americans, soldiers and civilians, like not only to +appear, but to be, businesslike. However, since you offer me an +opportunity to speak to France, I am glad to make you a short and simple +confession. + +"As a man and as a soldier I am profoundly happy over, indeed proud of, +the high mission with which I am charged. But all this is purely +personal, and might appear out of proportion with the solemnity of the +hour and the gravity of events now occurring. If I have thought it +proper to indulge in this confidence, it is because I wish to express my +admiration of the French soldier, and at the same time to express my +pride in being at the side of the French and allied armies. + +"It is much more important, I think, to announce that we are the +precursors of an army that is firmly resolved to do its part on the +Continent for the cause the American nation has adopted as its own. We +come conscious of the historic duty to be performed when our flag shows +itself upon the battle-fields of the world. It is not my role to promise +or to prophesy. Let it suffice to tell you that we know what we are +doing, and what we want." + +Two rememberable experiences waited the next day for General Pershing. +The first was his visit to des Invalides, the tomb of Napoleon; the +second, his appearance in the French Chamber of Deputies. If he had +known what it was to be the hero of all Paris at once, he was to learn +how special groups regarded him, and what the French highest-in-command +thought fitting for America's leader. + +At all of General Pershing's appearances in Paris in these first days a +detachment of soldiers had to be constantly before him, widening a way +for him through the crowds that waited his coming. On the morning of his +visit to the tomb of Napoleon the broad Champs de Mars, in front of des +Invalides, was impassable except by the soldiers' flying wedge. Shouts +in French rang out steadily as he made his way toward des Invalides' +entrances, and suddenly a man cried, in accented English: "Behind him +there are ten million more." + +But once inside des Invalides General Pershing was alone with General +Niox, who was in charge of the famous treasure building, and General +Joffre. Between Pershing and Joffre there had begun one of those intense +friendships that form too impetuously for ordinary explanation. It was +full-grown at the end of their first meeting, a matter of seconds. And +though at this time their friendly intercourse was halted sometimes by +the fact that neither spoke the other's language, they were continually +together. + +So it was General Joffre who walked beside him when General Pershing +followed General Niox down to the entrance of the crypt, and stood +before the door. All the world may go to this door, if its behavior is +good, but only royal applicants may go beyond it. + +General Pershing was to go inside. General Niox handed him the great +key, then turned away with Joffre, while Pershing, after a moment's +hesitation, fitted the key and crossed the threshold. When he came out +again he was taken to see the Napoleonic relics, which lay in rows in +their glass cases. Two of them, the great sword and the Grand Cross +cordon of the Legion of Honor, had never been touched since the time of +Louis Philippe. As Pershing and Joffre bent over them General Niox came +to a momentous decision. He opened the cases and handed the two to +General Pershing. France could do no more. + +Pershing held them for a moment and nobody spoke. Then he handed back +the cordon, kissed the sword-hilt and presented it, and in profound +silence the three men left the treasure hall. + +Between this visit and that to the Chamber of Deputies there were many +official calls, including one to President Poincaré at the Elysée +Palace, which ended in a formal luncheon to Pershing by President and +Madame Poincaré, with most of the important men of France as fellow +guests. + +General Pershing was recognized as he entered the gallery of the Chamber +of Deputies, and all other business except that of doing him honor was +promptly put by. Full-throated cheering began and would not die down. +Finally Premier Ribot commenced to speak, and the deputies stopped to +listen. + +"The people of France fully understand the deep significance of the +arrival of General Pershing in France," he said. "It is one of the +greatest events in history that the people of the United States should +come here to struggle, not in the spirit of ambition or conquest, but +for the noble ideals of justice and liberty. The arrival of General +Pershing is a new message from President Wilson which, if that is +possible, surpasses in nobility all those preceding it." + +And Viviani said, a few minutes later: "President Wilson holds in his +hand all the historic grandeur of America, which he now puts forth in +this fraternal union extended to us by the Great Republic." + +These two speeches opened a flood-gate. Long after the cheering deputies +had said their good-bys to General Pershing, the French writers, made +articulate by the example of Ribot and Viviani, were busily preparing +appreciations and commentaries of the Pershing arrival. The most +picturesque of these was Maurice de Waleffe's, in _Le Journal:_ "'There +are no longer any Pyrenees,' said Louis XIV, when he married a Spanish +princess. 'There is no longer an ocean,' General Pershing might say, +with greater justice, as he is about to mingle with ours the democratic +blood of his soldiers. The fusion of Europe and America is an enormous +fact to note." + +A more powerful speech was that of Clemenceau, now Premier of France, +but then an earnest private citizen, writing for his paper. "Paris has +given its finest welcome to General Pershing," he wrote. "We are +justified. We are justified in hoping that the acclamation of our fellow +citizens, with whom are mingled crowds of soldiers home on leave, have +shown him clearly, right at the start, in what spirit we are waging the +bloodiest of wars; with what invincible determination, never to falter +in any fibre of our nerves or muscles. Unless I misjudge America, +General Pershing, fully conscious of the importance of his mission, has +received from the cordial and joyous enthusiasm of the Parisians that +kind of fraternal encouragement which is never superfluous, even when +one needs it not. + +"Let him have no doubt that he, too, has brought encouragement to us, +the whole of France, that followed with its eyes the whole of his +passage along the boulevards; to all our hearts that salute his coming +with joy at the supreme grandeur of America's might enrolled under the +standard of right. + +"This idea M. Viviani, just back from America, splendidly developed in +his eloquent speech to the Chamber of Deputies in the presence of +General Pershing. + +"General Pershing himself, less dramatic, has given us, in three phrases +devoid of artificiality, an impression of exceptionally virile force. It +was no rhetoric but the pure simplicity of the soldier who is here to +act, and who fears to promise more than he can perform. No bad sign, +this, for those of us who have grown weary of pompous words, when we +must pay so dearly for each failure of performance. + +"Not long ago the Germans laughed at the 'contemptible English Army,' +and we hear now that they regard the American Army as 'too ridiculous +for words.' Well, the British have taught even Hindenburg himself what +virile force can do toward filling gaps in organization. Now the arrival +of Pershing brings Hindenburg news that the Americans are setting to +work in their turn--those Americans whose performance in the War of +Secession showed them capable of such 'improvisation of war' as the +world had never seen--and I think the Kaiser must be beginning to wonder +whether he has not trusted rather blindly in his 'German tribal God.' +He has loosed the lion from its cage, and now he finds that the lion has +teeth and claws to rend him. + +"The Kaiser had given us but a few weeks in which to realize that the +success of his submarine campaign would impose the silence of terror on +the human conscience throughout the world. Well, painful as he must find +it, Pershing's arrival, with its consequent military action, cannot fail +to prove to him that, after all, the moral forces he ignored must always +be taken into account in forecasting human probabilities. Those learned +Boches have yet to understand that in the course of his intellectual +evolution, man has achieved the setting of moral right above brute +force; that might is taking its stand beside right, to accomplish the +greatest revolution in the history of mankind. That is the lesson which +Pershing's coming has taught us, and that is why we rejoice." + +But even while the commentators were at their task General Pershing had +left off celebrating and got to work. The First Division was on the +seas. + +A few very important persons in France and America knew where they were +to land, and when, but nobody in the world knew just what was to be done +for and with them once they landed, for the plans did not even exist. It +was the business of the general and his staff to create them. And they +say that the amount of work done in those first days in France was +incredible even to them when they looked back on it. + +As a first step American headquarters were installed in 31 Rue +Constantine, a broad, shaded street near the Hôtel des Invalides, +overlooking the Champs de Mars. The house had belonged once to a +prodigiously popular Paris actress, and it was correspondingly +magnificent. + +But the magnificence, except that which was inalienably in space and +structure, was banished by the busy Americans. In the hallway they +stretched a plank railing, behind which American private soldiers asked +and answered questions. Under the once sumptuous stairway there were +stacks of army cots. The walls were bulletined and covered with +directions carefully done in two languages. The chief of the +Intelligence Section had the ex-dining-room, and the adjutant-general +had the ballroom on the second floor. Even so, it was not long before +this spaciousness was insufficient, and the headquarters brimmed over +into No. 27 as well. + +It was in these two houses that the whole army organization was plotted +out, and General Pershing made good his prediction that the Americans +would not merely seem, but would be, businesslike. + +After ten days or so of beaver-like absorption in their jobs the +American headquarters announced to the war correspondents that they must +take a certain train at a certain hour, under the guidance of Major +Frederick Palmer, press officer and censor, to a certain port in France. +There, at a certain moment, they would see what they would see. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FIRST DIVISION LANDS + + +They saw the gray troop-ships steaming majestically into the middle +distance from the gray of the open sea, with the little convoy fleet +alongside. It was a gray morning, and at first the ships were hardly +more than nebulous patches of a deeper tone than sea and sky. As they +neared the port, and took on outline, the watchers increased, and took +on internationalism. + +The Americans, who had come to see this consequential landing, some in +uniform and some civilians, had arrived in the very early morning, +before the inhabitants of the little seaport town were up and about, let +alone aware of what an event was that day to put them into the history +books. + +But it never takes a French civilian long to discover that something is +afoot--what with three years of big happenings to sharpen his wits and +keep him on the lookout. + +At the front of the quay were Americans two deep, straining to make out +the incoming ships, on tiptoe to count their number, breathless to shout +a welcome to the first "Old Glory" to be let loose to the harbor winds. +Forming rapidly behind the Americans were French men, French women, and +French children, indifferent to affairs, kitchens, or schools, +chattering that "Mais surement, c' sont les Américains--regardez, +regardez!..." + +Ignominiously in the rear, but watching too, were the German prisoners +who worked, in theory at least, at transferring rails from inconvenient +places to convenient ones for the loading of coaster steamers. They said +little enough, having learned that a respectful hearing was not to be +their lot for a while. But they moved fewer rails than ever, and nobody +bothered to speed them up. + +The great ships came in slowly. Before long, the watchers could see +lines of dull yellow banding the gray hulks, and then the yellow lines +took on form and separateness, and were visible one soldier at a time. + +Last, one ship steamed apart from the others and made direct for the +quay, and the solemn business of landing American troops on French soil +was about to begin. + +There was to be a certain ceremony for the landing, but, like all the +ceremonies conceded to these great occasions by the American Army, it +was to be of extreme simplicity. When they were near enough to the quay +to be heard, the transport band played "The Star-Spangled Banner," while +all the soldiers stood at salute, and then they played the +"Marseillaise," while everybody on ship and shore stood at salute. With +that, they called it a morning, as far as celebration was concerned, and +to the accompaniment of a great deal of talk and a volley of +light-hearted questions, they began to disembark. + +The first question, called from some distance away, was: "What place is +this?" The next was, "Do they let the enlisted men drink in the saloons +over here?" and there was a miscellany about apple pie and doughnuts, +cigarettes, etc. And very briefly after the first soldiers were ashore +nothing could be heard but "Don't they speak any English at all?" + +The outstanding impression of that morning may be what it will to the +French civilians, to the American newspaper correspondents, and to the +officers both ashore and on board. To the privates of the First Division +it will always be the incomprehensible nonsense that goes by the name of +the French language, spoken with perfect assurance by people old enough +to know better, who refuse to make one syllable of intelligible sound in +answer to even the simplest requests. + +The privates were prepared to hear the French speak their own language +at mention of Alsace-Lorraine and war aims, or to propound their private +philosophies that way. They granted the right of the French to talk how +they pleased of their emotional pleasure at seeing the troops, or of any +other subject above the timber-line. + +What staggered them was the insane top-loftiness of using French to ask +for ham and eggs, and beer, or the way to camp. For nothing, not volumes +of warning before they left home, nor interminable hours of +French-grammar instruction on board the troop-ships, had really got it +deep inside the American private's head that French was not an +accomplishment to be used as evidence of cosmopolitan culture, but a +mere prosy necessity, without which daily existence was a nightmare and +a frustration. + +The French, on their side, were helpless enough, but not so bewildered. +They had lived too long, in peace as well as war, across a narrow +channel from that stanch English-speaking race who brought both their +tea and their language with them to France and everywhere else, to be +dumfounded that strangers should balk at their foreign tongue. + +The inevitable result was that here, in their first contact with the +French, as later, throughout the fighting areas, the American soldiers +learned to understand French-English long before they could speak a +decent word of French. + +Fortunately for the First Division, it had had some able bilingual +forerunners at the seaport town where they landed. The camps had been +built by the French, a few miles back from the town, but a few of the +housekeeping necessities had been installed by General Pershing's +staff-officers, and signs in good, plain English showed the proper +roads. And as the single files of soldiers began to descend the +gang-plank of the first transport, and to form for marching to camp, +their own officers were having some compact instruction from the +staff-officers on how to get to camp and what to do when they got there. + +There was no waste motion about getting the troops under way. The first +companies were tramp-tramping up the streets before the last companies +were overside, and the first transport was free to go back and give +place to the next one before the mayor had got his red sash and gilt +chains in place and arrived to do them suitable honor. + +So, while the shore watchers fell back into safe observation-posts, the +soldiers clattered down through the quay-sheds to the little street, +formed and swung away, and one ship after another disgorged its +passengers, and presently the sheds were overrun with the blue-clad +sailors from the convoys. + +All that day, the soldiers marched through the town. Their camps lay at +the end of a long white shore road, and jobs were not wanting when they +got there. Their pace was easy, because of these things, and they +probably would not have put out any French eye with their flawless +marching, even under less indulgent circumstances. For this First +Division was recruited in a hurry, and most of their real training lay +ahead of them. + +Where they were impressive was in their composite build. There were +little fellows among them, but they straggled at the back. The major +part of the soldiers were tall, thin, rangy-looking, with a march that +was more lope than anything else and a look of heaving their packs along +without much effort. They fell about midway between the thin, breedy +look of the first English troops in France and the stocky, thick-necked +sort that came later. + +The marines were the pick of the lot, for size and behavior too. The +sense of being something special was with the marines from the first. +They marched that way. And, set apart by their olive drab as well as by +their size and comportment, they gave that First Division's first march +in France a quality of real distinction. And when the army got to its +first French camps, the welcome sight its eyes first fell upon was that +of already arrived marines carrying water down the hill. + +The camps were long wooden buildings, rather above the average, as +became the status of the visitors, built almost at the top of a hill, +looking down over green fields and round trees to the three or four +villages within range of vision, and beyond them to the sea. + +Some supplies were there already, but the soldiers had had to bring most +of their first supper, and the camp-cooks had their own troubles getting +things just so. + +Major-General Sibert, field commander of the First Division, had +quarters at camp, so that excuses were not in order. Even for that first +supper, the marines and all others they could commandeer to help them +were rushing about preparing things to the very top of their bent. +Nobody had town-leave for the first day or two, till things were in +apple-pie order, and the camp was in line to shelter and feed its +soldiers for as long as it should be necessary to stay there. + +If camp life was busy these days, the town life was no less so. The +chief hotel, wherein much red plush met the eye from the very entrance, +was swarming with officers of both nations and all degrees of rank. +General Pershing was there, with his aides and most of his staff. +Admirals were there, changing uniforms from blue to white and back again +as the erratic French weather dictated. + +There were half a dozen high officers from the French Army, making both +formal and informal welcomes, and there were more busy majors and +captains and more interpreters than you could count in half a day's +time. + +The little Frenchwoman who sat behind the desk was amiable to the best +of her very considerable ability, but the questions she had to answer, +whether she understood them or not, would have addled an older head than +hers. She could run her hotel with the best of them, but when perfectly +sane-looking young officers asked her where to buy five thousand cups +and saucers, and paper napkins by the ton, she said in so many words +that an American invasion was worse than bedlam. + +The hotel's second floor was the favored place for conferences. There a +fair welter of red plush was drawn up around a big table in the +hallway, and livid red wall-paper added its warmth to a scene which +against a plank wall would not have lacked color. + +At this table General Pershing could have been found much of the time. +The whole practical liaison of French and American Armies was contrived +here, though the first rule for this consolidation laid down by a +grizzled French general with but one arm left, was that "there was no +longer anything that was French, or anything that was American, but +merely all we had that was 'ours,'" so that the task was one of detail +only. + +Though the daytimes were packed with work, most of the officers called +it a day at sunset. Then the little hotel took on its most engaging +color. The little French piano tinkled out in the warm air with an +accompaniment of many voices. Once a very blue young second lieutenant +chose to express his mood by repetitions without number of the +melancholy "Warum?"--probably the first German music that had been heard +from that piano for many a moon. Possibly those of the French who knew +what the tune was recognized also that America had turned a point in +more ways than one in coming to France, not least among them being +making good American soldiers out of erstwhile good Germans. Nobody +seemed much astonished or put out when within the day a goodly number of +American soldiers were speaking to German prisoners in their own +language, though talking to the German prisoners, aside from the fact +that it was not encouraged by the French, turned out to be indifferent +fun, since the American soldiers had had their fill of German propaganda +before they left home, and none of the prisoners was overmodest as to +what Germany was or would do. + +The cafés out-of-doors were overflowing with Americans, too. It was +plenty of fun to hear the sailors scolding the French waitresses for +calling lemons "limons," and trying to overhaul the French pronunciation +of "bière" to something approaching a compromise. + +An officer came along and broke up a crap-game. The soldiers forgave +him, but the civilians did not. It was their first go at the game, and +they wanted a lot of teaching. + +The lone bookstore of the town made the only known effort to get the +Americans what they asked for, instead of trying to prevail on them to +adopt something French. They sent, perhaps to Paris, to get English +books, and they piled their windows high with Macaulay's "History of +England" and Bacon's "Essays." + +The paper-buying habit is ingrown in the American male. He has three +newspapers under his arm before any afternoon is what it should be. And +so the soldiers bought the French papers, two and three at a time, and +carried them around. + +Any time of day or night, a look out into the town's main street +descried a company or two of soldiers, on their way from camp for +town-leave, or on their way back. They marched continually. The +motor-cycle with the side-seat, which was later to be the distinguishing +mark of the American Army in Paris, made its appearance in the seaport +within a day or two of the first transport's landing, and eased the +burdens of the French motor-lorries with which the American supplies had +been taken to camp, owing to a delay of the First Division's own +lorries, on a slow ship. + +And most successful sensation of all, the army mule. The French knew him +slightly, because their own army used him on occasion. But no Frenchman +could speak to a mule in his own language as these big mule-tenders did. + +It was exalting to watch the army on the march, to see the marines and +the profusion of slim sailors. But the real crowd always gathered around +the big negro stevedores in long navy-blue coats, scarlet-lined, with +brass buttons all the way up the front, over and down the back--likely a +thrifty hand-me-down from pre-khaki days--who marched with perfect +knowledge of their magnificence. + +The stevedores, for their part, were as amazed as the French, though on +a different score. They accepted with due resignation the fact that the +French spoke French. It was when they first saw a Senegalese in French +uniform, triple-black with tropic suns, but to them a mere one of +themselves, and when they hailed him gladly in their English tongue, to +ask which road to take, that his indecipherable French answer broke +them, heart and spirit alike. + +"Dat one blame stuck-up nigger," said the spokesman, as they trudged +their way onward, none the wiser if the Senegalese, in his turn, had +been rebuking them in French for showing off their English. + +So, in its several aspects, the First Division made its impact upon +France, jostled itself a little and the French more, and finally settled +down to its short wait at the coast before going inland, "within sound +of the guns," to get its training. + +And because the camps were to be used many times again by other +divisions to come on the "bridge of ships," the first had to put in some +extra licks to make their camp conveniences permanent. + +They played a few baseball-games, and they were encouraged to do a lot +of swimming, in the off afternoon hours. After a bit town-leave was +heavily curtailed, but there was a dispensation now and then for a +"movie." In the main they kept their noses to the grindstone. + +After a little while the men who were to march in Paris on the Fourth +of July were selected, and, preceded by a few sailors with fewer duties +and longer indulgences, they entrained on the late afternoon of July 2. +There was no measuring the disappointment of the ones who were left +behind, for the prediction that there would be doings in Paris on the +first French Fourth of July was to be fulfilled to the letter. + +But the housekeepers of the army could not be spared for celebrations. +As soon as the marines could be despatched from the seaport they were +sent direct across France to the points behind the lines where their +training-camps were in waiting, and there, within a few weeks, the First +Division reassembled and fell to work. + +Meanwhile, of the doings in Paris---- + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE FOURTH OF JULY + + +The first they knew of it in Paris--barring vague promises of "something +to remember" on the American fête that had appeared in modest items in +the newspapers--was when a motor-bus, jammed to the guards with American +soldiers, suddenly rolled into the Avenue de l'Opéra from the Tuileries +Gardens, and paraded up that august thoroughfare to the tune of +incredible yelling from everybody on board. It was the afternoon of July +3. + +A few picked Americans had known about it. A sufficient number of +American and French officers and the newspaper correspondents had been +told to appear at Austerlitz Station in the early morning of the 3d, and +there they had seen the soldiers not merely arrive but tackle their +first continental breakfast. + +Neither was a sensation to be sneezed at. The soldiers were of the very +finest, and in spite of their overnight journey they were all looking +fit. They were anxious to fall right out of the train into the middle of +Paris. To most of them it was a city of gallant and delightful scandal, +filled even in war-time with that twinkle of gayety plus wickedness that +is so intriguing when told about in Oscaloosa, behind the hand or the +door. They said outright that they expected to see the post-cards all +come to life when they set eyes first on Paris streets. + +But even if Paris had had these fascinations in store, they were not for +the soldiers that morning. Instead military precision, discipline, an +orderly march to near-by barracks, and--a French breakfast: coffee and +war-bread. Not even the French had a kind word for the war-bread, and no +American ever spoke well of the coffee. But there it was--chronologically +in order, and haply the worst of a Paris visit all over at once. + +And most of the soldiers stayed right in barracks till it was time for +the great processional the next day. It was a picked bunch that had the +motor ride and informed Paris that they had come for a party. And if +they didn't see the ladies with the unbehaving eyes, they did see the +Louvre and the Tuileries, the Opéra, the boulevards, and the Madeleine. +And Paris saw the soldiers. + +There was no end of cheering and handclapping. The American flags that +had been flying for Pershing were brought out again, and venders +appeared on the streets with all manner of emblems to sell. It was one +of those cheerful afternoons when good feeling expresses itself gently, +reserving its hurrahs for the coming event. + +The soldiers were kept on the cars, but now and then a good Parisian +threw them a package of cigarettes or a flower. All told, they touched +off the fuse timed to explode on the morrow, and, having done that, went +back to barracks. + +The first "Fourth" in Paris was a thoroughly whole-souled celebration. +The French began it, civilians and soldiers, by taking a band around to +serenade General Pershing the first thing in the morning. His house was +on the left bank of the Seine, not far from American headquarters in the +Rue Constantine, an historic old place with little stone balconies +outside the upper windows. + +On one of these General Pershing appeared, with the first notes of the +band. He was cheered and cheered again. A little boy who had somehow +climbed to the top of a gas street-lamp squealed boastfully to Pershing: +"See, I am an American, too, for I have a sky-scraper!" (J'ai un +gratte-ciel!) And with a wave of his hand General Pershing acknowledged +his compatriot. + +It was in this crowd around Pershing's house that a riot started, +because a man who was being unpleasantly jostled said: "Oh, do leave me +in peace." Those nearest him good-naturedly tried to give him +elbow-room, but those a little distance away caught merely the "peace" +of his ejaculation and, with sudden loud cries of "kill the pacifist," +made for the unfortunate, and pommelled him roundly before the matter +could be explained. + +After the serenade and General Pershing's little speech of thanks the +band, with most of the crowd following, marched over to des Invalides, +the appointed place for the formal ceremony. + +Around the ancient hotel, overflowing into the broad boulevards that +radiate from it, and packing to suffocation the Champs de Mars in front +of it, there were just as many Frenchmen as could stand shoulder to +shoulder and chin to back. Inside, where there were speeches and +exchanges of national emblems, the crowd was equally dense, in spite of +the fact that only the very important or the very cunning had cards of +admission. + +The real Fourth celebration was in the streets. The waiting crowds +yelled thunderously when the first band appeared, heralding the parade. +Then came the Territorials, the escort troops, in their familiar +horizon-blue. Then more bands, then officers, mounted and in motor-cars, +and, finally, the Americans, manifestly having the proudest moment of +their lives. + +They were to march from des Invalides to Picpus Cemetery, the little +private cemetery outside of Paris, where the Marquis de Lafayette is +buried. + +They crossed Solferino bridge, and made their way through a terrific +crowd in the broad Place de la Concorde. The Paris newspapers, boasting +of their conservatism, said there were easily one million Parisians that +day within sight of des Invalides when the American soldiers left the +building and started on their march. + +To hear the soldiers tell it, there were easily one million Parisians, +all under the age of ten, immediately under their feet before they had +marched a mile. + +From a balcony of the Hotel Crillon, on the north side of the Place de +la Concorde, the marching Americans were wholly lost to view from the +waist down. Nobody could ever complain of the French birth-rate after +seeing that parade. Nobody ever saw that many children before in any one +assemblage in France. It was prodigious. + +And the French youngsters had their own notions of how they were to take +part in that French Fourth of July. The main notion was to walk between +the soldiers' legs. They were massed thick beside the soldiers, thick +between them, impeding their knee action, terrorizing their steps. At a +little distance, they looked like batter in a waffle-pan. But they did +what they could to make the American soldiers feel among friends that +day, and nobody could say they failed. + +The parade turned along the picturesque old Rue de Rivoli on leaving the +Place de la Concorde, and filed along the river, almost the length of +the city. They had not gone far before the Frenchwomen had thrown them +enough roses to decorate bayonets and hats and a few lapels. They made a +brave sight, brave to nobility. And though they were harassed by the +eager children, abashed by the women, and touched to genuine emotion by +the whole city, they wouldn't have grudged five years of their lives for +the privilege of being there. + +At Picpus, the scene made up in intensiveness what it lacked in breadth, +for the cemetery is far too small to permit of a crowd of size. A home +for aged gentlewomen overlooks one wall ... its windows were filled, and +their occupants proved that Frenchwomen are never too old or too gentle +to throw roses. A military hospital overlooks another side, and +balconies and windows were crowded with "blessés." The few officers and +civilians who had access to the cemetery-grounds made their +commemoration brief and simple. It was there that Colonel Stanton made +the little speech which buzzed around the Allied world within the day: +"Lafayette, nous voilà !"--"Lafayette, we're here!" Its felicity of +phrase moved the French scribes to columns of congratulation. Its +compactness won the Americans. Everybody said it was the best war speech +made in France, and it was. + +After Picpus, the officers came back to the city for work, and the +soldiers went to barracks. The sailors were allowed to saunter about the +city, in vain search for the post-card ladies and the flying champagne +corks. The soldiers were on a sterner régime. + +Early on the morning of the 5th, they were eastward bound, to join the +rest of the First Division for training, and Paris saw the last of the +American soldiers. + +A few had leave, within the next few months, from engineering corps and +base hospitals. But the infantrymen and the marines were over learning +lessons in the war of trench and bayonet, and by Christmas even the +scattering leaves from behind the lines were discontinued, and +Americans on holiday bent were sent to Aix-les-Bains. Even officers had +little or no Paris leave, and those who had been quartered in Paris, in +the Rue Constantine and the Rue Sainte-Anne, were collected at the new +American headquarters, southeast of Paris. The American uniform all but +vanished off the Paris streets. The French national holiday, ten days +after the American, had no American contingent. + +So Paris and the American Army had a quick acquaintance, a brilliant one +and a brief one. It was mainly between the beginning and the end of that +Fourth of July. It will quite probably not be renewed till the end of +the war. Lucky the onlooker who sees the reunion. For then it may be +wagered that there will be gayety enough to answer the needs of even the +most post-card-haunted soldier. + +But to get on to the training-camps---- + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WHAT THEY LIVED IN + + +The American training-camp area spread over many miles and through many +villages. It had boundaries only in theory, because all its sides were +ready to swing farther north, east, south, and west at a day's notice, +whenever the Expeditionary Force should become army enough to require +it. + +But its focus was in the Vosges, in the six or seven villages set apart +from the beginning for the Americans, and as such, overhauled by those +first marines and quartermaster's assistants who left the coast in early +July and moved campward. + +This overhauling brought the end of the Franco-American honeymoon. +Later, amity was to be re-established, but when the first marine ordered +the first manure-pile out of the first front yard, a breach began which +it took long months to heal. + +There were few barracks in the Vosges. The soldiers were to be billeted +with the peasants. And the marines said the peasants had to clean up and +air, and the peasants said the marines were insane. + +Those first days at training-camp, before the body of the troops +arrived, were circus enough for anybody. + +Six villages were to be got ready, the officers to have the pick of +places, and the privates to have next best. And the choice of +assignments for officers was still so far from ideal as to make the +house-cleaning a thorough job all around. + +The marines had a village to themselves, the farthest from the +inspection-grounds. The correspondents had a village to themselves, too, +though it wasn't because there was any excess of regard for the +importance of the correspondents among the men who laid out the grounds. +They were put where they could do the least harm, and where their +confusing appearance, in Sam Brown belts and other officer-like +insignia, would not exact too many wasted salutes. + +General Headquarters was still in Paris at this time, but General +Sibert had Field Headquarters at camp, and though his assignment was +relatively stylish, it could not have been said to offend him with its +luxury. + +He lived and worked in a little frame building in the main street of the +central village, which had probably once been a hotel. + +It was to be recognized by the four soldiers always at attention outside +it, whenever motors or pedestrians passed that way. Two of the soldiers +were American and two were French. + +Although all the American training-camp area became America as to +jurisdiction, as soon as the troops moved there, the French soldiers +were always present around headquarters, partly to help and partly to +register politeness. + +Inside Field Headquarters, the little bare wooden rooms were stripped of +their few battered vases and old chromos, and plain wooden tables and +chairs were set about. The marines opened the windows, and scrubbed up +the floors, and hung out the sign of "Business as usual," and General +Sibert moved in. + +The rest was not so easy. The various kitchens came in first for +attention. For many days French and American motor-lorries had been +trundling across France, storing the warehouses with heaping piles of +food-supplies. The procession practically never stopped. Trains brought +what could be put aboard them, but it was to motors that most of the +real work fell. So the thin, long line of loaded cars stretched +endlessly from coast to camp, and finally everything was attended to but +where to put the food and where to cook it. + +The houses with the good back sheds were picked for kitchens, and the +big army soup-kettles were bricked into place, and what passed for ovens +were provided for the bakers. + +For bathing facilities, there were neat paths marked to the river. That +is, the French called it a river. Every American who rides through +France for the first time has the same experience: he looks out of his +train-window and remarks to his companion, who knows France well: "Isn't +that a pretty little creek? Are there many springs about here?" And the +companion replies scornfully: "That isn't a creek--that's the Marne +River," or "That's the Aisne," or "That's the Meuse." The American +always wonders what the French would call the Hudson. + +It was one of these storied streams that ran through the American +training-camp, in which the Americans did their bathing. Whenever a +soldier wanted to get his head wet he waded across. + +Later, when the camps were filled, these river-banks were to offer a +remarkable sight to the French peasants, who thought all Americans were +bathing-mad anyway. Hundreds of soldiers, in the assorted postures of +men scrubbing backs and knees and elbows, disported with soap and +wash-cloth along the banks. Hundreds of others, swimming their suds off, +flashed here an arm and there a leg in the stream itself. It did not +take much distance to make them look like figures on a frieze, a new +Olympic group. Modesty knew them not, but there were not supposed to be +women about, and the peasants had a nice Japanese point of view in the +matter. At any rate, there was the training-camp bathtub, and they used +it at least once a day, to the unending stupefaction of the French. + +Where they slept was another matter, suggesting neither Corot nor +Phidias. + +The privates had houses first, then barns. The barns were freed of the +live stock, which was turned into meadows to graze, and the floors were +dug down to clean earth, and vast quantities of formaldehyde were +sprayed around. Then the cots were carried up to the second floors of +the barns and put along in tidy rows. At the foot of each soldier's bed +was whatever manner of small wooden box he could corral from the +quartermaster, and there he kept all he owned. His pack unfolded its +contents into the box, and his comfort-kit perched on the top. And there +he kept the little mess of treasures he bought from the gypsy wagons +that rode all day around the outskirts of the camp. + +Windows were knocked out, just under the eaves, for the fresh air that +seemed, so inexplicably to the French, so essential to the Americans. + +Even with the First Division, acknowledged to be about the smallest +expeditionary force known to the Great War, the soldiers averaged a +little over two thousand to the village, and since not one of the +villages had more than four or five hundred population in peace-times, +the troubles of the man who arranged the billets were far from light. + +Fortunately, the First Division did not ask for luxuries. Even the +officers spent more time in simplifying their quarters than in trimming +them up. The colonel of one regiment--one of those who became +major-generals soon after the arrival in France--had his quarters in an +aristocratic old house, set back in a long yard, where plum-trees +dropped their red fruit in the vivid green grass and roses overgrew +their confines--it was the sort of house before which the pre-war motor +tourists used to stop and breathe long "ohs" of satisfaction. + +The entrance was by a low, arched doorway. The hall was built of +beautifully grained woods, old and mellow of tone. The stairway was +broad and easy to climb. The colonel had the second floor front, just +level with the tree-tops. + +In the room there were rich woods and tapestried walls, and at the back +was a four-poster mahogany bed with heavy satin hangings, brocaded with +fleur-de-lis. The Pompadour would have been entirely happy there. But +the American colonel had done things to it--things that would have +popped the eyes out of the Pompadour's head. He pinned up the +four-poster hangings with a safety-pin, that being the only way he could +convey to his amiable little French servant-girl that he didn't want +that bed turned down for him of nights. And he had taken all the satin +hangings down from the windows. Under these windows he had drawn up a +little board table and an army cot. Beside the table was his little army +trunk. The space he used did not measure more than ten feet in any +direction, and his luxuries waited unmolested for some more sybaritic +soul than he. + +A major in that same village who had had a cavalry command before the +cavalry, as he put it, became "mere messengers," picked his quarters out +himself, on the strength of all he had heard about "Sunny France." His +house was nothing much, but behind it was a garden--a long garden, +filled with vegetables, decorated with roses, shaded by fruit-trees. At +the far end of the garden was a summer-house, in a circle of trees. Here +the major took his first guests and showed how he intended to do his +work in the open air, while the famous French sunshine flooded his +garden and warmed his little refuge. + +The one thing it will never be safe to say to any veteran of the First +Division is "Sunny France." The summer of 1917, after a blazing start in +June, settled down to drizzle and mist, cold and fog, rain that soaked +to the marrow. + +The major with the garden sloshed around the whole summer, visiting men +who had settled indoors and had fireplaces. By the time the warmth had +come back to his summer-house it was time for him to go up to the +battle-line, and the man who writes a history of the billets in France +will get a lot of help from him. + +Some of the makeshifts of this first invasion were excusable and +inevitable. Some were not. After the first two or three weeks of +settling in, General Pershing made a tour of inspection, and some of the +things he said about what he saw didn't make good listening. But after +that visit all possible defects were overcome, and the men slept well, +ate well, were as well clothed as possible, and were admirably +sanitated. + +The drinking-water was a matter for the greatest strictness. The French +never drink water on any provocation, so that water provisions began +from the ground up. + +It was drawn into great skins and hung on tripods in the shaded parts of +the billets, and it was then treated with a germicide, tasteless +fortunately, carried in little glass capsules. This was a legacy from +experiences in Panama. + +Each man had his own tin cup, and when he got thirsty he went down and +turned the faucet in the hanging skin tank. If he drank any other water +he repented in the guard-house. + +So, though the billets were rude and sometimes uncomfortable, the +soldiers did stay in them and out of the hospitals. + +And there were compensations. + +Half of these were in play-times, and half in work-times. The training, +slow at first, speeded up afterward and, with the help of the "Blue +Devils" who trained with the Americans, took on all the exhilaration of +war with none of its dangers. But how they trained doesn't belong in a +chapter on billets. How they played is more suitable. + +Three-fourths of their playing they did with the French children. The +insurmountable French language, which kept doughboys and poilus at arm's +length in spite of their best intentions, broke down with the +youngsters. + +It was one of the finest sights around the camp to see the big soldiers +collecting around the mess-tent after supper, in the daylight-saving +long twilight, to hear the band and play in pantomime with the hundreds +of children who tagged constantly after them. + +The band concerts were a regular evening affair, though musically they +didn't come to much. Those were the days before anybody had thought to +supply the army bands with new music, so "She's My Daisy" and "The +Washington Post" made a daily appearance. + +But the concerts did not want for attendance. The soldiers stood around +by the hundreds, and listened and looked off over the hills to where the +guns were rumbling, whenever the children were not exacting too much +attention. + +This child-soldier combination had just two words. The child said +"Hello," which was all his English, and the party lasted till the +soldier, billet-bound, said "Fee-neesh," which was all his French. But +nobody could deny that both of them had a good time. + +Letter-writing was another favorite sport with the First Division, to +the great dole of the censors. Of course the men were homesick. That was +one reason. The other was that they had left home as heroes, and they +didn't intend to let the glory lapse merely because they had come across +to France and been slapped into school. The censors were astounded by +what they read ... gory battles of the day before, terrific air-raids, +bombardments of camp, etc. Some of the men told how they had slaughtered +Germans with their bare hands. Most of the letters were adjudged +harmless, and of little aid or comfort to the enemy, so they were passed +through. But some of the families of the First Division must have +thought that the War Department was holding out an awful lot on the +American public. + +Mid-July saw the camp in fair working order. The First Division had word +that it was presently to be joined by the New England Division and +the Rainbow Division, both National Guardsmen, and representative of +every State. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information._ + +Buglers of the Alpine Chasseurs, assisted by their military band, +entertaining American soldiers of the First Division.] + +American participation began to take shape as a real factor, a stern and +sombre business, and all the lighter, easier sides of the expedition +began to fall back, and work and grimness came on together. + +The French Alpine Chasseurs--whom the Americans promptly called +"chasers"--had a party with the Americans on July 14, when the whole day +was given over to a picnic, with boxing, wrestling, track sports, and a +lot of food. That was the last party in the training-camp till +Christmas. + +The work that began then had no let-up till the first three battalions +went into the trenches late in October. The steadily increasing number +of men widened the area of the training-camp, but they made no +difference in the contents of the working-day, nor in the system by +which it proceeded. + +Within the three weeks after the First Division had landed, the work of +army-building began. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +GETTING THEIR STRIDE + + +That part of France which became America in July, 1917, was of about the +shape of a long-handled tennis-racket. The broad oval was lying just +behind the fighting-lines. The handle reached back to the sea. Then, to +the ruin of the simile, the artillery-schools, the aviation-fields, and +the base hospitals made excrescences on the handle, so that an apter +symbol would be a large and unshapely string of beads. + +But France lends itself to pretty exact plotting out. There are no lakes +or mountains to dodge, nor particularly big cities to edge over to. In +the main, the organizing staffs of the two nations could draw lines from +the coast to the battle-fields, and say: "Between these two shall +America have her habitation and her name." + +The infantry trained in the Vosges. The artillery-ranges were next +behind, and then the aviation-grounds. The hospitals were placed +everywhere along the lines, from field-bases to those far in the rear. +And because neither French train service nor Franco-American motor +service could bear the giant burden of man-and-supply transportation, +the first job to which the engineer and labor units were assigned was +laying road-beds across France for a four-track railroad within the +American lines. + +In those days America did not look forward to the emergency which was to +brigade her troops with French or British, under Allied Generalissimo +Foch. Her plans were to put in a force which should be, as the English +say of their flats, "self-contained." If this arrangement had a fault, +it was that it was too leisurely. It was certainly not lacking on the +side of magnificence, either in concept or carrying-out. + +The scheme of bringing not only army but base of supplies, both +proportionate to a nation of a hundred million people, was necessarily +begun from the ground up. The American Army built railroads and +warehouses as a matter of course. It laid out training-camps for the +various arms of the service on an unheard-of scale. As it happens, the +original American plan was changed by the force of circumstances. Much +of the American man-power eventually was brigaded with the British and +French and went through the British and French soldier-making mills. But +the territory marked America still remains America and the excellent +showing made by the War Department in shipping men during the spring and +early summer of 1918 furnished a supply of soldiers sufficient to make +allotments to the Allies directly and at the same time preserve a +considerable force as a distinctly American Army. It is possible that +the fastest method of preparation possible might have been to brigade +with the Allies from the beginning. But it would have been difficult to +induce America to accept such a plan if it had not been for the +emergency created by the great German drive of the spring of 1918. + +American engineers were both building railroads and running them from +July on. The hospital units were installed even earlier. The first work +of an army comes behind the lines and a large proportion of the early +arrivals of the A. E. F. were non-fighting units. At that there was no +satisfying the early demands for labor. As late as mid-August General +Pershing was still doing the military equivalent of tearing his hair for +more labor units and stevedores. A small number of negroes employed as +civilian stevedores came with the First Division, but they could not +begin to fill the needs. Later all the stevedores sent were regularly +enlisted members of the army. While the great undertaking was still on +paper and the tips of tongues, the infantry was beginning its hard +lessons in the Vosges. The First Division was made up of something less +than 50 per cent of experienced soldiers, although it was a regular army +division. The leaven of learning was too scant. The rookies were all +potentiality. The training was done with French soldiers and for the +first little while under French officers. A division of Chasseurs +Alpines was withdrawn from the line to act as instructors for the +Americans, and for two months the armies worked side by side. "You will +have the honor," so the French order read, "of spending your permission +in training the American troops." This might not seem like the +pleasantest of all possible vacations for men from the line, but the +chasseurs seemed to take to it readily enough. These Chasseurs +Alpines--the Blue Devils--were the finest troops the French had. And if +they were to give their American guests some sound instruction later on, +they were to give them the surprise of their lives first. + +The French officer is the most dazzling sight alive, but the French +soldier is not. Five feet of height is regarded as an abundance. He got +his name of "poilu" not so much from his beard as from his perpetual +little black mustache. + +The doughboys called him "Froggy" with ever so definite a sense of +condescension. + +"Yes, they look like nothing--but you try following them for half a +day," said an American officer of the "poilus." + +They have a short, choppy stride, far different to the gangling gait of +the American soldier. The observer who looks them over and decides they +would be piffling on the march, forgets to see that they have the width +of an opera-singer under the arms, and that they no more get winded on +their terrific sprints than Caruso does on his high C's. + +And after they had done some stunts with lifting guns by the bayonet +tip, and had heaved bombs by the afternoon, the doughboys called in +their old opinions and got some new ones. + +All sorts of things were helping along the international liking and +respect. The prowess of the French soldiers was one of the most +important. But the soldiers' interpretation of Pershing's first general +order to the troops was another. This order ran: + +"For the first time in history an American Army finds itself in European +territory. The good name of the United States of America and the +maintenance of cordial relations require the perfect deportment of each +member of this command. It is of the gravest importance that the +soldiers of the American Army shall at all times treat the French +people, and especially the women, with the greatest courtesy and +consideration. The valiant deeds of the French Army and the Allies, by +which together they have successfully maintained the common cause for +three years, and the sacrifices of the civil population of France in +support of their armies command our profound respect. This can best be +expressed on the part of our forces by uniform courtesies to all the +French people, and by the faithful observance of their laws and customs. +The intense cultivation of the soil in France, under conditions caused +by the war, makes it necessary that extreme care should be taken to do +no damage to private property. The entire French manhood capable of +bearing arms is in the field fighting the enemy, and it should, +therefore, be a point of honor to each member of the American Army to +avoid doing the least damage to any property in France." + +Veteran soldiers take a general order as a general order, following it +literally. Recruits on a mission such as the First Division's took that +first general order as a sort of intimation, on which they were to build +their own conceptions of gallantry and good-will. Not only did they +avoid doing damage to French property, they minded the babies, drew the +well-water, carried faggots, peeled potatoes--did anything and +everything they found a Frenchwoman doing, if they had some off time. + +They fed the children from their own mess, kept them behind the lines at +grenade practice, mended their toys and made them new ones. + +These things cemented the international friendliness that the statesmen +of the two countries had made so much talk of. And by the time the war +training was to begin, doughboys and Blue Devils tramped over the long +white roads together with nothing more unfriendly left between them than +rivalry. + +The first thing they were set to do was trench-digging. The Vosges boast +splendid meadows. The Americans were told to dig themselves in. The +method of training with the French was to mark a line where the trench +should be, put the French at one end and the Americans at the other. +Then they were to dig toward each other as if the devil was after them, +and compare progress when they met. + +Trench-digging is every army's prize abomination. A good hate for the +trenches was the first step of the Americans toward becoming +professional. It was said of the Canadians early in the war that though +they would die in the last ditch they wouldn't dig it. + +No army but the German ever attempted to make its trenches neat and +cosey homes, but even the hasty gully required by the French seemed an +obnoxious burden to the doughboy. The first marines who dug a trench +with the Blue Devils found that their picks struck a stone at every +other blow, and that by the time they had dug deep enough to conceal +their length they were almost too exhausted to climb out again. + +The ten days given over to trench-digging was not so much because the +technic was intricate or the method difficult to learn. They were to +break the spirit of the soldiers and hammer down their conviction that +they would rather be shot in the open than dig a trench to hide in. They +were also to keep the aching backs and weary shoulders from getting +overstiff. Toward the end of July the first batch of infantrymen were +called off their trenches and were started at bomb practice. At first +they used dummy bombs. The little line of Blue Devils who were to start +the party picked up their bombs, swung their arms slowly overhead, held +them straight from wrist to shoulder, and let their bombs sail easily +up on a long, gentle arc, which presently landed them in the practice +trenches. + +"One-two-three-four," they counted, and away went the bombs. The +doughboys laughed. It seemed to them a throw fit only for a woman or a +substitute third baseman in the Texas League. When their turn came, the +doughboys showed the Blue Devils the right way to throw a bomb. They +lined them out with a ton of energy behind each throw, and the bombs +went shooting straight through the air, level above the trench-lines, +and a distance possibly twice as far as that attained by the Frenchmen. +They stood back waiting for the applause that did not come. + +"The objects are two in bomb-throwing, and you did not make either," +said the French instructor. "You must land your bomb in the +trenches--they do no more harm than wind when they fly straight--and you +must save your arm so that you can throw all afternoon." + +So the baseball throw was frowned out, and the half-womanish, +half-cricket throw was brought in. + +After the doughboys had mastered their method they were put to getting +somewhere with it. They were given trenches first at ten metres' +distance, and then at twenty. Then there were competitions, and war +training borrowed some of the fun of a track meet. The French had odds +on. No army has ever equalled them for accuracy of bomb-throwing, and +the doughboys, once pried loose from their baseball advantage, were not +in a position to push the French for their laurels. The American Army's +respect for the French began to have growing-pains. But what with +driving hard work, the doughboys learned finally to land a dummy bomb so +that it didn't disgrace them. + +With early August came the live grenades, and the first serious defect +in the American's natural aptitude for war-making was turned up. This +defect had the pleasant quality of being sentimentally correct, even if +sharply reprehensible from the French point of view. It was, in brief, +that the soldiers had no sense of danger, and resisted all efforts to +implant one, partly from sheer lack of imagination in training, and +partly from a scorn of taking to cover. + +The live bombs were hurled from deep trenches, aimed not at a point, but +at a distance--any distance, so it was safe. But once the bombs were +thrown, every other doughboy would straighten up in his trench to see +what he had hit. Faces were nipped time and again by the fragments of +flying steel, and the French heaped admonitions on admonitions, but it +was long before the American soldiers would take their war-game +seriously. + +Later, in the mass attacks on "enemy trenches," when they were ordered +to duck on the grass to avoid the bullets, the doughboys ducked as they +were told, then popped up at once on one elbow to see what they could +see. The Blue Devils training with them lay like prone statues. The +doughboys looked at them in astonishment, and said, openly and +frequently: "But there ain't any bullets." + +It was finally from the British, who came later as instructors, that the +doughboys accepted it as gospel that they must be pragmatic about the +dangers, and "act as if...." Then some of the wiseacres at the camp +pronounced the conviction that the Americans thought the French were +melodramatic, and by no means to be copied, until they found their +British first cousins, surely above reproach for needless emotionalism, +were doing the same strange things. + +The state of mind into which Allied instructors sought to drive or coax +the Americans was pinned into a sharp phrase by a Far Western enlisted +man before he left his own country. A melancholy relative had said, as +he departed: "Are you ready to give your life to your country?" To which +the soldier answered: "You bet your neck I'm not--I'm going to make some +German give his life for his." + +This was representative enough of the sentiments of the doughboys, but +the instructors ran afoul of their deepest convictions when they +insisted that this was an art to be learned, not a mere preference to be +favored. + +After the live bombs came the first lessons in machine-gun fire, using +the French machine-gun and automatic rifle. The soldiers were taught to +take both weapons apart and put them together again, and then they were +ordered to fire them. + +The first trooper to tackle an automatic rifle aimed the little monster +from the trenches, and opened fire, but he found to his discomfiture +that he had sprayed the hilltops instead of the range, and one of the +officers of the Blue Devils told him he would better be careful or he +would be transferred to the anti-aircraft service. + +The veterans of the army, however, had little trouble with the automatic +rifle or the machine-guns, even at first. The target was 200 metres +away, at the foot of a hill, and the first of the sergeants to tackle it +made 30 hits out of a possible 34. + +The average for the army fell short of this, but the men were kept at it +till they were thoroughly proficient. + +One characteristic of all the training of the early days at camp was +that both officers and men were being prepared to train later troops in +their turn, so that many lectures in war theory and science, and many +demonstrations of both, were included there. This accounted for much of +the additional time required to train the First Division. + +But while their own training was unusually long drawn out, they were +being schooled in the most intensive methods in use in either French or +British Army. It was an unending matter for disgust to the doughboy that +it took him so long to learn to hurry. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SPEEDING UP + + +While the soldiers were still, figuratively speaking, in their own +trenches and learning the several arts of getting out, the officers of +the infantry camp were having some special instructions in instructing. + +Young captains and lieutenants were placed in command of companies of +the Blue Devils, and told to put them through their paces--in French. + +It was, of course, a point of honor with the officers not to fall back +into English, even in an emergency. One particularly nervous young man, +who had ordered his French platoon to march to a cliff some distance +away, forgot the word for "Halt" or "Turn around" as the disciplined +Blue Devils, eyes straight ahead, marched firmly down upon their doom. +At the very edge, while the American clinched his sticky palms and +wondered what miracle would save him, a helpful French officer called +"Halte," and the American suddenly remembered that the word was the same +in both languages--an experience revoltingly frequent with Americans in +distress with their French. + +But disasters such as this were not numerous. The officers worked +excellently, at French as well as soldiering, and little precious time +was needed for them. + +Three battalions were at work at this first training--two American and +one French. As these learned their lessons, they were put forward to the +next ones, and new troops began at the beginning. This plan was +thoroughly organized at the very beginning, so that the later enormous +influx of troops did not disrupt it, and as the first Americans came +nearer to the perfection they were after, they were put back to leaven +the raw troops as the French Blue Devils had done for the first of them. + +The plan further meant that after the first few weeks, what with +beginners in the First Division and newly arriving troops, the Vosges +fields offered instruction at almost anything along the programme on any +given day. + +Over the whole camp, the aim of the French officers was to reproduce +actual battle conditions as absolutely as possible, and to eliminate, +within reason, any advantage that surprise might give to the Germans. + +By the end of the first week in August, the best scholars among the +trench-diggers and bombers were being shown how to clean out trenches +with live grenades, and the machine-gunners and marksmen were getting +good enough to be willing to bet their own money on their performances. + +Then came the battalion problems, the proper use of grenades by men +advancing in formations against a mythical enemy in intrenched +positions. + +From the beginning, the American Army refused to accept the theory that +the war would never again get into the open. They trained in open +warfare, and with a far greater zest--partly, of course, because it was +the thing they knew already, though they found they had some things to +unlearn. + +Then the war brought about a reorganization of American army units, and +it was necessary for the officers to familiarize themselves with new +conditions. The reorganization was ordered early in August, and put into +effect shortly afterward. The request from General Pershing that the +administrative units of the infantry be altered to conform with European +systems had in its favor the fact that it economized higher officers and +regimental staffs, for at the same time that divisions were made +smaller, regiments were made larger. + +The new arrangement of the infantry called for a company of 250 enlisted +men and 6 commissioned officers, instead of 100 men and 3 officers. Each +company was then divided into 4 platoons, with a lieutenant in command. +Each regiment was made up of 3 battalions of 4 companies each, +supplemented by regimental headquarters and the supply and machine-gun +organizations. + +This made it possible to have 1 colonel and 3 battalion commanders +officer 3,600 men, as against 2,000 of the old order. + +This army in the making was not called on to show itself in the mass +till August 16, just a month after its hard work had begun. Then +Major-General Sibert, field-commander of the First Division and +best-loved man in France, held a review of all the troops. The +manÅ“uvres were held in a great open plain. The marching was done to +spirited bands, who had to offset a driving rain-storm to keep the men +perked up. The physical exercise of the first month showed in the +carriage of the men, infinitely improved, and they marched admirably, in +spite of the fact that their first training had been a specialization in +technical trench warfare. General Sibert made them a short address of +undiluted praise, and they went back to work again. + +A few days later the army had its first intelligence drill, with the +result that some erstwhile soldiers were told off to cook and tend +mules. + +The test consisted in delivering oral messages. One message was: "Major +Blank sends his compliments to Captain Nameless, and orders him to move +L Company one-half mile to the east, and support K Company in the +attack." The officer who gave the message then moved up the hill and +prepared to receive it. + +The third man up came in panting excitement, full of earnest desire to +do well. "Captain, the major says that you're to move your men a mile to +the east," he said, "and attack K Company." He peeled the potatoes for +supper. + +The gas tests came late in August. The officers, believing that fear of +gas could not be excessive, had done some tall talking before the masks +were given out, and in the first test, when the men were to enter a +gas-filled chamber with their masks on, they had all been assured that +one whiff would be fatal. The gas in the chamber was of the +tear-compelling kind, only temporarily harmful, even on exposure to it. +But that was a secret. + +The men were drilled in putting their masks on, till the worst of them +could do it in from three to five seconds. Both the French and the +British masks were used, the one much lighter but comparatively riskier +than the other. Officers required the men to have their masks constantly +within reach, and gas alarms used to be called at meal-times, or +whenever it seemed thoroughly inconvenient to have them. The soldiers +were required to drop everything and don the cumbersome contrivances, +no matter how well they knew that there wasn't any gas. There is no +question that this thoroughness saved many lives when the men went into +the trenches. + +When they masked and went into the gas-chamber the care they took with +straps and buckles could not have been bettered. One or two of the men +fainted from heat and nervousness, but nobody caught the temporary +blindness that would have been their lot if the gas had not been held +off. And after the first few entrants had returned none the worse, the +rest made a lark of it, and the whole experience stamped on their minds +the uselessness of gas as a weapon if you're handy with the mask. + +The first insistence on rifle use and marksmanship, which General +Pershing was to stress later with all the eloquence he had, was heard in +late August. The French said frankly they had neglected the power of the +rifle, and the Americans were put to work to avoid the same mistake. In +target-shooting with rifles the Americans got their first taste of +supremacy. They ceased being novitiates for as long as they held their +rifles, and became respected and admired experts. The first English +Army, "the Old Contemptibles," had all been expert rifle-shots, and, +after a period when rifle fire was almost entirely absent from the +battle-fields, tacticians began to recall this fact, and the cost it had +entailed upon the Germans. + +So the doughboys added rifle fire to their other jobs. + +About this time the day of the doughboy was a pattern of compactness, +though he called it a harsher name. + +It began in the training area at five o'clock in the morning. One +regiment had a story that some of the farm lads used to beat the buglers +up every day and wander about disconsolate, wondering why the morning +was being wasted. This was probably fictional. As a rule, five o'clock +came all too early. There was little opportunity to roll over and have +another wink, for roll-call came at five-thirty, and this was followed +by brief setting-up exercises, designed to give the men an ambition for +breakfast. At this meal French customs were not popular. The poilu, who +begins his day with black coffee and a little bread, was always amazed +to see the American soldier engaged with griddle-cakes and corned-beef +hash, and such other substantial things as he could get at daybreak. +Just after breakfast sick-call was sounded. It was up to the ailing man +to report at that time as a sufferer or forever after hold his peace. +While the sick were engaged in reporting themselves the healthy men +tidied up. Work proper began at seven. + +As a rule, bombing, machine-gun, and automatic-rifle fire practice came +in the mornings. Time was called at eleven and the soldiers marched back +to billets for the midday meal. Later, when the work piled up even more, +the meals were prepared on the training-grounds. Rifle and bayonet +practice came in the afternoon. Four o'clock marked the end of the +working-day for all except captains and lieutenants, who never found any +free time in waking hours. In fact, most of the excited +youngsters--almost all under thirty--let their problems perturb their +dreams. The doughboys amused themselves with swims, walks, concerts, +supper, and French children till nine o'clock, when they were always +amiable toward going to bed. + +With September came the British to supplement the French and, after a +little, to go far toward replacing them. For the Blue Devils had still +work to do on the Germans, and their "vacation" could not last too long. + +A fine and spectacular sham battle put a climax to the stay of the +French, when, after artillery preparation, the Blue Devils took the +newly made American trenches, advancing under heavy barrage. The three +objectives were named Mackensen, Von Kluck, and Ludendorff. The +artillery turned everything it had into the slow-moving screen, under +which the "chasers" crept toward the foe. All the watching doughboys had +been instructed to put on their shrapnel helmets. At the pitch of the +battle some officers found their men using their helmets as good front +seats for the show, but fortunately there were no casualties. Words do +not kill. + +The departure of the Blue Devils was attended by a good deal of +home-made ceremony and a universal deep regret. A genuine liking had +sprung up between the Americans and their French preceptors, and when +they marched away from camp the soldiers flung over them what detachable +trophies they had, the strains of all their bands, the unified good +wishes of the whole First Division, and unnumbered promises to be a +credit to their teachers when they got into the line. + +It was the bayonet which proved the first connecting-link between the +Americans and the British. American observers had decided after a few +weeks that the bayonet was a peculiarly British weapon, and in +consequence it was decided that for this phase of the training, the army +should rely on the British rather than the French. + +The British General Staff obligingly supplied the chief bayonet +instructor of their army with a number of assisting sergeants, and the +squad was sent down to camp. + +The British brought two important things, in addition to expert +bayoneting. They were, first, a familiar bluntness of criticism, which +the Americans had rather missed with the polite French, and a +competitive spirit, stirred up wherever possible between rival units of +the A. E. F. + +Their willingness to "act" their practice was another factor, though in +that they did not excel the French except in that they could impart it +to the Americans. + +The British theory of bayonet work proved to be almost wholly offensive. +They went at their instruction of it with undimmed fire. At the end of +the first week, they gave a demonstration to some visiting officers. +Three short trenches had been constructed in a little dip of land, and +the spectators stood on the hill above them. On the opposite slope tin +cans shone brightly, hoisted on sticks. + +"Ready, gentlemen," said the drill-sergeant. "Prepare for trench bayonet +practice by half sections. You're to take these three lines of trenches, +lay out every Boche in the lot, and then get to cover and fire six +rounds at them 'ere tin hats. Don't waste a shot, gentlemen, every +bullet a Boche. Now, then, ready--over the top, and give 'em 'ell, right +in the stomach." + +Over the top they went and did as they were told. But the excitement was +not great enough to please the drill-sergeant. He turned to the second +section, and put them through at a rounder pace. Then he took over some +young officers, who were being instructed to train later troops, at +cleaning out trenches. Sacks representing Germans were placed in a +communicating trench. + +"Now, remember, gentlemen," said the sergeant, "there's a Fritz in each +one of these 'ere cubby-'oles, and 'e's no dub, is Fritz. 'E's got ears +all down 'is back. Make your feet pneumatic. For 'eaven's sake, don't +sneeze, or 'is nibs will sling you a bomb like winkin', and there'll be +a narsty mess. Ready, Number One! 'Ead down, bayonet up ... it's no use +stickin' out your neck to get a sight of Fritzie in 'is 'ole. Why, if +old Fritz was there, 'e'd just down your point, and then where'd you be? +Why, just a blinkin' casualty, and don't you forget it. Ready again, +bayonet up. Now you see 'em. Quick, down with your point and at 'im. +Tickle 'is gizzard. Not so bad, but I bet you waked 'is nibs in the next +'ole. Keep in mind you're fightin' for your life...." + +By the time the officers were into the trench, the excitement was +terrific. + +It was such measures as these that made the bayonet work go like +lightning, and cut down the time required at it by more than one-half. + +The organized recreation and the competitions, two sturdy British +expedients for morale, always came just after these grimmest of all of +war's practices. The more foolish the game, the more rapturously the +British joined in it. Red Rover and prisoner's base were two prime +favorites. A British major said the British Army had discovered that +when the men came out of the trenches, fagged and horror-struck, the +surest way to bring them back was to set them hard at playing some game +remembered from their childhood. + +The British had even harder work, at first, to make the men fall in with +the games than they had with war practice. But the friendly spirit +existing basically between English and Americans, however spatty their +exterior relationships may sometimes be, finally got everybody in +together. The Americans found that a British instructor would as lief +call them "rotten" if he thought they deserved it, but that he did it +so simply and inoffensively that it was, on the whole, very welcome. + +So the Americans learned all they could from French and British, and +began the scheme of turning back on themselves, and doing their own +instructing. + +The infantry camp was destined to have some offshoots, as the number of +men grew larger, and the specialists required intensive work. Officers' +schools sprang up all over France, and all the supplemental forces, +which had infantry training at first, scattered off to their special +training, notably the men trained to throw gas and liquid fire. + +But, for the most part, the camp in the Vosges remained the big central +mill it was designed to be, and in late October, when three battalions +put on their finishing touches in the very battle-line, the cycle was +complete. Before the time when General Pershing offered the +Expeditionary Force to Generalissimo Foch, to put where he chose, the +giant treadway from sea to camp and from camp to battle was grinding in +monster rhythms. It never thereafter feared any influx of its raw +material. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +BACK WITH THE BIG GUNS + + +THE American Expeditionary Force which went into the great +training-schools of France and England was like nothing so much as a +child who, having long been tutored in a programme of his own make, an +abundance of what he liked and nothing of what he didn't, should be +thrust into some grade of a public school. He would be ridiculously +advanced in mathematics and a dunce at grammar, or historian to his +finger-tips and ignorant that two and two make four. He would amaze his +fellow pupils in each respect equally. + +And that was the lot of the Expeditionary Force. The French found them +backward in trench work and bombing, and naturally enough expected that +backwardness to follow through. They conceded the natural quickness of +the pupils, but saw a long road ahead before they could become an army. +Then the Americans tackled artillery, hardest and deepest of the war +problems, and suddenly blossomed out as experts. + +Of course, the analogy is not to be leaned on too heavily. The Americans +were not, on the instant, the arch-exponents of artillery in all Europe. +But it is true that in comparison to the size of their army, and to the +extent to which they had prepared nationally for war, their artillery +was stronger than that of any other country on the Allied side at the +beginning of the war, notwithstanding that it was the point where they +might legitimately have been expected to be the weakest. + +Hilaire Belloc called the American artillery preparation one of the most +dramatic and welcome surprises of the war. + +It must be understood that all this applies only to men and not in the +least to guns. For big guns, the American reliance was wholly upon +France and England, upon the invitation of those two countries when +America entered the war. + +And the readiness of America's men was not due to a large preparation in +artillery as such. The blessing arose from the fact that the coast +defense could be diverted, within the first year of war, to the handling +of the big guns for land armies, and thus strengthen the artillery arm +sent to France for final training. + +Artillery was every country's problem, even in peace-times. It was the +service which required the greatest wealth and the most profound +training. There was no such thing as a citizenry trained to artillery. +Mathematics was its stronghold, and no smattering could be made to do. +Even more than mathematics was the facility of handling the big guns +when mathematics went askew from special conditions. + +These things the coast defense had, if not in final perfection, at least +in creditable degree. And the diversion of it to the artillery in France +stiffened the backbone of the Expeditionary Force to the pride of the +force and the glad amazement of its preceptors. + +One other thing the coast defense had done: it had pre-empted the +greater part of America's attention in times of peace and +unpreparedness, so that big-gun problems had received a disproportionate +amount of study. The American technical journals on artillery were +always of the finest. The war services were honeycombed with men who +were big-gun experts. + +So when the first artillery training-school opened in France, in +mid-August of 1917, the problems to be faced were all of a more or less +external character. + +The first of these, of course, was airplane work. The second was in +mastering gun differences between American and French types, and in +learning about the enormous numbers of new weapons which had sprung from +battle almost day by day. + +The camp, when the Americans moved in, had much to recommend it to its +new inhabitants. There need be no attempt to conceal the fact that first +satisfaction came with the barracks, second with the weather, and only +third with the guns and planes. + +Some of the artillerymen had come from the infantry camps, and some +direct from the coast. Those from the Vosges camp were boisterous in +their praise of their quarters. They had brick barracks, with floors, +and where they were billeted with the French they found excellent +quarters in the old, low-lying stone and brick houses. The weather would +not have been admired by any outsider. But to the men from the Vosges it +owed a reputation, because they extolled it both day and night. The +artillery camp was in open country, to permit of the long ranges, and if +it sunned little enough, neither did it rain. + +The guns and airplanes supplied by the French were simple at first, +becoming, as to guns at least, steadily more numerous and complicated as +the training went on. + +The men began on the seventy-fives, approximately the American +three-inch gun, and on the howitzers of twice that size. + +The airplane service was the only part of the work wholly new to the +men, and, naturally enough, it was the most attractive. + +Although the officers and instructors warned that air observation and +range-finding was by far the most dangerous of all artillery service, +seventy-five per cent of the young officers who were eligible for the +work volunteered for it. This required a two-thirds weeding out, and +insured the very pick of men for the air crews. + +The air service with artillery was made over almost entirely by the +French between the time of the war's beginning and America's entrance. +All the old visual aids were abolished, such as smoke-pointers and +rockets, and the telephone and wireless were installed in their stead. +The observation-balloons had the telephone service, and the planes had +wireless. + +By these means the guns were first fired and then reported on. The +general system of range-finding was: "First fire long, then fire short, +then split the bracket." This was the joint job of planes and +gunners--one not to be despised as a feat. + +In fact, artillery is, of all services, the one most dependent on +co-operation. It is always a joint job, but the joining must be done +among many factors. + +Its effectiveness depends first upon the precision of the mathematical +calculation which goes before the pull of the lanyard. This calculation +is complicated by the variety of types of guns and shells, and, in the +case of howitzers, by the variable behavior of charges of different size +and power. But these are things that can be learned with patience, and +require knowledge rather than inspiration. + +It is when the air service enters that inspiration enters with it. +Observation must be accurate, in spite of weather, visibility, enemy +camouflage, and everything else. More than that, the observer in the +plane must keep himself safe--often a matter of sheer genius. + +The map-maker must do his part, so that targets not so elusive as +field-guns and motor-emplacements can be found without much help from +the air. + +Finally, the artillery depends, even more than any other branch of the +service, on the rapidity with which its wants can be filled from the +rear. The mobility of the big pieces, and their constant connections +with ammunition-stores, are matters depending directly on the training +of the artillerymen. + +These, then, were the things in which the Americans were either tested +or trained. Their mathematics were A1, as has been noted, and their +familiarity with existing models of big guns sufficient to enable them +to pick up the new types without long effort. + +They had a few weeks of heavy going with pad and pencil, then they were +led to the giant stores of French ammunition--more than any of them had +ever seen before--and told to open fire. One dramatic touch exacted by +the French instructors was that the guns should be pointed toward +Germany, no matter how impotent their distance made them. + +Long lanes, up to 12,000 metres, were told off for the ranges. The +training was intensive, because at that time there was a half-plan to +put the artillery first into the battle-line. In any case it is easier +to make time on secondary problems than on primary. + +Throughout September, while the artillerymen grew in numbers as well as +proficiency, the mastering of gun types was perfected, and the theory of +aim was worked out on paper. + +Late in the month the French added more guns, chief among them being a +monster mounted on railway-trucks whose projectile weighed 1,800 pounds. +The artillerymen named her "Mosquito," "because she had a sting," +although she had served for 300 charges at Verdun. It was not long +before every type of gun in the French Army, and many from the British, +were lined up in the artillery camp, being expertly pulled apart and +reassembled. + +By the time the artillery went into battle with the infantry, failing in +their intention to go first alone, but nevertheless first in actual +fighting, they were able to give a fine account of themselves. By the +time they had got back to camp and were training new troops from their +own experience, they were the centre of an extraordinary organization. + +The rolling of men from camp to battle and back again, training, +retraining, and fighting in the circle, with an increasing number of men +able to remain in the line, and a constantly increasing number of new +men permitted to come in at the beginning, ground out an admirable +system before the old year was out. + +The fact that the artillery-school could not take its material raw did +not make the hitches it otherwise would, chiefly, of course, because of +the coast defense, and somewhat because American college men were found +to have a fine substratum of technical knowledge which artillery could +turn to account. + +After all the routine was fairly learned, and there had been a helpful +interim in the line, the artillery practised on some specialties, partly +of their own contribution, and partly those suggested by the other +armies. + +One of these, the most picturesque, was the shattering of the +"pill-boxes," German inventions for staying in No Man's Land without +being hit. + +A "pill-box" is a tiny concrete fortress, set up in front of the +trenches, usually in groups of fifteen to twenty. They have slot-like +apertures, through which Germans do their sniping. They are supposed to +be immune from anything except direct hit by a huge shell. But the +American artillery camp worked out a way of getting them--with luck. +Each aperture, through which the German inmates sighted and shot, was +put under fire from automatic rifles, coming from several directions at +once, so that it was indiscreet for the Boche to stay near his windows, +on any slant he could devise. Under cover of this rifle barrage, bombers +crept forward, and at a signal the rifle fire stopped, and the bombers +threw their destruction in. + +All these accomplishments, which did not take overlong to learn, +enhanced the natural value of the American artilleryman. He became, in a +short time, the pride of the army and a warmly welcomed mainstay to the +Allies. + +Major-General Peyton C. March, who took the artillery to France and +commanded them in their days of organization, before he was called back +to be Chief of Staff at Washington, was always credited, by his men, +with being three-fourths of the reason why they made such a showing. +General March always credited the matter to his men. At any rate, +between them they put their country's best foot foremost for the first +year of America in France, and they served as optimism centres even when +distress over other delays threatened the stoutest hearts. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE EYES OF THE ARMY + + +America's beginnings in the air service were pretty closely kin to her +other beginnings--she furnished the men and took over the apparatus. And +although by September 1, 1917, she had large numbers of aviators in the +making in France, they were flying--or aspiring to--in French schools, +under American supervision, with French machines and French instructors. + +There existed, in prospect, and already in detailed design, several +enormous flying-fields, to be built and equipped by America, as well as +half a dozen big repair-shops, and one gigantic combination repair-shop, +assembling-shop, and manufacturing plant. + +But in the autumn, when there were aviators waiting in France to go up +that very day, there was no waiting on fields trimmed by America. + +When the main school, under American supervision, had filled to +overflowing, the remaining probationers were scattered among the French +schools under French supervision. Meanwhile, the engineers and +stevedores shared the work of constructing "the largest aviation-field +in the world" in central France. + +It was once true of complete armies that they could be trained to +warfare in their own home fields, and then sent to whatever part of the +world happened to be in dispute, and they required no more additional +furbishing up than a short rest from the journey. That is no longer true +of anything about an army except the air service, and it isn't literally +true of them. But they approach it. + +So it was practicable to give the American aviators nine-tenths of their +training at home, and leave the merest frills to a few spare days in +France. This, of course, takes no account of the first weeks at the +battle-front, which are only nominally training, since in the course of +them a flier may well have to battle for his life, and often does catch +a German, if he chances on one as untutored as himself. + +The French estimate of the necessary time to make an aviator is about +four months before he goes up on the line, and about four months in +patrol, on the line, before he is a thoroughly capable handler of a +battle-plane. They cap that by saying that an aviator is born, not made, +anyway, and that "all generalizations about them are untrue, including +this one." + +The air policy of France, however, was in a state of great fluidity at +this time. They were not prepared to lay down the law, because they were +in the very act of giving up their own romantic, adventurous system of +single-man combat, and were borrowing the German system of squadron +formation. They were reluctant enough to accept it, let alone +acknowledge their debt to the Germans. But the old knight-errantry of +the air could not hold up against the new mass attacks. And the French +are nothing if not practical. + +Even their early war aviators had prudence dinned into them--that +prudence which does not mean a niggardliness of fighting spirit, but +rather an abstaining from foolhardiness. + +Each aviator was warned that if he lost his life before he had to, he +was not only squandering his own greatest treasure, but he was leaving +one man less for France. + +This was the philosophy of the training-school. If the French were +impatient with a flier who lost his life to the Germans through excess +of friskiness, they were doubly so at the flier who endangered his life +at school through heedlessness. + +"If you pull the wrong lever," they said, "you will kill a man and wreck +a machine. Your country cannot afford to pay, either, for your fool +mistakes." + +But there their dogma ended. Once the flier had learned to handle his +machine, his further behavior was in the hands of American officers +solely, and these, he found, were stored with several very definite +ideas. + +The first of these--the most marked distinction between the French +system and the American--was that all American aviators should know the +theories of flying and most of its mathematics. + +Concerning these things the French cared not a hang. + +Neither did the American aviators. But they toed the mark just the +same, and many a youngster gnawed his pencil indoors and cursed the fate +that had placed him with a country so finicky about air-currents on +paper and so indifferent to the joys of learning by ear. + +The Americans accepted from the beginning the edict on squadron flying. +It was as much a part of their training as field-manÅ“uvres for the +infantry. And because they had no golden days of derring-do to look back +upon, they did less grumbling. Besides, there was always the chance of +getting lost, and patrols offered some good opportunities to the +venturesome. + +The air service had at this time an extra distinction. They were the +only arm of America's service that had really impressed the Germans. The +German experts, as they spoke through their newspapers, were +contemptuous of the army and all its works. They maintained that it +would be impossible for American transports to bring more than half a +million men to France, if they tried forever, because the submarines +would add to the inherent difficulties, and make "American +participation" of less actual menace than that of Roumania. + +The Frankfurter Zeitung said: "There is no doubt that the Entente lay +great stress on American assistance on this point (air warfare). Nor do +we doubt that the technical resources of the enemy will achieve +brilliant work in this branch. But all this has its limits ... in this +field, superiority in numbers is by no means decisive. Quality and the +men are what decide." + +Major Hoffe, of the German General Staff, wrote in the Weser Zeitung: +"The only American help seriously to be reckoned with is aerial aid." + +There was a quantity of such talk. Incidentally, the same experts who +limited America's troops to half a million in France at the most +indulgent estimate, said, over and over, that a million were to be +feared, just the number announced to be in France by President Wilson +one year from the time of the first debarkation. + +The aviators worked hard enough to deserve the German honor. In the +French school supervised by the Americans the schedule would have +furnished Dickens some fine material for pathos. + +The day began at 4 A. M., with a little coffee for an eye-opener. The +working-day began in the fields at 5 sharp. If the weather permitted +there were flights till 11, when the pupil knocked off for a midday +meal. He was told to sleep then till 4 in the afternoon, when flying +recommenced, and continued till 8.30. The rest of his time was all his +own. He spent it getting to bed. + +There was an average of four months under this régime. The flier began +on the ground, and for weeks he was permitted no more than a dummy +machine, which wobbled along the ground like a broken-winged duck, and +this he used to learn levers and mechanics--those things he had toiled +over on paper before he was even allowed on the field. + +After a while he was permitted in the air with an instructor, and +finally alone. There were creditably few disasters. For months there was +never a casualty. But if a man had an accident it was a perfectly +open-and-shut affair. Either he ruined himself or he escaped. It was +part of the French system with men who escaped to send them right back +into the air, as soon as they could breathe, so that the accident would +not impair their flying-nerves. + +After the three or four months of foundation work, if the term is not +too inept for flying, the aviator had his final examination, a +triangular flight of about ninety miles, with three landings. The +landings are the great trick of flying. Like the old Irish story, it +isn't the falling that hurts you, it's the sudden stop. + +If the pupil made his landings with accuracy he was passed on to the big +school at Pau, where acrobatics are taught. The flight acrobat was the +ace, the armies found. And no man went to battle till he could do +spiral, serpentine, and hairpin turns, could manage a tail spin, and "go +into a vrille"--a corkscrew fall which permitted the flier to make great +haste from where he was, and yet not lose control of his machine, at the +same time that he made a tricky target for a Boche machine-gun. + +While all this training was going on the ranks of American aviators were +filling in at the top. The celebrated Lafayette Escadrille, the American +aviators who joined the French Army at the beginning of the war, was +taken into the American Army in the late summer. Then all the Americans +who were in the French aviation service who had arrived by way of the +Foreign Legion were called home. + +These were put at instructing for a time, then their several members +became the veteran core of later American squadrons. This air unit was +finally placed at 12 fliers and 250 men, and before Christmas there was +a goodly number of them, a number not to be told till the care-free and +uncensored days after the war. + +By the beginning of the new year American aviation-fields were taking +shape. The engineers had laid a spur of railroad to link the largest of +them with the main arteries of communication, and the labor units had +built the same sort of small wooden city that sprang up all over America +as cantonments. + +There were roomy barracks, a big hall where chapel services alternated +with itinerant entertainers, a little newspaper building, plenty of +office-barracks with typewriters galore and the little models on which +aviators learn their preliminary lessons. + +There is one training-field six miles long and a mile and a half wide, +where all kinds of instruction is going on, even to acrobatics. + +And there are several large training-schools just behind the +fighting-lines, which have plenty of visiting Germans to practise on. + +The enormity of the American air programme made it a little unwieldy at +first, and it got a late start. But on the anniversary of its beginning +it had unmeasured praise from official France, and even before that the +French newspapers had loudly sung its praises. + +The American aviator as an individual was a success from the beginning. +He has unsurpassed natural equipment for an ace, and his training has +been unprecedentedly thorough. And he has dedicated his spirit through +and through. He has set out to make the Germans see how wise they were +to be afraid. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SCHOOLS FOR OFFICERS + + +The first economy effected after the broad sweep of training was in +swing was to segregate the officers for special training, and these +officers' schools fell into two types. + +First, there was the camp for the young commissioned officers from +Plattsburg, and similar camps in America, to give them virtually the +same training as the soldiers had, but at a sharper pace, inclusive also +of more theory, and to increase their executive ability in action; +second, there was the school established by General Pershing, late in +the year, through which non-commissioned officers could train to take +commissions. + +Of the first type, there were many, of the second, only one. + +The camp for the Plattsburg graduates which turned its men first into +the fighting was one having about 300 men, situated in the south of +France, where the weather could do its minimum of impeding. + +These youngsters arrived in September, and they were fighting by +Thanksgiving. The next batch took appreciably less time to train, partly +because the organization had been tried out and perfected on the first +contingent, and partly because they were destined for a longer stay in +the line before they were hauled back for training others. This process +was duplicated in scores of schools throughout France, so that the +Expeditionary Force, what with its reorganization to require fewer +officers, and its complementary schools, never lacked for able +leadership. + +The first school was under command of Major-General Robert Bullard, a +veteran infantry officer with long experience in the Philippines to draw +on, and a conviction that the proper time for men to stop work was when +they dropped of exhaustion. + +His officers began their course with a battalion of French troops to aid +them, and they were put into company formation, of about 75 men to the +company, just as the humble doughboy was. + +They were all infantry officers, who were to take command as first and +second lieutenants, but they specialized in whatever they chose. They +were distinguished by their hat-bands: white for bayonet experts, blue +for the liquid-fire throwers, yellow for the machine-gunners, red for +the rifle-grenadiers, orange for the hand-grenadiers, and green for the +riflemen. These indicated roughly the various things they were taught +there, in addition to trench-digging and the so-called battalion +problems, recognizable to the civilian as team-work. + +Their work was not of the fireside or the library. It was the joint +opinion of General Pershing, General Sibert, and General Bullard that +the way to learn to dig a trench was to dig it, and that nothing could +so assist an officer in directing men at work as having first done the +very same job himself. + +They had a permanent barracks which had once housed young French +officers, in pre-war days, and they had a generous Saturday-to-Monday +town leave. + +These two benefactions, plus their tidal waves of enthusiasm, carried +them through the herculean programme devised by General Bullard and the +assisting French officers and troops. + +They began, of course, with trench-digging, and followed with live +grenades, machine-guns, automatic rifles, service-shells, bayonet work, +infantry formation for attack, and gas tests. Then they were initiated +into light and fire signals, star-shells, gas-bombing, and liquid fire. + +Last, they came in on the rise of the wave of rifle popularity, and +trained at it even more intensively than the first of the doughboys. +"The rifle is the American weapon," was General Pershing's constant +reiteration, "and it has other uses than as a stick for a bayonet." + +But efficacious as schools of this type were, there was a need they did +not meet, a need first practical, then sentimental, and equally valuable +on both counts. + +This was the training for the man from the ranks. The War College in +America, acting in one of its rare snatches of spare time, had ordered a +school for officers in America to which any enlisted man was eligible. + +General Pershing overhauled this arrangement in one particular: he +framed his school in France so that nothing lower than a corporal could +enter it. This was on the theory that a man in the ranks who had ability +showed it soon enough, and was rewarded by a non-com. rank. That was the +time when the way ahead should rightfully be opened to him. + +This school commenced its courses just before Christmas, with everything +connected with it thoroughly worked out first. + +The commissions it was entitled to bestow went up to the rank of major. +Scholars entered it by recommendation of their superior officers, which +were forwarded by the commanders of divisions or other separate units, +and by the chiefs of departmental staffs, to the commander-in-chief. +Before these recommendations could be made, the record of the applicant +must be scanned closely, and his efficiency rated--if he were a +linesman, by fighting quality, and if in training still or behind the +lines, by efficiency in all other duties. + +Then he entered and fared as it might happen. If he succeeded, his place +was waiting for him at his graduation, as second lieutenant in a +replacement division. + +Enormous numbers of these replacement divisions had to be held behind +the lines. From them, all vacancies occurring in the combat units in the +lines were filled. And rank, within them, proceeded in the same manner +as in any other division. Their chief difference was that there was no +limit set upon the number of second lieutenants they could include, so +that promotions waited mainly for action to earn them. + +Within the combat units, the vacancies were to be filled two-thirds by +men in line of promotion within the unit itself, and one-third from the +replacement divisions. + +The replacement division's higher officers were those recovered from +wounds, who had lost their place in line, and those who had not yet had +any assignments. To keep up a sufficient number of replacement +divisions, the arriving depot battalions were held to belong with them. + +This school was located near the fighting-line, and its instructors were +preponderantly American. + +It put the "stars of the general into the private's knapsack," and +began the great mill of officer-making that the experiences of other +armies had shown to be so tragically necessary. Needless to say, it was +packed to overflowing from its first day. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +SOME DISTINGUISHED VISITORS + + +So satisfactory to itself was the progress of the American Expeditionary +Force in becoming an army that by the end of its first month of training +it was ready for important visitors. True, the first to come was one who +would be certain to understand the force's initial difficulties, and who +would also be able to help as well as inspect. He was General Petain, +Commander-in-Chief of the French Army, and he came for inspection of +both French and American troops on August 19, three days after General +Sibert had had a family field-day to take account of his troops. + +General Petain came down with General Pershing, and the first inspection +was of billets. Then the two generals reviewed the Alpine Chasseurs, and +General Petain awarded some medals which had been due since the month +before, when the Blue Devils were in the line. + +After General Petain's visit with the American troops, he recommended +their training and their physique equally, and said: "I think the +American Army will be an admirable fighting force within a short time." + +This was also General Pershing's day for learning--his first session +with one of his most difficult tasks. He had to follow the example of +General Petain, and kiss the children, and accept the bouquets thrust +upon both generals by all the little girls of the near-by Vosges towns. + +General Pershing did better with the kissing as his day wore on, though +its foreignness to his experience was plain to the end. But with the +bouquets he was an outright failure. Graciously as he might accept them, +the holding of them was much as a doughboy might hold his first armful +of live grenades. + +The camp's next distinguished visitor was Georges Clemenceau, the +veteran French statesman who was soon to be Premier of France. +Clemenceau saw American troops that day for the second time, the first +having been when, as a young French senator, he watched General Grant's +soldiers march into Richmond. + +He recalled to the sons and grandsons of those dusty warriors how +inspired a sight it had been, and he added that he hoped to see the +present generation march into Berlin. + +When Clemenceau talked to the doughboys, however, he had more than old +memories with which to stir them. He has a graceful, complete command of +the English language, in which he made the two or three addresses +interspersed in the full programme of his stay. + +In one speech M. Clemenceau said: "I feel highly honored at the +privilege of addressing you. I know America well, having lived in your +country, which I have always admired, and I am deeply impressed by the +presence of an American army on French soil, in defense of liberty, +right, and civilization, against the barbarians. My mind compares this +event to the Pilgrim Fathers, who landed on Plymouth Rock, seeking +liberty and finding it. Now their children's children are returning to +fight for the liberty of France and the world. + +"You men have come to France with disinterested motives. You came not +because you were compelled to come, but because you wished to come. +Your country always had love and friendship for France. Now you are at +home here, and every French house is open to you. You are not like the +people of other nations, because your motives are devoid of personal +interest, and because you are filled with ideals. You have heard of the +hardships before you, but the record of your countrymen proves that you +will acquit yourselves nobly, earning the gratitude of France and the +world." + +At the end of this speech General Sibert said to the men who had heard +it: "You will henceforth be known as the Clemenceau Battalion." That was +the first unit of the American Army to have any designation other than +its number. + +Another civilian visitor was next, though he was civilian only in the +sense that he had neither task nor uniform of the army. He was Raymond +Poincaré, President of the French Republic, the leader of the French +"bitter-enders," and sometimes called the stoutest-hearted soldier +France has ever had. + +President Poincaré made a thorough inspection. He, too, began with the +billets, but he was not content to see them from the outside. In fact, +the first that one new major-general saw of him was the half from the +waist down, the other half being obscured by the floor of the barn attic +he was peering into. + +President Poincaré made cheering speeches to the men, for the force of +which they were obliged to rely upon his gestures and his intonations, +since he spoke no English. But his sense was not wholly lost to the +doughboys. At the peak of one of the President's most soaring flights +those who understood French interrupted to applaud him. + +"What did he say?" asked a doughboy. + +"He said to give 'em hell," said another. + +Fourth, and last, of the great Frenchmen, and greatest, from the soldier +point of view, was Marshal Joffre, Marne hero, who came and spent a +night and a day at camp. + +It was mid-October when he came, and weeks of driving rain had preceded +him. In spite of their gloom over the weather, the doughboys were +eagerly anticipating the visit of Joffre, and they were wondering if the +man of many battles would think them worth standing in the rain to +watch. + +A detachment of French buglers--buglers whom the Americans could never +sufficiently admire or imitate, because they could twirl the bugles +between beats and take up their blasts with neither pitch nor time +lost--waited outside the quarters where the marshal was to spend the +night. Half an hour before his motor came up the sun broke through the +drizzle. + +"He brings it with him," said a doughboy. + +Marshal Joffre was accompanied by General Pershing, the Pershing +personal staff and Joffre's aide, Lieutenant-Colonel Jean Fabry, who was +with the French Mission in America. There were ovations in all the +French villages through which they passed, and there were uproarious +cheers when the party reached the American officers who were to be +addressed by Marshal Joffre. In his short speech he said that America +had come to help deliver humanity from the yoke of German insolence, and +added: "Let us be united. Victory surely will be ours." + +Later, after picked men had shown Joffre what they could do with +grenades and bayonets, the marshal made a short speech to them, telling +them of how his visit to America had cheered and strengthened him, and +how even greater was the stimulation he had had from seeing the +Americans train in France. + +In a statement to the Associated Press he said: "I have been highly +gratified by what I have seen to-day. I am confident that when the time +comes for American troops to go into the trenches and meet the enemy +they will give the same excellent account of themselves in action as +they did to-day in practice." + +Northcliffe came in December, with Colonel House and members of the +House Mission. He wrote a long impression of his visit for the English +at home, in which he said that the finest sight he saw was the American +rifle practice, in which the United States troops did exceptionally +well. Then he praised them for their mastery of the British type of +trench mortar, for their accuracy with grenades and, most significant of +all, for their able handling of themselves after the bombs were thrown, +so that they should have a maximum of safety in battle. The doughboys +had finally learned their hardest lesson. + +Sir Walter Roper Lawrence, who was coming to America on a special war +mission, went to camp in early December to see how the doughboys fared, +so that he might report on them at home. + +He had just inquired of General Sir Julian Byng, who had accidentally +had the assistance of some American engineers at Cambrai, what they +should be valued at, and Sir Julian had answered: "Very earnest, very +modest, and very helpful." + +"I must say that is my opinion, too," said Sir Walter, when he came to +camp. "They are fine fellows to look at--as good-looking soldiers as any +man might wish to see. They have a wonderfully springy step, much more +springy than one sees in other soldiers. They are clean, well set up, +and they are always cheerful. They are splendidly fed and well +quartered, and they are desperately keen to learn, and as desperately +keen to get into the thick of things. If they seem to have any worries +it is that they are not getting in as quickly as they would like to. + +"The American troops have everywhere made a decidedly favorable +impression. I am extremely proud of my British citizenship, I have been +all my life, but if I were an American I would be insufferably proud of +my citizenship. In all history there is nothing that approaches her +transporting such an enormous army so great a distance oversea to fight +for an ideal." + +After the new year W. A. Appleton, secretary of the General Federation +of Trades Unions in England, made a visit to France, and described the +American camps for his own public through the Federation organ. + +"I see everywhere," he wrote, "samples of the American armies that we +are expecting will enable the Allies to clear France of the Germans. +Most of the men are fine specimens of humanity, and those with whom I +spoke showed no signs of braggadocio, too frequently attributed to +America. They were quiet, well-spoken fellows, fully alive to the +seriousness of the task they have undertaken, and they apparently have +but one regret--that they had not come into the war soon enough. It was +pleasant to talk to these men and to derive encouragement from their +quiet, unobtrusive strength." + +These were the things which were playing upon public opinion in France +and England, reinforcing the good-will with which the first American +soldiers were welcomed there. + +When United States soldiers paraded again in the streets of London, late +in the spring of 1918, and when they marched down the new Avenue du +Président Wilson in Paris, on July 4, 1918, the greetings to them had +lost in hysteria and grown in depth, till the magnitude of the +demonstrations and the quality of them drew amazement from the oldest of +the old stagers. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE MEN WHO DID EVERYTHING + + +If the American Expeditionary Force had landed in the middle of the +Sahara Desert instead of France, it would not have been under greater +necessity to do things for itself, and immediately. For even where the +gallant French were entirely willing to pull their belts in one more +notch and make provision for the newcomers, the moral obligation not to +permit their further sacrifice was enormous. And although, as it +happened, there were many things, at first, in which the A. E. F. was +obliged to ask French aid, this number was speedily cut down and finally +obliterated. + +The men on whom fell the largest burden of making American troops +self-sufficing in the first half-year of war, were the nine regiments of +engineers recruited in nine chief cities of America before General +Pershing sailed. They were officered to a certain extent by Regular Army +engineers, but more by railroad officials who were recruited at the +same time from all the large railroads of America. + +And they operated what roads they found, and built more, till finally, +after a year, during which they had assistance from the army engineers +and a fair number of labor and special units, they had created in France +a railroad equal to any one of the middle-sized roads of long standing +in this country, with road-beds, rolling-stock, and equipment equal to +the best, and railway terminals which, in the case of one of their +number, rivalled the port of Hamburg. + +These were the men who were first to arrive in Europe after General +Pershing, who beat them over by only a few days. They were not fighting +units, so that they did not dim the glory of the Regulars, though they +had the honor to carry the American army uniform first through the +streets of London. + +They were the first of the army in the battle-line, too, though again +their civilian pursuit, though failing to serve to protect them against +German attack, deprived them of the flag-flying and jubilation that +attended the infantrymen and artillerymen in late October. + +But though their public honor was so limited, their private honor with +the Expeditionary Force was without stint. It was "the engineers here" +and "the engineers there" till it must have seemed to them that they +were carrying the burden of the entire world. + +On May 6, 1917, the War Department issued this statement: "The War +Department has sent out orders for the raising, as rapidly as possible, +of nine additional regiments of engineers which are destined to proceed +to France at the earliest possible moment, for work on the lines of +communication.... All details regarding the force will be given out as +fast as compatible with the best public interests." + +The recruiting-points were New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, +Pittsburgh, Detroit, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. It was +the job of each city to provide a regiment. And it became the job of the +great railway brotherhoods to see that neither the kind nor the number +of men accepted would cripple the railways at home. + +The War Department asked for 12,000 men, and had offers of about four +times that many. The result was, of course, that the 9 regiments were +men of magnificent physique and sterling equipment. One regiment boasted +125 members who measured more than 6 feet. + +Their first official task was to help to repair and man the French +railways leading up to the lines, carrying food for men and guns. + +Their next was to build and man the railways which were to connect the +American seaport with the training-camps, and last, with the +fighting-line itself. + +The promise of immediate action in France was fulfilled to the letter. +Two months from the day the recruiting began, the "Lucky 13th," the +regiment recruited in Chicago, landed in a far-away French town, whose +inhabitants leaned out of their windows in the late, still night, to +throw them roses and whispers of good cheer--anything louder than +whispers being under a ban because of the nearness to the front--and the +day following, with French crews at their elbows, they were running +French trains up and down the last line of communications. + +These were men who had years of railroading behind them. Many of them +were officered by the same men who had been their directors in civil +life. It was no uncommon thing to hear a private address his captain by +his first name. One day a private said to his captain. "Bill, you got +all the wrong dope on this," to which the captain replied severely: "I +told you before about this discipline--if you want to quarrel with my +orders, you call me mister." + +But military discipline was never a real love with the engineers. +"What's military discipline to us? We got Rock Island discipline," said +a brawny first lieutenant, when, because he was a fellow passenger on a +train with a correspondent, he felt free to speak his mind. + +"I won't say it's not all right in its way, but it's not a patch on what +we have in a big yard. A man obeys in his sleep, for he knows if he +don't somebody's life may have to pay for it--not his own, either, which +would make it worse. That's Rock Island. But it don't involve any +salutin', or 'if-you-pleasin'.' If my fellows say 'Tom' I don't pay any +attention, unless there's some officer around." + +This attitude toward discipline characterizes all the special units to a +certain degree, though the engineers somewhat more than the rest, for +the reason that they had to offer not a mere negation of discipline but +a substitute of their own. + +But, whatever their sentiments toward their incidental job as soldiers, +there was no mistaking their zest for their regular job of railroading. + +They found the railways of France in amazingly fine condition, in spite +of the fact that they had, many of them, been built purely for war uses, +and under the pressure inevitable in such work. Those behind the British +lines were equally fine. + +As soon as the American engineers appeared in the communication-trains, +their troubles with the Germans began. On the second run of the "Lucky +13th" men, a German airplane swept down and flew directly over the +engine for twenty minutes, taking strict account. + +Then they began to bomb the trains, and many a time the crews had to get +out and sit under the trains till the raid was over. + +The engineers kept their non-combatant character till after the December +British thrust at Cambrai, when half a hundred of them, working with +their picks and shovels behind the lines, suddenly found themselves face +to face with German counter-attacking troops, and had to fight or run. +The engineers snatched up rifles and such weapons as they could from +fallen soldiers, and with these and their shovels helped the British to +hold their line. + +The incident was one of the most brilliant of the year, partly because +it was dramatically unexpected, partly because it permitted the +Americans to prove their readiness to fight, in whatever circumstances. +The spectacle of fifty peaceful engineers suddenly turned warriors of +pick and shovel was used by the journals of many countries to +demonstrate what manner of men the Americans were. + +But the work for British and French, on their strategic railways, was +not to continue for long. The great American colony was already on +blue-print, and the despatches from Washington were estimating that many +millions would have to be spent for the work. + +The annual report of Major-General William Black, chief of engineers, +which was made public in December, stated that almost a billion would +be needed for engineering work in France in 1919, if the work then in +progress were to be concluded satisfactorily. + +General Black's report showed that equipment for 70 divisions, or +approximately 1,000,000 men, had been purchased within 350 hours after +Congress declared war, including nearly 9,000,000 articles, among them 4 +miles of pontoon bridges. + +Every unit sent to France took its full equipment along, and the cost of +the "railroad engineers" alone was more than $12,000,000. + +Not long after the men were running the French and British trains, they +were building their lines in Flanders, in the interims of building the +American lines from sea to camp. + +The building was through, and over, such mud as passes description. The +engineers tell a story of having passed a hat on a road, and on picking +it up, found that there was a soldier under it. They dug him out. "But I +was on horseback," the soldier protested. + +The tracks were rather floated than built. Where the shell fire was +heavy, the men could only work a few hours each day, under barrage of +artillery or darkness, and they were soon making speed records. + +"The fight against the morass is as stern and difficult as the fight +against the Boche," said an engineer, speaking of the Flanders tracks. +One party of men, in an exposed position, laid 180 feet of track in a +record time, and left the other half of the job till the following day. +When they came back, they found that their work had been riddled with +shell-holes, whereat they fell to and finished the other half and +repaired the first half in the same time as had starred them on the +first day's job. + +It was not long till they had a European reputation. + +The tracks they were to lay for America, though they were far enough +from the Flanders mud, had a sort of their own to offer. The terminal +was built by tremendous preliminaries with the suction-dredge. The long +lines of communication between camp and sea were varyingly difficult, +some of them offering nothing to speak of, some of them abominable. The +little spur railways leading to the hospitals, warehouses, and +subsidiary training-camps which lay afield from the main line were more +quickly done. + +In addition to all these things, the engineers were the handy men of +France. They picked up some of the versatility of the Regular Army +engineers, whose accomplishments are never numbered, and they built +hospitals and barracks, too, in spare time, and they laid waterways, and +helped out in General Pershing's scheme to put the inland waterways of +France to work. The canal system was finally used to carry all sorts of +stores into the interior of France, and before the engineers were +finished the army was getting its goods by rail, by motor, and by boat, +though it was not till late in the year that the transportation +machinery could avoid great jams at the port. + +The engineers were, from first to last, the most picturesque Americans +in France. They came from the great yards and terminals of East and +West, they brought their behavior, their peculiar flavor of speech, and +their efficiency with them, and they refused to lose any of them, no +matter what the outside pressure. + +"It's a great life," said one of them from the Far West, "and I may say +it's a blamed sight harder than shooing hoboes off the cars back home. +But there's times when I could do with a sight of the missus and the +kids and the Ford. If it takes us long to lick 'em, it won't be my +fault." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +BEHIND THE LINES + + +The difficulty of describing the American organization behind the lines +in France lies in the fact that the story is nowhere near finished. The +end of the first year saw huge things done, but huger ones still in the +doing, and the complete and the incomplete so blended that there was +almost no point at which a finger could be laid and one might say: "They +have done this." + +But at the end of the first year all the foundations were down and the +corner-stones named, and though much necessary secrecy still envelops +the actual facts, something at least can be told. + +America could no more move direct from home to the line in the matter of +her supplies than she could in that of her men. And it was at her +intermediate stopping-point, in both cases, that her troubles lay. It +was, as Belloc put it, the problem of the hour-glass. Plenty of room at +both ends and plenty of material were invalidated by the little strait +between. + +It was not a month from the time of the first landing of troops, in +June, 1917, before the wharfs of the ports chiefly used by incoming +American supplies were stacked high with unmoved cases. + +The transportation men worked with might and main, but the Shipping +Board at home, under the goad of restless and anxious people, was +sending and sending the equipment to follow the men. And once landed, +the supplies found neither roof to cover them nor means to carry them +on. + +This was the point at which General Pershing began to lament to +Washington over his scarcity of stevedores, and labor units, and soon +thereafter was the point at which he got them. + +On September 14, 1917, W. W. Atterbury, vice-president of the +Pennsylvania Railroad, was appointed director-general of transportation +of the United States Expeditionary Force in France, and was given the +rank of brigadier-general. General Atterbury was already in France, and +had been offering such expert advice and assistance to General Pershing +as his civilian capacity would permit. With his appointment came the +announcement of others, giving him the assistance of many well-known +American railroad men. + +When the First Division reached France it was discovered that it +required four tons of tonnage to provide for each man. That meant 80,000 +tons for each division, which, in the figures of the railroad man, meant +eighty trains of 1,000 tons capacity for every division. + +For the first 200,000 men in France, who formed the basis for the first +railroad reckoning, 800 trains were necessary. + +Obviously, these trains could not be taken from the already burdened +French. Obviously, they could not tax further the trackage in France, +though the trains and engines shipped had essential measurements to +conform to the French road-beds, so that interchange was easy. Still +more obviously, the trains could not be made in this country and rolled +onto the decks of ships for transportation. + +So that before the first soldier packed his first kit on his way to +camp the A. E. F. required railway-tracks, enormous reception-wharfs, +assembling-plants and factories, and arsenals and warehouses beyond +number. + +The only things which America could buy in France were those which could +be grown there, by women and old men and children, and those which were +already made. The only continuing surplus product of France was big +guns, which resulted from their terrific specialization in +munition-plants during the war's first three years. + +To find out what could legitimately be bought in France, and to buy it, +paying no more for it than could be avoided by wise purchasing, General +Pershing created a General Purchasing Board in Paris late in August. +This board had a general purchasing agent at its head, who was the +representative of the commander-in-chief, and he acted in concert with +similar boards of the other Allied armies. His further job was to +co-ordinate all the efforts of subordinate purchasing agents throughout +the army. The chief of each supply department and of the Red Cross and +the Y. M. C. A. named purchasing agents to act under this board. + +It was not long till this board was supervising the spending of many +millions of dollars a month, which gives a fair estimate of what the +total expenditure, both at home and abroad, had to be. + +As a case in point, a single branch of this board bought in France, the +first fortnight of November, 26,000 tons of tools and equipment, 4,000 +tons of railway-ties, and 160 tons of cars. The cost was something over +$3,000,000. These purchases alone saved the total cargo space of 20 +vessels of 1,600 tons each. + +The General Purchasing Board adopted the price-fixing policy created at +Washington, in which it was aided by the shrewdest business heads among +the British and French authorities. + +This board also had power to commandeer ships, when they had to--notably +in the case of bringing shipments of coal from England, where it was +fairly plentiful, to France, where there was almost none. + +A second scheme for co-ordination put into effect by General Pershing +was a board at which heads of all army departments could meet and act +direct, without the necessity of going through the commander-in-chief. +When the quartermaster's department made its budgets, the co-ordination +department went over them and revised the estimates downward, or drafted +work or supplies from some other department with a surplus, or +redistributed within the quartermaster's stores, perhaps even granted +the first requests. But there was a vast saving throughout the army +zone. + +The problem of America's "behind the lines," including as it did the +creating of every phase of transportation, from trackage to terminals, +and then providing the things to transport, not only for an army growing +into the millions, but for much of civilian France, was one which, all +wise observers said, was the greatest of the war. Just how staggering +were these difficulties must not be told till later, but surmises are +free. And the praise for overcoming them which poured from British and +French onlookers had the value and authority of coming from men who had +themselves been through like crises, and who knew every obstacle in the +way of the Americans. + +But if the preparatory stages must be abridged in the telling, there is +no ban on a little expansiveness as to what was finally done. + +Within a year American engineers and laborers and civilians working +behind the lines had made of the waste lands around an old French port a +line of modern docks where sixteen heavy cargo-vessels could rest at the +same time, being unloaded from both sides at once at high speed, by the +help of lighters. These docks were made by a big American pile-driver, +which in less than a year had driven 30,000 piles into the marshy ooze, +and made a foundation for enormous docks. + +Just behind the docks is a plexus of railway-lines which, what with +incoming and outgoing tracks and switches and side-lines, contains 200 +miles of trackage in the terminal alone. + +It is for the present no German's business how many hundred miles of +double and triple track lead back to the fighting-line, and it is the +censor's rule that one must tell nothing a German shouldn't know. But +there is plenty of track, figures or no figures. + +Equal preparation has been made for such supplies as must remain +temporarily at the docks. + +There are 150 warehouses, most of them completed, each 400 by 50 feet, +and each with steel walls and top and concrete floors. When the +warehouses are finished they will be able to hold supplies for an army +of a million men for thirty days. They are supplemented by a giant +refrigerating-plant, with an enormous capacity, which is served by an +ice-making factory with an output of 500 tons daily, the whole ice +department being operated by a special "ice unit" of the army, +officially called Ice Plant Company 301. The ice department also has its +own refrigerator-cars for delivering its wares frozen to any part of +France. + +To provide for gun appetites as abundantly as for human, an arsenal was +begun at the same point, which, when completed, will have cost a hundred +million dollars. This arsenal and ordnance-depot is being built by an +American firm, at the request of the French Mission in America, who +vetoed the American project to give the work to French contractors, +because of the man-shortage in France. + +It has been built under the direct supervision of the War Department, +and was specifically planned so that it might in time, or case of need, +become one of the main munition-distribution centres for all the Allies. +Small arms and ammunition are stored and dispensed there, while big guns +go direct from French factories. + +Regiments of mechanical and technical experts were constantly being +recruited in America for this work, and they were sent by the thousands +every month of the first year. Maintenance of the ordnance-base alone +requires 450 officers and 16,000 men. + +Included in the arsenal and ordnance-depot are a gun-repair shop, +equipped to reline more than 800 guns a month, a carriage-repair plant +of large capacity, a motor-vehicle repair-shop, able to overhaul more +than 1,200 cars a month, a small-arms repair-shop, ready to deal with +58,000 small arms and machine-guns a month, a shop for the repair of +horse and infantry equipment, and a reloading-plant, capable of +reloading 100,000 artillery-cartridges each day. + +The assembling-shops in connection with the railroad were built on a +commensurate scale. Even in an incomplete state one shop was able to +turn out twenty-odd freight-cars a day, of three different designs, and +at a neighboring point a plant for assembling the all-steel cars was +making one full train a day. The locomotives were assembled in still a +third place. This will have turned out 1,100 locomotives, built and +shipped flat from America, at the end of its present contract. Already a +third of this work has been done. + +And there were, of course, the necessary number of roundhouses, and the +like, to complete the organization of the self-sufficient railroad. + +Not far away was a tremendous assembling and repair plant for airplanes, +the operators of which had all been trained in the French factories, so +that they knew the planes to the last inner bolthead. + +The last assembly-plant was far from least in picturesqueness. It was +for the construction, from numbered pieces shipped from Switzerland, +of 3,500 wooden barracks, each about 100 feet long by 20 wide, and of +double thickness for protection against French weather. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information._ + +U. S. locomotive-assembling yards in France.] + +The most amusing of the incidental depots was called the Reclamation +Depot, at which the numerous articles collected on the battle-field by +special salvage units were overhauled and refurbished, or altered to +other uses. Nothing was too trifling to be accepted. The "old-clo' man" +of No Man's Land was responsible for an amazing amount of good material, +made at the Reclamation Depot from old belts, coat sleeves, and the +like. Many a good German helmet went back to the "square-heads" as +American bullets. + +In the same American district there was a great artillery camp, with +remount stables, containing thousands of horses and mules. Under French +tutelage, the American veterinarians had learned to extract the bray +from the army mule, reducing his far-carrying silvery cry to a mere +wheeze, with which he could do no indiscreet informing of his presence +near the battle-lines. So the mule-hospital was one of the busiest spots +in the port. + +A short distance from the port, the engineers built a 20,000-bed +hospital, the largest in existence, comprising hundreds of little +one-story structures, set in squares over huge grounds, so that every +room faced the out-of-doors. + +Between the port and the hospital, and beyond the port along the coast, +were the rest-camps, the receiving-camps, and a huge separate camp for +the negro stevedores. Near enough to be convenient, but not for +sociability, were the camps for the German prisoners, who put in plenty +of hard licks in the great port-building. + +Midway between all this activity at the coast and the training and +fighting activity at the fighting-line there was what figured on the +army charts as "Intermediate Section," whose commanders were responsible +for the daily averaging of supply and demand. + +In the intermediate section, linked by rail, were the supplementary +training-camps, schools, base hospitals, rest-areas, engineering and +repair shops, tank-assembling plants, ordnance-dumps and repair-shops, +the chief storage for "spare parts," all machinery used in the army, +cold-storage plants, oil and petrol depots, the army bakeries, the +camouflage centre, and the forestry departments, busy with fuel for the +army and timber for the engineers. + +The achievement of the first year was literally worthy of the unstinted +praise it received. And perhaps its finest attribute was that most of it +was permanent, and will remain, while France remains, as America's +supreme gift toward her post-war recovery. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +FRANCE AND THE MEDICOES + + +The history of the A. E. F. will be in most respects the history of +resources cunningly turned to new ends, of force redirected, with some +of its erstwhile uses retained, and of a colossal adventure in making +things do. Where the artillery was weak, the A. E. F. eked out with the +coast-artillery. Where the engineer corps was insufficient, the +railroads were called on for special units, frankly unmilitary. A whole +citizenry was abruptly turned to infantry. But one branch of the +service, though scarcely worthy of much responsibility when the war +began, was, nevertheless, the one most thoroughly prepared. The prize +service was the Medical Corps, and it was in this state of astonishing +preparedness because immediately before it became the Medical Corps, it +had been the Red Cross, and the Red Cross knows no peace-times. + +The question of what is Medical Corps and what is Red Cross has always +been a facer for the superficial historian. + +Broadly speaking, the base hospitals of the army are organizations +recruited and equipped in America by the Red Cross, and transported to +France, where they become units of the army, under army discipline and +direction, and supplied by the Medical Corps stores except in cases +where these are inadvertently lacking, or unprovided for by the +strictness of military supervision. In any case, where sufficient +supplies are not forthcoming from the Medical Corps, they are given by +the Red Cross. + +This is the Red Cross on its military side. In its civilian work, which +is extensive, and in its recreational work it carries on under its own +name and by its own authority. Where it divides territory with the Y. M. +C. A., the division is that the Y. M. C. A. takes the well soldier and +the Red Cross the sick one, whenever either has time on his hands. + +But the Medical Corps plus the Red Cross created between them a branch +of the American Army in France which, from the moment of landing, was +the boast of the nation. + +For a year before America entered the war Colonel Jefferson Kean, +director-general of the military department of the American Red Cross, +had been organizing against the coming of American participation. Within +thirty days after America's war declaration Colonel Kean announced that +he had six base hospitals in readiness to go to the front, and within +another thirty days these six units were on their way, equipped and +ready to step into the French hospitals, schools, and what-not, waiting +to receive them, and to do business as usual the following morning. + +The six were organized at leading hospitals and medical schools: the +Presbyterian Hospital of New York, with Doctor George E. Brewer in +command; the Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland, with Doctor George W. Crile; +the Medical School of Harvard University, with Doctor Harvey Cushing; +the Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, with Doctor Richard Harte; the +Medical School of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, with +Doctor Frederick Besley, and Washington University Hospital, Saint +Louis, with Doctor Frederick T. Murphy. + +A little while later the Postgraduate unit went from New York, the +Roosevelt Hospital unit from there, and the Johns Hopkins unit from +Baltimore. Many others followed in due time. + +These hospital units, recruited and organized under the Red Cross, took +their full complement of surgeons, physicians, and nurses. All these +became members of the army as soon as they landed in France, and they +were supplemented, either there or before they crossed, with members of +Medical Corps, enlisted just after America entered the war. + +The military rank of the physicians and surgeons conformed in a general +way to the unofficial rank of the same men when they had worked together +in the hospitals from which they came. There were, of course, some +exceptions to this rule, but not enough to make it no rule at all. + +It was true of the medicoes, as it was of the engineers, that they took +military discipline none too seriously, because they brought a +discipline of their own. Wherever, in civilian pursuits, the lives of +others hang on prompt obedience, there is a strictness which no +military strictness can outdo. This was true of the personnel of any +hospital in America, before there was thought of war. It was equally +true, of course, after the units were established behind the +fighting-lines. But there was a certain lack of prompt salute and a +certain freedom with first names which not the stoutest management from +the military arm of the service could obliterate from the base +hospitals. The Medical Corps enlisted men were naturally not sinners in +this respect. The routine work of the base hospitals all fell to them. +It was usually a sergeant of the army--though he was never a +veteran--who attended the reception-rooms, kept account of symptoms, +clothes, and first and second names, and did the work of orderly in the +hospital. It was the privates who kept the mess and washed the dishes +and changed the sheets. + +The nurses went under military discipline and into military +segregation--sometimes a little nettlesome, when the hospitals were far +from companionship of any outside sort. + +The sites selected for the hospitals were either French hospitals which +were given over, or schools or big public buildings remade into +hospitals by the engineers. Each site was arranged so that it could be +enlarged at will. And the railways which connected the outlying +hospitals with the rest of the American communications were laid so that +other hospitals could be easily placed along their line. There was a +splendid elasticity in the Medical Corps plan. + +One base hospital was much like another, except for size. Those near the +line differed somewhat from those farther back, but their scheme was +uniform. At any rate, the history of their doings was similar enough to +have one history do for them all. Take, for example, one of the New York +units which landed in August and was placed nearer the coast than the +fighting. It was put in trim by the engineers, then sanitated by the +humbler members of the Medical Corps. The great wards were laid out, the +kitchens were built, windows were pried open--always the first American +job in France, to the great disgust and alarm of the French--and baths +were put in. + +The chief surgeon had specialized in noses and throats at home. When the +hospital was ready, naturally the soldiers were not in need of it--being +still in training in the Vosges--so the services of the hospital were +opened to the civilian population of France. + +By November there was not an adenoid in all those parts. The death-rate +almost vanished. Into this rural France, where there had been no +hospital and only a nursing home kept by some Sisters of Mercy who saw +their first surgical operation within the base hospital, there came this +skilful organization, handled by men whose incomes at home had been +measured in five figures, and all the healing they had was free. + +Multiply this by twenty, and then by thirty, before the pressing need +for care for soldiers directed the Medical Corps back to first channels, +and there will be some gauge of what this service did for France. + +And the gratitude of France was more than commensurate. Praise of the +American Medical Service flowed unceasingly from officials and +civilians, statesmen and journalists. There were constant demands made +upon the French Government that it should pattern its own medical forces +exactly upon the American, making it the branch of the medical +specialist and not of the politician or the military man. + +The individual officers of the Medical Corps had much to learn, however, +from the French and the British. Though they knew hygiene, prophylaxis, +antisepsis, and surgery as few groups of men have ever known it, they +became scholars of the humblest in the surgery of the battle-field. +Every officer of the Medical Corps was kept on a round of visits behind +French and British fronts during the fairly peaceful interim between +their landing and the American occupation of a front-line sector. + +The Red Cross was the great auxiliary of the Medical Corps. It kept up +its recruiting in America, both for nurses and physicians, and for +supplies. + +And in supplies it played its greatest part. The Red Cross maintained +enormous warehouses, separate entirely from army control, which +contained provisions to meet every possible shortage. It was known by +the Red Cross that never in the history of the world had there been a +medical corps of any army that had not finally broken down. No matter +how painstaking the provision, the need was always tragically greater. + +And so surgical dressings, sets of surgical instruments, medicines, +antiseptics, and anæsthetics piled up in the great A. R. C. +store-houses. + +Then there were the things for which the Medical Corps frankly made no +provision, which could have no place in a strictly military programme, +such as food delicacies of great cost, special articles of clothing, and +amusements. Every hospital convalescent ward had its phonograph, its +checker-boards, its chess-sets, and its dominoes. That was the Red +Cross. + +[Illustration: Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly, formerly +the American Ambulance Hospital] + +The Red Cross had three hospitals of its own in Paris. The first of +these was at Neuilly, the hospital which had been the American Ambulance +Hospital from the beginning of the war, given over on the third +anniversary of its inauguration. Here French and American soldiers, +American civilians who worked with the army, and Red Cross officers +and men were cared for. The second had been Doctor Blake's Hospital, and +when it became a Red Cross hospital, it was made to include the gigantic +laboratory where investigations were made, and where the American Red +Cross had the honor to ferret out the cause of trench-fever. This fever +had been one of the baffling tragedies of the war, because in the press +of caring for their wounded, other hospitals had been unable to give it +sufficient research. + +The third was the Reid Hospital, equipped and supplied by Mrs. Whitelaw +Reid. + +In the long period when all this hospital organization was at the +command of civilian France, inestimably fine work was done. It was a +sort of poetic tuition fee for the instruction in war surgery which was +meanwhile going on from veteran French surgeons to the American +newcomers. At the end of the first year, the Medical Corps was itself +ready for any stress, and it had mightily relieved the stress it had +already found. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +IN CHARGE OF MORALE + + +If the army as a whole was a story of old skill in new uses, certainly +the most extraordinary single upheaval was that of the Y. M. C. A. +Though it had grown into many paths of civil life, in peace-times, that +could not have been foreshadowed by its founders, probably the wildest +speculation of its future never included the purveying of vaudeville and +cigarettes to soldiers in France. + +Yet just that was what the Y. M. C. A. was doing, within less than a +year from the American Army's arrival in France, and its only +lamentation was that it had nowhere near enough cigarettes and +vaudeville to purvey. + +It accepted the offer of the United States Government to watch over the +morale of the soldiers abroad, partly because it was so excellently +organized that it could handle a task of such vast scope, and partly +because both French and British Armies had got such fine results from +similar organizations that the American Y. M. C. A. felt itself to be +historically elected. + +The Y. M. C. A. had cut its wisdom-teeth long before it became a part of +the army. Its directors had accepted the fact that a young man is apt to +be more interested in his biceps than in his soul, and that if he can +have athletics aplenty, and entertainment that really entertains, he'd +as lief be out of mischief as in it. + +But even this was not quite broad enough for the needs of the army away +from home. And one of the first things the Y. M. C. A. did in France, +and the stoutest pillar of its great success, was to abandon the +slightest aversion to bad language, or to the irreligion that brims out +of a cold, wet, and tired soldier in defiant spurts, and to cultivate, +in their stead, a sympathetic feeling for the want of smokes and a good +show. + +The secretaries sent abroad to build the first huts and watch over the +first soldiers were men selected for their skill in getting results +against considerable obstacles. Those who followed, as the organization +grew, were specialists of every sort. There were nationally famous +sportsmen, to keep the baseball games up to scratch, and to see that +gymnastics out-of-doors were helped out by the rules. There were men who +could handle crowds, keep an evening's entertainment going, play good +ragtime, make good coffee, and produce cigarettes and matches out of +thin air. + +And, most important of all, they were men who could eradicate the +doughboy's suspicion that the Y. M. C. A. was a doleful, overly +prayerful, and effeminate institution. + +The Y. M. C. A. was dealing with the doughboy when he was on his own +time. If he didn't want to go to the "Y" hut, nobody could make him. +Certain things that were bad for him were barred to him by army +regulation. But there was a margin left over. If the doughboy was doing +nothing else, he might be sitting alone somewhere, feeling of his +feelings, and finding them very sad. The army did not cover this, but +the Y. M. C. A. took the ground that being melancholy was about as bad +as being drunk. + +But, naturally, the Red Triangle man had to use his tact. If he didn't +have any, he was sent home. His job was to persuade the doughboy, not +to instruct him. And before long, the rule of the Y. M. C. A. was flatly +put: "Never mind your own theories--do what the soldiers want." + +That is why the "Y" huts--the combination shop, theatre, chapel, and +reading-room, coffee-stall and soda fountain, baseball-locker and +cigarette store, post-office and library which are run by the Y. M. C. +A. from coast to battle-line--are packed by soldiers every hour of the +day and evening. + +The "Y" huts began with the army. Before the second day of the First +Division's landing, there was a circus banner across the foot of the +main street stating: "This is the way to the Y. M. C. A. Get your money +changed, and write home." By following the pointing red finger painted +on the banner, one found a wooden shack, with a few chairs, a lot of +writing-paper and French money, a secretary and a heap of good-will. + +As the army moved battleward, these huts appeared just ahead of the +soldiers, with increased stores at each new place. American cigarettes +were on the counters. A few books arrived. + +The Y. M. C. A. proved its persuasiveness by its huts. A member of the +quartermasters' corps said, one day, in a fit of exasperation over a +waiting job: "How do these 'Y' fellows do it--I can't turn without +falling over a shack, built for them by the soldiers in their off time. +Do I get any work out of these soldiers when they're off? I do not. +They're too busy building 'Y' huts." + +The first entertainment in the "Y" huts was when the company bands moved +into them because the weather was too bad to play out-of-doors. The +concerts were a great success. By and by, men who knew something +interesting were asked to make short lectures to the soldiers. It was an +easy step to asking some clever professional entertainer to come down +and give a one-man show. Then Elsie Janis, who was in Europe, made a +flying tour of the "Y" huts, and a little while after, E. H. Sothern and +Winthrop Ames went over to see how much organized entertainment could be +sent from America. + +The result of their visit was The Over-There Theatre League, to which +virtually every actor and actress in America volunteered to belong. By +the end of the first year, about 300 entertainers were either in France +or on their way there or back. + +Three months was the average time the performers were asked to give, and +they circled so steadily that there were always about 200 of them at +work on the "Y" circuit. + +The work of the Y. M. C. A. did not stop with affording entertainment to +the soldiers in the camps. They rented a big hotel in Paris and another +in London, and they established many canteens in these two cities, so +that their patrols--secretaries whose job was to rescue stray, lonely +soldiers in the streets--would always have a near and comfortable place +to offer to the wanderers. + +Then they preceded the army to Aix-les-Bains and Chambery, the two +resorts in the Savoy Alps where American soldiers were sent for their +eight-day leaves, and arranged for cheap hotel accommodations, guides, +theatres, etc., and they took over the Casino entirely for the soldiers. + +Their field canteens were just back of the fighting-line, and late at +night it was the duty of the secretaries to store their pockets with +cigarettes and chocolate and with letters from home, and shoulder the +big tins of hot coffee made in the canteens and go into the front-line +trenches to serve the men there. In fact, the "Y" men did everything +with the army except go over the top. + +The largest part of work of this type fell to the Y. M. C. A. because +they had the most flexible organization ready at the beginning of +American participation. But they had substantial help, which as time +went on grew more and more in volume, from several other associations. +The Knights of Columbus and the Salvation Army both did magnificent +service, in canteens and trenches. And of course the Red Cross took over +the sick soldier and entertained and supplied him, as a part of their +co-army work. + +There was one branch of the Red Cross which perhaps did more than any +other one thing to keep up the hearts and spirits of the soldiers--it +was called the Department of Home Communications, and it was directed by +Henry Allen, a Wichita, Kansas, newspaper man. + +Mr. Allen believed that a soldier's letters did more for him than any +other one thing, and that, failing letters, he must at least have +reliable news of his home folks from time to time. Further, that every +soldier was easier in his mind if he knew that his home folks would have +news of him, fully and authentically, no matter what happened to him. + +So Mr. Allen posted his representatives in every hospital, in every +trench sector, and through them kept track of every soldier. If a man +was taken prisoner Mr. Allen knew it. If he was wounded Mr. Allen knew +just where and how. The man's family was told of it immediately. +Presently, where this was possible, Mr. Allen's representative was +writing letters from the wounded men to their relatives, and was +receiving all Mr. Allen's news of these relatives for the men in the +hospital. + +In addition to things of this kind, done by Red Triangle men, Red Cross +men, and the Salvation Army and the Knights of Columbus, all these +organizations worked together to effect distributions of comfort kits +and sweaters, gift cigarettes and chocolate, and all the dozen and one +things that made the soldiers find life a little more agreeable. + +There was more than co-operation from the army itself. There was the +deepest gratitude, openly expressed, from every member of the army, +whether general or private, because it was a recognized fact that, +though an army cannot do these things itself, it owes them more than it +can ever repay. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +INTO THE TRENCHES + + +After months of training behind the lines the doughboys began to long +for commencement. It came late in October. The point selected for the +trench test of the Americans was in a quiet sector. The position lay +about twelve miles due east from Nancy and five miles north of +Lunéville. It extended roughly from Parroy to Saint-Die. Even after the +entry of the Americans the sector remained under French command. In +fact, the four battalions of our troops which made up the first American +contingent on the fighting-line were backed up by French reserves. No +better training sector could have been selected, for this was a quiet +front. American officers who acted as observers along this line for +several days before the doughboys went in found that shelling was +restricted and raids few. Many villages close behind the lines on either +side were respected because of a tacit agreement between the contending +armies. French and Germans sent war-weary troops to the Lunéville sector +to rest up. It also served to break in new troops without subjecting +them to an oversevere ordeal, so that they might learn the tricks of +modern warfare gradually. + +Of course, even quiet sectors may become suddenly active, and care was +taken to screen the movements of the soldiers carefully. It proved +impossible, however, to keep the move a complete mystery, for when +camion after camion of tin-hatted Americans moved away from the training +area the villagers could not fail to suspect that something was about to +happen. Perhaps these suspicions grew stronger when each group of +fighting men sang loudly and cheerfully that they were "going to hang +the Kaiser to a sour apple-tree." + +The weather was distinctly favorable for the movement of troops. One of +the blackest nights of the month awaited the Americans at the front. +Rain fell, but not hard enough to impede transportation. Still, such +weather was something of a moral handicap. Many of the newcomers would +have been glad to take a little shelling if they could have had a bit +of a moon or a few stars to light their way to the trenches. Instead +they groped their way along roads which were soft enough to deaden every +sound. A wind moaned lightly overhead and the strict command of silence +made it impossible to seek the proper antidote of song. One or two men +struck up "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are Marching," as they headed +for the front, but they were quickly silenced. + +The march began about nine o'clock, after the soldiers had eaten +heartily in a little village close to the lines. At the very edge of +this village stood a cheerful inn and a moving-picture theatre. The +doughboys looked a little longingly at both houses of diversion before +they swung round the bend and followed the black road which led to the +trench-line. The people of the village did not seem to be much excited +by the fact that history was being made before their eyes. They had seen +so many troops go by up that road that they could achieve no more than a +friendly interest. They did not crowd close about the marchers as the +people had done in Paris. + +Seemingly the Germans had not been able to ascertain the time set for +the coming of the Americans. The roads were not shelled at all. In fact, +the German batteries were even more indolent than usual at this point. +The relief was effected without incident, although a few stories drifted +back about enthusiastic poilus who had greeted their new comrades with +kisses. + +The artillery beat the infantry into action. They had to have a start in +order to get their guns into place, and some fifteen hours before the +doughboys went into the trenches America had fired the first shot of the +war against Germany. Alexander Arch, a sergeant from South Bend, +Indiana, was the man who pulled the lanyard. The shot was a shrapnel +shell and was directed at a German working-party who were presuming on +the immunity offered by a misty dawn. They scattered at the first shot, +but it was impossible to tell whether it caused any casualties. When the +working-party took cover there were no targets which demanded immediate +attention, and the various members of the gun crew were allowed the +privilege of firing the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, +eighth, and ninth shots of the war. After that, shooting at the Germans +ceased to become a historical occasion, but was a mere incident in the +routine of duty, and was treated as such. + +The only unusual incident which seriously threatened the peace of mind +of the infantrymen in their first night in the trenches was the flash of +a green rocket which occurred some fifteen or twenty minutes after they +arrived. They had been taught that a green rocket would be the alarm for +a gas attack, but this particular signal came from the German trenches +and had no message for the Americans. The Germans may have suspected the +presence of new troops, for the men were just a bit jumpy, as all +newcomers to the trenches are, and a few took pot-shots at objects out +in No Man's Land which proved to be only stakes in the barbed wire or +tufts of waving grass. + +Although the Germans made the first successful raid, the Americans took +the first prisoner. He was captured only a few nights after the coming +of the doughboys. A patrol picked him up close to the American wire. He +was a mail-carrier, and in cutting across lots to reach some of his +comrades he lost his way and wandered over to the American lines. +Although he was surprised, he was not willing to surrender, but made an +attempt to escape after he had been ordered to halt. One of the +doughboys fired at him as he ran and he was carried into the American +trenches badly wounded. He died the next day. + +Beginning on the night of November 2 and extending over into the early +morning of November 3, the Germans made a successful raid against the +American lines immediately after a relief. After a severe preliminary +bombardment a large party of raiders came across. The bombardment had +cut the telephone wires of the little group of Americans which met the +attack and they were completely isolated. They fought bravely but +greenly. Three Americans were killed, five were wounded, and twelve were +captured. The Germans retired quickly with their prisoners. + +American morale was not injured by this first jab of the Germans. On the +other hand, it made the doughboys mad, and, better than that, made them +careful. A German attempt to repeat the raid a few nights later was +repulsed. The three men who were killed in this first clash were buried +close to the lines, while minute-guns fired shells over the graveyard +toward the Germans. General Bordeaux, who commanded the French division +at this point, saluted before each of the three graves, and then turned +to the officers and men drawn up before him and said: + +"In the name of the division, in the name of the French Army, and in the +name of France, I bid farewell to Private Enright, Private Gresham, and +Private Hay of the American Army. + +"Of their own free will they had left a prosperous and happy country to +come over here. They knew war was continuing in Europe; they knew that +the forces fighting for honor, love of justice and civilization were +still checked by the long-prepared forces serving the powers of brutal +domination, oppression, and barbarity. They knew that efforts were still +necessary. They wished to give us their generous hearts, and they have +not forgotten old historical memories while others forget more recent +ones. They ignored nothing of the circumstances and nothing had been +concealed from them--neither the length and hardships of war, nor the +violence of battle, nor the dreadfulness of new weapons, nor the perfidy +of the foe. + +"Nothing stopped them. They accepted the hard and strenuous life; they +crossed the ocean at great peril; they took their places on the front by +our side, and they have fallen facing the foe in a hard and desperate +hand-to-hand fight. Honor to them. Their families, friends, and fellow +citizens will be proud when they learn of their deaths. + +"Men! These graves, the first to be dug in our national soil and but a +short distance from the enemy, are as a mark of the mighty land we and +our allies firmly cling to in the common task, confirming the will of +the people and the army of the United States to fight with us to a +finish, ready to sacrifice so long as is necessary until victory for the +most noble of causes, that of the liberty of nations, the weak as well +as the mighty. Thus the deaths of these humble soldiers appear to us +with extraordinary grandeur. + +"We will, therefore, ask that the mortal remains of these young men be +left here, be left with us forever. We inscribe on the tombs: 'Here lie +the first soldiers of the Republic of the United States to fall on the +soil of France for liberty and justice.' The passer-by will stop and +uncover his head. Travellers and men of heart will go out of their way +to come here to pay their respective tributes. + +"Private Enright! Private Gresham! Private Hay! In the name of France I +thank you. God receive your souls. Farewell!" + +After the Germans had identified Americans on the Lunéville front it was +supposed that they might maintain an aggressive policy and make the +front an active one. The Germans were too crafty for that. They realized +that the Americans were in the line for training, and so they gave them +few opportunities to learn anything in the school of experience. In +spite of the lack of co-operation by the Germans, the doughboys gained +valuable knowledge during their stay in the trenches. There were several +spirited patrol encounters and much sniping. American aviators got a +taste of warfare by going on some of the bombing expeditions of the +French. They went as passengers, but one American at least was able to +pay for his passage by crawling out from his seat and releasing a bomb +which had become jammed. When every battalion had been in the trenches +the American division was withdrawn, and for a short time in the winter +of 1917 there was no American infantry at the front. + +Curiously enough, the honor of participation in a major engagement +hopped over the infantry and came first to the engineers. It came quite +by accident. The 11th Engineers had been detailed for work behind the +British front. Early on the morning of November 30 four officers and 280 +men went to Gouzeaucourt, a village fully three miles back of the line. +But this was the particular day the Germans had chosen for a surprise +attack. The engineers had hardly begun work before the Germans laid a +barrage upon the village, and almost before the Americans realized what +was happening German infantry entered the outskirts of the place while +low-flying German planes peppered our men with machine-gun fire. The +engineers were unarmed, but they picked up what weapons they could find +and used shovels and fists as well as they retired before the German +attack. According to the stories of the men, one soldier knocked two +Germans down with a pickaxe before they could make a successful bayonet +thrust. He was eventually wounded but did not fall into the hands of the +enemy. Seventeen of the engineers were captured, but the rest managed to +fight their way out or take shelter in shell-holes, where they lay until +a slight advance by the British rescued them. + +Having had a taste of fighting, the engineers were by no means disposed +to have done with it. The entire regiment, including the survivors of +Gouzeaucourt, were ordered first to dig trenches and then to occupy +them. This time they were armed with rifles as well as intrenching-tools. +They held the line until reinforcements arrived. + +The conduct of the engineers was made the subject of a communication +from Field-Marshal Haig to General Pershing. "I desire to express to you +my thanks and those of the British engaged for the prompt and valuable +assistance rendered," wrote the British commander, "and I trust that +you will be good enough to convey to these gallant men how much we all +appreciate their prompt and soldierly readiness to assist in what was +for a time a difficult situation." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +OUR OWN SECTOR + + +THE Lunéville sector was merely a sort of postgraduate school of +warfare, but shortly after the beginning of 1918 the American Army took +over a part of the line for its very own. This sector was gradually +enlarged. By the middle of April the Americans were holding more than +twenty miles. The sector lay due north of Toul and extended very roughly +from Saint-Mihiel to Pont-à -Mousson. Later other sections of front were +given over to the Americans at various points on the Allied line. +Perhaps there was not quite the same thrill in the march to the Toul +sector as in the earlier movement to the trenches of the Lunéville line. +After all, even the limited service which the men had received gave them +something of the spirit of veterans. Then, too, the movement was less of +an adventure. Motor-trucks were few and most of the men marched all the +way over roads that were icy. The troops stood up splendidly under the +marching test and under the rigorous conditions of housing which were +necessary on the march. They had learned to take the weather of France +in the same easy, inconsequential way they took the language. + +For a second time the German spy system fell a good deal short of its +reputed omniscience. Seemingly, the enemy was not forewarned of the +coming of the Americans. Despite the fact that the troops were tired +from their long march, the relief was carried out without a hitch. Toul +had been regarded as a comparatively quiet sector, and, while it never +did blaze up into major actions during the early months of 1918, it was +hardly a rest-camp. It was, as the phrase goes, "locally active." Few +parts of the front were enlivened with as many raids and minor thrusts, +and No Man's Land was the scene of constant patrol encounters, which +lost nothing in spirit, even if they bulked small in size and +importance. + +It is probable that the Germans had no ambitious offensive plans in +regard to the Toul sector. They tried, however, to keep the Americans at +that point so busy and so harassed that it would be impossible for +Pershing to send men to help stem the drives against the French and the +English. The failure of this plan will be shown in the later chapters. + +Before going on to take up in some detail the life of the men in the +Toul sector, it is necessary to record a casualty suffered by +Major-General Leonard Wood. While inspecting the French lines General +Wood was wounded in the arm when a French gun exploded. Five French +soldiers were killed and Lieutenant-Colonel Charles E. Kilbourne and +Major Kenyon A. Joyce, who accompanied General Wood, were slightly +wounded. Wood returned to America shortly after the accident, and did +not have the privilege of coming back to France with the division he had +trained. But for all that he had a unique distinction. Leonard Wood was +the first American major-general to earn the right to a wounded stripe. + +The German artillery was active along the Toul front and the percentage +of losses, while small, was higher than it had been in the Lunéville +trenches. Of course, the American artillery was not inactive. It had a +deal of practice during the early days of February. The Germans +attempted to ambush a patrol on the 19th and failed, and on the next +night a sizable raid broke down under a barrage which was promptly +furnished by the American batteries in response to signals from the +trench which the Germans were attempting to isolate. + +The first job for America did not come on the Toul sector, but near the +Chemin-des-Dames. American artillery had already shown proficiency in +this sector by laying down a barrage for the French, who took a small +height near Tahure. Hilaire Belloc referred to this action as "small in +extent but of high historical importance." The importance consisted in +the fact that for the first time American artillerymen had an +opportunity of rolling a barrage ahead of an attacking force. They +showed their ability to solve the rather difficult timing problems +involved. Certain historical importance, then, must be given to the +action of February 23, when an American raiding-party in conjunction +with the French penetrated a few hundred yards into the German lines and +captured two German officers, twenty men, and a machine-gun. This +little action should not be forgotten, because it was practically the +first success of the Americans. It gave some indication of the efficient +help which Pershing's men were to give later on in Foch's great +counter-attack which drove the Germans across the Marne. + +It is interesting to know that every man in the American battalion +stationed on the Chemin-des-Dames volunteered for the raid. Of this +number only twenty-six were picked. There were approximately three times +as many French in the party, and it must be remembered that the affair +was strictly a French "show." The raid was carefully planned and +rehearsals were held back of the line, over country similar to that +which the Americans would cross in the raid. At 5.30 in the morning the +barrage began and it continued for an hour with guns of many calibres +having their say. The attack was timed almost identically with the +relief in the German trenches and the Boches were caught unawares. The +fact that a shell made a direct hit on a big dugout did not tend to +improve German morale. The little party of Americans had already cut +2,999 miles and some yards from the distance which separated their +country from the war, and they were anxious to cover the remaining +distance. Their French companions set them the example of not running +into their own barrage. Poilus and doughboys jumped into the enemy +trench together. There was a little sharp hand-to-hand fighting, but not +a great deal, as the German officers ordered their men to give ground. +The group of prisoners were captured almost in a body. Further +researches along communicating trenches and into dugouts failed to yield +any more. + +Attackers and prisoners started back for their own lines on schedule +time. The German artillery tried to cut them off. One shell wounded five +of the Germans and six Frenchmen, but the American contingent was +fortunate enough to escape without a single casualty. The French +expressed themselves as well pleased with the conduct of their pupils. +They said that the Americans had approached the barrage too closely once +or twice, but this was not remarkable, as it was the first time American +infantry had advanced behind a screen of shell fire. Their inexperience +also excused their tendency to go a little too far after the German +trench-line had been reached. + +On February 26 the Americans on the Toul front had their first +experience with a serious gas attack. Of course, gas-shells had been +thrown at them before, but this was the first time they had been +subjected to a steady bombardment. Some of the men were not sufficiently +cautious. A few were slow in getting their masks on and others took +theirs off too soon. The result was that five men were killed and fifty +or sixty injured by the gas. Two days later the Americans on the +Chemin-des-Dames were heavily attacked, but the Germans were driven off. + +March found the Toul sector receiving more attention than usual from the +Germans. The Germans made a strong thrust on the morning of March 1. The +raid was a failure, as three German prisoners remained in American hands +and many Germans were killed. Gas did not prove as effective as on the +last occasion. The doughboys were quick to put on their masks and as +soon as the bombardment ended they waited for the attacking-party and +swept them with machine-guns. About 240 Germans participated in the +attack. Some succeeded in entering the American first-line trench, but +they were expelled after a little sharp fighting. An American captain +who tried to cut off the German retreat by waylaying the raiders as they +started back for their own lines was killed. On the same day a raid +against the Chemin-des-Dames position failed. The Germans left four +prisoners. + +Two days after the attempted Toul raid Premier Clemenceau visited the +American sector and awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm to two +lieutenants, two sergeants, and two privates. The premier, who knows +American inhibitions just as well as he knows the language, departed a +little from established customs in awarding the medals. Nobody was +kissed. Instead Clemenceau patted the doughboys on the shoulder and +said: "That's the way to do it." One soldier was late in arriving, and +he seemed to be much afraid that this might cost him his cross, but the +premier handed it to him with a smile. "You were on time the other +morning," he said. "That's enough." In an official note Clemenceau +described the action of the Americans as follows: "It was a very fine +success, reflecting great honor on the tenacity of the American infantry +and the accuracy of the artillery fire." + +The Americans made a number of raids during March, but the Germans were +holding their front lines loosely, and usually abandoned them when +attacked, which made it difficult to get prisoners. An incident which +stands out occurred on March 7, when a lone sentry succeeded in +repulsing a German patrol practically unaided. He was fortunate enough +to kill the only officer with his first shot. This took the heart out of +the Germans. The lone American was shooting so fast that they did not +realize he was a solitary defender, and they fled. On March 14 American +troops made their first territorial gain, but it can hardly be classed +as an offensive. Some enemy trenches northeast of Badonviller, in the +Lunéville sector, were abandoned by the Germans because they had been +pretty thoroughly smashed up by American artillery fire. These trenches +were consolidated with the American position. + +April saw the first full-scale engagement in which American troops took +part at Seicheprey, but earlier in the month there was some spirited +fighting by Americans. Poilus and doughboys repelled an attack in the +Apremont Forest on April 12. The American elements of the defending +force took twenty-two prisoners. The German attack was renewed the next +day, but the Franco-American forces dislodged the Germans by a vigorous +counter-attack, after they had gained a foothold in the first-line +trenches. The biggest attack yet attempted on the Toul front occurred on +April 14. Picked troops from four German companies, numbering some 400 +men, were sent forward to attack after an unusually heavy bombardment. +The Germans were known to have had 64 men killed, and 11 were taken +prisoner. + +Numerous stories, more or less authentic, were circulated after this +engagement. One which is well vouched for concerns a young Italian who +met eight Germans in a communicating trench and killed one and captured +three. The remaining four found safety in flight. The youngster turned +his prisoners over to a sergeant and asked for a match. "I'll give you +a match if you'll bring me another German," said the non-commissioned +officer. The little Italian was a literal man and he wanted the match +very much. He went back over the parapet, and in five minutes he +returned escorting quite a large German, who was crying: "Kamerad." + +While American soldiers on the front were gaining experience, which +stood them in good stead at Seicheprey and later at Cantigny, great +progress was made in the organization of the American forces. Late in +the spring the first field-army was formed. This army was composed of +two army corps each made up of one Regular Army division, one National +Army division, and one division of National Guard. Major-General Hunter +Liggett became the first field-army commander of the overseas forces, +and it was his men who covered themselves with so much distinction in +the great counter-blows of July. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A CIVILIAN VISITOR + + +Destiny always plays the flying wedge. There is always the significant +little happening, half noticed or miscalculated, which trails great +happenings after it. On March 19, 1918, a derby hat appeared in the +front-line trenches held by the American Army in France. This promptly +was accorded the honor by the army and the Allied representatives of +being the first derby hat that had ever been seen in a trench. The hat +had the honor to be on the head of the first American Secretary of War +who had ever been in Europe in his term of office. And this first +American Secretary of War away from home was presently to have the honor +of helping to create the first generalissimo who had ever commanded an +army of twenty-six allies. + +All of which is to say that Newton D. Baker, on a tour of inspection of +the A. E. F., whose visit was to have such terrific fruition, +repudiated the war counsels which would have kept him out of the +trenches on this gusty March day, and went down to see for himself and +all the Americans at home how the doughboy was faring, and what could be +done for him. + +And as he peered over the parapet into No Man's Land, Secretary Baker +said: "I am standing on the frontier of freedom." The phrase grew its +wings in the saying, and by nightfall it had found the farthest +doughboy. + +The Paris newspapers announced, on the morning of March 12, that +Secretary Baker was in France. The troops had it by noon. And questions +flew in swarms. It was discovered that he would review the brigade of +veterans who had returned from service at the front on March 20, and +that meanwhile he would investigate the lines of communication. + +After a few days in Paris, during which Secretary Baker delivered all +the persuasions he had brought from President Wilson on behalf of a +unified command of the Allied armies, and had, it was rumored, turned +the scale in favor of a generalissimo, the distinguished civilian went +to the coast to see the port city which was the pride of the army and +the marvel of France. + +The secretary rode to the coast on a French train, but, once there, he +was transferred to an American train, which had to make up in +sentimental importance the large lack it had of elegance. + +A flat car was rapidly rigged up with plank benches. This had the merit +of affording plenty of view, and, after all, that was what the secretary +had come for. + +After rolling over the main arteries of the 200 miles of terminal +trackage, Secretary Baker inspected the warehouses, assembling-plants, +camps, etc., and walked three mortal miles of dock front which his +countrymen had evolved from an oozing marsh. He paid his highest +compliments to the engineers and the laborers, and amazed the officers +by the acuteness of his questions. If his visit did nothing else, it +convinced the men on the job that the man back home knew what the +obstacles were. + +Secretary Baker's next visit was to the biggest of the aviation-fields, +where again his technical understanding, as it came out in his +questions, astounded and cheered the men who were doing the building. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information_. + +Secretary Baker riding on flat car during his tour of inspection of the +American Expeditionary Forces.] + +Secretary Baker carried his office with him, a delightful discovery to +the men in the aviation-fields, who had some problems sorely pressing +for decision, and who found, when they told them to Mr. Baker, that he +had no aversion to taking action on the spot. For example, at aviation +headquarters, Mr. Baker asked if the fliers who came first from America +were the first to have their commissions after the final flights in +France. He learned that because of some delay in giving final +instruction, through no fault of the aviators, these first commissions +had not been given. Mr. Baker instituted a full inquiry at once, and at +the end of it directed that the commissions, when finally awarded, +should bear a date one day in advance of all others, so that the +priority rightfully earned should not be lost. + +After hours in the field, during which hundreds of machines with +American pilots flew in squadron formation, and many experts did +spectacular single flights, Mr. Baker made a short speech to the fliers. +A French officer, who had been instructing at the field, said to Mr. +Baker: "With all these machines in the air, you see no more than a tenth +of what America has in this one school. You will soon have no more need +of French instruction. We have shown everything we know, and your young +men have taken to the art with astonishing facility, as well as +audacity, nerve, and resource. The danger and difficulties fascinate and +inspire them. I think it must be what you call the 'sporting spirit.'" + +As he was leaving the aviation-field Secretary Baker said: "The spirit +of every man in this camp seems in keeping with the mission which +brought him to France. The camps, appointments, and organization are +admirable. It is gratifying to learn from their French instructors that +our young aviators are proving themselves daring, cool, and skilful." + +On the night of March 18 Secretary Baker began his preparations for a +visit to the trenches. With a general commanding a division and one +other officer he motored to the farthest point, where he dined and +stayed the night in a French château. At dawn the next morning the +party made ready to go on. But the Boches appeared to have a hunch. +They shelled the road on which Secretary Baker had planned to travel +with such ferocity that the officers in command refused to take the risk +of permitting Mr. Baker to go over it. The American general and all the +French officers then begged Mr. Baker to give up the trip to the +trenches. They wasted a lot of persuasion. Mr. Baker just went by +another road. A colonel of about Mr. Baker's build had loaned him a +trench overcoat, and some rubber boots, and the secretary had a tin +helmet and a gas-mask, but he would wear the tin helmet only for a +moment, and the mask not at all. + +The officers in charge of the party found presently, to their acute +horror, that even the trenches were not enough for Mr. Baker. Nothing +would do him but a listening-post. And when he had finally got back +safe, and had come back to the communication-trenches from the front, +everybody breathed a sigh of relief. The relief was premature, for the +liveliest danger of all was on the return motor trip, when an immense +shell buried itself in a crater not fifty yards from the secretary. +Fortunately, the débris flew all in the opposite direction, and nobody +was hurt. + +The First Division heard an address the following day from Secretary +Baker. "It would seem more fit," he said, "and I should much prefer it, +if, instead of addressing you, I should listen to your experiences. Your +division has the distinction of being the first to arrive in France. May +every man in your ranks aim to make the First Division the first in +accomplishment. With you came a body of the marines, those +well-disciplined, ship-shape soldiers of the navy. + +"Yours was the first experience in being billeted, and in all the +initial details of adjusting yourselves to new and strange conditions. +In this, as in developing a system of training, you were the pioneers, +blazing the way, while succeeding contingents could profit by your +mistakes. + +"Day after day and week after week you had to continue the hard drudgery +of instruction which is necessary to proficiency in modern war. You had +to restrain your impatience to go into the trenches under General +Pershing's wise demand for that thoroughness, the value of which you now +appreciate as a result of actual service in the trenches. + +"If sometimes the discipline seemed wearing, you now know you would have +paid for its absence with your lives. + +"If I had any advice to give, it is to strike hard and shoot straight, +and I would warn you at the same time against any carelessness, any +surrendering to curiosity, which would make you a mark needlessly. The +better you are trained the more valuable is your life to your country, +as a fighter who seeks to make the soldier of the enemy, rather than +yourself, pay the supreme price of war. + +"On every hand I am told that you are prepared to fight 'to the end,' +and I see this spirit in your faces. Depend upon us at home to stand by +you in a spirit worthy of you." + +Next Secretary Baker spoke, though informally, to the Forty-second +Division, far better known as the Rainbow Division. There he explained +some of the reasons for military secrecy. + +"While it was in training at home I saw a good deal of the Rainbow +Division," he said "Then, one day, it was gone to France, where it +disappeared behind the curtain of military secrecy which must be drawn +unless we choose to sacrifice the lives of our men for the sake of +publicity. The enemy's elaborate intelligence system seeks at any cost +to learn the strength, the preparedness, and the character of our +troops. Our own intelligence service assures us that the knowledge of +our army in France which some assume to exist does not, in fact, exist. + +"If we were to announce the identity of each unit that comes to France, +then we would fully inform the enemy of the number and nature of our +forces. Published details about any division are most useful to expert +military intelligence officers in determining the state of the +division's preparedness, and the probable assignment of the division to +any section. + +"But now it is safe to mention certain divisions which were first to +arrive in France and have already been in the line. This includes the +Rainbow Division, famous because it is representative of all parts of +the United States. This division should find in its character an +inspiration to _esprit de corps_ and general excellence. It should be +conscious of its mission as a symbol of national unity. + +"The men of Ohio I know as Ohioans, and I am proud that they have been +worthy of Ohio. A citizen of another State will find himself equally at +home in some other group, and the gauge of this State's pride will be +the discipline of that group of soldiers, its conduct as men, its +courage, and its skill in the trenches. You may learn more than war in +France. You may learn lessons from France, whose unity and courage have +been a bulwark against that sinister force whose character you are +learning in the trenches. The Frenchman is, first of all, a Frenchman, +which stimulates, rather than weakens, his pride in Brittany as a +Breton, in Lorraine as a Lorrainer, and his loyalty and affection for +his own town, or village, or home. In truth he fights for his family and +his home when he fights for France and civilization. Thus, you will +fight best and serve best by being first an American, with no diminution +of your loyalty to your State and your community. + +"With us at home the development of a new national unity seems a vague +process compared to the concrete process you are undergoing. You are +uniting North, East, South, and West in action. We aim to support you +with all our resources, to make sure that you do not fight in vain." + +The brigade of the veterans was reviewed on the last day of the camp +inspection. + +Secretary Baker went by motor, with officers and aides, as far as the +foot of the hill from which he was to review the troops deploying in the +Marne valley. Twenty days of rain had made the hilltop inaccessible by +motor. As Secretary Baker started up one slope, General Pershing and his +aides ascended another, and the two men met at the top. + +The brigade swept by at company front, with full marching equipment. +They were the first brigade to be reviewed after it had been in action, +and they held to their flawless formation, chins up and chests out, in +spite of clogging mud that was almost too much for the mules. + +The review ended in compliments all around. Secretary Baker's +enthusiasm was conveyed even to the lesser officers. General Pershing +said: "These men have been there and know what it is. You can tell that +by the way they throw out their chests as they swing by." + +America at last had her veterans. They were to dignify the coming gift +of them to heroic size. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A FAMOUS GESTURE + + +When America had put the power of all her eloquence into the growing +demand among the Allies for a unified command, and when, as a result of +this pressure, General Foch, chief of staff of the French Army and hero +of the battle of the Marne, had been made generalissimo, General +Pershing put into words in what the French called a "superb gesture" the +final sacrifice his country was prepared to make. + +The first of the great German drives of 1918 had halted, but the battle +was nowhere near its end. General Foch was sparing every possible energy +on the battle-front and heaping up every atom of force for his reserve. + +And on the morning of March 28 General Pershing went to headquarters and +offered the American Army in full to General Foch, to put where he +pleased, without any regard whatever for America's earlier wish to fight +with her army intact. + +It was the final sacrifice to the idealistic point of view. It had +indisputably the heroic quality. And as such it was rewarded in the +countries of the Allies with appreciation beyond measure. + +"I have come," said General Pershing to General Foch that morning, "to +say to you that the American people would hold it a great honor for our +troops if they were engaged in the present battle. I ask it of you in my +name and in that of the American people. + +"There is at this moment no other question than that of fighting. +Infantry, artillery, aviation--all that we have are yours, to dispose of +them as you will. Others are coming, which are as numerous as will be +necessary. I have come to say to you that the American people would be +proud to be engaged in the greatest battle in history." + +This offer was placed immediately by General Foch before the French +war-council at the front, a council including Premier Clemenceau, +Commander-in-Chief Pétain, and Louis Loucheur, Minister of Munitions, +and was immediately accepted. American Army orders went forth in French +from that day. And on those orders the army was presently scattered +through the vast reserve army, from Flanders with the British to Verdun +with the Italians and the French. They were not to go into actual +battle, except near their own sectors, till the third monster drive, in +July, for General Foch makes a religion of the reserve army and Fabian +tactics. But they spread through the battle-line from Switzerland to the +sea, as General Pershing had suggested, and "all we have" was at work. + +Paris acclaimed the move royally. _La Liberté_ wrote: "General Pershing +yesterday took, in the name of his country, action which was grand in +its simplicity and of moving beauty. In a few words, without adornment, +but in which vibrated an accent of chivalrous passion, General Pershing +made to France the offer of an entire people. 'Take all,' he said; 'all +is yours.' The honor Pershing claims is shared by us, and it is with the +sentiment of real pride that our soldiers will greet into their ranks +those of the New World who come to them as brothers." + +Secretary Baker, from American General Headquarters, gave out a +statement. "I am delighted at General Pershing's prompt and effective +action," he said, "in placing all the American troops and facilities at +the disposal of the Allies in the present situation. + +"It will be met with hearty approval in the United States, where the +people desire their expeditionary force to be of the utmost service in +the common cause. I have visited all the American troops in France, some +of them recently, and had an opportunity to observe the enthusiasm with +which officers and men received the announcement that they would be used +in the present conflict. One regiment to which the announcement was made +spontaneously broke into cheers." + +The British Government issued an official statement on the night of +April 1: "As a result of communications which have passed between the +Prime Minister and President Wilson; of deliberations between Secretary +Baker, who visited London a few days ago, and the Prime Minister, Mr. +Balfour, and Lord Derby, and consultations in France in which General +Pershing and General Bliss participated, important decisions have been +come to by which large forces of trained men in the American Army can be +brought to the assistance of the Allies in the present struggle. + +"The government of our great Western ally is not only sending large +numbers of American battalions to Europe during the coming critical +months, but has agreed to such of its regiments as cannot be used in +divisions of their own being brigaded with French and British units so +long as the necessity lasts. + +"By this means troops which are not sufficiently trained to fight as +divisions and army corps will form part of seasoned divisions, until +such time as they have completed their training and General Pershing +wishes to withdraw them in order to build up the American Army. + +"Throughout these discussions President Wilson has shown the greatest +anxiety to do everything possible to assist the Allies, and has left +nothing undone which could contribute thereto. + +"This decision, however of vital importance it will be to the +maintenance of the Allied strength in the next few months, will in no +way diminish the need for those further measures for raising fresh +troops at home to which reference has already been made. + +"It is announced at once, because the Prime Minister feels that the +singleness of purpose with which the United States have made this +immediate and, indeed, indispensable contribution toward the triumph of +the Allied cause should be clearly recognized by the British people." + +Lord Reading, the British Ambassador at Washington, conveyed to +President Wilson a message of thanks from the British Government, for +"the instant and comprehensive measures" which the President took in +response to the request that American troops be used to reinforce the +Allied armies in France. The Embassy then gave out a statement that "the +knowledge that, owing to the President's prompt co-operation, the Allies +will receive the strong reinforcement necessary during the next few +months is most welcome to the British Government and people." + +The London papers reflected this sentiment in even stronger terms. Said +the _Westminster Gazette_: "It seals the unity of the Allied forces in +France, and so far from weakening the determination to provide all +possible reinforcements from this country, it will, we are confident, +give it fresh energy. All the big loans America has made to Great +Britain and France, her heavy contributions of food, her princely gifts +through the Red Cross, and the high, stimulating utterances of President +Wilson, have done much to strengthen the Allied morale and lend material +assistance to the war against autocracy, but none of these counts so +heavily with the masses, because there are few families here or in +France who have not a personal and intimate interest in the soldiers +battling on the plains of Picardy." + +The _Evening Star_ wrote: "In a true spirit of soldierly comradeship +they will march to the sound of guns, and will merge their national +pride in a common stock of courage for the common good. It is a +chivalrous decision, and President Wilson, Mr. Baker, and General Bliss +have done a very great thing in a very great way. The British and French +people are moved by this splendid proof of America's fellowship in the +fight for world freedom." + +If this gift was so significant in spirit, it was also bravely helpful +in round numbers. At the end of March, 1918, General Pershing had +366,142 soldiers in his command in France, and of these, after nine +months of training and adjustment, he could put about 100,000 in the +line. + +And within three months after this time he had more than 1,000,000 +soldiers in France, the Navy Department having accomplished the +astounding feat of transporting 637,929 in April, May, and June. The +month that the reinforcement of the French and British Armies was +planned and accepted the transport figures jumped from forty-eight +thousand odd to eighty-three thousand odd. The month of its first +practical operation the figures jumped again to one hundred and +seventeen thousand odd, and in the month of June, the month of the +anniversary of the first debarkation, there was a transportation of +276,372 men. + +The last few days of March, 1918, saw the first large troop movements +from the American zone--that is, saw them strictly in the mind's eye. +Actually, the rain came down in such drenching downpours that the +French villagers whom the motor-trucks passed did not so much see as +hear the doughboys. Throughout the whole zone the activity was +prodigious. Along the muddy roads two great processions of motor-trucks +crossed each other day and night, the one taking the soldiers to one +front, the other to another. Sometimes the camions slithered in the mud +till they came to a stop in the gutter. Then the boisterous, jubilant +soldiers would tumble out and set their shoulders under wheels and +mud-guards, and hoist the car into the road again. The singing was +incessant. The mood of the songs swung from "The Battle Hymn of the +Republic" to "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town To-night." + +The exuberance of the soldiers knew no bounds. They were about to answer +"present" to the roll-call of the big guns, the call they had been +hearing for so many months, that had seemed to them so persistently and +personally compelling. They were going to become a part of that living +wall which for three years and a half had held the enemy out of Paris. + +Those who were going to the British front were particularly exultant +because they expected to find open fighting there, the kind they called +"our specialty." + +To all the units going into the French and British Armies a general +order was read, jacking up discipline to the topmost notch. + +"The character of the service this command is now about to undertake," +read the order, "demands the enforcement of stricter discipline and the +maintenance of higher standards of efficiency than any heretofore +required. + +"In future the troops of this command will be held at all times to the +strictest observance of that rigid discipline in camp and on the march +which is essential to their maximum efficiency on the day of battle." + +The first of the fighting troops arrived on the British front on the +morning of April 10, after an all-night march. They were grimed and +mud-spattered, hungry, and tired, and cold. But the cheering that rose +from the Tommies when they recognized the American uniforms at the head +of the column would have revived more exhausted men than they. + +The first comers were infantry, a battalion of them. Others came up +during the day, with artillerymen and machine-gunners. The celebration +of their coming lasted far into the next night, and the commanders of +the British front exchanged telegrams of congratulation with the +commanders of the French front that they were to be so welcomely +refreshed. + +But Generalissimo Foch, with his stanch determination not to be done out +of his reserve, held the Americans back, and they were destined to +remain behind the main battle-line for three and a half months longer. + +Meanwhile the American strength was piling steadily up in the reserve, +and in mid-May a large contingent of the National Army, said to be the +first of them to land in Europe, reached the Flanders front and began to +train at once behind the British lines, without preliminary work in +American camps in France. + +These men had what was probably the most exhilarating welcome of the +war. The Tommies, many of them wounded and sick, poured out into the +roadways as the new American Army arrived, and threw their caps into the +air and split their throats with cheers. The British had been +terrifically hard pressed in the German offensive. They had given ground +only after incredible fighting. They were, in the phrase of General +Haig, at last "with their backs to the wall." They held their line +magnificently, but they could not have been less than filled with +thanksgiving that they were now to have the help of the least war-worn +of all their allies. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FIRST TWO BATTLES + + +While Generalissimo Foch was strengthening his long line, with American +troops as flying buttresses, those sectors delegated to the Americans in +their own right saw two battles, within a few weeks of each other, which +attained to the dignity of names. The battle of Seicheprey, the first +big American defensive action, and the battle of Cantigny, the first big +offensive, the one in the Toul sector, the other in Picardy, were the +occasions of the American baptism of fire. The one was so valiant, the +other so brilliant, and both were so reassuring to the high commands of +the Allies, that they would deserve a special emphasis even if they had +not the distinction of being America's first battles. + +On the night of April 20-21 the German bombardment of Seicheprey, a +village east of the Renners wood, and just northwest of Toul, grew to +monstrous proportions. Frenchmen who had seen the great Verdun +offensive, in which the German Crown Prince had made a new record for +artillery preparation, said that the heavy firing on the American sector +eclipsed any of the action at Verdun. + +The firing covered a front of a mile and a quarter. The bombardment was +of high explosive shells and gas, apparently an effort to disable the +return fire from American artillery. But all through the night the +artillerymen sent their shells, encasing themselves in gas-masks. + +Toward dawn the attack began. A full regiment of German soldiers, +preceded by 1,200 shock troops, advanced under a barrage. Halfway across +No Man's Land the American artillery laid down a counter-barrage, and +many of the Germans dropped under it, but still the great waves of them +came on, focussing on the village of Seicheprey. + +The impact of their terrific numbers was too powerful to be withstood at +once. The American troops fell back from some of their first-line +trenches, which the first bombardment had caused them to hold loosely, +and part of the forces fell back even from the village. The Germans +marched into the village, evidently believing it to have been totally +abandoned, carrying their flame-throwers and grenades, but making no use +of them. Suddenly they discovered that certain American troops had been +left to defend the village, while the main force reformed at the rear, +and hand-to-hand fighting in the street became necessary. An American +commander sent word back that the troops were giving ground by inches, +and that they could hold for a few hours. + +Seicheprey, the first big American battle, had every element of the +World War in little. Before the loss of the village, which occurred +about noon, the troops defending it had fought from ambush and in the +open, had fought with gas and liquid fire, with grenades, rifles, and +machine-guns. In the inferno the new troops were giving proof of valor +that was to come out later and be scattered broadcast, as a measure of +what America would bring. + +In and out of the streets of Seicheprey, in its little public square, +from the yards of its houses, hundreds of American soldiers were +fighting for their lives. France lay behind them, trusting to be saved. +Other Americans were behind them, racing into formation with French +troops for the counter-attack. The defenders of Seicheprey, "giving by +inches," had a battle-cry of their own, brief and racy, of the +football-fields: "Hold 'em." + +After a while the Germans took Seicheprey. The hideously pressed, +slow-giving outpost moved back. Before the day had finished the +shell-stripped streets of Seicheprey, sheltering the invaders, weltered +again under the first American shells of the counter-attack. By +nightfall the troops were creeping forward under the counter-barrage. +The army, reformed, refreshed, and replenished, was on its way to take +its own back again. The counter-battle lacked the monstrous gruelling of +the first attack. It took less time. The superiority of numbers had +shifted to the other side, and the white heat of determination did its +share. + +The Germans held Seicheprey about four hours. + +The main positions of the army, which were threatened, were untouched +because of the stoutness of the resistance at the village, and most of +the first-line positions were retaken with the rush of the +counter-attack. + +The German prisoners who were captured had many days' rations in their +kits and extra loads of trench-tools on their backs. They had intended +to hold the American trenches for several days, facing them the other +way, before they commenced the new attack, which, in the plan of the +German high command, was to break apart the French and American lines +where they joined, above Toul. Once this wedge was into the Allied +vitals the rest was to be easy. + +Though Seicheprey did not count as a big battle in point of numbers +engaged or numbers lost, it loomed large enough in the importance it had +strategically. The German high command obviously expected little or +nothing from the "green American troops." The shock troops had been +rehearsed for weeks to take the American lines and hold them till the +Allied line should be broken apart. In fact, it was nobly planned. The +only compliment the Americans could squeeze out of it was that the +Germans were sent over in many places eight to their one. But the +capture of Seicheprey lasted just four hours, and the disruption of the +Franco-American line remained a mere brain-child of the Wilhelmstrasse. + +The French soldiers who joined the counter-attack told thrilling stories +of the Americans. They told that in one place north of Seicheprey, an +American detachment was separated into small groups, and was cut off +from the company to which it belonged through the entire fight. Behind +the Americans and on their left flank were German units, but they could +have retired on the right. They decided to stay and fight, so there they +stayed, notwithstanding incessant enemy bombardment. + +In the town of Seicheprey a squad of Americans found a few cases of +hand-grenades. With these they put up a tremendous fight through the +whole day, holding to a strip at the northern end of the village. They +refused to surrender when they were ordered to, and at the end of the +fighting only nine of the original twenty-three were left. By the grace +of these nine men Seicheprey was never wholly German, even for the four +hours. + +One New England boy passed through the enemy barrage seven times to +carry ammunition to his comrades. A courier who was twice blown off the +road by shell explosions carried his message through and dropped as he +reported. A lieutenant with only six men patrolled six hundred yards of +the front throughout the day, holding communications open between the +battalions to the right and left of him. A sanitary-squad runner +captured by the Germans, escaped them and made his way into Seicheprey, +tending the wounded there till help came. A machine-gunner found himself +alone with his gun, and on being asked by a superior officer if he could +hold the line there, replied that he could if he were not killed. He +did. A regimental chaplain went to the assistance of a battery which was +hard pressed, and carried ammunition for them for hours, then took his +turn at the gun. + +These make no roster of the heroes of Seicheprey. There were hundreds of +them. But the censor's passionate aversion to details of all battles has +scotched the narrative of heroes for the present. + +Cantigny will warm the cockles of the American heart as long as it +beats. There was a battle that for spirit, flare, brilliancy, came up to +the rosiest dream that ever was dreamed, in Washington, or London, or +Paris. + +Cantigny, like Seicheprey, was not an engagement of great numbers. It +was a little town that was hard to capture. It commanded a fine view of +the American lines for miles back, and it had been able to withstand +some violent attempts earlier, so it was particularly desirable. And it +was in a salient, so that it formed an angle in the line. Its taking +straightened the line, heartily disgruntled the Boches, who lost 200 +prisoners and many hundred wounded and dead in defending it, and it gave +the American troops their first taste of the offensive. But more than +all that, it gave these same troops a record of absolutely flawless +workmanship which, if not large, was at least complete. + +The capture of Cantigny and 200 yards beyond it, which included the +German second line, took just three-quarters of an hour. + +In the niggardly terms of the communique: "This morning in Picardy our +troops attacked on a front of one and a fourth miles, advanced our +lines, and captured the village of Cantigny. We took 200 prisoners and +inflicted on the enemy severe losses in killed and wounded. Our +casualties were relatively small. Hostile counter-attacks broke down +under our fire." + +It was on the morning of May 28. At a quarter to six a bombardment +began. At a quarter to seven the troops went over the top. The barrage +went first, a dense gray veil. Then came twelve French tanks. Just +behind the tanks stalked the doughboys. + +The soldiers moved like clockwork. There were no unruly fringes to be +nipped by the barrage. There was no break in the methodical stride. They +went forward first a hundred yards in two minutes. Then the barrage +slowed to a hundred yards in four minutes. In a little while the troops +had arrived at the edge of the village; then the close-quarter fighting +began. + +At 7.30 a white rocket rose from the centre of Cantigny, dim against the +smoky sky, to tell the men behind that "the objective is reached and +prisoners are coming." + +The Americans found the enemy in confusion and unreadiness, and the +initial resistance from machine-guns at the town's edge was easily +overcome. Where the burden of hard fighting came was in routing the +Germans out from the caves and tunnels and cellars of the town into +which they had retired. + +There was a long tunnel in the town, which, after furious fighting, was +surrounded and isolated. The flame-throwers were placed at both ends of +the tunnel, and that episode was ended. Some of the caves were large +enough to hold a battalion. These were handled by the mopping-up troops, +who threw hand-grenades. + +The prisoners began to file back almost immediately. One grinning +Pittsburgher, wounded in the arm, marched in the rear of a prison squad. +"That's handin' it to them Huns, blankety-blank 'em," he said +cheerfully. + +The village caught fire from the bombardment and the firing of the +tunnel, and for hours after its capture the soldiers had to fight +flames. + +The first of the American "shock troops" went from the village on to the +German second-line trenches, and under a hail of bullets from German +machine-guns dug themselves in and faced the trenches the other way. + +All that day they held their prize unmolested. They had all the high +ground beyond Cantigny, and an approach was, to put it mildly, +precarious. But by five of the afternoon the German counter-attacks had +begun. One wave after another stormed half-way up the hill, then tumbled +down again, broken under the American artillery. Four counter-attacks +were made against Cantigny, but all of them failed. The new positions +were consolidated, under heavy fire and gas attack, and there they +stayed. + +This gallant battle called forth intemperate commendation from the +headquarters of the Allies. The French despatch to Washington told +officially of the high opinion the French held of it, and there were +many congratulatory telegrams from London. The press of London and Paris +glowed with praises. The London _Evening News_ wrote: + +"Bravo, the young Americans! Nothing in to-day's battle narrative from +the front is more exhilarating than the account of their fight at +Cantigny. It was clean-cut from beginning to end, like one of their +countrymen's short stories, and the short story of Cantigny is going to +expand into a full-length novel, which will write the doom of the Kaiser +and Kaiserism. We expected it. We have seen those young Americans in +London, and merely to glance at them was to know that they are +conquerors and brothers in that great Anglo-Saxon-Latin compact which +will bring down the Prussian idol.... They do not swagger, and they have +no war illusions. They have done their first job with swift precision, +characteristic of the United States, and Cantigny will one day be +repeated a thousand-fold." + +_The Times_ wrote: + +"Our allies know the significance of that as well as we do. So, too, do +the German generals and the German statesmen. It means that the last +great factor between autocracy and freedom is coming into effective play +on the battle-field.... There could be no reflection more heartening for +the Allies or more dismaying to their adversaries." + +"Their adversaries," meanwhile, were doing what they could to keep their +dismay to themselves. In the German announcement of the loss of +Cantigny there was mention only of "the enemy." The German people were +not to know for a while that the "ridiculous little American Army" had +got to work. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +TEUFEL-HUNDEN + + +No branch of service in the American Army was so quick to achieve group +consciousness as the marines. To be sure, these soldiers of the sea had +a considerable tradition behind them before they came to France. The +world is never so peaceful that there is nothing for the marines to do. +Always there is some spot for them to land and put a situation into +hand. It is no fault of the marines that most of these brushes have been +little affairs, and they have found, as Mr. Kipling says, that "the +things that you learn from the yellow and brown will 'elp you a heap +with the white." + +The Navy Department has always been careful to preserve the tradition of +the marines. The organization has never lacked for intelligent +publicity. "First to fight" was a slogan which brought many a recruit +into the corps. Even the dreary work of policing, which falls largely +to the marines, has been dramatized to a certain extent by that fine +swaggering couplet of their song: + + "If the army or the navy ever gaze on heaven's scenes, + They will find the streets are guarded by United States marines." + +The belief that the marines would make a distinctive mark in the great +World War was practically unanimous. Army officers couldn't deny it, war +correspondents hastened to proclaim it, and the Germans admitted it by +bestowing the name "Teufel-hunden" (devil-dogs) on the marines +immediately after their first engagement. The marines themselves were +second to no one in the consciousness of their own prowess. + +"I understand," said a little marine just two days off the transport, +"that this Kaiser isn't afraid of the American Army so much, but that he +is afraid of the marines." + +The boy didn't say whether one of his officers had told him that, but +his belief was passionate and complete. However, the marines did not +allow their high confidence to interfere in any way with their +preparations. They showed the same anxiety to make good on the +training-fields that they later displayed on the line. Their camp in the +American area was just a bit farther from the centre of things than that +of any other organization. Whenever there was a review or a special show +of any sort for a distinguished visitor, the marines had to march twelve +miles to attend. And after that it was twelve miles home again. But they +thrived on hard work. They shot, bayoneted, and bombed just a little +better than any other organization in the first division. Sometimes +individual marines would complain a little about the fact that they were +worked harder than any men in the division, but they always took care to +add that they had finished the construction of their practice-trench +system days before any of the others. When they mentioned the fact that +they had achieved this result by working in day and night shifts it was +never possible to tell whether they were airing a grievance or making a +boast. It is probable that they were something of the mind of Job, whose +boils were both a tribulation and a triumph. + +There was no doubt as to the opinion of the marines when it seemed for a +time as if they might not get into the fighting. They did not go into +the trenches with the first division, but were broken up and sent to +various points for police duty. Of course they were bitterly +disappointed, but they merely policed a little harder, and it was a +severe winter for soldiers who went about with their overcoats +unbuttoned, or committed other breaches of military regulations. + +Since the marines did hard work well, they were rewarded by more hard +work, and this was labor more to their taste. The reward came suddenly. +On May 30 a unit of marines was in a training-camp so far back of the +lines that it was impossible to hear the sound of the guns even when the +Germans turned everything loose for a big offensive. On that same day +the Germans reached the Marne east of Château-Thierry and began an +advance along the north bank toward the city. That night the marines +were ordered to the front. + +They rode almost a hundred kilometres to get into the fight. It was late +afternoon when they reached a hill overlooking Château-Thierry. French +guns all about them were being fired up to their very limit or a little +beyond. The Germans were coming on. These marines had never been in a +battle before, with the exception of a few who had chased little brown +rebels in various brief encounters on small islands. They had never been +under shell fire. And this their first engagement was one of the biggest +in the greatest war in history. From the hill they could see houses fold +up and fields pucker under the pounding of big guns. The marines were +told that as soon as darkness came they would march into the town and +hold the bridges against the German Army, which was coming on. Somebody +asked a French officer some days later how these green troops had taken +their experience as they waited the word to go forward. "They were +concombres," said the Frenchman. Our word is cucumbers. + +Finally, the order came for the advance. It was a dark night, but the +marines could see their way forward well enough. The German bombardment +had set fire to the railroad-station. The Americans kept in the shadows +as much as they could, but they danced around so much that it was +difficult. They placed their machine-guns here and there behind walls +and new barricades, so that they could enfilade the approaches to the +bridges and the streets on the opposite side of the river. One +lieutenant with twelve men and two guns took up a position across the +river. It was up to him to stand off the first rush. + +The shelling from the enemy guns was intensified during the night, but +the infantry had not yet reached the town. It was five o'clock of a +bright morning when the little advance post of the Americans saw the +Germans coming across the open field toward the river. They were +marching along carelessly in two columns and there were twelve men in +every line. One of the machine-guns swung her nose around a little and +the fight was on. At last the American was definitely in one of the +major engagements of the war. American machine-gunners were doing their +bit to block the advance on Paris. All day long the marines held the +Germans back with their machine-guns. And that night they beat back a +German mass attack when the Boches came on and on in waves, with men +locked arm in arm. They could hear them, for they sang as they rushed +forward, and the machine-gunners pumped their bullets into the spots +where the notes were loudest. + +The next day the Americans were forced to give some ground when the +order came to retire, but they had been through, perhaps, the most +intensive two days of training which ever fell to the lot of green +troops. + +The marines did not have to wait long for retaliation. Other units of +marines from other camps had been hurrying up to the front, and on June +6 an offensive was launched on a front of two and a half miles. The +first day's gain was two and three-sixteenth miles and 100 prisoners +were captured. This attack yielded all the important high ground +northwest of Château-Thierry. The marines did not rest with this gain. +They struck again at five o'clock in the afternoon, and by June 7 the +attack had grown to much greater proportions. Four villages, Vinly, +Veuilly-la-Poterie, Torcy, and Bouresches, fell into the hands of the +French and Americans. The thrust was pressed to a maximum depth of two +miles on a ten-mile front. More than 300 prisoners were captured by the +Americans. The attack was carried out under American command, +Major-General James G. Harbord being in charge of the operation. + +As in the Cantigny offensive, the Americans worked with great speed, and +showed that they could make the rifle an effective weapon even under the +changed conditions of modern warfare. But though they were swift they +were not silent. They went over the top shouting like Indians, and they +kept up the noise as they went forward. The second attack was carried +out by the same men who had advanced in the morning. The early showing +had been so promising that it was decided to go on, particularly as the +Germans seemed to be somewhat shaken by the violence of the assault. In +this new sweep the marines took ground on either side of Belleau Wood. +They also captured the ravine south of Torcy. The Germans were not able +to organize an effective counter-attack immediately, for they had been +too much surprised by the thrust. Also the effective work of the +American artillery made it difficult for the Germans to bring up fresh +troops. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information._ + +U. S. Marines in readiness to march to the front.] + +In the rough country over which the battle was fought there was +opportunity for the fight to disintegrate into the little eddies where +individual initiative counts for so much. In a fight near Le Thiolet, +Captain James O. Green, Jr., found himself cut off by the Germans. He +was accompanied by five privates. Back at regimental headquarters Green +had already been reported as killed or captured. He proved the need of +clerical revision, for he and his men fought their way back to the +American lines. At one point ten Germans tried to intercept him, but the +six Americans succeeded in killing or wounding every member of the enemy +party. A single marine who was taking back a prisoner ran into two +German officers and ten men. He fell upon them with rifle and bayonet +and disposed of both officers and several of the men. Then he made his +escape. Somebody told the marine when he got back to the American lines +that he certainly had been "in luck." + +"Hell! no," said the fighting man; "they took my prisoner away from +me." + +Still another marine was captured while dazed by a blow on the head. He +recovered in time to deal his captor a tremendous punch on the jaw, and +made his way back to the American lines. The favorite slogan of the +Americans was: "Each man get a German; don't let a German get you." + +Early on June 8 the Germans launched a counter-attack against the +American position between Bouresches and Le Thiolet. This attack broke +down. The trenches which the Americans held were new and shallow, but +the troops were well supplied with machine-guns, and the German infantry +never got closer than within a couple of hundred yards of the position. +The marines were not yet content with their success. They took the +initiative again on June 10 and smashed into the German lines for about +two-thirds of a mile on a 600-yard front. In this attack two minenwerfer +were captured. The object of the attack was to clean out Belleau Wood. +The Germans retained only the northern fringe. + +By this time the offensive had ceased to be wholly a marine affair. The +9th and 23d Regiments of infantry, comprising what is known as the +Syracuse Brigade, took up their positions on the right of the soldiers +of the sea. During the next few days the Germans made several violent +counter-attacks, but without success, and on June 26 the Americans +pushed their gains still further by a successful assault south of Torcy, +in which more than 250 Germans were captured. This victory gave +Pershing's men absolute command of the Bois de Belleau, which was the +strategic point for which the Germans had fought so hard. + +It was after the Château-Thierry offensive that for the first time the +American Army won a place in the German official communique. Before that +they had been simply "the enemy," and once, upon the occasion of a +successful German raid, North American troops. But now Berlin unbent a +little and used the term "an American regiment." Germany was prepared to +admit that America was in the war. It is just possible that some of +their men who broke before the rush of the marines returned to give +headquarters the information. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE ARMY OF MANÅ’UVRE + + +While the American Army was showing its quality in the minor battles of +Seicheprey, Cantigny, Château-Thierry, and Vaux, and its quantity was +showing itself in leaps of hundreds of thousands of men a month, a +destiny was shaping for it, equally in circumstances and in the mind of +Generalissimo Foch, which was to be even greater than that it had +sacrificed in late March, when it submerged its identity and said: "Put +us where you will." + +For when, on July 18, the fifth German offensive suddenly shivered into +momentary equilibrium and then rolled back, with Foch and the Allies +pounding behind it, and when this counter-attack developed into a +continuing offensive which was to straighten the Marne salient and throw +back the Germans from before Amiens and do the future only knows what +else besides, the Allied world said, in one voice: "Foch has found his +army of manÅ“uvre, and it's the Americans." + +This "army of manÅ“uvre" has always been the king-pin of French +strategy. While the Germans were trying two systems--first, the broad +front attack which trusted to overbear by sheer weight anything which +opposed it, and, second, the so-called Hutier system of draining the +line of all its best fighters, and organizing shock troops immeasurably +above the average for offensive, while the line was held by the rag-tag +and bobtail--the French stuck to their traditional system. This was to +hold the lines with the lightest possible number of men, of the highest +possible caliber, and to thrust with a mobile force, foot-loose and +ready to be swung wherever a spot seemed likely to give way. + +It was with the "army of manÅ“uvre," thrown up from Paris in frantic +haste by Galliéni, in taxicabs and trucks, that General Foch made the +miraculous plunge through the Saxon army at Fère-en-Tardenois, in +September, 1914, which saved the first battle of the Marne. + +When General Foch became generalissimo, in late March, just after the +first German offensive on March 21 had thrown the British back, and when +the French were retreating at Montdidier, the expectation universally +was that the Allies would begin an offensive, within the shortest +possible time. Foch had been quoted all over the world as saying that +"defensive fighting was no defense." Yet April, May, and June passed, +and part of July, and except for scattering attacks along the Marne +salient, and patient rear-guard action when the retreats were necessary, +the Allies made no move. + +The Austrian debacle came and went. Foch had Italy off his mind, and the +Italians were more than taking care of themselves. Still he did not +strike. And finally it became clear that he was showing this long +patience because he wanted what every Frenchman wants first in every +battle, and what he did not surely have until July--his army of +manÅ“uvre. + +The fitness of the American Army for this brilliant use was dual: first, +that its source was virtually inexhaustible; second, that it was better +at offensive than defensive fighting. + +The American Army had a quality, and the defect of that quality: it +wanted to get to Berlin regardless of tactics. And while General Foch +was trusting to time to prove to them that, pleasant or unpleasant, the +tactics had to be observed, he turned their spectacular fire and +exuberance to direct account. + +Of course, the American troops in France then ready to fight could not +alone make up the Allied army of manÅ“uvre. They were the core of it, +however, and their growing numbers guaranteed it almost indefinitely, so +that the attack of which it was to be the backbone could safely be +begun. Some of the troops originally intended for welding with the +British and French Armies were kept in the line without change. + +But in the main the statement was true: the American Army was to rove +behind the Allied lines till Foch discovered or divined a German +weakness to strike into. + +In the second battle of the Marne, begun that July 18, when the Allies +took the offensive again for the first time in more than a year, the +crown prince and his army of approximately half a million were tucked +down in the Marne salient, driving for Paris. The German line came down +from Soissons to Château-Thierry, ran east from Château-Thierry along +the Marne River, then turned up again to Rheims. In a space about thirty +miles square the crown prince had imprudently poured all his troops, +which, for the fifth offensive, begun July 15, included about a third of +the man-power of the western front. + +The Allied troops lying around the three sides of this salient were +French and American on the western side, Americans across the bottom, +east from Château-Thierry, and French, British, and Italian from the +Marne up to Rheims. While the French and British were squeezing in the +two sides at the top, it was the American job to keep the Germans from +bursting out from the bottom, and, if possible, to break through or roll +them back. + +The Americans began the attack east of Château-Thierry, where the +Germans had crossed the Marne and lay a few miles to the south of it. +There had been lesser actions here for several days, in the process of +stopping the enemy offensive, and by the morning of the 18th the +Americans dominated the positions around the Marne. The first day of the +counter-offensive had magnificent results. The Germans were forced back +on a 28-mile front, for a depth varying from 3 to 6 miles, and the +Americans captured 4,000 prisoners and 50 guns. Twenty French towns were +delivered, and the Germans began what appeared to be a precipitate +retreat. Foch's attack was mainly on the flank of the crown prince's +army, which had been left exposed in the rush toward Epernay and +Châlons, far south of the Marne. + +The infantry attack was made with little or no artillery preparation. +The German general, Von Boehm, was plainly caught napping. + +The communiqués of both sides were for once in agreement. The French +said: "After having broken the German offensive on the Champagne and +Rheims mountain fronts on the 15th, 16th, and 17th, the French troops, +in conjunction with the American forces, attacked the German positions +on the 18th, between the Aisne and the Marne on a front of forty-five +kilometres [about twenty-eight miles]. We have made an important +advance into the enemy lines, and have reached the plateau dominating +Soissons ... more than twenty villages have been retaken by the +admirable dash of the Franco-American troops.... South of the Ourcq our +troops have gone beyond the general line of Marizy, Ste.-Genevieve, +Hautvesnes, and Belleau." + +The German communiqué said: "Between the Aisne and the Marne, the French +attacked with strong forces and tanks, and captured some ground." Later +in the same communiqué the conclusion was drawn: "The battle was decided +in our favor." + +On the second day, while the march under Soissons continued, and there +were scattering gains on the Marne side, the number of Allied prisoners +grew to 17,000, and the number of guns captured to 360. Nobody could +tell, at this point, whether the crown prince's army was retreating +voluntarily or involuntarily. In many places the Germans were taken by +American soldiers from the peaceful pursuit of cutting wheat behind the +lines. Some high officers were nabbed from their beds. On the other +hand, the fact that the German rear-guard actions were chiefly with +machine-guns seemed to indicate that they were moving their heavy pieces +back in fair orderliness. + +On the third day the Germans were thrown back over the Marne, and the +crown prince, having sent an unavailing plea to Prince Rupprecht for new +troops, suddenly showed fight with the crack Prussian guards. + +These guards had their worst failure of the war when they met the +Americans. It is difficult to prevent the statement from sounding +offensively boastful. It is, none the less, true. The Germans, having +decided that their retreat was wearing the look of utter rout, and that +they must resist fiercely enough to stop it, risked a British +break-through to the north by throwing in Ludendorf's prize soldiers +above the Marne. And although the American total of prisoners around +Soissons had risen to nearly 6,000, and though they did force back the +Prussian guard, they did not make prisoners from their number. One +American after another told, afterward, with a sort of reluctant +admiration, that the Prussian guard had died where it stood. This +fighting near the Ourcq, and fatally near the vitals of the encircled +crown prince, was the most desperate of the second Marne battle. + +On July 21 Château-Thierry was given up by the Germans, and the pursuing +Allies, French and American, drove the enemy beyond the highroad to +Soissons, and threatened the only highway of retreat, as well as the +German stores. The supply-centre within the salient was +Fère-en-Tardenois, and it was being raked by Allied guns from both sides +of the salient. + +The character of the fighting changed again, so that again it was +impossible to make sure if Von Boehm intended to stand somewhere north +of the Marne and put up a fight, or if he intended to make all speed +back to a straight line between Soissons and Rheims. The resistance was +by machine-gun, so that Americans, having their first big experience +with the enemy, insisted that he had nothing but machine-guns to trust +to. It is, of course, possible that the crown prince and Von Boehm knew +no more than anybody else whether they were going to clear out, men and +supplies, or whether they would stop again and fight face foremost. + +On July 22 the German command answered the question at least partially. +On a line well above the Marne, they brought the big guns into play, and +poured in shock troops. Airplanes from the Allied lines discovered, +however, that the Germans were burning towns and store-houses for many +miles behind the line. + +The pressure on the Germans was being brought from the south, where the +Americans were six or seven miles above Château-Thierry, and from the +west and north, where the Franco-American troops were flaying the +exposed side. + +The stiffened resistance and the German artillery slowed, but could not +stop, the Allied advance. The eastern side of the salient, from the +Marne to Rheims, bore some desperate blows, but did not give way. As the +pincers closed in, at the top of the salient, the German command +appeared to go back to its original plan of attacking Rheims from the +south. + +This was the side on which British and Italian troops were co-operating +with the French, and the German command got for its pains in that +direction a counter-attack which narrowed the distance from battle-line +to battle-line across the top of the salient. The French menaced +Fère-en-Tardenois, the German base of supplies. + +Allied aviators bombed these stores, the long-range guns pounded at +them, and what with these and the conflagrations started defensively by +the Germans the Marne salient was a caldron which turned the skies +blood-red. + +On July 24 the ground gained all along the line averaged two miles. The +British southwest of Rheims made a damaging curve inward, and the shove +around the other two sides was fairly even. + +On July 25, one week from the beginning of the offensive, the Americans +and French from the Soissons side and the British and French from the +Rheims side had squeezed in the neck of the trap till it measured only +twenty-one miles. The French arrived within three miles of +Fère-en-Tardenois, and although the German resistance increased again, +the evacuation of Fère and the removal of stores to Fismes, far up on +the straight line, were foreshadowed. + +The road leading between the two supply-bases was shelled incessantly, +and the difficulties of resistance within the fast-narrowing salient +became almost superhuman. But the rear-guard of the Germans "died to a +man," to quote the observers, and the rear action held the Allied gains +to a few miles daily. + +A definite retreat began on the morning of July 27, with what the airmen +reported as an obvious determination to make a stand on the Ourcq. The +forest of Fère was taken, and many villages, but the fighting was +insignificant because, in the language of the communiqués, "our forces +lost contact with the enemy." Possibly this is what the famous phrase of +the Ludendorf communiqué, "The enemy evaded us," had in mind. + +There was a certain psychological stupidity in this German decision to +make a stand on the Ourcq. It was on the Ourcq that Joffre and Foch made +the fatal stroke of the first Marne battle, and the very name of the +river inspired France. + +While this retreat was in progress, the swiftest of the battle, the +German communiqué read: "Between the Ourcq and the Marne, the enemy's +resistance has broken down. Our troops, with those of our allies, are in +pursuit." + +On the 29th the Germans crossed the Ourcq, with the Americans behind +them. The "pursuit" continued. The American troops, with French to the +right and left of them, forced the enemy to within a mile of the Vesle, +where his halt had no hope of being more than temporary. The brilliant +charge across the Ourcq was done by New Yorkers--the "fighting 69th," +which refuses to be known by its new name of "165th." Edwin L. James, +writing of this charge for the New York _Times_, said: "There is doubt +if any chapter of our fighting reached the thrills of our charge across +the Ourcq yesterday. Americans of indomitable spirit met a veritable +hell of machine-guns, shells, gas, and bombs in a strong position, and +broke through with such violence that they made a salient jutting into +the enemy line beyond what the schedule called for." + +This American charge cured the Germans of any intention to stay on the +Ourcq. The resistance, after that first attack, was sporadic and +ineffectual. Village after village was reclaimed. + +It became plain that the whole Marne salient was to be obliterated, and +that the Germans could not stop till they reached the thirty-six-mile +stretch directly from Soissons to Rheims, at which they had strong +intrenchments. + +One terrific stand was made by the Germans at Sergy, just above the +Ourcq. It changed hands nine times during twenty-four hours, with +Americans fighting hand to hand with the Prussian guards. Sergy was +taken in the first rush over the Ourcq, but a counter-attack by the +Prussian Fourth Guard Division, under artillery barrage, gave them the +city. Once these guards were in the city, the artillery barrage could no +longer play over it, and to the stupefaction of the Germans, the +Americans rushed in and fought hand to hand till they cleared the town, +while the German guns were powerless. Time and again this process was +repeated, till at last the Germans gave it up and joined the general +retreat. This counter-attack is believed, however, to have enabled the +crown prince to reclaim great stores of supplies in a woods north of the +village. + +At the end of these two weeks of infantry fighting the artillery took +up the task, and the infantry rested for a day, though on August 2 they +made a two-mile gain. + +The total of German prisoners for that fortnight was 33,400. + +The hideous fighting above the Ourcq between the Americans and the +picked German divisions continued for days, with each day marking a +small advance for the Americans. On August 2 the French regained +Soissons. + +On August 3 the Allies advanced six miles, retook fifty villages, and +reached the south bank of the Vesle. American forces entered Fismes. The +salient was annihilated. + +On August 4 Fismes fell, and the great supply and ammunition depot +became Allied property. The enemy was forced to cross the Vesle, and +victory on victory was reported along the line which so lately had +dipped into the nerve-centres of France. + +The second battle of the Marne had been won. + +[Illustration: The capture of Sergy. + +"The Americans rushed in and fought hand to hand till they cleared the +town."] + +The part of it achieved by America could not fail to stir her heart to +pride and to exaltation. Though numerically the troops were few +enough, not more than 270,000, they traversed the longest distance of +the salient, from Vaux, at its lowest tip, to Fismes, on the straight +line. Their fighting called forth comment from French officers who had +been through the four years of the war, which could not be called less +than rapturous. "They are glorious, the Americans," rang through France. +Clemenceau, speaking of Foch at the end of the battle to which the +Americans had contributed so much, said: "He looks twenty years +younger." He had both found and proved his "army of manÅ“uvre." + +The story of this first battle's heroes must wait, though it will be +long enough when it comes, and can include something more heartening +than that "a boy from New England did thus and so," and "the army is +thrilled by the heroic feat of---- of Michigan." + +Probably the first death in France in which the whole nation grieved was +that of young Quentin Roosevelt, aviation lieutenant, son of the +ex-President, who fell in an air fight in the preliminary to the battle +on July 17. He was last seen in a fight with two enemy planes. His +machine fell within the German lines. Weeks later the onward Allied +army found his grave, marked, in English, "Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, +buried by the Germans," and an official despatch from Germany stated +that he had been buried with full military honors. + +Colonel Roosevelt made a brief statement: "Quentin's mother and I are +very glad that he got to the front, and had a chance to render some +service to his country and to show the stuff there was in him before his +fate befell him." The news of his death arrived just a few weeks after +the news that he had downed his first German plane. The simple sincerity +of this statement, and its courage, gave an example to the mothers and +fathers of fighters which no one feared they would fail to come up to. +And when the casualty lists from the second Marne battle came in, every +bereavement was stanched by the fact that "they had shown the stuff +there was in them." + +Certainly not least in importance was the fact that they had shown it to +the Germans. An official German Army report was captured, July 7, on an +officer taken in the Marne region. After giving a prodigious amount of +detail concerning the American Army, its composition, destination, and +so on, it appended the following opinion: + +"The 2d American Division may be classified as a very good division, +perhaps even as assault troops. The various attacks of both regiments on +Belleau Wood were carried out with dash and recklessness. The moral +effect of our firearms did not materially check the advance of the +infantry. The nerves of the Americans are still unshaken.... Only a few +of the troops are of pure American origin; the majority is of German, +Dutch, and Italian parentage, but these semi-Americans, almost all of +whom were born in America and never have been in Europe, fully feel +themselves to be true-born sons of their country." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +ST. MIHIEL + + +Historians and military experts are fond of taking one particular battle +or campaign, and saying: "This was decisive." It enables one to simplify +history, to be sure, but often any such process is more simple than +truthful. After all, every battle is to some degree decisive, and the +great actions of the war are so closely connected with smaller ones that +it is difficult to separate them. It is the fashion now to speak of the +second battle of the Marne as the deciding factor in the war. Indeed, +there is one school of strategists which goes back to the first Marne, +and speaks as if nothing which happened after that really mattered. + +In this spirit, it is true, that the great tide in the allied fortunes +which began at Château-Thierry and swept higher and higher until the +Germans had been smashed in the second battle of the Marne, did put a +new complexion on the war. The battle definitely robbed the German +offensive of its threat. Paris was saved, in all human probability, from +ever coming into danger again during the course of the war. +Nevertheless, it is far-fetched to take the attitude that the war had +already been won early in August. It was evident by this time that the +German Army had suffered a great defeat. Perhaps a great disaster would +be better. And yet other armies have suffered great disasters and grown +again to power and success. The plight of the Germans was certainly +little worse than that of the Italians after the German offensive, and +yet everybody knows that the Italian Army came back from that defeat to +final victory. + +Morale is subject to miracles, and soldiers can be born again. There +might have been combinations of circumstances which would have permitted +the German Army to recover from its fearful defeat and find again its +old arrogance and confidence. Only it had no rest. It is fitting, then, +that the men of all the armies who completed the downfall of the Germans +in the marvellous campaigns at the close of the year 1918 should have +due credit. Their work was also decisive. No one can tell what would +have happened to the German Army if it had not been subjected to the +steady pounding of the allied armies. + +No attempt will be made here to estimate the relative importance of the +work done by the various allied armies in the closing campaigns of the +war. This is an interesting, although somewhat ungrateful, task for +military experts. In this account we are dealing simply with the +fortunes of the American Army. It might not be amiss to suggest that the +final victories of the war were won by team-play, and that in such +combinations of effort the praise should go to all, just as the labor +does. + +There need be no controversy, however, about the battle of St. Mihiel. +This was an American action. It was under the command of General +Pershing himself, and his forces were made up almost entirely of +Americans. The French acted in an advisory capacity, and we were +dependent, in part, upon them for certain material. General Pershing in +his official report says: "The French were generous in giving us +assistance in corps and army artillery, with its personnel." We were +also under obligation to the French for tanks, but here they were not +able to assist us so liberally, because they had barely enough tanks for +their own use. One of the surprising features of the St. Mihiel victory +is that it was achieved with comparatively slight tank preparation. + +St. Mihiel represented the biggest staff problem attempted by the +American Army up to that time. It was, of course, a battle which dwarfed +any previous action in the military history of America. Compared to the +battle of St. Mihiel, the whole Spanish-American War was a mere patrol +encounter, and Gettysburg itself a minor engagement. With the force at +his command, and the weapons, General Pershing could have annihilated +the army of either Grant or Lee in half an hour. Some idea of the +magnitude of the battle may be gathered from the report of General +Pershing: that he had under his command approximately 600,000 troops, or +four times the peace standing of the entire American military +establishment before the war. + +It is difficult enough to move an army of that size, with its supplies +and its guns, under any conditions, but the plan for the St. Mihiel +offensive called for a surprise attack, and it was necessary to make all +the troop movements at night. In spite of the vaunted efficiency of the +German intelligence, there seems to be evidence that their high command +had little inkling of the magnitude of the blow impending or the date on +which it would fall. The St. Mihiel salient had been so long a fixture +in the geography of the battle-lines that no change was expected. + +In preparation for the offensive the First Army was organized on August +10, under the personal command of General Pershing. Following this move +the Americans took over part of the line. This became a permanent +American sector. Pershing took command of the sector on August 30. At +that time the sector under his command began at Port sur Seille, and +extended through a point opposite St. Mihiel, then twisting north to a +point opposite Verdun. The preparations for the offensive included, in +addition to guns, men, and tanks, the greatest concentration which the +American Army had ever known in transport, ambulances, and aircraft. +Most of the planes in action were of French make, and some were flown by +the French, but there were a few of our manufacture, for on August 7 an +American squadron, completely equipped by American production, made its +appearance at the front. + +The preparations for the offensive were minute as well as extensive. It +is, perhaps, worth noting as a sample of the thoroughness with which the +American Army went about the job that no less than 100,000 maps were +issued which showed the character of the terrain around St. Mihiel, with +all the natural and artificial defenses carefully noted, and some +estimate of the strength in which the enemy was likely to be found at +each point. The army had 6,000 telephone instruments, and at least 5,000 +miles of wire, so there was no difficulty in keeping in touch with what +the men were doing at every point. The attack began at 1 A.M. on +September 12. The American artillery had been crowded into the sector to +such an extent that the German artillery was completely dominated. The +bombardment lasted for four hours, and then the troops went forward, +preceded by a few tanks, but there were points where infantry went +forward without the aid of these auxiliaries. It was misty when the +seven divisions in the front line sprang out of their trenches, and this +helped to keep losses down. Indeed, throughout the battle the resistance +proved much less determined than had been anticipated. + +Although the bombardment had been short, most of the wire had been cut. +There remained a few jobs, however, for the wire-cutters, and for other +soldiers armed with torpedoes. With one method or the other our men +smashed what was left of the wire guarding the enemy first-line +trenches. And then the waves came on and over. There was little +resistance in the first line, for the Germans in these positions were +pretty well demoralized by the terrific artillery pounding which they +had received and the sight of thousands upon thousands of Americans +rushing upon them from out of the fog. For the most part they +surrendered without resistance. As the advance progressed resistance +became stiffer at some points, but the attackers kept pretty generally +up to schedule, or ahead of it. Thiaucourt was taken by the First Corps. +The Fourth Corps fought its way through Nonsard. The Second Colonial +Corps was not asked to make a very great advance, but it had the most +difficult terrain over which to work. It had won all its objects early +in the day. A difficult task was also set for the Fifth Corps, which +took three ridges and then immediately had to repulse a counter-attack. +St. Mihiel fell early in the day. And in an incredibly short period a +salient which had been in the enemy hands for almost four years was +pinched out of existence. + +Everybody was delighted to find that in one respect the American +preparations had been too extensive. No less than thirty-five +hospital-trains had been assembled back of the attacking forces, and +there were beds for 16,000 men in the advanced areas, with 55,000 a +little farther back. As a matter of fact, less than one-tenth of these +facilities proved necessary, for the American casualties were only +7,000, and many of these were slight. The German General Staff always +maintained that it had anticipated the attack and that its men were +under orders to retire, as the salient was of no strategic importance. +The last assertion may be true, but there seems to be little to support +the rest, for the total of prisoners was 16,000, with 443 guns. The +quantity of material captured was enormous. In a single depot there were +found 4,000 shells for 77's and 350,000 rounds of rifle cartridges. +Among the other assorted booty were 200 machine-guns, 42 trench-mortars, +30 box-cars, 4 locomotives, 30,000 hand-grenades, 13 trucks, and 40 +wagons. The number of German helmets which fell to the doughboys was +naturally countless. + +The attack was so completely successful and ran so closely to schedule +that there were few surprises. A little group of newspaper men, however, +were frank to admit that they had encountered one. Following closely +upon the heels of the attacking troops, they came to a village which was +being heavily shelled by the Germans. Accordingly, the newspaper men +took refuge in a dugout until such time as the opportunity for +observation should be more favorable. Coming from the other direction, +a group of German prisoners entered the same village. They had +surrendered to one of the waves of onrushing Americans, but everybody +was too busy to conduct them personally to the rear. They had merely +been instructed to keep marching until they encountered some American +officers or doughboys who were not otherwise engaged, and then surrender +themselves. When the shells fell fast about them the Germans darted for +the dugout in which the newspaper men had previously taken refuge. The +correspondents were astounded and disturbed when sixteen field-gray +soldiers came tumbling in upon them. They could only imagine that at +some point the Germans had struck back and that the counter-attack had +broken through. And the correspondents admit that without a moment's +hesitation they gave one look at the Germans and then raised their +weaponless hands and cried "Kamerad." The perplexing feature of the +situation was that the Germans did exactly the same thing, and a +complete deadlock ensued until a squad of doughboys happened along that +way and took the Germans in charge. + +Both sides in the battle were willing to admit that their foemen had +fought with courage. While it is true that the first waves of the +American Army had an easy time, there was stiff but ineffectual +resistance by German machine-gunners later in the day. Many of these men +served their guns without offering surrender, and had to be bombed or +bayoneted. In a document by a German intelligence officer, which fell +into American hands much later in the war, a very frank tribute was paid +to the extraordinary courage of the Americans. The German officer said +that they seemed to be absolutely without fear on the offensive, and +must be reckoned with as shock troops, although they sometimes fought +greenly. He reported, however, that American leadership was less +impressive, and stated that the American Army might have gone much +farther if it had been more quick to take advantage of its early +success. But this would seem to be a mere effort to whistle up courage +in the German General Staff, for a consideration of the territory which +fell into American hands as a result of the attack shows some measure of +its success. This comprised 152 square miles which was recovered from +the Germans. And in this liberated district were 72 villages. + +And yet the importance of the battle can hardly be measured in territory +regained, and much less in booty or in guns. "This signal success of the +American Army in its first offensive was of prime importance," wrote +General Pershing in his report to Secretary Baker. "The Allies found +that they had a formidable army to aid them, and the enemy learned +finally that he had one to reckon with." Moreover, the pinching out of +the St. Mihiel salient put the American Army in a position to threaten +Metz. This threat was one of the factors which caused the enemy to +realize a few months later that further resistance could not hope to +check the allied armies for any considerable time. + +The divisions employed at St. Mihiel comprised many of our best units. +Among the divisions engaged were the Eighty-second, the Ninetieth, the +Fifth, and the Second, which made up the First Corps, under +Major-General Hunter Liggett. In the Third Corps were the Eighty-ninth, +the Forty-second, and the First Divisions, under Major-General Joseph +T. Dickman. The Fifth Corps, under Major-General George H. Cameron, had +the Twenty-sixth Division and a French division. In reserve were the +Seventy-eighth, Third, Thirty-fifth, and Ninety-first Divisions. The +Eighteenth and Thirty-third were also available. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +MEUSE-ARGONNE BEGINS + + +Having successfully accomplished one piece of work, the American Army +received as its reward another piece of work. The reward consisted in +the fact that the second task assigned to Pershing's men was, perhaps, +the hardest possible at any point in the line. Since 1915 the Argonne +Forest had been a rest area for the German Army. Everything had been +done to make the position impregnable, and so it was in theory. But the +Americans broke that theory and took the forest. So confident were the +Germans of their tenancy that they had built all sorts of palatial +underground dwellings. Barring light, there was no modern convenience +which these dugouts (although that is no fit name) did not possess. Some +had running water. All the most pretentious ones had feather-beds, and +the big underground rooms were gay with pictures and furniture stolen +from the French. The defenses of the positions in the forest included +miles and miles of barbed wire, sometimes hidden in the underbrush, and +again carried around tree-trunks higher than a man could reach. There +were high concrete walls to stop the progress of tanks and deep-pit +traps into which they might fall. And machine guns were everywhere. + +The Meuse-Argonne campaign, which falls into three phases, reads far +differently than the taking of St. Mihiel. Except in its early stages +this was no grand running, flawless offensive without a hitch worth +mentioning. In the nature of things it could not be so. The Argonne was +less susceptible to the laws of military strategy. Warfare in these +woods became a struggle between small detached units. Much of the +fighting took place in the dark and practically all of it in the rain. +The American victory was a triumph of the bomb and the rifle, and +perhaps the wire-cutter should be added, over the machine-gun. In many +encounters the opposing units fired at each other from short ranges, and +directed their fire solely by the flashes of the other fellow's +machine-gun. War in the Argonne Forest was a cat-and-dog fight, and +Germany was destined to play the cat's usual rôle, though she clawed her +hardest. + +And yet though many of the phases of the Meuse-Argonne were primitive +and elemental in their nature, sound strategy lay behind the campaign. +General Pershing in his vivid report explains not only the necessity for +the campaign but the objects which he sought and gained. St. Mihiel +shook the confidence of the Germans, but neither that success nor those +scored by other allied armies was sufficient to batter the Germans into +defeat. + +"The German Army," wrote General Pershing, "had as yet shown no +demoralization, and while the mass of its troops had suffered in morale, +its first-class divisions, and notably its machine-gun defense, were +exhibiting remarkable tactical efficiency as well as courage. The German +General Staff was fully aware of the consequences of a success on the +Meuse-Argonne line. Certain that he would do everything in his power to +oppose us, the action was planned with as much secrecy as possible, and +was undertaken with the determination to use all our divisions in +forcing decision. We expected to draw the best German divisions to our +front and to consume them while the enemy was held under grave +apprehension lest our attack should break his line, which it was our +firm purpose to do." + +"Our right flank," wrote General Pershing in describing his position at +the beginning of the battle, "was protected by the Meuse, while our left +embraced the Argonne Forest, whose ravines, hills, and elaborate defense +screened by dense thickets, had been generally considered impregnable. +Our order of battle from right to left was: the Third Corps from the +Meuse to Malancourt, with the Thirty-third, Eightieth, and Fourth +Divisions in line, and the Third Division as corps reserve; the Fifth +Corps from Malancourt to Vauquois, with Seventy-ninth, Eighty-seventh, +and Ninety-first Divisions in line, and the Thirty-second in corps +reserve; and the First Corps, from Vauquois to Vienne Le Château, with +Thirty-fifth, Twenty-eighth, and Seventy-seventh Divisions in line, and +the Ninety-second in corps reserve. The army reserve consisted of the +First, Twenty-ninth, and Eighty-second Divisions." + +The American Army had no extended vacation after the victory at St. +Mihiel. That action had hardly been completed when some of the artillery +left its positions and departed for the Meuse-Argonne front. St. Mihiel +began on September 12. Just two weeks later the first attack in the +long-protracted Meuse-Argonne campaign began. The first portion of this +offensive was by far the easiest. It was difficult, to be sure, but the +terrific hardships were still to come. One factor which mitigated the +task of the troops engaged in the first attack was that again the +Germans seemed to have been taken by surprise. The Americans moved very +fast over difficult terrain. This was country which had already been +sorely disputed, and shell-holes were everywhere. In the places where +there were no shell-holes there was barbed wire. + +As the attack progressed the German resistance increased. Artillery was +moved forward and machine-guns seemed to spring up overnight in that +much ploughed and harrowed land. Yet after three days' fighting the +Americans had penetrated a distance of from three to seven miles into +the enemy's positions, in spite of the large numbers of reserves which +were thrown in to check them. Even a German _communiqué_ writer would +hardly have the face to maintain that the territory captured by the +Americans was of no strategic importance. Every mile that Pershing's men +went forward brought them that much nearer to Sedan, and on Sedan rested +the whole fate of the German lines in France. But Sedan was still many a +weary mile away. The territorial gains in the onward rush of the first +three days included the villages of Montfaucon, Exermont, Gercourt, +Cuisy, Septsarges, Malancourt, Ivoiry (known to the doughboys, of +course, as Solid Ivory), Epinonville, Charpentry, and Very. Ten thousand +prisoners were taken. + +In spite of this great success it was not possible for the Americans to +drive straight forward. The country over which the action was fought was +so bad that several days were needed to build new roads up to the +positions which had been won. Even with the best efforts in the world, +the moving of supplies was a prodigious job. The mud was almost as great +a foe as the German guns. In the necessary lull the Germans, of course, +rushed new troops into the sector to combat the American advance. +Naturally, the lull was not complete. There was constant raiding by +Americans to identify units opposed to them, and here and there in small +local attacks strategic points were taken which would be of advantage in +the big push to come. From prisoners the Americans learned that among +the divisions opposite them were many of the crack units of the German +Army. America was also represented by its best organizations, but under +the constant losses incurred in attacks against strongly intrenched +positions units dwindled, and replacements were poured in. Under the +circumstances it was necessary to send many soldiers to the front who +had been in training but a short while. These were mixed in, however, +with veterans, and it should be said to the credit of these green men +that in practically every case they upheld the reputation of the units +to which they were sent. They were quick to feel themselves as sharers +in the reputation of their new-found organizations. + +There was no element of surprise to help the American Army when the +attack began again in full force on October 4. Where progress before had +been measured in miles, now it was counted in yards. Possibly it was +even a matter of feet at some points in the line. Yet always the +movement was forward. Weight of numbers and dogged courage proved that +machine-gun nests of the strongest sort were vulnerable. The Germans +counter-attacked constantly, but such tactics were actually welcomed by +the Americans as they brought the Germans into the open and gave our +riflemen and machine-gunners something at which to shoot. The +difficulties with which the Americans had to contend may be judged by +the fact that, according to an official report, the Germans had +machine-guns at intervals of every yard all along their line. + +The Argonne fighting produced many actions more important than the +rescue of the Lost Battalion, but hardly any as dramatic. The incident +could have happened only in the Argonne, where communication with +co-operating units was always difficult, and sometimes impossible. +Major Whittlesey's battalion, in making an attack through the forest, +gained their objectives, only to find that they were out of touch with +the American and French units with which they were co-operating. It is +not true, as sometimes reported, that Whittlesey pushed ahead beyond the +objectives which had been set for him. Nevertheless, he was so far away +from help as to make his chances of rescue small. German machine-guns +were behind him. His men were raked by fire from all sides. Yet their +position was a strong one and they hung on. Soon their rations were +gone. For more than twenty-four hours even their position was unknown to +the American Army. Eventually they were located by aeroplanes and an +attempt was made to supply them with food and ammunition. Even yet +rescue seemed a long chance. The Germans thought the battalion was at +their mercy and sent a messenger asking Whittlesey to surrender. He +refused, and the "Go to Hell" which has been put into his mouth as a +fitting expression for the occasion will probably go down in American +history in spite of the fact that Whittlesey has done his best to +convince people that he never said it. Several attacks were made in an +effort to rescue the Americans but without success until a force under +Lieutenant-Colonel Gene Houghton broke through and brought the exhausted +men back to safety. + +The last strongly fortified line of the Germans was the Kriemhilde, and +the second phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive had not been in progress +long before our men were astride the line at many points. But there was +still much desperate fighting to do before the Germans were completely +driven from their scientifically perfect positions. The honor of +actually breaching the line fell to the Fifth Corps, which entered the +line on October 14 and drove the Germans out after some fearful close +fighting. In the meantime the continual pressure of the American forces +was beginning to tell. Châtel-Chehery fell to the First Corps on October +7. On the 9th the Fifth Corps took Fleville, and the Third Corps, after +some desperate fighting, worked its way through Brieulles and Cunel. By +October 10 the Argonne Forest was practically clear of the enemy. + +One of the important factors in the Argonne campaign was aviation. +Aerial activity was great on both sides, since in no other campaign was +observation so difficult or so important. Both sides did a great deal of +day bombing, and during one such American foray the greatest battle of +the air took place. The American expedition consisted of thirty-four +machines. It was attacked by thirty-six Fokkers. Although the German +machines are faster, the American squadron managed to hold its +formation. Seven Fokker machines were brought down in the battle and +five American. + +All in all, the Meuse-Argonne campaign was one of the most remarkable in +the history of the war. Its second phase in particular is sure to be a +bone of contention for military experts. General Pershing himself +declared very frankly in his report to Secretary Baker that he had +purposely abandoned traditional military tactics in the campaign. "The +enemy," he wrote, "had taken every advantage of the terrain, which +especially favored the defense, by a prodigal use of machine-guns manned +by highly trained veterans, and by using his artillery at short ranges. +In the face of such strong frontal positions we should have been unable +to accomplish any progress according to previously accepted standards, +but I had every confidence in our aggressive tactics and the courage of +our troops." + +Such strategists as oppose the theory of the Meuse-Argonne campaign will +undoubtedly assert that American losses were high. In rebuttal defenders +of the plan of the campaign will say that the losses were very light +considering the nature of the fighting, and that the campaign shortened +the duration of the war appreciably by putting the Germans into a +position where they were compelled either to surrender or be +overwhelmed. But whatever decision may be reached by the experts, there +is no necessity of calling for testimony as to the part the American +soldier played in this campaign. It seems fair to say that he has never +shown more dogged courage or resourcefulness than in the fighting in the +forest. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +CEASE FIRING + + +Before taking up the final phases of the Meuse-Argonne campaign, and the +final phases of the war, it is fitting to follow the fortunes of some +divisions which saw action in other parts of the front. The Second +Corps, for example, remained with the British and saw desperately hard +service and won corresponding fame. This corps was composed of the +Twenty-seventh and Thirtieth Divisions, and in conjunction with the +Australian Corps it participated in the attack which broke the +Hindenburg line near St. Quentin. The Twenty-seventh Division had the +honor of being the first unit actually to breach the famous defensive +system of the Germans. + +The attack began on September 29 and continued through October 1. Both +divisions were compelled to advance over difficult terrain against +strongly fortified positions. They were raked from both sides by +machine-gun fire as they cut their way through innumerable lines of +barbed wire. But in spite of the determined resistance of the Germans, +they broke the line. The divisions also saw hard service from October 6 +to October 19. In these operations the Second Corps was credited with +the capture of more than 6,000 prisoners, and advanced into enemy +territory for a distance of thirteen miles. Marshal Haig expressed his +admiration of the conduct and achievements of both the American +divisions which served with his forces. + +American divisions also played an important rôle in conjunction with the +French when they assisted in an attack against the Germans just outside +of Rheims. This operation continued from October 2 to October 9 and was +marked by severe and bitter fighting. The American forces engaged were +the Second and Thirty-sixth Divisions. Perhaps the most noteworthy +achievement in the campaign was the capture of Blanc Mont by the Second +Division. Blanc Mont is a wooded hill, and was very strongly held by the +Germans. The Americans were repulsed in their first assault, but came +back and tried again. This time they swept the German defenders before +them. The assault by no means completed their labors, for after the +capture of the hill the division was called upon to repulse strong +counter-attacks in front of the village of St. Etienne. Not content with +driving the Germans back, the Second went on and took the town. The +Germans were forced to abandon positions they had held ever since the +autumn of 1914. + +By this time the Second Division had earned a rest, and it was relieved +by the Thirty-sixth. The relieving troops were inexperienced. They had +never been under fire, and the Germans subjected them to a severe +artillery strafing, but did not shake their confidence. The division +performed useful work in pursuing the Germans in their retirement behind +the Aisne. + +Other divisions saw service with the French in Belgium. After the ending +of the second phase of the Meuse-Argonne campaign, the Thirty-seventh +and Ninety-first Divisions were withdrawn and sent to join the French +near Ypres. They took part in a heavy attack on October 31. The +Thirty-seventh inflicted a severe defeat upon opposing troops at the +Escaut River on November 3, and the Ninety-first won much praise from +the French for a flanking movement which resulted in the capture of the +Spitaals Bosschen Wood. + +Although the German Army had begun to disintegrate by November 1, the +Americans saw some hard fighting after that date. The task set for +Pershing's men was in theory almost as difficult as clearing the Argonne +Forest. The offensive was aimed at the Longuyon-Sedan-Mézierès railway, +which was one of the most important lines of communication of the German +Army. Germany was aware of the gravity of this threat and used her very +best troops in an effort to stop the Americans. For a time the Germans +fought steadily, but their morale was waning at the end. The Americans +found on several occasions that their second-day gains were greater than +those of the first day, which was formerly an unheard of thing on the +western front. + +In the final days of the war the Americans had to go their fastest in an +effort to reach Sedan before the armistice went into effect. During one +phase of the battle doughboys mounted on auto-trucks went forward in a +vain effort to establish contact with the enemy. The roads were so bad, +however, that the Americans were unable to catch up with the fleeing +Germans. + +The third phase of the Meuse-Argonne campaign found the Americans +absolutely confident of success. They knew their superiority over the +Germans, and the American Army was constantly growing stronger while the +Germans grew weaker. Pershing was able to send well-rested divisions +into the battle. The final advance began on November 1. American +artillery was stronger than ever in numbers and much more experienced. +Never before had our army seen such a barrage, and the German infantry +broke before the advance of the doughboys. The German heart to fight had +begun to develop murmurs, although there were some units among the enemy +forces which fought with great gallantry until the very end. +Aincreville, Doulcon, and Andevanne fell in the first day of the attack. +Landres et St. Georges was next to go, as the Fifth Corps, in an +impetuous attack, swept up to Bayonville. On November 2, which was the +second day of the attack, the First Corps was called in to give added +pressure. By this time the German resistance was pretty well broken. It +was now that the motor-truck offensive began. Behind the trucks the +field-guns rattled along as the artillerymen spurred on their horses in +a vain effort to catch up with something at which they could shoot. At +the end of the third day of the attack the American Army had penetrated +the German line to a depth of twelve miles. A slight pause was then +necessary in order that the big guns might come up, but on November 5 +the Third Corps crossed the Meuse. They met a sporadic resistance from +German machine-gunners but swept them up with small losses. By the 7th +of November the chief objective of the offensive thrust was obtained. On +that day American troops, among them the Rainbow Division, reached +Sedan. Pershing's army had cut the enemy's line of communication. +Nothing but surrender or complete defeat was left to him. + +In estimating the extent of the American victory it is interesting to +note that General Pershing reported that forty enemy divisions +participated in the Meuse-Argonne battle. Our army took 26,059 prisoners +and captured 468 guns. Colonel Frederick Palmer estimates that 650,000 +American soldiers were engaged in the battle. This is a greater number +than were engaged at St. Mihiel, and it was, of course, a new mark in +the records of the American Army. Colonel Palmer has stated his opinion +that Meuse-Argonne was one of the four decisive battles of the war. The +other three which he names are the first battle of the Marne, the first +battle of Ypres, and Verdun. + +Curiously enough, Château-Thierry looms larger in the mind of the +average American than Meuse-Argonne, although the number of Americans +engaged in the former battle was not half as great as those who battered +their way through the forest. Of course the importance of a battle is +not to be judged solely by the number of men engaged, but there seems to +be no good reason for assigning a strategic importance to +Château-Thierry which is denied to Meuse-Argonne. Most of the military +critics are of the opinion that the wide-spread belief that the +Americans saved Paris at the battle of Château-Thierry is not literally +true. The American victory was a factor, to be sure. It was even an +important factor. Perhaps, from the point of view of morale, it was +vital, but judged by strict military standards there is no support for +the frequent assertion that only a few marines stood between Paris and +the triumphant entry of the German Army. Meuse-Argonne, on the other +hand, was not only a campaign solely under American control but a +large-scale battle which probably shortened the war by many months. This +victory was America's chief contribution in the field to the cause of +the Allies. It is on Meuse-Argonne that our military prestige will rest. +The divisions engaged were the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, +Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, Thirty-second, Thirty-third, +Thirty-fifth, Thirty-seventh, Forty-second, Seventy-seventh, +Seventy-eighth, Seventy-ninth, Eightieth, Eighty-second, Eighty-ninth, +Ninetieth, and Ninety-first. The First, Fifth, Twenty-sixth, +Forty-second, Seventy-seventh, Eightieth, Eighty-ninth, and Ninetieth +were particularly honored by being put in the line twice during the +campaign. + +Though the armistice was now close at hand the war had not ended. The +policy of allied leadership was to fight until the last minute lest +there should be some hitch. The American plans called for an advance +toward Longwy by the First Army in co-operation with the Second Army, +which was to threaten the Briey iron-fields. If the war had kept up, +this would have been followed by an offensive in the direction of +Château-Salins, with the ultimate object of cutting off Metz. The attack +of the Second Army was actually in progress when the time came set in +the armistice for the cessation of hostilities. At eleven o'clock the +hostilities ceased suddenly, although just before that the Second Army +was advancing against heavy and determined machine-gun fire, with both +sides apparently unwilling to believe that the war was almost over. At +other points in the line where no offensive was set for the last day, +the artillerymen had the final word to say. Most of the American guns +fired at the foe just before eleven o'clock, and in many batteries the +gunners joined hands to pull the lanyards so that all might have a share +in the final defiance to Germany. + +When the war ended, the American position ran from Port-sur-Seille +across the Moselle to Vandieres, through the WÅ“vre to Bezonvaux, +thence to the Meuse at Mouzay, and ending at Sedan. There were abroad or +in transit 2,053,347 American soldiers, less the losses, and of these +there were 1,338,169 combatant troops in France. The American Army +captured about 44,000 prisoners and 1,400 guns. The figures on our +losses are not yet entirely checked up at the time of this writing, but +they were approximately 300,000 in killed, died of disease, wounded, and +missing. + +When he wrote his report to Secretary Baker, General Pershing reserved +his final paragraph for a tribute to his men, and in it he said: + +"Finally, I pay the supreme tribute to our officers and soldiers of the +line. When I think of their heroism, their patience under hardships, +their unflinching spirit of offensive action, I am filled with emotion +which I am unable to express. Their deeds are immortal, and they have +earned the eternal gratitude of our country." + + + + +GENERAL PERSHING'S REPORT + +BATTLES FOUGHT BY AMERICAN ARMIES IN FRANCE FROM THEIR ORGANIZATION TO +THE FALL OF SEDAN + +[CABLED BY GENERAL PERSHING TO MR. BAKER, SECRETARY OF WAR, AND MADE +PUBLIC WITH HIS ANNUAL REPORT, DEC. 5, 1918] + + +November 20, 1918. + +_My dear Mr. Secretary:_ In response to your request, I have the honor +to submit this brief summary of the organization and operation of the +American Expeditionary Force from May 26, 1917, until the signing of the +armistice Nov. 11, 1918. Pursuant to your instructions, immediately upon +receiving my orders I selected a small staff and proceeded to Europe in +order to become familiar with conditions at the earliest possible +moment. + +The warmth of our reception in England and France was only equalled by +the readiness of the Commanders in Chief of the veteran armies of the +Allies, and their staffs, to place their experience at our disposal. In +consultation with them the most effective means of co-operation of +effort was considered. With the French and British Armies at their +maximum strength, and when all efforts to dispossess the enemy from his +firmly intrenched positions in Belgium and France had failed, it was +necessary to plan for an American force adequate to turn the scale in +favor of the Allies. Taking account of the strength of the Central +Powers at that time, the immensity of the problem which confronted us +could hardly be overestimated. The first requisite being an organization +that could give intelligent direction to effort, the formation of a +General Staff occupied my early attention. + +A well-organized General Staff, through which the Commander exercises +his functions, is essential to a successful modern army. However capable +our division, our battalion, and our companies as such, success would be +impossible without thoroughly co-ordinated endeavor. A General Staff +broadly organized and trained for war had not hitherto existed in our +army. Under the Commander in Chief, this staff must carry out the policy +and direct the details of administration, supply, preparation, and +operations of the army as a whole, with all special branches and bureaus +subject to its control. As models to aid us we had the veteran French +General Staff and the experience of the British, who had similarly +formed an organization to meet the demands of a great army. By selecting +from each the features best adapted to our basic organization, and +fortified by our own early experience in the war, the development of our +great General Staff system was completed. + +The General Staff is naturally divided into five groups, each with its +chief, who is an assistant to the Chief of the General Staff. G. 1 is in +charge of organization and equipment of troops, replacements, tonnage, +priority of overseas shipment, the auxiliary welfare association, and +cognate subjects; G. 2 has censorship, enemy intelligence, gathering and +disseminating information, preparation of maps, and all similar +subjects; G. 3 is charged with all strategic studies and plans, movement +of troops, and the supervision of combat operations; G. 4 co-ordinates +important questions of supply, construction, transport arrangements for +combat, and of the operations of the service of supply, and of +hospitalization and the evacuation of the sick and wounded; G. 5 +supervises the various schools and has general direction and +co-ordination of education and training. + +The first Chief of Staff was Colonel (now Major Gen.) James G. Harbord, +who was succeeded in March, 1918, by Major Gen. James W. McAndrew. To +these officers, to the Deputy Chief of Staff, and to the Assistant +Chiefs of Staff, who, as heads of sections, aided them, great credit is +due for the results obtained, not only in perfecting the General Staff +organization, but in applying correct principles to the multiplicity of +problems that have arisen. + + +ORGANIZATION AND TRAINING + +After a thorough consideration of allied organizations, it was decided +that our combat division should consist of four regiments of infantry of +3,000 men, with three battalions to a regiment and four companies of 250 +men each to a battalion, and of an artillery brigade of three regiments, +a machine-gun battalion, an engineer regiment, a trench-mortar battery, +a signal battalion, wagon trains, and the headquarters staffs and +military police. These, with medical and other units, made a total of +over 28,000 men, or practically double the size of a French or German +division. Each corps would normally consist of six divisions--four +combat and one depot and one replacement division--and also two +regiments of cavalry, and each army of from three to five corps. With +four divisions fully trained, a corps could take over an American sector +with two divisions in line and two in reserve, with the depot and +replacement divisions prepared to fill the gaps in the ranks. + +Our purpose was to prepare an integral American force which should be +able to take the offensive in every respect. Accordingly, the +development of a self-reliant infantry by thorough drill in the use of +the rifle and in the tactics of open warfare was always uppermost. The +plan of training after arrival in France allowed a division one month +for acclimatization and instruction in small units from battalions down, +a second month in quiet trench sectors by battalion, and a third month +after it came out of the trenches when it should be trained as a +complete division in war of movement. + +Very early a system of schools was outlined and started which should +have the advantage of instruction by officers direct from the front. At +the great school centre at Langres, one of the first to be organized, +was the staff school, where the principles of general staff work, as +laid down in our own organization, were taught to carefully selected +officers. Men in the ranks who had shown qualities of leadership were +sent to the school of candidates for commissions. A school of the line +taught younger officers the principles of leadership, tactics, and the +use of the different weapons. In the artillery school, at Saumur, young +officers were taught the fundamental principles of modern artillery; +while at Issoudun an immense plant was built for training cadets in +aviation. These and other schools, with their well-considered +curriculums for training in every branch of our organization, were +co-ordinated in a manner best to develop an efficient army out of +willing and industrious young men, many of whom had not before known +even the rudiments of military technique. Both Marshal Haig and General +Pétain placed officers and men at our disposal for instructional +purposes, and we are deeply indebted for the opportunities given to +profit by their veteran experience. + + +AMERICAN ZONE + +The eventual place the American Army should take on the western front +was to a large extent influenced by the vital questions of communication +and supply. The northern ports of France were crowded by the British +Armies' shipping and supplies, while the southern ports, though +otherwise at our service, had not adequate port facilities for our +purposes, and these we should have to build. The already overtaxed +railway system behind the active front in Northern France would not be +available for us as lines of supply, and those leading from the southern +ports of Northeastern France would be unequal to our needs without much +new construction. Practically all warehouses, supply depots, and +regulating stations must be provided by fresh constructions. While +France offered us such material as she had to spare after a drain of +three years, enormous quantities of material had to be brought across +the Atlantic. + +With such a problem any temporization or lack of definiteness in making +plans might cause failure even with victory within our grasp. Moreover, +broad plans commensurate with our national purpose and resources would +bring conviction of our power to every soldier in the front line, to the +nations associated with us in the war, and to the enemy. The tonnage for +material for necessary construction for the supply of an army of three +and perhaps four million men would require a mammoth programme of +shipbuilding at home, and miles of dock construction in France, with a +corresponding large project for additional railways and for storage +depots. + +All these considerations led to the inevitable conclusion that if we +were to handle and supply the great forces deemed essential to win the +war we must utilize the southern ports of France--Bordeaux, La Pallice, +St. Nazaire, and Brest--and the comparatively unused railway systems +leading therefrom to the northeast. Generally speaking, then, this would +contemplate the use of our forces against the enemy somewhere in that +direction, but the great depots of supply must be centrally located, +preferably in the area included by Tours, Bourges, and Châteauroux, so +that our armies could be supplied with equal facility wherever they +might be serving on the western front. + + +GROWTH OF SUPPLY SERVICE + +To build up such a system there were talented men in the Regular Army, +but more experts were necessary than the army could furnish. Thanks to +the patriotic spirit of our people at home, there came from civil life +men trained for every sort of work involved in building and managing the +organization necessary to handle and transport such an army and keep it +supplied. With such assistance the construction and general development +of our plans have kept pace with the growth of the forces, and the +Service of Supply is now able to discharge from ships and move 45,000 +tons daily, besides transporting troops and material in the conduct of +active operations. + +As to organization, all the administrative and supply services, except +the Adjutant General's, Inspector General's, and Judge Advocate +General's Departments, which remain at general headquarters, have been +transferred to the headquarters of the services of supplies at Tours +under a commanding General responsible to the Commander-in-Chief for +supply of the armies. The Chief Quartermaster, Chief Surgeon, Chief +Signal Officer, Chief of Ordnance, Chief of Air Service, Chief of +Chemical Warfare, the general purchasing agent in all that pertains to +questions of procurement and supply, the Provost Marshal General in the +maintenance of order in general, the Director General of Transportation +in all that affects such matters, and the Chief Engineer in all matters +of administration and supply, are subordinate to the Commanding General +of the Service of Supply, who, assisted by a staff especially organized +for the purpose, is charged with the administrative co-ordination of all +these services. + +The transportation department under the Service of Supply directs the +operation, maintenance, and construction of railways, the operation of +terminals, the unloading of ships, and transportation of material to +warehouses or to the front. Its functions make necessary the most +intimate relationship between our organization and that of the French, +with the practical result that our transportation department has been +able to improve materially the operations of railways generally. +Constantly laboring under a shortage of rolling stock, the +transportation department has nevertheless been able by efficient +management to meet every emergency. + +The Engineer Corps is charged with all construction, including light +railways and roads. It has planned and constructed the many projects +required, the most important of which are the new wharves at Bordeaux +and Nantes, and the immense storage depots at La Pallice, Mointoir, and +Glèvres, besides innumerable hospitals and barracks in various ports of +France. These projects have all been carried on by phases keeping pace +with our needs. The Forestry Service under the Engineer Corps has cut +the greater part of the timber and railway ties required. + +To meet the shortage of supplies from America, due to lack of shipping, +the representatives of the different supply departments were constantly +in search of available material and supplies in Europe. In order to +co-ordinate these purchases and to prevent competition between our +departments, a general purchasing agency was created early in our +experience to co-ordinate our purchases and, if possible, induce our +allies to apply the principle among the allied armies. While there was +no authority for the general use of appropriations, this was met by +grouping the purchasing representatives of the different departments +under one control, charged with the duty of consolidating requisitions +and purchases. Our efforts to extend the principle have been signally +successful, and all purchases for the allied armies are now on an +equitable and co-operative basis. Indeed, it may be said that the work +of this bureau has been thoroughly efficient and businesslike. + + +ARTILLERY, AIRPLANES, TANKS + +Our entry into the war found us with few of the auxiliaries necessary +for its conduct in the modern sense. Among our most important +deficiencies in material were artillery, aviation, and tanks. In order +to meet our requirements as rapidly as possible, we accepted the offer +of the French Government to provide us with the necessary artillery +equipment of seventy-fives, one fifty-five millimeter howitzers, and one +fifty-five G. P. F. guns from their own factories for thirty divisions. +The wisdom of this course is fully demonstrated by the fact that, +although we soon began the manufacture of these classes of guns at home, +there were no guns of the calibres mentioned manufactured in America on +our front at the date the armistice was signed. The only guns of these +types produced at home thus far received in France are 109 seventy-five +millimeter guns. + +In aviation we were in the same situation, and here again the French +Government came to our aid until our own aviation programme should be +under way. We obtained from the French the necessary planes for training +our personnel, and they have provided us with a total of 2,676 pursuit, +observation, and bombing planes. The first airplanes received from home +arrived in May, and altogether we have received 1,379. The first +American squadron completely equipped by American production, including +airplanes, crossed the German lines on Aug. 7, 1918. As to tanks, we +were also compelled to rely upon the French. Here, however, we were less +fortunate, for the reason that the French production could barely meet +the requirements of their own armies. + +It should be fully realized that the French Government has always taken +a most liberal attitude, and has been most anxious to give us every +possible assistance in meeting our deficiencies in these as well as in +other respects. Our dependence upon France for artillery, aviation, and +tanks was, of course, due to the fact that our industries had not been +exclusively devoted to military production. All credit is due our own +manufacturers for their efforts to meet our requirements, as at the time +the armistice was signed we were able to look forward to the early +supply of practically all our necessities from our own factories. + +The welfare of the troops touches my responsibility as Commander in +Chief to the mothers and fathers and kindred of the men who came to +France in the impressionable period of youth. They could not have the +privilege accorded European soldiers during their periods of leave of +visiting their families and renewing their home ties. Fully realizing +that the standard of conduct that should be established for them must +have a permanent influence in their lives and on the character of their +future citizenship, the Red Cross, the Young Men's Christian +Association, Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army, and the Jewish +Welfare Board, as auxiliaries in this work, were encouraged in every +possible way. The fact that our soldiers, in a land of different customs +and language, have borne themselves in a manner in keeping with the +cause for which they fought, is due not only to the efforts in their +behalf, but much more to their high ideals, their discipline, and their +innate sense of self-respect. It should be recorded, however, that the +members of these welfare societies have been untiring in their desire to +be of real service to our officers and men. The patriotic devotion of +these representative men and women has given a new significance to the +Golden Rule, and we owe to them a debt of gratitude that can never be +repaid. + + +COMBAT OPERATIONS + +During our period of training in the trenches some of our divisions had +engaged the enemy in local combats, the most important of which was +Seicheprey by the 26th on April 20, in the Toul sector, but none had +participated in action as a unit. The 1st Division, which had passed +through the preliminary stages of training, had gone to the trenches for +its first period of instruction at the end of October, and by March 21, +when the German offensive in Picardy began, we had four divisions with +experience in the trenches, all of which were equal to any demands of +battle action. The crisis which this offensive developed was such that +our occupation of an American sector must be postponed. + +On March 28 I placed at the disposal of Marshal Foch, who had been +agreed upon as Commander in Chief of the Allied Armies, all of our +forces, to be used as he might decide. At his request the 1st Division +was transferred from the Toul sector to a position in reserve at +Chaumont en Vexin. As German superiority in numbers required prompt +action, an agreement was reached at the Abbeville conference of the +allied Premiers and commanders and myself on May 2 by which British +shipping was to transport ten American divisions to the British Army +area, where they were to be trained and equipped, and additional British +shipping was to be provided for as many divisions as possible for use +elsewhere. + +On April 26 the 1st Division had gone into the line in the Montdidier +salient on the Picardy battle-front. Tactics had been suddenly +revolutionized to those of open warfare, and our men, confident of the +results of their training, were eager for the test. On the morning of +May 28 this division attacked the commanding German position in its +front, taking with splendid dash the town of Cantigny and all other +objectives, which were organized and held steadfastly against vicious +counter-attacks and galling artillery fire. Although local, this +brilliant action had an electrical effect, as it demonstrated our +fighting qualities under extreme battle conditions, and also that the +enemy's troops were not altogether invincible. + + +HOLDING THE MARNE + +The Germans' Aisne offensive, which began on May 27, had advanced +rapidly toward the River Marne and Paris, and the Allies faced a crisis +equally as grave as that of the Picardy offensive in March. Again every +available man was placed at Marshal Foch's disposal, and the 3d +Division, which had just come from its preliminary training in the +trenches, was hurried to the Marne. Its motorized machine-gun battalion +preceded the other units and successfully held the bridgehead at the +Marne, opposite Château-Thierry. The 2d Division, in reserve near +Montdidier, was sent by motor trucks and other available transport to +check the progress of the enemy toward Paris. The division attacked and +retook the town and railroad station at Bouresches and sturdily held its +ground against the enemy's best guard divisions. In the battle of +Belleau Wood, which followed, our men proved their superiority and +gained a strong tactical position, with far greater loss to the enemy +than to ourselves. On July 1, before the 2d was relieved, it captured +the village of Vaux with most splendid precision. + +Meanwhile our 2d Corps, under Major Gen. George W. Read, had been +organized for the command of our divisions with the British, which were +held back in training areas or assigned to second-line defenses. Five of +the ten divisions were withdrawn from the British area in June, three to +relieve divisions in Lorraine, and in the Vosges and two to the Paris +area to join the group of American divisions which stood between the +city and any further advance of the enemy in that direction. + +The great June-July troop movement from the States was well under way, +and, although these troops were to be given some preliminary training +before being put into action, their very presence warranted the use of +all the older divisions in the confidence that we did not lack reserves. +Elements of the 42d Division were in the line east of Rheims against the +German offensive of July 15, and held their ground unflinchingly. On the +right flank of this offensive four companies of the 28th Division were +in position in face of the advancing waves of the German infantry. The +3d Division was holding the bank of the Marne from the bend east of the +mouth of the Surmelin to the west of Mézy, opposite Château-Thierry, +where a large force of German infantry sought to force a passage under +support of powerful artillery concentrations and under cover of smoke +screens. A single regiment of the 3d wrote one of the most brilliant +pages in our military annals on this occasion. It prevented the crossing +at certain points on its front while, on either flank, the Germans, who +had gained a footing, pressed forward. Our men, firing in three +directions, met the German attacks with counter-attacks at critical +points and succeeded in throwing two German divisions into complete +confusion, capturing 600 prisoners. + + +OFFENSIVE OF JULY 18 + +The great force of the German Château-Thierry offensive established the +deep Marne salient, but the enemy was taking chances, and the +vulnerability of this pocket to attack might be turned to his +disadvantage. Seizing this opportunity to support my conviction, every +division with any sort of training was made available for use in a +counter-offensive. The place of honor in the thrust toward Soissons on +July 18 was given to our 1st and 2d Divisions in company with chosen +French divisions. Without the usual brief warning of a preliminary +bombardment, the massed French and American artillery, firing by the +map, laid down its rolling barrage at dawn while the infantry began its +charge. The tactical handling of our troops under these trying +conditions was excellent throughout the action. The enemy brought up +large numbers of reserves and made a stubborn defense both with machine +guns and artillery, but through five days' fighting the 1st Division +continued to advance until it had gained the heights above Soissons and +captured the village of Berzy-le-Sec. The 2d Division took Beau Repaire +Farm and Vierzy in a very rapid advance and reached a position in front +of Tigny at the end of its second day. These two divisions captured +7,000 prisoners and over 100 pieces of artillery. + +The 26th Division, which, with a French division, was under command of +our 1st Corps, acted as a pivot of the movement toward Soissons. On the +18th it took the village of Torcy, while the 3d Division was crossing +the Marne in pursuit of the retiring enemy. The 26th attacked again on +the 21st, and the enemy withdrew past the Château-Thierry-Soissons road. +The 3d Division, continuing its progress, took the heights of Mont St. +Père and the villages of Chartèves and Jaulgonne in the face of both +machine-gun and artillery fire. + +On the 24th, after the Germans had fallen back from Trugny and Epieds, +our 42d Division, which had been brought over from the Champagne, +relieved the 26th, and, fighting its way through the Forêt de Fère, +overwhelmed the nest of machine guns in its path. By the 27th it had +reached the Ourcq, whence the 3d and 4th Divisions were already +advancing, while the French divisions with which we were co-operating +were moving forward at other points. + +The 3d Division had made its advance into Ronchères Wood on the 29th and +was relieved for rest by a brigade of the 32d. The 42d and 32d undertook +the task of conquering the heights beyond Cierges, the 42d capturing +Sergy and the 32d capturing Hill 230, both American divisions joining in +the pursuit of the enemy to the Vesle, and thus the operation of +reducing the salient was finished. Meanwhile the 42d was relieved by the +4th at Chéry-Chartreuve, and the 32d by the 28th, while the 77th +Division took up a position on the Vesle. The operations of these +divisions on the Vesle were under the 3d Corps, Major Gen. Robert L. +Bullard commanding. + + +BATTLE OF ST. MIHIEL + +With the reduction of the Marne salient, we could look forward to the +concentration of our divisions in our own zone. In view of the +forthcoming operation against the St. Mihiel salient, which had long +been planned as our first offensive action on a large scale, the First +Army was organized on Aug. 10 under my personal command. While American +units had held different divisional and corps sectors along the western +front, there had not been up to this time, for obvious reasons, a +distinct American sector; but, in view of the important parts the +American forces were now to play, it was necessary to take over a +permanent portion of the line. Accordingly, on Aug. 30, the line +beginning at Port sur Seille, east of the Moselle and extending to the +west through St. Mihiel, thence north to a point opposite Verdun, was +placed under my command. The American sector was afterward extended +across the Meuse to the western edge of the Argonne Forest, and +included the 2d Colonial French, which held the point of the salient, +and the 17th French Corps, which occupied the heights above Verdun. + +The preparation for a complicated operation against the formidable +defenses in front of us included the assembling of divisions and of +corps and army artillery, transport, aircraft, tanks, ambulances, the +location of hospitals, and the molding together of all the elements of a +great modern army with its own railheads, supplied directly by our own +Service of Supply. The concentration for this operation, which was to be +a surprise, involved the movement, mostly at night, of approximately +600,000 troops, and required for its success the most careful attention +to every detail. + +The French were generous in giving us assistance in corps and army +artillery, with its personnel, and we were confident from the start of +our superiority over the enemy in guns of all calibres. Our heavy guns +were able to reach Metz and to interfere seriously with German rail +movements. The French Independent Air Force was placed under my command, +which, together with the British bombing squadrons and our air forces, +gave us the largest assembly of aviators that had ever been engaged in +one operation on the western front. + +From Les Eparges around the nose of the salient at St. Mihiel to the +Moselle River the line was, roughly, forty miles long and situated on +commanding ground greatly strengthened by artificial defenses. Our 1st +Corps (82d, 90th, 5th, and 2d Divisions), under command of Major Gen. +Hunter Liggett, resting its right on Pont-à -Mousson, with its left +joining our 3d Corps (the 89th, 42d, and 1st Divisions), under Major +Gen. Joseph T. Dickman, in line to Xivray, was to swing toward +Vigneulles on the pivot of the Moselle River for the initial assault. +From Xivray to Mouilly the 2d Colonial French Corps was in line in the +centre, and our 5th Corps, under command of Major Gen. George H. +Cameron, with our 26th Division and a French division at the western +base of the salient, was to attack three difficult hills--Les Eparges, +Combres, and Amaranthe. Our 1st Corps had in reserve the 78th Division, +our 4th Corps the 3d Division, and our First Army the 35th and 91st +Divisions, with the 80th and 33d available. It should be understood that +our corps organizations are very elastic, and that we have at no time +had permanent assignments of divisions to corps. + +After four hours' artillery preparation, the seven American divisions in +the front line advanced at 5 A. M. on Sept. 12, assisted by a limited +number of tanks, manned partly by Americans and partly by French. These +divisions, accompanied by groups of wire cutters and others armed with +bangalore torpedoes, went through the successive bands of barbed wire +that protected the enemy's front-line and support trenches in +irresistible waves on schedule time, breaking down all defense of an +enemy demoralized by the great volume of our artillery fire and our +sudden approach out of the fog. + +Our 1st Corps advanced to Thiaucourt, while our 4th Corps curved back to +the southwest through Nonsard. The 2d Colonial French Corps made the +slight advance required of it on very difficult ground, and the 5th +Corps took its three ridges and repulsed a counterattack. A rapid march +brought reserve regiments of a division of the 5th Corps into Vigneulles +and beyond Fresnes-en-Woevre. At the cost of only 7,000 casualties, +mostly light, we had taken 16,000 prisoners and 443 guns, a great +quantity of material, released the inhabitants of many villages from +enemy domination, and established our lines in a position to threaten +Metz. This signal success of the American First Army in its first +offensive was of prime importance. The Allies found they had a +formidable army to aid them, and the enemy learned finally that he had +one to reckon with. + + +MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE, FIRST PHASE + +On the day after we had taken the St. Mihiel salient much of our corps +and army artillery which had operated at St. Mihiel, and our divisions +in reserve at other points, were already on the move toward the area +back of the line between the Meuse River and the western edge of the +Forest of Argonne. With the exception of St. Mihiel the old German front +line from Switzerland to the east of Rheims was still intact. In the +general attack all along the line the operations assigned the American +Army as the hinge of this allied offensive were directed toward the +important railroad communications of the German armies through Mézières +and Sedan. The enemy must hold fast to this part of his lines, or the +withdrawal of his forces, with four years' accumulation of plants and +material, would be dangerously imperiled. + +The German Army had as yet shown no demoralization, and, while the mass +of its troops had suffered in morale, its first-class divisions, and +notably its machine-gun defense, were exhibiting remarkable tactical +efficiency as well as courage. The German General Staff was fully aware +of the consequences of a success on the Meuse-Argonne line. Certain that +he would do everything in his power to oppose us, the action was planned +with as much secrecy as possible and was undertaken with the +determination to use all our divisions in forcing decision. We expected +to draw the best German divisions to our front and to consume them while +the enemy was held under grave apprehension lest our attack should break +his line, which it was our firm purpose to do. + +Our right flank was protected by the Meuse, while our left embraced the +Argonne Forest, whose ravines, hills, and elaborate defense, screened by +dense thickets, had been generally considered impregnable. Our order of +battle from right to left was the 3d Corps from the Meuse to Malancourt, +with the 33d, 80th, and 4th Divisions in line and the 3d Division as +corps reserve; the 5th Corps from Malancourt to Vauquois, with the 79th, +87th, and 91st Divisions in line and the 32d in corps reserve, and the +1st Corps from Vauquois to Vienne le Château, with the 35th, 28th, and +77th Divisions in line and the 92d in corps reserve. The army reserve +consisted of the 1st, 29th, and 82d Divisions. + +On the night of Sept. 25 our troops quietly took the place of the +French, who thinly held the line in this sector, which had long been +inactive. In the attack which began on the 26th we drove through the +barbed-wire entanglements and the sea of shell craters across No Man's +Land, mastering all the first-line defenses. Continuing on the 27th and +28th, against machine guns and artillery of an increasing number of +enemy reserve divisions, we penetrated to a depth of from three to seven +miles and took the village of Montfaucon and its commanding hill and +Exermont, Gercourt, Cuisy, Septsarges, Malancourt, Ivoiry, Epinonville, +Charpentry, Very, and other villages. East of the Meuse one of our +divisions, which was with the 2d Colonial French Corps, captured +Marcheville and Rieville, giving further protection to the flank of our +main body. We had taken 10,000 prisoners, we had gained our point of +forcing the battle into the open, and were prepared for the enemy's +reaction, which was bound to come, as he had good roads and ample +railroad facilities for bringing up his artillery and reserves. + +In the chill rain of dark nights our engineers had to build new roads +across spongy, shell-torn areas, repair broken roads beyond No Man's +Land, and build bridges. Our gunners, with no thought of sleep, put +their shoulders to wheels and drag ropes to bring their guns through the +mire in support of the infantry, now under the increasing fire of the +enemy's artillery. Our attack had taken the enemy by surprise, but, +quickly recovering himself, he began to fire counter-attacks in strong +force, supported by heavy bombardments, with large quantities of gas. +From Sept. 28 until Oct. 4 we maintained the offensive against patches +of woods defended by snipers and continuous lines of machine guns, and +pushed forward our guns and transport, seizing strategical points in +preparation for further attacks. + + +OTHER UNITS WITH ALLIES + +Other divisions attached to the allied armies were doing their part. It +was the fortune of our 2d Corps, composed of the 27th and 30th +Divisions, which had remained with the British, to have a place of honor +in co-operation with the Australian Corps on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 in the +assault on the Hindenburg line where the St. Quentin Canal passes +through a tunnel under a ridge. The 30th Division speedily broke through +the main line of defense for all its objectives, while the 27th pushed +on impetuously through the main line until some of its elements reached +Gouy. In the midst of the maze of trenches and shell craters and under +crossfire from machine guns the other elements fought desperately +against odds. In this and in later actions, from Oct. 6 to Oct. 19, our +2d Corps captured over 6,000 prisoners and advanced over thirteen miles. +The spirit and aggressiveness of these divisions have been highly +praised by the British Army commander under whom they served. + +On Oct. 2-9 our 2d and 36th Divisions were sent to assist the French in +an important attack against the old German positions before Rheims. The +2d conquered the complicated defense works on their front against a +persistent defense worthy of the grimmest period of trench warfare and +attacked the strongly held wooded hill of Blanc Mont, which they +captured in a second assault, sweeping over it with consummate dash and +skill. This division then repulsed strong counter-attacks before the +village and cemetery of Ste. Etienne and took the town, forcing the +Germans to fall back from before Rheims and yield positions they had +held since September, 1914. On Oct. 9 the 36th Division relieved the 2d, +and in its first experience under fire withstood very severe artillery +bombardment and rapidly took up the pursuit of the enemy, now retiring +behind the Aisne. + + +MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE, SECOND PHASE + +The allied progress elsewhere cheered the efforts of our men in this +crucial contest, as the German command threw in more and more +first-class troops to stop our advance. We made steady headway in the +almost impenetrable and strongly held Argonne Forest, for, despite this +reinforcement, it was our army that was doing the driving. Our aircraft +was increasing in skill and numbers and forcing the issue, and our +infantry and artillery were improving rapidly with each new experience. +The replacements fresh from home were put into exhausted divisions with +little time for training, but they had the advantage of serving beside +men who knew their business and who had almost become veterans +overnight. The enemy had taken every advantage of the terrain, which +especially favored the defense, by a prodigal use of machine guns manned +by highly trained veterans and by using his artillery at short ranges. +In the face of such strong frontal positions we should have been unable +to accomplish any progress according to previously accepted standards, +but I had every confidence in our aggressive tactics and the courage of +our troops. + +On Oct. 4 the attack was renewed all along our front. The 3d Corps, +tilting to the left, followed the Brieulles-Cunel road; our 5th Corps +took Gesnes, while the 1st Corps advanced for over two miles along the +irregular valley of the Aire River and in the wooded hills of the +Argonne that bordered the river, used by the enemy with all his art and +weapons of defense. This sort of fighting continued against an enemy +striving to hold every foot of ground and whose very strong +counter-attacks challenged us at every point. On the 7th the 1st Corps +captured Chatal-Chênéry and continued along the river to Cornay. On the +east of Meuse sector one of the two divisions, co-operating with the +French, captured Consenvoye and the Haumont Woods. On the 9th the 5th +Corps, in its progress up the Aire, took Flêville, and the 3d Corps, +which had continuous fighting against odds, was working its way through +Brieulles and Cunel. On the 10th we had cleared the Argonne Forest of +the enemy. + +It was now necessary to constitute a second army, and on Oct. 9 the +immediate command of the First Army was turned over to Lieut. Gen. +Hunter Liggett. The command of the Second Army, whose divisions +occupied a sector in the Woevre, was given to Lieut. Gen. Robert L. +Bullard, who had been commander of the 1st Division and then of the 3d +Corps. Major Gen. Dickman was transferred to the command of the 1st +Corps, while the 5th Corps was placed under Major Gen. Charles P. +Summerall, who had recently commanded the 1st Division. Major Gen. John +L. Hines, who had gone rapidly up from regimental to division commander, +was assigned to the 3d Corps. These four officers had been in France +from the early days of the expedition and had learned their lessons in +the school of practical warfare. + +Our constant pressure against the enemy brought day by day more +prisoners, mostly survivors from machine-gun nests captured in fighting +at close quarters. On Oct. 18 there was very fierce fighting in the +Caures Woods east of the Meuse and in the Ormont Woods. On the 14th the +1st Corps took St. Juvin, and the 5th Corps, in hand-to-hand encounters, +entered the formidable Kriemhilde line, where the enemy had hoped to +check us indefinitely. Later the 5th Corps penetrated further the +Kriemhilde line, and the 1st Corps took Champigneulles and the important +town of Grandpré. Our dogged offensive was wearing down the enemy, who +continued desperately to throw his best troops against us, thus +weakening his line in front of our allies and making their advance less +difficult. + + +DIVISIONS IN BELGIUM + +Meanwhile we were not only able to continue the battle, but our 37th and +91st Divisions were hastily withdrawn from our front and dispatched to +help the French Army in Belgium. Detraining in the neighborhood of +Ypres, these divisions advanced by rapid stages to the fighting line and +were assigned to adjacent French corps. On Oct. 31, in continuation of +the Flanders offensive, they attacked and methodically broke down all +enemy resistance. On Nov. 3 the 37th had completed its mission in +dividing the enemy across the Escaut River and firmly established itself +along the east bank included in the division zone of action. By a clever +flanking movement troops of the 91st Division captured Spitaals +Bosschen, a difficult wood extending across the central part of the +division sector, reached the Escaut, and penetrated into the town of +Audenarde. These divisions received high commendation from their corps +commanders for their dash and energy. + + +MEUSE-ARGONNE--LAST PHASE + +On the 23d the 3d and 5th Corps pushed northward to the level of +Banthéville. While we continued to press forward and throw back the +enemy's violent counter-attacks with great loss to him, a regrouping of +our forces was under way for the final assault. Evidences of loss of +morale by the enemy gave our men more confidence in attack and more +fortitude in enduring the fatigue of incessant effort and the hardships +of very inclement weather. + +With comparatively well-rested divisions, the final advance in the +Meuse-Argonne front was begun on Nov. 1. Our increased artillery force +acquitted itself magnificently in support of the advance, and the enemy +broke before the determined infantry, which, by its persistent fighting +of the past weeks and the dash of this attack, had overcome his will to +resist. The 3d Corps took Ancreville, Doulcon, and Andevanne, and the +5th Corps took Landres et St. Georges and pressed through successive +lines of resistance to Bayonville and Chennery. On the 2d the 1st Corps +joined in the movement, which now became an impetuous onslaught that +could not be stayed. + +On the 3d advance troops surged forward in pursuit, some by motor +trucks, while the artillery pressed along the country roads close +behind. The 1st Corps reached Authe and Châtillon-sur-Bar, the 5th +Corps, Fosse and Nouart, and the 3d Corps, Halles, penetrating the +enemy's line to a depth of twelve miles. Our large-calibre guns had +advanced and were skillfully brought into position to fire upon the +important lines at Montmedy, Longuyon, and Conflans. Our 3d Corps +crossed the Meuse on the 5th, and the other corps, in the full +confidence that the day was theirs, eagerly cleared the way of machine +guns as they swept northward, maintaining complete co-ordination +throughout. On the 6th a division of the 1st Corps reached a point on +the Meuse opposite Sedan, twenty-five miles from our line of departure. +The strategical goal which was our highest hope was gained. We had cut +the enemy's main line of communications, and nothing but surrender or an +armistice could save his army from complete disaster. + +In all forty enemy divisions had been used against us in the +Meuse-Argonne battle. Between Sept. 26 and Nov. 6 we took 26,059 +prisoners and 468 guns on this front. Our divisions engaged were the +1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 32d, 33d, 35th, 37th, 42d, +77th, 78th, 79th, 80th, 82d, 89th, 90th, and 91st. Many of our divisions +remained in line for a length of time that required nerves of steel, +while others were sent in again after only a few days of rest. The 1st, +5th, 26th, 42d, 77th, 80th, 89th, and 90th were in the line twice. +Although some of the divisions were fighting their first battle, they +soon became equal to the best. + + +EAST OF THE MEUSE + +On the three days preceding Nov. 10, the 3d, the 2d Colonial, and the +17th French Corps fought a difficult struggle through the Meuse hills +south of Stenay and forced the enemy into the plain. Meanwhile, my plans +for further use of the American forces contemplated an advance between +the Meuse and the Moselle in the direction of Longwy by the First Army, +while, at the same time, the Second Army should assure the offensive +toward the rich coal fields of Briey. These operations were to be +followed by an offensive toward Château-Salins east of the Moselle, thus +isolating Metz. Accordingly, attacks on the American front had been +ordered, and that of the Second Army was in progress on the morning of +Nov. 11 when instructions were received that hostilities should cease at +11 o'clock A. M. + +At this moment the line of the American sector, from right to left, +began at Port-sur-Seille, thence across the Moselle to Vandières and +through the Woevre to Bezonvaux, in the foothills of the Meuse, thence +along to the foothills and through the northern edge of the Woevre +forests to the Meuse at Mouzay, thence along the Meuse connecting with +the French under Sedan. + + +RELATIONS WITH THE ALLIES + +Co-operation among the Allies has at all times been most cordial. A far +greater effort has been put forth by the allied armies and staffs to +assist us than could have been expected. The French Government and Army +have always stood ready to furnish us with supplies, equipment, and +transportation, and to aid us in every way. In the towns and hamlets +wherever our troops have been stationed or billeted the French people +have everywhere received them more as relatives and intimate friends +than as soldiers of a foreign army. For these things words are quite +inadequate to express our gratitude. There can be no doubt that the +relations growing out of our associations here assure a permanent +friendship between the two peoples. Although we have not been so +intimately associated with the people of Great Britain, yet their troops +and ours when thrown together have always warmly fraternized. The +reception of those of our forces who have passed through England and of +those who have been stationed there has always been enthusiastic. +Altogether it has been deeply impressed upon us that the ties of +language and blood bring the British and ourselves together completely +and inseparably. + + +STRENGTH + +There are in Europe altogether, including a regiment and some sanitary +units with the Italian Army and the organizations at Murmansk, also +including those en route from the States, approximately 2,053,347 men, +less our losses. Of this total there are in France 1,338,169 combatant +troops. Forty divisions have arrived, of which the infantry personnel of +ten have been used as replacements, leaving thirty divisions now in +France organized into three armies of three corps each. + +The losses of the Americans up to Nov. 18 are: Killed and wounded, +36,145; died of disease, 14,811; deaths unclassified, 2,204; wounded, +179,625; prisoners, 2,163; missing, 1,160. We have captured about 44,000 +prisoners and 1,400 guns, howitzers, and trench mortars. + +COMMENDATION + +The duties of the General Staff, as well as those of the army and corps +staffs, have been very ably performed. Especially is this true when we +consider the new and difficult problems with which they have been +confronted. This body of officers, both as individuals and as an +organization, has, I believe, no superiors in professional ability, in +efficiency, or in loyalty. + +Nothing that we have in France better reflects the efficiency and +devotion to duty of Americans in general than the Service of Supply, +whose personnel is thoroughly imbued with a patriotic desire to do its +full duty. They have at all times fully appreciated their responsibility +to the rest of the army, and the results produced have been most +gratifying. + +Our Medical Corps is especially entitled to praise for the general +effectiveness of its work, both in hospital and at the front. Embracing +men of high professional attainments, and splendid women devoted to +their calling and untiring in their efforts, this department has made a +new record for medical and sanitary proficiency. + +The Quartermaster Department has had difficult and various tasks, but it +has more than met all demands that have been made upon it. Its +management and its personnel have been exceptionally efficient and +deserve every possible commendation. + +As to the more technical services, the able personnel of the Ordnance +Department in France has splendidly fulfilled its functions, both in +procurement and in forwarding the immense quantities of ordnance +required. The officers and men and the young women of the Signal Corps +have performed their duties with a large conception of the problem, and +with a devoted and patriotic spirit to which the perfection of our +communications daily testifies. While the Engineer Corps has been +referred to in another part of this report, it should be further stated +that the work has required large vision and high professional skill, and +great credit is due their personnel for the high proficiency that they +have constantly maintained. + +Our aviators have no equals in daring or in fighting ability, and have +left a record of courageous deeds that will ever remain a brilliant page +in the annals of our army. While the Tank Corps has had limited +opportunities, its personnel has responded gallantly on every possible +occasion, and has shown courage of the highest order. + +The Adjutant General's Department has been directed with a systematic +thoroughness and excellence that surpassed any previous work of its +kind. The Inspector General's Department has risen to the highest +standards, and throughout has ably assisted commanders in the +enforcement of discipline. The able personnel of the Judge Advocate +General's Department has solved with judgment and wisdom the multitude +of difficult legal problems, many of them involving questions of great +international importance. + +It would be impossible in this brief preliminary report to do justice to +the personnel of all the different branches of this organization, which +I shall cover in detail in a later report. + +The navy in European waters has at all times most cordially aided the +army, and it is most gratifying to report that there has never before +been such perfect co-operation between these two branches of the +service. + +As to the Americans in Europe not in the military service, it is the +greatest pleasure to say that, both in official and in private life, +they are intensely patriotic and loyal, and have been invariably +sympathetic and helpful to the army. + +Finally, I pay the supreme tribute to our officers and soldiers of the +line. When I think of their heroism, their patience under hardships, +their unflinching spirit of offensive action, I am filled with emotion +which I am unable to express. Their deeds are immortal, and they have +earned the eternal gratitude of our country. + +I am, Mr. Secretary, very respectfully, + +JOHN J. PERSHING, + +_General, Commander in Chief, +American Expeditionary Forces._ + +To the Secretary of War. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Army at the Front, by Heywood Broun + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT *** + +***** This file should be named 36514-0.txt or 36514-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/5/1/36514/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Our Army at the Front + +Author: Heywood Broun + +Release Date: June 25, 2011 [EBook #36514] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: _From a painting by F. C. Yohn._ + +The battle of Seicheprey. + +"All through the night the artillerymen sent their shells, encasing +themselves in gas masks." (_Page_ 225)] + + + + +_AMERICA IN THE WAR_ + +OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT + +BY + +HEYWOOD BROUN + +FORMERLY CORRESPONDENT FOR THE "NEW YORK TRIBUNE" WITH THE +AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE + +ILLUSTRATED + +NEW YORK + +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +1922 + +COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +Printed in the United States of America + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + +I. THE LANDING OF PERSHING 1 + +II. "VIVE PAIR-SHANG!" 11 + +III. THE FIRST DIVISION LANDS 29 + +IV. THE FOURTH OF JULY 44 + +V. WHAT THEY LIVED IN 53 + +VI. GETTING THEIR STRIDE 66 + +VII. SPEEDING UP 81 + +VIII. BACK WITH THE BIG GUNS 96 + +IX. THE EYES OF THE ARMY 107 + +X. THE SCHOOLS FOR OFFICERS 117 + +XI. SOME DISTINGUISHED VISITORS 124 + +XII. THE MEN WHO DID EVERYTHING 134 + +XIII. BEHIND THE LINES 145 + +XIV. FRANCE AND THE MEDICOES 158 + +XV. IN CHARGE OF MORALE 168 + +XVI. INTO THE TRENCHES 177 + +XVII. OUR OWN SECTOR 189 + +XVIII. A CIVILIAN VISITOR 200 + +XIX. A FAMOUS GESTURE 212 + +XX. THE FIRST TWO BATTLES 224 + +XXI. TEUFEL-HUNDEN 237 + +XXII. THE ARMY OF MANOEUVRE 248 + +XXIII. ST. MIHIEL 266 + +XXIV. MEUSE-ARGONNE BEGINS 279 + +XXV. CEASE FIRING 291 + +GENERAL PERSHING'S REPORT 301 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +The battle of Seicheprey _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + +General Pershing in Paris, July, 1917 16 + +Buglers of the Alpine Chasseurs, assisted by their military +band, entertaining American soldiers of the First +Division 64 + +U. S. locomotive-assembling yards in France 154 + +Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly, formerly the American +Ambulance Hospital 166 + +Secretary Baker riding on flat car during his tour of inspection +of the American Expeditionary Forces 202 + +U. S. Marines in readiness to march to the front 244 + +The capture of Sergy 262 + + + + +OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT + +CHAPTER I + +THE LANDING OF PERSHING + + +A ship warped into an English port. Along her decks were lines of +soldiers, of high and low degree, all in khaki. From the shore end of +her gang-plank other lines of soldiers spread out like fan-sticks, some +in khaki, some in the two blues of land and sea fighters. Decorating the +fan-sticks were the scarlet and gold of staff-officers, the blue and +gold of naval officers, the yellow and gold of land officers, and the +black of a few distinguished civilians. + +At the end of one shore-line of khaki one rigid private stood out from +the rest, holding for dear life to a massive white goat. The goat was +the most celebrated mascot in the British Army, and this was an affair +of priceless consequence, but that was no sign the goat intended to +behave himself, and the private was responsible. + +Weaving through this picture of military precision, three little groups +of men waited restlessly to get aboard the ship. One was the lord mayor +of the port city, his gilt chains of office blazing in the forenoon +brightness, with his staff; another was the half-dozen or so of +distinguished statesmen, diplomats, and military heroes bringing formal +welcome to England; the third was the war correspondents and reporters +from the London newspapers. + +The waiting was too keen and anxious for talk. Excitement raced from man +to man. + +For the ship was the _Baltic_. The time was the morning of June 8, 1917. +The event was the landing of John J. Pershing, commander of America's +Expeditionary Force. And the soldiers with him were the herald of +America's coming--the holding of her drive with an outpost. + +When the grandchildren of those soldiers learn that date in their +history lessons it is safe to assume that all its historical +significance will be fairly worked out and articulate. + +It is equally safe to say that in the moment of its happening few if +any of its participants, even the most consequential and far-seeing, had +a personal sense of making history. Of all the pies that one may not +both eat and have, the foremost is that very taking part in a great +occasion. All the fun of it is being got by the man who stays at home +and reads the newspapers, undistracted by the press of practical matters +in hand. + +True, for the landing of General Pershing there was the color of +soldiery, the blare of brass bands, the ring of great names among the +welcomers. There was, of course, the overtone picture of a great +chieftain, marching in advance of a great army, come to foreign lands to +add their might to what, with their coming, was then a world in arms. +The future might see, blended with the gray hulk of the _Baltic_, the +shadowy shape of the _Mayflower_ coming back, still carrying men bound +to the service of world freedom. + +But what they saw that morning was, after all, a very modern landing, +from a very modern ship, with sailors hastily tying down a gang-plank, +and doing it very well because they had done it just that way so many +times before. + +The Royal Welsh Fusiliers were down to give a military welcome, with +their mascot and their crack band. The lord mayor, Lieutenant-General +Pitcairn Campbell, Admiral Stileman, and other men from both arms of +England's service were there, not to feel of their feelings, but to make +the landing as agreeable and convenient as possible, and to convey to +General Pershing, with Anglo-Saxon mannerliness and reticence, their +great pleasure at having him come. + +As soon as there was access to the ship General Campbell and Admiral +Stileman went aboard and introduced themselves to General Pershing. They +met, also, a few of the American staff-officers, and returned salutes +from the privates who made up the Pershing entourage of 168 men. + +There were congratulations on the ship's safe arrival, which reminded +General Pershing and some of his officers that they wanted, before +leaving the ship, to pay their respects to the skipper who had carried +them through the danger zone without so much as a sniff at a submarine. + +This done, the little company of officers walked down the gang-plank, +talking cheerily of their satisfaction at meeting, of their hard work on +the ship, of the weather, and what-not, all the while the soldiers on +the decks behind them waved hands and handkerchiefs in a general +overflow of well-being, and finally--set foot in England! + +One may not go too far in describing the contents of a general's mind +without some help from him, but it's a fair guess that if General +Pershing is as kin to his kind as he seems to be, the very precise +moment of this setting foot in England escaped his notice altogether, +and was left free for the historian to embroider how he pleased. For +General Pershing was in the act of being led to the salute of a guard of +honor by General Campbell. And almost immediately after that precise +moment the Welsh Fusiliers' band began the "Star-Spangled Banner," and +again it's a good bet that General Pershing and his staff thought not a +thing about England and a lot about home. + +But so the historic moment came, and so it went. And presently the +American vanguard was finding its places in the special train to +London. + +Perhaps England knew that a great hour was in the making, for her +rolling green hills gave back the warmth of a splendid sun, and her +hedgerows and wild blooms braved forth in crystal air. Those of the +newcomers who saw England first that afternoon thanked their stars +fervently that England and democracy were on the same side. + +In mid-afternoon the train reached London, and here the Americans were +greeted, not alone by soldiers and England, but by the English. The +secret of their coming, carefully kept, had given the port civilians no +chance. But they knew it in London and the station was crowded to its +doors. + +General Pershing stepped from the train as soon as it stopped. +Ambassador Walter Hines Page came over to him, both hands outstretched, +and asked leave to introduce another general who had taken an +Expeditionary Force to France--General Sir John French. Other +introductions followed--to Lord Derby, General Lord Brooke, and Sir +Francis Lloyd. And there was a hearty handshake from a fighter who +needed no introduction--Rear-Admiral William E. Sims. + +Inside and outside the station the civilians cheered. None of them +needed to have General Pershing pointed out to them. He was +unmistakable. No man ever looked more the ordained leader of fighting +men. He was tall, broad, and deep-chested, splendidly set up; and to the +care with which Providence had fashioned him he had added soldierly care +of his own. + +He might have been patterned upon the Freudian dream of Julius Cæsar, if +Julius was in truth the unsoldierly looking person they made him out to +be, whose majesty lay wholly in his own mind's eye. + +The gallant look of General Pershing fanned the London friendliness to +contagious flames of enthusiasm. He and his officers were cheered to +their hotel, the soldiers were cheered to their barracks in the Tower of +London. + +At the hotel they found three floors turned over to them, arranged for +good, hard work, with plenty of desk-room, and boy and girl scouts for +running errands. Squarely in the entrance was a money-changer's desk, +with a patient man in charge who could, and did, name the number of +cents to the shilling once every minute for four days. A little English +lady who visited America complained bitterly, just after arrival, "Why +didn't they make their dollar just four shillings?" thereby summing up +the only really valid source of acrimony between England and America. +The money-changer made the international amity complete. + +Once installed, General Pershing and his staff fell to and worked, +continuing the organization that had been roughly blocked out on the +_Baltic_, and building up the liaison between English and American army +procedure, begun by the help of British and Canadian officers on board, +by frequent conferences with England's State, War, and Navy Departments. + +The day after the arrival General Pershing went to "breakfast at +Windsor," the first meeting between America's fighter and England's +King. Here, at last, the momentousness of the matter found voice. + +King George, having done with the introductory greeting, said earnestly: +"I cannot tell you how much your coming means to me. It has been the +great dream of my life that my country and yours would join in some +great enterprise ... and here you are...." + +After this visit, prolonged by an inspection of the historic treasures +of Windsor Castle, General Pershing made the rule of unbroken work for +himself and his officers till his task in London was finished and he +should leave for France to join his First Division. + +He made what he expected to be a single exception to this rule. He went +to a dinner-party, at which he met Lloyd-George, Arthur Balfour, just +back from his American mission, and half a dozen others of commensurate +distinction. He found that his exception was no exception at all. The +English do not merely have the reputation of doing their real work at +their dinner-parties--they deserve that reputation. Staff-officers, +telling all about it later on, said that it could hardly have been +distinguished from a cabinet meeting, or a report from the Secretary of +State for War. So were the final plans made and the business of the +nations settled. + +Concerning all these meetings and all the national feeling that was +behind them, General Pershing and his officers were of one voice--that +England's welcome had been precisely of the sort that pleased them most. +It was reticent, charming, too genuine for much open expression, too +chivalrous at heart to be obtrusive. + +What with spending most of each twenty-four hours at work, the American +vanguard finished up its affairs in four days. And early on the morning +of June 13, long before the break of day, General Pershing and his +officers and men boarded their Channel boat, the _Invicta_, and set sail +for France. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"VIVE PAIR-SHANG!" + + +THE _Invicta_ came into Boulogne harbor in the early morning, to find +that her attempts at a secret crossing had amounted to nothing at all. +Everybody within sight and ear-shot was out to show how pleased he was, +riotously and openly, indifferent alike to the hopes of spy or censor. + +The fishing-boats, the merchant coastwise fleet, the Channel ships and +hordes of little privately owned sloops and yawls and motor-boats all +plied chipperly around with "bannières étoilées" fore and aft. The sun +was very bright and the water was very blue, and between them was that +exhilarating air which always rises over the coasts of France, whenever +and wherever you land on them, which not all the smoke and grime of the +world's biggest war could deaden or destroy. + +The _Invicta's_ own flags were run up at the harbor mouth. Again the +lines of khaki-colored soldiers formed behind the deck-rails, and again +the chieftain from overseas stood at the prow of his ship and waited the +coming of a historic moment. + +When the _Invicta_ was made fast and her gang-plank went over, there was +a half-circle of space cleared in the quay in front of her by a +detachment of grizzled French infantrymen, their horizon-blue uniforms +filmed over with the yellow dust of a long march. + +Behind the infantrymen the good citizens of Boulogne were yelling their +throats dry. When General Pershing stopped for an instant's survey at +the head of the gang-plank, with his staff-officers close behind him, +the roar of welcome swelled to thunder and resounded out to sea. When he +marched down and stepped to the quay, there was a sudden, arresting +silence. Every soldier was at salute, and every civilian, too. In that +tense instant a new world was beginning, and though it was as formless +as all beginnings, the unerringly dramatic and sensitive French paid the +tribute of silence to its birth. The future was to say that in that +instant the world allied on new bases, that men now fought together not +because their lands lay neighboring, or were jointly menaced by some +central foe, but because they would follow their own ideal to wherever +it was in danger. An American general had brought his fighters three +thousand miles because a principle of world order and world right needed +the added strength of his arms. And never before had American soldiers +come in their uniforms to do battle on the continent of Europe. + +The moment's silence ended as startlingly as it began. Bands and +cheerers set in again on one beat. The officers who had come to make a +formal welcome fell back and let the unprepared public uproar have way. + +General Pershing and his officers walked through aisles strenuously +forced by the infantrymen, to where carriages waited to carry them +through the Boulogne streets. + +It must have seemed to the little American contingent as if every +Frenchman in France had come up to the coast for the celebration. + +From the carriages the crowds stretched solid in every direction. The +streets were blanketed under uncountable flags. Every window held its +capacity of laughing and cheering Frenchwomen. + +Children ran along the streets, shrilling "Vive l'Amérique!" and +laughing hilariously when their flowers were caught by the grateful but +embarrassed American officers. + +When the special train to Paris had started the officers mopped their +faces and settled back for a modest time. But they reckoned without +their French. Not a town along the way missed its chance to greet the +Americans. The stations were packed, the cheers were incessant, the +roses poured in deluges into the train-windows. + +But at the Gare du Nord, in Paris, the official French greeting was too +magnificent to be pushed aside further by mere populace. + +There were cordons of soldiers drawn up in the station, stiff at +attention, making aisles by which the French officials could get to the +Americans. There were officers in brilliant uniform, covered with medals +for heroic service. There were massed bands, led by the Garde +Republicaine. "Papa Joffre" was there, with his co-missioner, Viviani; +Painleve, then Minister of War, and presently to have a while as +Premier; General Foch, Marne hero, now generalissimo, and Ambassador +William G. Sharp. + +These, with General Pershing, Major Robert Bacon, a member of Pershing's +staff and lately ambassador to France, and two or three other +staff-officers, found open motor-cars waiting to drive them to the Hotel +Crillon, on the Place de la Concorde, the temporary American +headquarters. + +Dense crowds of soldiers patrolled the streets leading down to the Grand +Boulevards, through which the distinguished little procession was to +take its way, and other soldiers lined up at attention in the +boulevards. + +Paris turned loose, with her heart in her mouth and her enthusiasm at +red heat, is not easily forgotten. On this June day her raptures were +immemorial. They were of a sort to call out the old-timers for standards +of comparison. + +Every sentence now spoken in France begins either "Avant la guerre" or +"Depuis la guerre." Nobody can ignore the fact that with August, 1914, +the whole of life changed. To the old-timers who wanted to tell you what +Paris was like the afternoon Pershing arrived, there were only two +occasions possible, both "Depuis la guerre." + +The first great day was that following the order for general +mobilization, when exaltation, defiance, threat, and frenzy packed the +national spirit to suffocation, and when the streets flowed with +unending streams of grim but undaunted people. Tragic days and relief +days followed. But the next great time, when tragedy did not outweigh +every other feeling, was that 14th of July, 1916, when the military +parades were begun again, for the first time since the war, and in the +line of march were detachments from the armies of all the Allies. + +The third great French war festival was for Pershing. The crowds were +literally everywhere. The streets through which the motors passed were +tightly blocked except for the little road cleared by the soldiers. The +streets giving off these were jammed solid. American flags were in every +window, on every lamp-post, on every taxicab, and in every wildly +waving hand. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information._ + +General Pershing in Paris, July, 1917.] + +Although the soldiers could force a way open before the motor-cars, no +human agency could keep the way free behind them. The Parisians wanted +not merely to see Pershing--they wanted to march with him. So they fell +in, tramping the boulevards close behind the cars, cheering and singing +to their marching step. + +Only when General Pershing disappeared under the arched doorway of the +Hotel Crillon, and let it be known that he had other gear to tend, did +the city in procession break apart and go about its several private +celebrations. + +But all that afternoon and all that night, wherever men and women +collected, or children were underfoot, it was "Vive l'Amérique" and +"Vive le Generale Pair-shang" that echoed when the glasses rose. + +When General Pershing, after the tremendous experience of his European +landing, asked for the quiet and shelter of his own quarters at the +Crillon, his intention was that his retirement should be complete. He +said flatly that a man who had just witnessed such a tribute to his +country as Paris had made that afternoon was no better than he should be +if he did not feel the need of solitude. + +But the inevitable aftermath of the great event the world over is the +talking with the newspapers. And sure enough, no sooner was General +Pershing safe in his retreat than the Paris reporters were knocking at +the door. The American correspondents who had travelled over from London +on the _Invicta_ had had emphatic instructions to stay away, story or no +story. But one distinguished Frenchman broke the rules, and to François +de Jessen, of _Le Temps_, General Pershing did finally give a statement. +How reluctantly one may see from the statement's contents. + +"I came to Europe to organize the participation of our army in this +immense conflict of free nations against the enemies of liberty, and not +to deliver fine speeches at banquets, or have them published in the +newspapers," said General Pershing. "Besides, that is not my business, +and, you know, we Americans, soldiers and civilians, like not only to +appear, but to be, businesslike. However, since you offer me an +opportunity to speak to France, I am glad to make you a short and simple +confession. + +"As a man and as a soldier I am profoundly happy over, indeed proud of, +the high mission with which I am charged. But all this is purely +personal, and might appear out of proportion with the solemnity of the +hour and the gravity of events now occurring. If I have thought it +proper to indulge in this confidence, it is because I wish to express my +admiration of the French soldier, and at the same time to express my +pride in being at the side of the French and allied armies. + +"It is much more important, I think, to announce that we are the +precursors of an army that is firmly resolved to do its part on the +Continent for the cause the American nation has adopted as its own. We +come conscious of the historic duty to be performed when our flag shows +itself upon the battle-fields of the world. It is not my role to promise +or to prophesy. Let it suffice to tell you that we know what we are +doing, and what we want." + +Two rememberable experiences waited the next day for General Pershing. +The first was his visit to des Invalides, the tomb of Napoleon; the +second, his appearance in the French Chamber of Deputies. If he had +known what it was to be the hero of all Paris at once, he was to learn +how special groups regarded him, and what the French highest-in-command +thought fitting for America's leader. + +At all of General Pershing's appearances in Paris in these first days a +detachment of soldiers had to be constantly before him, widening a way +for him through the crowds that waited his coming. On the morning of his +visit to the tomb of Napoleon the broad Champs de Mars, in front of des +Invalides, was impassable except by the soldiers' flying wedge. Shouts +in French rang out steadily as he made his way toward des Invalides' +entrances, and suddenly a man cried, in accented English: "Behind him +there are ten million more." + +But once inside des Invalides General Pershing was alone with General +Niox, who was in charge of the famous treasure building, and General +Joffre. Between Pershing and Joffre there had begun one of those intense +friendships that form too impetuously for ordinary explanation. It was +full-grown at the end of their first meeting, a matter of seconds. And +though at this time their friendly intercourse was halted sometimes by +the fact that neither spoke the other's language, they were continually +together. + +So it was General Joffre who walked beside him when General Pershing +followed General Niox down to the entrance of the crypt, and stood +before the door. All the world may go to this door, if its behavior is +good, but only royal applicants may go beyond it. + +General Pershing was to go inside. General Niox handed him the great +key, then turned away with Joffre, while Pershing, after a moment's +hesitation, fitted the key and crossed the threshold. When he came out +again he was taken to see the Napoleonic relics, which lay in rows in +their glass cases. Two of them, the great sword and the Grand Cross +cordon of the Legion of Honor, had never been touched since the time of +Louis Philippe. As Pershing and Joffre bent over them General Niox came +to a momentous decision. He opened the cases and handed the two to +General Pershing. France could do no more. + +Pershing held them for a moment and nobody spoke. Then he handed back +the cordon, kissed the sword-hilt and presented it, and in profound +silence the three men left the treasure hall. + +Between this visit and that to the Chamber of Deputies there were many +official calls, including one to President Poincaré at the Elysée +Palace, which ended in a formal luncheon to Pershing by President and +Madame Poincaré, with most of the important men of France as fellow +guests. + +General Pershing was recognized as he entered the gallery of the Chamber +of Deputies, and all other business except that of doing him honor was +promptly put by. Full-throated cheering began and would not die down. +Finally Premier Ribot commenced to speak, and the deputies stopped to +listen. + +"The people of France fully understand the deep significance of the +arrival of General Pershing in France," he said. "It is one of the +greatest events in history that the people of the United States should +come here to struggle, not in the spirit of ambition or conquest, but +for the noble ideals of justice and liberty. The arrival of General +Pershing is a new message from President Wilson which, if that is +possible, surpasses in nobility all those preceding it." + +And Viviani said, a few minutes later: "President Wilson holds in his +hand all the historic grandeur of America, which he now puts forth in +this fraternal union extended to us by the Great Republic." + +These two speeches opened a flood-gate. Long after the cheering deputies +had said their good-bys to General Pershing, the French writers, made +articulate by the example of Ribot and Viviani, were busily preparing +appreciations and commentaries of the Pershing arrival. The most +picturesque of these was Maurice de Waleffe's, in _Le Journal:_ "'There +are no longer any Pyrenees,' said Louis XIV, when he married a Spanish +princess. 'There is no longer an ocean,' General Pershing might say, +with greater justice, as he is about to mingle with ours the democratic +blood of his soldiers. The fusion of Europe and America is an enormous +fact to note." + +A more powerful speech was that of Clemenceau, now Premier of France, +but then an earnest private citizen, writing for his paper. "Paris has +given its finest welcome to General Pershing," he wrote. "We are +justified. We are justified in hoping that the acclamation of our fellow +citizens, with whom are mingled crowds of soldiers home on leave, have +shown him clearly, right at the start, in what spirit we are waging the +bloodiest of wars; with what invincible determination, never to falter +in any fibre of our nerves or muscles. Unless I misjudge America, +General Pershing, fully conscious of the importance of his mission, has +received from the cordial and joyous enthusiasm of the Parisians that +kind of fraternal encouragement which is never superfluous, even when +one needs it not. + +"Let him have no doubt that he, too, has brought encouragement to us, +the whole of France, that followed with its eyes the whole of his +passage along the boulevards; to all our hearts that salute his coming +with joy at the supreme grandeur of America's might enrolled under the +standard of right. + +"This idea M. Viviani, just back from America, splendidly developed in +his eloquent speech to the Chamber of Deputies in the presence of +General Pershing. + +"General Pershing himself, less dramatic, has given us, in three phrases +devoid of artificiality, an impression of exceptionally virile force. It +was no rhetoric but the pure simplicity of the soldier who is here to +act, and who fears to promise more than he can perform. No bad sign, +this, for those of us who have grown weary of pompous words, when we +must pay so dearly for each failure of performance. + +"Not long ago the Germans laughed at the 'contemptible English Army,' +and we hear now that they regard the American Army as 'too ridiculous +for words.' Well, the British have taught even Hindenburg himself what +virile force can do toward filling gaps in organization. Now the arrival +of Pershing brings Hindenburg news that the Americans are setting to +work in their turn--those Americans whose performance in the War of +Secession showed them capable of such 'improvisation of war' as the +world had never seen--and I think the Kaiser must be beginning to wonder +whether he has not trusted rather blindly in his 'German tribal God.' +He has loosed the lion from its cage, and now he finds that the lion has +teeth and claws to rend him. + +"The Kaiser had given us but a few weeks in which to realize that the +success of his submarine campaign would impose the silence of terror on +the human conscience throughout the world. Well, painful as he must find +it, Pershing's arrival, with its consequent military action, cannot fail +to prove to him that, after all, the moral forces he ignored must always +be taken into account in forecasting human probabilities. Those learned +Boches have yet to understand that in the course of his intellectual +evolution, man has achieved the setting of moral right above brute +force; that might is taking its stand beside right, to accomplish the +greatest revolution in the history of mankind. That is the lesson which +Pershing's coming has taught us, and that is why we rejoice." + +But even while the commentators were at their task General Pershing had +left off celebrating and got to work. The First Division was on the +seas. + +A few very important persons in France and America knew where they were +to land, and when, but nobody in the world knew just what was to be done +for and with them once they landed, for the plans did not even exist. It +was the business of the general and his staff to create them. And they +say that the amount of work done in those first days in France was +incredible even to them when they looked back on it. + +As a first step American headquarters were installed in 31 Rue +Constantine, a broad, shaded street near the Hôtel des Invalides, +overlooking the Champs de Mars. The house had belonged once to a +prodigiously popular Paris actress, and it was correspondingly +magnificent. + +But the magnificence, except that which was inalienably in space and +structure, was banished by the busy Americans. In the hallway they +stretched a plank railing, behind which American private soldiers asked +and answered questions. Under the once sumptuous stairway there were +stacks of army cots. The walls were bulletined and covered with +directions carefully done in two languages. The chief of the +Intelligence Section had the ex-dining-room, and the adjutant-general +had the ballroom on the second floor. Even so, it was not long before +this spaciousness was insufficient, and the headquarters brimmed over +into No. 27 as well. + +It was in these two houses that the whole army organization was plotted +out, and General Pershing made good his prediction that the Americans +would not merely seem, but would be, businesslike. + +After ten days or so of beaver-like absorption in their jobs the +American headquarters announced to the war correspondents that they must +take a certain train at a certain hour, under the guidance of Major +Frederick Palmer, press officer and censor, to a certain port in France. +There, at a certain moment, they would see what they would see. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FIRST DIVISION LANDS + + +They saw the gray troop-ships steaming majestically into the middle +distance from the gray of the open sea, with the little convoy fleet +alongside. It was a gray morning, and at first the ships were hardly +more than nebulous patches of a deeper tone than sea and sky. As they +neared the port, and took on outline, the watchers increased, and took +on internationalism. + +The Americans, who had come to see this consequential landing, some in +uniform and some civilians, had arrived in the very early morning, +before the inhabitants of the little seaport town were up and about, let +alone aware of what an event was that day to put them into the history +books. + +But it never takes a French civilian long to discover that something is +afoot--what with three years of big happenings to sharpen his wits and +keep him on the lookout. + +At the front of the quay were Americans two deep, straining to make out +the incoming ships, on tiptoe to count their number, breathless to shout +a welcome to the first "Old Glory" to be let loose to the harbor winds. +Forming rapidly behind the Americans were French men, French women, and +French children, indifferent to affairs, kitchens, or schools, +chattering that "Mais surement, c' sont les Américains--regardez, +regardez!..." + +Ignominiously in the rear, but watching too, were the German prisoners +who worked, in theory at least, at transferring rails from inconvenient +places to convenient ones for the loading of coaster steamers. They said +little enough, having learned that a respectful hearing was not to be +their lot for a while. But they moved fewer rails than ever, and nobody +bothered to speed them up. + +The great ships came in slowly. Before long, the watchers could see +lines of dull yellow banding the gray hulks, and then the yellow lines +took on form and separateness, and were visible one soldier at a time. + +Last, one ship steamed apart from the others and made direct for the +quay, and the solemn business of landing American troops on French soil +was about to begin. + +There was to be a certain ceremony for the landing, but, like all the +ceremonies conceded to these great occasions by the American Army, it +was to be of extreme simplicity. When they were near enough to the quay +to be heard, the transport band played "The Star-Spangled Banner," while +all the soldiers stood at salute, and then they played the +"Marseillaise," while everybody on ship and shore stood at salute. With +that, they called it a morning, as far as celebration was concerned, and +to the accompaniment of a great deal of talk and a volley of +light-hearted questions, they began to disembark. + +The first question, called from some distance away, was: "What place is +this?" The next was, "Do they let the enlisted men drink in the saloons +over here?" and there was a miscellany about apple pie and doughnuts, +cigarettes, etc. And very briefly after the first soldiers were ashore +nothing could be heard but "Don't they speak any English at all?" + +The outstanding impression of that morning may be what it will to the +French civilians, to the American newspaper correspondents, and to the +officers both ashore and on board. To the privates of the First Division +it will always be the incomprehensible nonsense that goes by the name of +the French language, spoken with perfect assurance by people old enough +to know better, who refuse to make one syllable of intelligible sound in +answer to even the simplest requests. + +The privates were prepared to hear the French speak their own language +at mention of Alsace-Lorraine and war aims, or to propound their private +philosophies that way. They granted the right of the French to talk how +they pleased of their emotional pleasure at seeing the troops, or of any +other subject above the timber-line. + +What staggered them was the insane top-loftiness of using French to ask +for ham and eggs, and beer, or the way to camp. For nothing, not volumes +of warning before they left home, nor interminable hours of +French-grammar instruction on board the troop-ships, had really got it +deep inside the American private's head that French was not an +accomplishment to be used as evidence of cosmopolitan culture, but a +mere prosy necessity, without which daily existence was a nightmare and +a frustration. + +The French, on their side, were helpless enough, but not so bewildered. +They had lived too long, in peace as well as war, across a narrow +channel from that stanch English-speaking race who brought both their +tea and their language with them to France and everywhere else, to be +dumfounded that strangers should balk at their foreign tongue. + +The inevitable result was that here, in their first contact with the +French, as later, throughout the fighting areas, the American soldiers +learned to understand French-English long before they could speak a +decent word of French. + +Fortunately for the First Division, it had had some able bilingual +forerunners at the seaport town where they landed. The camps had been +built by the French, a few miles back from the town, but a few of the +housekeeping necessities had been installed by General Pershing's +staff-officers, and signs in good, plain English showed the proper +roads. And as the single files of soldiers began to descend the +gang-plank of the first transport, and to form for marching to camp, +their own officers were having some compact instruction from the +staff-officers on how to get to camp and what to do when they got there. + +There was no waste motion about getting the troops under way. The first +companies were tramp-tramping up the streets before the last companies +were overside, and the first transport was free to go back and give +place to the next one before the mayor had got his red sash and gilt +chains in place and arrived to do them suitable honor. + +So, while the shore watchers fell back into safe observation-posts, the +soldiers clattered down through the quay-sheds to the little street, +formed and swung away, and one ship after another disgorged its +passengers, and presently the sheds were overrun with the blue-clad +sailors from the convoys. + +All that day, the soldiers marched through the town. Their camps lay at +the end of a long white shore road, and jobs were not wanting when they +got there. Their pace was easy, because of these things, and they +probably would not have put out any French eye with their flawless +marching, even under less indulgent circumstances. For this First +Division was recruited in a hurry, and most of their real training lay +ahead of them. + +Where they were impressive was in their composite build. There were +little fellows among them, but they straggled at the back. The major +part of the soldiers were tall, thin, rangy-looking, with a march that +was more lope than anything else and a look of heaving their packs along +without much effort. They fell about midway between the thin, breedy +look of the first English troops in France and the stocky, thick-necked +sort that came later. + +The marines were the pick of the lot, for size and behavior too. The +sense of being something special was with the marines from the first. +They marched that way. And, set apart by their olive drab as well as by +their size and comportment, they gave that First Division's first march +in France a quality of real distinction. And when the army got to its +first French camps, the welcome sight its eyes first fell upon was that +of already arrived marines carrying water down the hill. + +The camps were long wooden buildings, rather above the average, as +became the status of the visitors, built almost at the top of a hill, +looking down over green fields and round trees to the three or four +villages within range of vision, and beyond them to the sea. + +Some supplies were there already, but the soldiers had had to bring most +of their first supper, and the camp-cooks had their own troubles getting +things just so. + +Major-General Sibert, field commander of the First Division, had +quarters at camp, so that excuses were not in order. Even for that first +supper, the marines and all others they could commandeer to help them +were rushing about preparing things to the very top of their bent. +Nobody had town-leave for the first day or two, till things were in +apple-pie order, and the camp was in line to shelter and feed its +soldiers for as long as it should be necessary to stay there. + +If camp life was busy these days, the town life was no less so. The +chief hotel, wherein much red plush met the eye from the very entrance, +was swarming with officers of both nations and all degrees of rank. +General Pershing was there, with his aides and most of his staff. +Admirals were there, changing uniforms from blue to white and back again +as the erratic French weather dictated. + +There were half a dozen high officers from the French Army, making both +formal and informal welcomes, and there were more busy majors and +captains and more interpreters than you could count in half a day's +time. + +The little Frenchwoman who sat behind the desk was amiable to the best +of her very considerable ability, but the questions she had to answer, +whether she understood them or not, would have addled an older head than +hers. She could run her hotel with the best of them, but when perfectly +sane-looking young officers asked her where to buy five thousand cups +and saucers, and paper napkins by the ton, she said in so many words +that an American invasion was worse than bedlam. + +The hotel's second floor was the favored place for conferences. There a +fair welter of red plush was drawn up around a big table in the +hallway, and livid red wall-paper added its warmth to a scene which +against a plank wall would not have lacked color. + +At this table General Pershing could have been found much of the time. +The whole practical liaison of French and American Armies was contrived +here, though the first rule for this consolidation laid down by a +grizzled French general with but one arm left, was that "there was no +longer anything that was French, or anything that was American, but +merely all we had that was 'ours,'" so that the task was one of detail +only. + +Though the daytimes were packed with work, most of the officers called +it a day at sunset. Then the little hotel took on its most engaging +color. The little French piano tinkled out in the warm air with an +accompaniment of many voices. Once a very blue young second lieutenant +chose to express his mood by repetitions without number of the +melancholy "Warum?"--probably the first German music that had been heard +from that piano for many a moon. Possibly those of the French who knew +what the tune was recognized also that America had turned a point in +more ways than one in coming to France, not least among them being +making good American soldiers out of erstwhile good Germans. Nobody +seemed much astonished or put out when within the day a goodly number of +American soldiers were speaking to German prisoners in their own +language, though talking to the German prisoners, aside from the fact +that it was not encouraged by the French, turned out to be indifferent +fun, since the American soldiers had had their fill of German propaganda +before they left home, and none of the prisoners was overmodest as to +what Germany was or would do. + +The cafés out-of-doors were overflowing with Americans, too. It was +plenty of fun to hear the sailors scolding the French waitresses for +calling lemons "limons," and trying to overhaul the French pronunciation +of "bière" to something approaching a compromise. + +An officer came along and broke up a crap-game. The soldiers forgave +him, but the civilians did not. It was their first go at the game, and +they wanted a lot of teaching. + +The lone bookstore of the town made the only known effort to get the +Americans what they asked for, instead of trying to prevail on them to +adopt something French. They sent, perhaps to Paris, to get English +books, and they piled their windows high with Macaulay's "History of +England" and Bacon's "Essays." + +The paper-buying habit is ingrown in the American male. He has three +newspapers under his arm before any afternoon is what it should be. And +so the soldiers bought the French papers, two and three at a time, and +carried them around. + +Any time of day or night, a look out into the town's main street +descried a company or two of soldiers, on their way from camp for +town-leave, or on their way back. They marched continually. The +motor-cycle with the side-seat, which was later to be the distinguishing +mark of the American Army in Paris, made its appearance in the seaport +within a day or two of the first transport's landing, and eased the +burdens of the French motor-lorries with which the American supplies had +been taken to camp, owing to a delay of the First Division's own +lorries, on a slow ship. + +And most successful sensation of all, the army mule. The French knew him +slightly, because their own army used him on occasion. But no Frenchman +could speak to a mule in his own language as these big mule-tenders did. + +It was exalting to watch the army on the march, to see the marines and +the profusion of slim sailors. But the real crowd always gathered around +the big negro stevedores in long navy-blue coats, scarlet-lined, with +brass buttons all the way up the front, over and down the back--likely a +thrifty hand-me-down from pre-khaki days--who marched with perfect +knowledge of their magnificence. + +The stevedores, for their part, were as amazed as the French, though on +a different score. They accepted with due resignation the fact that the +French spoke French. It was when they first saw a Senegalese in French +uniform, triple-black with tropic suns, but to them a mere one of +themselves, and when they hailed him gladly in their English tongue, to +ask which road to take, that his indecipherable French answer broke +them, heart and spirit alike. + +"Dat one blame stuck-up nigger," said the spokesman, as they trudged +their way onward, none the wiser if the Senegalese, in his turn, had +been rebuking them in French for showing off their English. + +So, in its several aspects, the First Division made its impact upon +France, jostled itself a little and the French more, and finally settled +down to its short wait at the coast before going inland, "within sound +of the guns," to get its training. + +And because the camps were to be used many times again by other +divisions to come on the "bridge of ships," the first had to put in some +extra licks to make their camp conveniences permanent. + +They played a few baseball-games, and they were encouraged to do a lot +of swimming, in the off afternoon hours. After a bit town-leave was +heavily curtailed, but there was a dispensation now and then for a +"movie." In the main they kept their noses to the grindstone. + +After a little while the men who were to march in Paris on the Fourth +of July were selected, and, preceded by a few sailors with fewer duties +and longer indulgences, they entrained on the late afternoon of July 2. +There was no measuring the disappointment of the ones who were left +behind, for the prediction that there would be doings in Paris on the +first French Fourth of July was to be fulfilled to the letter. + +But the housekeepers of the army could not be spared for celebrations. +As soon as the marines could be despatched from the seaport they were +sent direct across France to the points behind the lines where their +training-camps were in waiting, and there, within a few weeks, the First +Division reassembled and fell to work. + +Meanwhile, of the doings in Paris---- + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE FOURTH OF JULY + + +The first they knew of it in Paris--barring vague promises of "something +to remember" on the American fête that had appeared in modest items in +the newspapers--was when a motor-bus, jammed to the guards with American +soldiers, suddenly rolled into the Avenue de l'Opéra from the Tuileries +Gardens, and paraded up that august thoroughfare to the tune of +incredible yelling from everybody on board. It was the afternoon of July +3. + +A few picked Americans had known about it. A sufficient number of +American and French officers and the newspaper correspondents had been +told to appear at Austerlitz Station in the early morning of the 3d, and +there they had seen the soldiers not merely arrive but tackle their +first continental breakfast. + +Neither was a sensation to be sneezed at. The soldiers were of the very +finest, and in spite of their overnight journey they were all looking +fit. They were anxious to fall right out of the train into the middle of +Paris. To most of them it was a city of gallant and delightful scandal, +filled even in war-time with that twinkle of gayety plus wickedness that +is so intriguing when told about in Oscaloosa, behind the hand or the +door. They said outright that they expected to see the post-cards all +come to life when they set eyes first on Paris streets. + +But even if Paris had had these fascinations in store, they were not for +the soldiers that morning. Instead military precision, discipline, an +orderly march to near-by barracks, and--a French breakfast: coffee and +war-bread. Not even the French had a kind word for the war-bread, and no +American ever spoke well of the coffee. But there it was--chronologically +in order, and haply the worst of a Paris visit all over at once. + +And most of the soldiers stayed right in barracks till it was time for +the great processional the next day. It was a picked bunch that had the +motor ride and informed Paris that they had come for a party. And if +they didn't see the ladies with the unbehaving eyes, they did see the +Louvre and the Tuileries, the Opéra, the boulevards, and the Madeleine. +And Paris saw the soldiers. + +There was no end of cheering and handclapping. The American flags that +had been flying for Pershing were brought out again, and venders +appeared on the streets with all manner of emblems to sell. It was one +of those cheerful afternoons when good feeling expresses itself gently, +reserving its hurrahs for the coming event. + +The soldiers were kept on the cars, but now and then a good Parisian +threw them a package of cigarettes or a flower. All told, they touched +off the fuse timed to explode on the morrow, and, having done that, went +back to barracks. + +The first "Fourth" in Paris was a thoroughly whole-souled celebration. +The French began it, civilians and soldiers, by taking a band around to +serenade General Pershing the first thing in the morning. His house was +on the left bank of the Seine, not far from American headquarters in the +Rue Constantine, an historic old place with little stone balconies +outside the upper windows. + +On one of these General Pershing appeared, with the first notes of the +band. He was cheered and cheered again. A little boy who had somehow +climbed to the top of a gas street-lamp squealed boastfully to Pershing: +"See, I am an American, too, for I have a sky-scraper!" (J'ai un +gratte-ciel!) And with a wave of his hand General Pershing acknowledged +his compatriot. + +It was in this crowd around Pershing's house that a riot started, +because a man who was being unpleasantly jostled said: "Oh, do leave me +in peace." Those nearest him good-naturedly tried to give him +elbow-room, but those a little distance away caught merely the "peace" +of his ejaculation and, with sudden loud cries of "kill the pacifist," +made for the unfortunate, and pommelled him roundly before the matter +could be explained. + +After the serenade and General Pershing's little speech of thanks the +band, with most of the crowd following, marched over to des Invalides, +the appointed place for the formal ceremony. + +Around the ancient hotel, overflowing into the broad boulevards that +radiate from it, and packing to suffocation the Champs de Mars in front +of it, there were just as many Frenchmen as could stand shoulder to +shoulder and chin to back. Inside, where there were speeches and +exchanges of national emblems, the crowd was equally dense, in spite of +the fact that only the very important or the very cunning had cards of +admission. + +The real Fourth celebration was in the streets. The waiting crowds +yelled thunderously when the first band appeared, heralding the parade. +Then came the Territorials, the escort troops, in their familiar +horizon-blue. Then more bands, then officers, mounted and in motor-cars, +and, finally, the Americans, manifestly having the proudest moment of +their lives. + +They were to march from des Invalides to Picpus Cemetery, the little +private cemetery outside of Paris, where the Marquis de Lafayette is +buried. + +They crossed Solferino bridge, and made their way through a terrific +crowd in the broad Place de la Concorde. The Paris newspapers, boasting +of their conservatism, said there were easily one million Parisians that +day within sight of des Invalides when the American soldiers left the +building and started on their march. + +To hear the soldiers tell it, there were easily one million Parisians, +all under the age of ten, immediately under their feet before they had +marched a mile. + +From a balcony of the Hotel Crillon, on the north side of the Place de +la Concorde, the marching Americans were wholly lost to view from the +waist down. Nobody could ever complain of the French birth-rate after +seeing that parade. Nobody ever saw that many children before in any one +assemblage in France. It was prodigious. + +And the French youngsters had their own notions of how they were to take +part in that French Fourth of July. The main notion was to walk between +the soldiers' legs. They were massed thick beside the soldiers, thick +between them, impeding their knee action, terrorizing their steps. At a +little distance, they looked like batter in a waffle-pan. But they did +what they could to make the American soldiers feel among friends that +day, and nobody could say they failed. + +The parade turned along the picturesque old Rue de Rivoli on leaving the +Place de la Concorde, and filed along the river, almost the length of +the city. They had not gone far before the Frenchwomen had thrown them +enough roses to decorate bayonets and hats and a few lapels. They made a +brave sight, brave to nobility. And though they were harassed by the +eager children, abashed by the women, and touched to genuine emotion by +the whole city, they wouldn't have grudged five years of their lives for +the privilege of being there. + +At Picpus, the scene made up in intensiveness what it lacked in breadth, +for the cemetery is far too small to permit of a crowd of size. A home +for aged gentlewomen overlooks one wall ... its windows were filled, and +their occupants proved that Frenchwomen are never too old or too gentle +to throw roses. A military hospital overlooks another side, and +balconies and windows were crowded with "blessés." The few officers and +civilians who had access to the cemetery-grounds made their +commemoration brief and simple. It was there that Colonel Stanton made +the little speech which buzzed around the Allied world within the day: +"Lafayette, nous voilà!"--"Lafayette, we're here!" Its felicity of +phrase moved the French scribes to columns of congratulation. Its +compactness won the Americans. Everybody said it was the best war speech +made in France, and it was. + +After Picpus, the officers came back to the city for work, and the +soldiers went to barracks. The sailors were allowed to saunter about the +city, in vain search for the post-card ladies and the flying champagne +corks. The soldiers were on a sterner régime. + +Early on the morning of the 5th, they were eastward bound, to join the +rest of the First Division for training, and Paris saw the last of the +American soldiers. + +A few had leave, within the next few months, from engineering corps and +base hospitals. But the infantrymen and the marines were over learning +lessons in the war of trench and bayonet, and by Christmas even the +scattering leaves from behind the lines were discontinued, and +Americans on holiday bent were sent to Aix-les-Bains. Even officers had +little or no Paris leave, and those who had been quartered in Paris, in +the Rue Constantine and the Rue Sainte-Anne, were collected at the new +American headquarters, southeast of Paris. The American uniform all but +vanished off the Paris streets. The French national holiday, ten days +after the American, had no American contingent. + +So Paris and the American Army had a quick acquaintance, a brilliant one +and a brief one. It was mainly between the beginning and the end of that +Fourth of July. It will quite probably not be renewed till the end of +the war. Lucky the onlooker who sees the reunion. For then it may be +wagered that there will be gayety enough to answer the needs of even the +most post-card-haunted soldier. + +But to get on to the training-camps---- + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WHAT THEY LIVED IN + + +The American training-camp area spread over many miles and through many +villages. It had boundaries only in theory, because all its sides were +ready to swing farther north, east, south, and west at a day's notice, +whenever the Expeditionary Force should become army enough to require +it. + +But its focus was in the Vosges, in the six or seven villages set apart +from the beginning for the Americans, and as such, overhauled by those +first marines and quartermaster's assistants who left the coast in early +July and moved campward. + +This overhauling brought the end of the Franco-American honeymoon. +Later, amity was to be re-established, but when the first marine ordered +the first manure-pile out of the first front yard, a breach began which +it took long months to heal. + +There were few barracks in the Vosges. The soldiers were to be billeted +with the peasants. And the marines said the peasants had to clean up and +air, and the peasants said the marines were insane. + +Those first days at training-camp, before the body of the troops +arrived, were circus enough for anybody. + +Six villages were to be got ready, the officers to have the pick of +places, and the privates to have next best. And the choice of +assignments for officers was still so far from ideal as to make the +house-cleaning a thorough job all around. + +The marines had a village to themselves, the farthest from the +inspection-grounds. The correspondents had a village to themselves, too, +though it wasn't because there was any excess of regard for the +importance of the correspondents among the men who laid out the grounds. +They were put where they could do the least harm, and where their +confusing appearance, in Sam Brown belts and other officer-like +insignia, would not exact too many wasted salutes. + +General Headquarters was still in Paris at this time, but General +Sibert had Field Headquarters at camp, and though his assignment was +relatively stylish, it could not have been said to offend him with its +luxury. + +He lived and worked in a little frame building in the main street of the +central village, which had probably once been a hotel. + +It was to be recognized by the four soldiers always at attention outside +it, whenever motors or pedestrians passed that way. Two of the soldiers +were American and two were French. + +Although all the American training-camp area became America as to +jurisdiction, as soon as the troops moved there, the French soldiers +were always present around headquarters, partly to help and partly to +register politeness. + +Inside Field Headquarters, the little bare wooden rooms were stripped of +their few battered vases and old chromos, and plain wooden tables and +chairs were set about. The marines opened the windows, and scrubbed up +the floors, and hung out the sign of "Business as usual," and General +Sibert moved in. + +The rest was not so easy. The various kitchens came in first for +attention. For many days French and American motor-lorries had been +trundling across France, storing the warehouses with heaping piles of +food-supplies. The procession practically never stopped. Trains brought +what could be put aboard them, but it was to motors that most of the +real work fell. So the thin, long line of loaded cars stretched +endlessly from coast to camp, and finally everything was attended to but +where to put the food and where to cook it. + +The houses with the good back sheds were picked for kitchens, and the +big army soup-kettles were bricked into place, and what passed for ovens +were provided for the bakers. + +For bathing facilities, there were neat paths marked to the river. That +is, the French called it a river. Every American who rides through +France for the first time has the same experience: he looks out of his +train-window and remarks to his companion, who knows France well: "Isn't +that a pretty little creek? Are there many springs about here?" And the +companion replies scornfully: "That isn't a creek--that's the Marne +River," or "That's the Aisne," or "That's the Meuse." The American +always wonders what the French would call the Hudson. + +It was one of these storied streams that ran through the American +training-camp, in which the Americans did their bathing. Whenever a +soldier wanted to get his head wet he waded across. + +Later, when the camps were filled, these river-banks were to offer a +remarkable sight to the French peasants, who thought all Americans were +bathing-mad anyway. Hundreds of soldiers, in the assorted postures of +men scrubbing backs and knees and elbows, disported with soap and +wash-cloth along the banks. Hundreds of others, swimming their suds off, +flashed here an arm and there a leg in the stream itself. It did not +take much distance to make them look like figures on a frieze, a new +Olympic group. Modesty knew them not, but there were not supposed to be +women about, and the peasants had a nice Japanese point of view in the +matter. At any rate, there was the training-camp bathtub, and they used +it at least once a day, to the unending stupefaction of the French. + +Where they slept was another matter, suggesting neither Corot nor +Phidias. + +The privates had houses first, then barns. The barns were freed of the +live stock, which was turned into meadows to graze, and the floors were +dug down to clean earth, and vast quantities of formaldehyde were +sprayed around. Then the cots were carried up to the second floors of +the barns and put along in tidy rows. At the foot of each soldier's bed +was whatever manner of small wooden box he could corral from the +quartermaster, and there he kept all he owned. His pack unfolded its +contents into the box, and his comfort-kit perched on the top. And there +he kept the little mess of treasures he bought from the gypsy wagons +that rode all day around the outskirts of the camp. + +Windows were knocked out, just under the eaves, for the fresh air that +seemed, so inexplicably to the French, so essential to the Americans. + +Even with the First Division, acknowledged to be about the smallest +expeditionary force known to the Great War, the soldiers averaged a +little over two thousand to the village, and since not one of the +villages had more than four or five hundred population in peace-times, +the troubles of the man who arranged the billets were far from light. + +Fortunately, the First Division did not ask for luxuries. Even the +officers spent more time in simplifying their quarters than in trimming +them up. The colonel of one regiment--one of those who became +major-generals soon after the arrival in France--had his quarters in an +aristocratic old house, set back in a long yard, where plum-trees +dropped their red fruit in the vivid green grass and roses overgrew +their confines--it was the sort of house before which the pre-war motor +tourists used to stop and breathe long "ohs" of satisfaction. + +The entrance was by a low, arched doorway. The hall was built of +beautifully grained woods, old and mellow of tone. The stairway was +broad and easy to climb. The colonel had the second floor front, just +level with the tree-tops. + +In the room there were rich woods and tapestried walls, and at the back +was a four-poster mahogany bed with heavy satin hangings, brocaded with +fleur-de-lis. The Pompadour would have been entirely happy there. But +the American colonel had done things to it--things that would have +popped the eyes out of the Pompadour's head. He pinned up the +four-poster hangings with a safety-pin, that being the only way he could +convey to his amiable little French servant-girl that he didn't want +that bed turned down for him of nights. And he had taken all the satin +hangings down from the windows. Under these windows he had drawn up a +little board table and an army cot. Beside the table was his little army +trunk. The space he used did not measure more than ten feet in any +direction, and his luxuries waited unmolested for some more sybaritic +soul than he. + +A major in that same village who had had a cavalry command before the +cavalry, as he put it, became "mere messengers," picked his quarters out +himself, on the strength of all he had heard about "Sunny France." His +house was nothing much, but behind it was a garden--a long garden, +filled with vegetables, decorated with roses, shaded by fruit-trees. At +the far end of the garden was a summer-house, in a circle of trees. Here +the major took his first guests and showed how he intended to do his +work in the open air, while the famous French sunshine flooded his +garden and warmed his little refuge. + +The one thing it will never be safe to say to any veteran of the First +Division is "Sunny France." The summer of 1917, after a blazing start in +June, settled down to drizzle and mist, cold and fog, rain that soaked +to the marrow. + +The major with the garden sloshed around the whole summer, visiting men +who had settled indoors and had fireplaces. By the time the warmth had +come back to his summer-house it was time for him to go up to the +battle-line, and the man who writes a history of the billets in France +will get a lot of help from him. + +Some of the makeshifts of this first invasion were excusable and +inevitable. Some were not. After the first two or three weeks of +settling in, General Pershing made a tour of inspection, and some of the +things he said about what he saw didn't make good listening. But after +that visit all possible defects were overcome, and the men slept well, +ate well, were as well clothed as possible, and were admirably +sanitated. + +The drinking-water was a matter for the greatest strictness. The French +never drink water on any provocation, so that water provisions began +from the ground up. + +It was drawn into great skins and hung on tripods in the shaded parts of +the billets, and it was then treated with a germicide, tasteless +fortunately, carried in little glass capsules. This was a legacy from +experiences in Panama. + +Each man had his own tin cup, and when he got thirsty he went down and +turned the faucet in the hanging skin tank. If he drank any other water +he repented in the guard-house. + +So, though the billets were rude and sometimes uncomfortable, the +soldiers did stay in them and out of the hospitals. + +And there were compensations. + +Half of these were in play-times, and half in work-times. The training, +slow at first, speeded up afterward and, with the help of the "Blue +Devils" who trained with the Americans, took on all the exhilaration of +war with none of its dangers. But how they trained doesn't belong in a +chapter on billets. How they played is more suitable. + +Three-fourths of their playing they did with the French children. The +insurmountable French language, which kept doughboys and poilus at arm's +length in spite of their best intentions, broke down with the +youngsters. + +It was one of the finest sights around the camp to see the big soldiers +collecting around the mess-tent after supper, in the daylight-saving +long twilight, to hear the band and play in pantomime with the hundreds +of children who tagged constantly after them. + +The band concerts were a regular evening affair, though musically they +didn't come to much. Those were the days before anybody had thought to +supply the army bands with new music, so "She's My Daisy" and "The +Washington Post" made a daily appearance. + +But the concerts did not want for attendance. The soldiers stood around +by the hundreds, and listened and looked off over the hills to where the +guns were rumbling, whenever the children were not exacting too much +attention. + +This child-soldier combination had just two words. The child said +"Hello," which was all his English, and the party lasted till the +soldier, billet-bound, said "Fee-neesh," which was all his French. But +nobody could deny that both of them had a good time. + +Letter-writing was another favorite sport with the First Division, to +the great dole of the censors. Of course the men were homesick. That was +one reason. The other was that they had left home as heroes, and they +didn't intend to let the glory lapse merely because they had come across +to France and been slapped into school. The censors were astounded by +what they read ... gory battles of the day before, terrific air-raids, +bombardments of camp, etc. Some of the men told how they had slaughtered +Germans with their bare hands. Most of the letters were adjudged +harmless, and of little aid or comfort to the enemy, so they were passed +through. But some of the families of the First Division must have +thought that the War Department was holding out an awful lot on the +American public. + +Mid-July saw the camp in fair working order. The First Division had word +that it was presently to be joined by the New England Division and +the Rainbow Division, both National Guardsmen, and representative of +every State. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information._ + +Buglers of the Alpine Chasseurs, assisted by their military band, +entertaining American soldiers of the First Division.] + +American participation began to take shape as a real factor, a stern and +sombre business, and all the lighter, easier sides of the expedition +began to fall back, and work and grimness came on together. + +The French Alpine Chasseurs--whom the Americans promptly called +"chasers"--had a party with the Americans on July 14, when the whole day +was given over to a picnic, with boxing, wrestling, track sports, and a +lot of food. That was the last party in the training-camp till +Christmas. + +The work that began then had no let-up till the first three battalions +went into the trenches late in October. The steadily increasing number +of men widened the area of the training-camp, but they made no +difference in the contents of the working-day, nor in the system by +which it proceeded. + +Within the three weeks after the First Division had landed, the work of +army-building began. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +GETTING THEIR STRIDE + + +That part of France which became America in July, 1917, was of about the +shape of a long-handled tennis-racket. The broad oval was lying just +behind the fighting-lines. The handle reached back to the sea. Then, to +the ruin of the simile, the artillery-schools, the aviation-fields, and +the base hospitals made excrescences on the handle, so that an apter +symbol would be a large and unshapely string of beads. + +But France lends itself to pretty exact plotting out. There are no lakes +or mountains to dodge, nor particularly big cities to edge over to. In +the main, the organizing staffs of the two nations could draw lines from +the coast to the battle-fields, and say: "Between these two shall +America have her habitation and her name." + +The infantry trained in the Vosges. The artillery-ranges were next +behind, and then the aviation-grounds. The hospitals were placed +everywhere along the lines, from field-bases to those far in the rear. +And because neither French train service nor Franco-American motor +service could bear the giant burden of man-and-supply transportation, +the first job to which the engineer and labor units were assigned was +laying road-beds across France for a four-track railroad within the +American lines. + +In those days America did not look forward to the emergency which was to +brigade her troops with French or British, under Allied Generalissimo +Foch. Her plans were to put in a force which should be, as the English +say of their flats, "self-contained." If this arrangement had a fault, +it was that it was too leisurely. It was certainly not lacking on the +side of magnificence, either in concept or carrying-out. + +The scheme of bringing not only army but base of supplies, both +proportionate to a nation of a hundred million people, was necessarily +begun from the ground up. The American Army built railroads and +warehouses as a matter of course. It laid out training-camps for the +various arms of the service on an unheard-of scale. As it happens, the +original American plan was changed by the force of circumstances. Much +of the American man-power eventually was brigaded with the British and +French and went through the British and French soldier-making mills. But +the territory marked America still remains America and the excellent +showing made by the War Department in shipping men during the spring and +early summer of 1918 furnished a supply of soldiers sufficient to make +allotments to the Allies directly and at the same time preserve a +considerable force as a distinctly American Army. It is possible that +the fastest method of preparation possible might have been to brigade +with the Allies from the beginning. But it would have been difficult to +induce America to accept such a plan if it had not been for the +emergency created by the great German drive of the spring of 1918. + +American engineers were both building railroads and running them from +July on. The hospital units were installed even earlier. The first work +of an army comes behind the lines and a large proportion of the early +arrivals of the A. E. F. were non-fighting units. At that there was no +satisfying the early demands for labor. As late as mid-August General +Pershing was still doing the military equivalent of tearing his hair for +more labor units and stevedores. A small number of negroes employed as +civilian stevedores came with the First Division, but they could not +begin to fill the needs. Later all the stevedores sent were regularly +enlisted members of the army. While the great undertaking was still on +paper and the tips of tongues, the infantry was beginning its hard +lessons in the Vosges. The First Division was made up of something less +than 50 per cent of experienced soldiers, although it was a regular army +division. The leaven of learning was too scant. The rookies were all +potentiality. The training was done with French soldiers and for the +first little while under French officers. A division of Chasseurs +Alpines was withdrawn from the line to act as instructors for the +Americans, and for two months the armies worked side by side. "You will +have the honor," so the French order read, "of spending your permission +in training the American troops." This might not seem like the +pleasantest of all possible vacations for men from the line, but the +chasseurs seemed to take to it readily enough. These Chasseurs +Alpines--the Blue Devils--were the finest troops the French had. And if +they were to give their American guests some sound instruction later on, +they were to give them the surprise of their lives first. + +The French officer is the most dazzling sight alive, but the French +soldier is not. Five feet of height is regarded as an abundance. He got +his name of "poilu" not so much from his beard as from his perpetual +little black mustache. + +The doughboys called him "Froggy" with ever so definite a sense of +condescension. + +"Yes, they look like nothing--but you try following them for half a +day," said an American officer of the "poilus." + +They have a short, choppy stride, far different to the gangling gait of +the American soldier. The observer who looks them over and decides they +would be piffling on the march, forgets to see that they have the width +of an opera-singer under the arms, and that they no more get winded on +their terrific sprints than Caruso does on his high C's. + +And after they had done some stunts with lifting guns by the bayonet +tip, and had heaved bombs by the afternoon, the doughboys called in +their old opinions and got some new ones. + +All sorts of things were helping along the international liking and +respect. The prowess of the French soldiers was one of the most +important. But the soldiers' interpretation of Pershing's first general +order to the troops was another. This order ran: + +"For the first time in history an American Army finds itself in European +territory. The good name of the United States of America and the +maintenance of cordial relations require the perfect deportment of each +member of this command. It is of the gravest importance that the +soldiers of the American Army shall at all times treat the French +people, and especially the women, with the greatest courtesy and +consideration. The valiant deeds of the French Army and the Allies, by +which together they have successfully maintained the common cause for +three years, and the sacrifices of the civil population of France in +support of their armies command our profound respect. This can best be +expressed on the part of our forces by uniform courtesies to all the +French people, and by the faithful observance of their laws and customs. +The intense cultivation of the soil in France, under conditions caused +by the war, makes it necessary that extreme care should be taken to do +no damage to private property. The entire French manhood capable of +bearing arms is in the field fighting the enemy, and it should, +therefore, be a point of honor to each member of the American Army to +avoid doing the least damage to any property in France." + +Veteran soldiers take a general order as a general order, following it +literally. Recruits on a mission such as the First Division's took that +first general order as a sort of intimation, on which they were to build +their own conceptions of gallantry and good-will. Not only did they +avoid doing damage to French property, they minded the babies, drew the +well-water, carried faggots, peeled potatoes--did anything and +everything they found a Frenchwoman doing, if they had some off time. + +They fed the children from their own mess, kept them behind the lines at +grenade practice, mended their toys and made them new ones. + +These things cemented the international friendliness that the statesmen +of the two countries had made so much talk of. And by the time the war +training was to begin, doughboys and Blue Devils tramped over the long +white roads together with nothing more unfriendly left between them than +rivalry. + +The first thing they were set to do was trench-digging. The Vosges boast +splendid meadows. The Americans were told to dig themselves in. The +method of training with the French was to mark a line where the trench +should be, put the French at one end and the Americans at the other. +Then they were to dig toward each other as if the devil was after them, +and compare progress when they met. + +Trench-digging is every army's prize abomination. A good hate for the +trenches was the first step of the Americans toward becoming +professional. It was said of the Canadians early in the war that though +they would die in the last ditch they wouldn't dig it. + +No army but the German ever attempted to make its trenches neat and +cosey homes, but even the hasty gully required by the French seemed an +obnoxious burden to the doughboy. The first marines who dug a trench +with the Blue Devils found that their picks struck a stone at every +other blow, and that by the time they had dug deep enough to conceal +their length they were almost too exhausted to climb out again. + +The ten days given over to trench-digging was not so much because the +technic was intricate or the method difficult to learn. They were to +break the spirit of the soldiers and hammer down their conviction that +they would rather be shot in the open than dig a trench to hide in. They +were also to keep the aching backs and weary shoulders from getting +overstiff. Toward the end of July the first batch of infantrymen were +called off their trenches and were started at bomb practice. At first +they used dummy bombs. The little line of Blue Devils who were to start +the party picked up their bombs, swung their arms slowly overhead, held +them straight from wrist to shoulder, and let their bombs sail easily +up on a long, gentle arc, which presently landed them in the practice +trenches. + +"One-two-three-four," they counted, and away went the bombs. The +doughboys laughed. It seemed to them a throw fit only for a woman or a +substitute third baseman in the Texas League. When their turn came, the +doughboys showed the Blue Devils the right way to throw a bomb. They +lined them out with a ton of energy behind each throw, and the bombs +went shooting straight through the air, level above the trench-lines, +and a distance possibly twice as far as that attained by the Frenchmen. +They stood back waiting for the applause that did not come. + +"The objects are two in bomb-throwing, and you did not make either," +said the French instructor. "You must land your bomb in the +trenches--they do no more harm than wind when they fly straight--and you +must save your arm so that you can throw all afternoon." + +So the baseball throw was frowned out, and the half-womanish, +half-cricket throw was brought in. + +After the doughboys had mastered their method they were put to getting +somewhere with it. They were given trenches first at ten metres' +distance, and then at twenty. Then there were competitions, and war +training borrowed some of the fun of a track meet. The French had odds +on. No army has ever equalled them for accuracy of bomb-throwing, and +the doughboys, once pried loose from their baseball advantage, were not +in a position to push the French for their laurels. The American Army's +respect for the French began to have growing-pains. But what with +driving hard work, the doughboys learned finally to land a dummy bomb so +that it didn't disgrace them. + +With early August came the live grenades, and the first serious defect +in the American's natural aptitude for war-making was turned up. This +defect had the pleasant quality of being sentimentally correct, even if +sharply reprehensible from the French point of view. It was, in brief, +that the soldiers had no sense of danger, and resisted all efforts to +implant one, partly from sheer lack of imagination in training, and +partly from a scorn of taking to cover. + +The live bombs were hurled from deep trenches, aimed not at a point, but +at a distance--any distance, so it was safe. But once the bombs were +thrown, every other doughboy would straighten up in his trench to see +what he had hit. Faces were nipped time and again by the fragments of +flying steel, and the French heaped admonitions on admonitions, but it +was long before the American soldiers would take their war-game +seriously. + +Later, in the mass attacks on "enemy trenches," when they were ordered +to duck on the grass to avoid the bullets, the doughboys ducked as they +were told, then popped up at once on one elbow to see what they could +see. The Blue Devils training with them lay like prone statues. The +doughboys looked at them in astonishment, and said, openly and +frequently: "But there ain't any bullets." + +It was finally from the British, who came later as instructors, that the +doughboys accepted it as gospel that they must be pragmatic about the +dangers, and "act as if...." Then some of the wiseacres at the camp +pronounced the conviction that the Americans thought the French were +melodramatic, and by no means to be copied, until they found their +British first cousins, surely above reproach for needless emotionalism, +were doing the same strange things. + +The state of mind into which Allied instructors sought to drive or coax +the Americans was pinned into a sharp phrase by a Far Western enlisted +man before he left his own country. A melancholy relative had said, as +he departed: "Are you ready to give your life to your country?" To which +the soldier answered: "You bet your neck I'm not--I'm going to make some +German give his life for his." + +This was representative enough of the sentiments of the doughboys, but +the instructors ran afoul of their deepest convictions when they +insisted that this was an art to be learned, not a mere preference to be +favored. + +After the live bombs came the first lessons in machine-gun fire, using +the French machine-gun and automatic rifle. The soldiers were taught to +take both weapons apart and put them together again, and then they were +ordered to fire them. + +The first trooper to tackle an automatic rifle aimed the little monster +from the trenches, and opened fire, but he found to his discomfiture +that he had sprayed the hilltops instead of the range, and one of the +officers of the Blue Devils told him he would better be careful or he +would be transferred to the anti-aircraft service. + +The veterans of the army, however, had little trouble with the automatic +rifle or the machine-guns, even at first. The target was 200 metres +away, at the foot of a hill, and the first of the sergeants to tackle it +made 30 hits out of a possible 34. + +The average for the army fell short of this, but the men were kept at it +till they were thoroughly proficient. + +One characteristic of all the training of the early days at camp was +that both officers and men were being prepared to train later troops in +their turn, so that many lectures in war theory and science, and many +demonstrations of both, were included there. This accounted for much of +the additional time required to train the First Division. + +But while their own training was unusually long drawn out, they were +being schooled in the most intensive methods in use in either French or +British Army. It was an unending matter for disgust to the doughboy that +it took him so long to learn to hurry. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SPEEDING UP + + +While the soldiers were still, figuratively speaking, in their own +trenches and learning the several arts of getting out, the officers of +the infantry camp were having some special instructions in instructing. + +Young captains and lieutenants were placed in command of companies of +the Blue Devils, and told to put them through their paces--in French. + +It was, of course, a point of honor with the officers not to fall back +into English, even in an emergency. One particularly nervous young man, +who had ordered his French platoon to march to a cliff some distance +away, forgot the word for "Halt" or "Turn around" as the disciplined +Blue Devils, eyes straight ahead, marched firmly down upon their doom. +At the very edge, while the American clinched his sticky palms and +wondered what miracle would save him, a helpful French officer called +"Halte," and the American suddenly remembered that the word was the same +in both languages--an experience revoltingly frequent with Americans in +distress with their French. + +But disasters such as this were not numerous. The officers worked +excellently, at French as well as soldiering, and little precious time +was needed for them. + +Three battalions were at work at this first training--two American and +one French. As these learned their lessons, they were put forward to the +next ones, and new troops began at the beginning. This plan was +thoroughly organized at the very beginning, so that the later enormous +influx of troops did not disrupt it, and as the first Americans came +nearer to the perfection they were after, they were put back to leaven +the raw troops as the French Blue Devils had done for the first of them. + +The plan further meant that after the first few weeks, what with +beginners in the First Division and newly arriving troops, the Vosges +fields offered instruction at almost anything along the programme on any +given day. + +Over the whole camp, the aim of the French officers was to reproduce +actual battle conditions as absolutely as possible, and to eliminate, +within reason, any advantage that surprise might give to the Germans. + +By the end of the first week in August, the best scholars among the +trench-diggers and bombers were being shown how to clean out trenches +with live grenades, and the machine-gunners and marksmen were getting +good enough to be willing to bet their own money on their performances. + +Then came the battalion problems, the proper use of grenades by men +advancing in formations against a mythical enemy in intrenched +positions. + +From the beginning, the American Army refused to accept the theory that +the war would never again get into the open. They trained in open +warfare, and with a far greater zest--partly, of course, because it was +the thing they knew already, though they found they had some things to +unlearn. + +Then the war brought about a reorganization of American army units, and +it was necessary for the officers to familiarize themselves with new +conditions. The reorganization was ordered early in August, and put into +effect shortly afterward. The request from General Pershing that the +administrative units of the infantry be altered to conform with European +systems had in its favor the fact that it economized higher officers and +regimental staffs, for at the same time that divisions were made +smaller, regiments were made larger. + +The new arrangement of the infantry called for a company of 250 enlisted +men and 6 commissioned officers, instead of 100 men and 3 officers. Each +company was then divided into 4 platoons, with a lieutenant in command. +Each regiment was made up of 3 battalions of 4 companies each, +supplemented by regimental headquarters and the supply and machine-gun +organizations. + +This made it possible to have 1 colonel and 3 battalion commanders +officer 3,600 men, as against 2,000 of the old order. + +This army in the making was not called on to show itself in the mass +till August 16, just a month after its hard work had begun. Then +Major-General Sibert, field-commander of the First Division and +best-loved man in France, held a review of all the troops. The +manoeuvres were held in a great open plain. The marching was done to +spirited bands, who had to offset a driving rain-storm to keep the men +perked up. The physical exercise of the first month showed in the +carriage of the men, infinitely improved, and they marched admirably, in +spite of the fact that their first training had been a specialization in +technical trench warfare. General Sibert made them a short address of +undiluted praise, and they went back to work again. + +A few days later the army had its first intelligence drill, with the +result that some erstwhile soldiers were told off to cook and tend +mules. + +The test consisted in delivering oral messages. One message was: "Major +Blank sends his compliments to Captain Nameless, and orders him to move +L Company one-half mile to the east, and support K Company in the +attack." The officer who gave the message then moved up the hill and +prepared to receive it. + +The third man up came in panting excitement, full of earnest desire to +do well. "Captain, the major says that you're to move your men a mile to +the east," he said, "and attack K Company." He peeled the potatoes for +supper. + +The gas tests came late in August. The officers, believing that fear of +gas could not be excessive, had done some tall talking before the masks +were given out, and in the first test, when the men were to enter a +gas-filled chamber with their masks on, they had all been assured that +one whiff would be fatal. The gas in the chamber was of the +tear-compelling kind, only temporarily harmful, even on exposure to it. +But that was a secret. + +The men were drilled in putting their masks on, till the worst of them +could do it in from three to five seconds. Both the French and the +British masks were used, the one much lighter but comparatively riskier +than the other. Officers required the men to have their masks constantly +within reach, and gas alarms used to be called at meal-times, or +whenever it seemed thoroughly inconvenient to have them. The soldiers +were required to drop everything and don the cumbersome contrivances, +no matter how well they knew that there wasn't any gas. There is no +question that this thoroughness saved many lives when the men went into +the trenches. + +When they masked and went into the gas-chamber the care they took with +straps and buckles could not have been bettered. One or two of the men +fainted from heat and nervousness, but nobody caught the temporary +blindness that would have been their lot if the gas had not been held +off. And after the first few entrants had returned none the worse, the +rest made a lark of it, and the whole experience stamped on their minds +the uselessness of gas as a weapon if you're handy with the mask. + +The first insistence on rifle use and marksmanship, which General +Pershing was to stress later with all the eloquence he had, was heard in +late August. The French said frankly they had neglected the power of the +rifle, and the Americans were put to work to avoid the same mistake. In +target-shooting with rifles the Americans got their first taste of +supremacy. They ceased being novitiates for as long as they held their +rifles, and became respected and admired experts. The first English +Army, "the Old Contemptibles," had all been expert rifle-shots, and, +after a period when rifle fire was almost entirely absent from the +battle-fields, tacticians began to recall this fact, and the cost it had +entailed upon the Germans. + +So the doughboys added rifle fire to their other jobs. + +About this time the day of the doughboy was a pattern of compactness, +though he called it a harsher name. + +It began in the training area at five o'clock in the morning. One +regiment had a story that some of the farm lads used to beat the buglers +up every day and wander about disconsolate, wondering why the morning +was being wasted. This was probably fictional. As a rule, five o'clock +came all too early. There was little opportunity to roll over and have +another wink, for roll-call came at five-thirty, and this was followed +by brief setting-up exercises, designed to give the men an ambition for +breakfast. At this meal French customs were not popular. The poilu, who +begins his day with black coffee and a little bread, was always amazed +to see the American soldier engaged with griddle-cakes and corned-beef +hash, and such other substantial things as he could get at daybreak. +Just after breakfast sick-call was sounded. It was up to the ailing man +to report at that time as a sufferer or forever after hold his peace. +While the sick were engaged in reporting themselves the healthy men +tidied up. Work proper began at seven. + +As a rule, bombing, machine-gun, and automatic-rifle fire practice came +in the mornings. Time was called at eleven and the soldiers marched back +to billets for the midday meal. Later, when the work piled up even more, +the meals were prepared on the training-grounds. Rifle and bayonet +practice came in the afternoon. Four o'clock marked the end of the +working-day for all except captains and lieutenants, who never found any +free time in waking hours. In fact, most of the excited +youngsters--almost all under thirty--let their problems perturb their +dreams. The doughboys amused themselves with swims, walks, concerts, +supper, and French children till nine o'clock, when they were always +amiable toward going to bed. + +With September came the British to supplement the French and, after a +little, to go far toward replacing them. For the Blue Devils had still +work to do on the Germans, and their "vacation" could not last too long. + +A fine and spectacular sham battle put a climax to the stay of the +French, when, after artillery preparation, the Blue Devils took the +newly made American trenches, advancing under heavy barrage. The three +objectives were named Mackensen, Von Kluck, and Ludendorff. The +artillery turned everything it had into the slow-moving screen, under +which the "chasers" crept toward the foe. All the watching doughboys had +been instructed to put on their shrapnel helmets. At the pitch of the +battle some officers found their men using their helmets as good front +seats for the show, but fortunately there were no casualties. Words do +not kill. + +The departure of the Blue Devils was attended by a good deal of +home-made ceremony and a universal deep regret. A genuine liking had +sprung up between the Americans and their French preceptors, and when +they marched away from camp the soldiers flung over them what detachable +trophies they had, the strains of all their bands, the unified good +wishes of the whole First Division, and unnumbered promises to be a +credit to their teachers when they got into the line. + +It was the bayonet which proved the first connecting-link between the +Americans and the British. American observers had decided after a few +weeks that the bayonet was a peculiarly British weapon, and in +consequence it was decided that for this phase of the training, the army +should rely on the British rather than the French. + +The British General Staff obligingly supplied the chief bayonet +instructor of their army with a number of assisting sergeants, and the +squad was sent down to camp. + +The British brought two important things, in addition to expert +bayoneting. They were, first, a familiar bluntness of criticism, which +the Americans had rather missed with the polite French, and a +competitive spirit, stirred up wherever possible between rival units of +the A. E. F. + +Their willingness to "act" their practice was another factor, though in +that they did not excel the French except in that they could impart it +to the Americans. + +The British theory of bayonet work proved to be almost wholly offensive. +They went at their instruction of it with undimmed fire. At the end of +the first week, they gave a demonstration to some visiting officers. +Three short trenches had been constructed in a little dip of land, and +the spectators stood on the hill above them. On the opposite slope tin +cans shone brightly, hoisted on sticks. + +"Ready, gentlemen," said the drill-sergeant. "Prepare for trench bayonet +practice by half sections. You're to take these three lines of trenches, +lay out every Boche in the lot, and then get to cover and fire six +rounds at them 'ere tin hats. Don't waste a shot, gentlemen, every +bullet a Boche. Now, then, ready--over the top, and give 'em 'ell, right +in the stomach." + +Over the top they went and did as they were told. But the excitement was +not great enough to please the drill-sergeant. He turned to the second +section, and put them through at a rounder pace. Then he took over some +young officers, who were being instructed to train later troops, at +cleaning out trenches. Sacks representing Germans were placed in a +communicating trench. + +"Now, remember, gentlemen," said the sergeant, "there's a Fritz in each +one of these 'ere cubby-'oles, and 'e's no dub, is Fritz. 'E's got ears +all down 'is back. Make your feet pneumatic. For 'eaven's sake, don't +sneeze, or 'is nibs will sling you a bomb like winkin', and there'll be +a narsty mess. Ready, Number One! 'Ead down, bayonet up ... it's no use +stickin' out your neck to get a sight of Fritzie in 'is 'ole. Why, if +old Fritz was there, 'e'd just down your point, and then where'd you be? +Why, just a blinkin' casualty, and don't you forget it. Ready again, +bayonet up. Now you see 'em. Quick, down with your point and at 'im. +Tickle 'is gizzard. Not so bad, but I bet you waked 'is nibs in the next +'ole. Keep in mind you're fightin' for your life...." + +By the time the officers were into the trench, the excitement was +terrific. + +It was such measures as these that made the bayonet work go like +lightning, and cut down the time required at it by more than one-half. + +The organized recreation and the competitions, two sturdy British +expedients for morale, always came just after these grimmest of all of +war's practices. The more foolish the game, the more rapturously the +British joined in it. Red Rover and prisoner's base were two prime +favorites. A British major said the British Army had discovered that +when the men came out of the trenches, fagged and horror-struck, the +surest way to bring them back was to set them hard at playing some game +remembered from their childhood. + +The British had even harder work, at first, to make the men fall in with +the games than they had with war practice. But the friendly spirit +existing basically between English and Americans, however spatty their +exterior relationships may sometimes be, finally got everybody in +together. The Americans found that a British instructor would as lief +call them "rotten" if he thought they deserved it, but that he did it +so simply and inoffensively that it was, on the whole, very welcome. + +So the Americans learned all they could from French and British, and +began the scheme of turning back on themselves, and doing their own +instructing. + +The infantry camp was destined to have some offshoots, as the number of +men grew larger, and the specialists required intensive work. Officers' +schools sprang up all over France, and all the supplemental forces, +which had infantry training at first, scattered off to their special +training, notably the men trained to throw gas and liquid fire. + +But, for the most part, the camp in the Vosges remained the big central +mill it was designed to be, and in late October, when three battalions +put on their finishing touches in the very battle-line, the cycle was +complete. Before the time when General Pershing offered the +Expeditionary Force to Generalissimo Foch, to put where he chose, the +giant treadway from sea to camp and from camp to battle was grinding in +monster rhythms. It never thereafter feared any influx of its raw +material. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +BACK WITH THE BIG GUNS + + +THE American Expeditionary Force which went into the great +training-schools of France and England was like nothing so much as a +child who, having long been tutored in a programme of his own make, an +abundance of what he liked and nothing of what he didn't, should be +thrust into some grade of a public school. He would be ridiculously +advanced in mathematics and a dunce at grammar, or historian to his +finger-tips and ignorant that two and two make four. He would amaze his +fellow pupils in each respect equally. + +And that was the lot of the Expeditionary Force. The French found them +backward in trench work and bombing, and naturally enough expected that +backwardness to follow through. They conceded the natural quickness of +the pupils, but saw a long road ahead before they could become an army. +Then the Americans tackled artillery, hardest and deepest of the war +problems, and suddenly blossomed out as experts. + +Of course, the analogy is not to be leaned on too heavily. The Americans +were not, on the instant, the arch-exponents of artillery in all Europe. +But it is true that in comparison to the size of their army, and to the +extent to which they had prepared nationally for war, their artillery +was stronger than that of any other country on the Allied side at the +beginning of the war, notwithstanding that it was the point where they +might legitimately have been expected to be the weakest. + +Hilaire Belloc called the American artillery preparation one of the most +dramatic and welcome surprises of the war. + +It must be understood that all this applies only to men and not in the +least to guns. For big guns, the American reliance was wholly upon +France and England, upon the invitation of those two countries when +America entered the war. + +And the readiness of America's men was not due to a large preparation in +artillery as such. The blessing arose from the fact that the coast +defense could be diverted, within the first year of war, to the handling +of the big guns for land armies, and thus strengthen the artillery arm +sent to France for final training. + +Artillery was every country's problem, even in peace-times. It was the +service which required the greatest wealth and the most profound +training. There was no such thing as a citizenry trained to artillery. +Mathematics was its stronghold, and no smattering could be made to do. +Even more than mathematics was the facility of handling the big guns +when mathematics went askew from special conditions. + +These things the coast defense had, if not in final perfection, at least +in creditable degree. And the diversion of it to the artillery in France +stiffened the backbone of the Expeditionary Force to the pride of the +force and the glad amazement of its preceptors. + +One other thing the coast defense had done: it had pre-empted the +greater part of America's attention in times of peace and +unpreparedness, so that big-gun problems had received a disproportionate +amount of study. The American technical journals on artillery were +always of the finest. The war services were honeycombed with men who +were big-gun experts. + +So when the first artillery training-school opened in France, in +mid-August of 1917, the problems to be faced were all of a more or less +external character. + +The first of these, of course, was airplane work. The second was in +mastering gun differences between American and French types, and in +learning about the enormous numbers of new weapons which had sprung from +battle almost day by day. + +The camp, when the Americans moved in, had much to recommend it to its +new inhabitants. There need be no attempt to conceal the fact that first +satisfaction came with the barracks, second with the weather, and only +third with the guns and planes. + +Some of the artillerymen had come from the infantry camps, and some +direct from the coast. Those from the Vosges camp were boisterous in +their praise of their quarters. They had brick barracks, with floors, +and where they were billeted with the French they found excellent +quarters in the old, low-lying stone and brick houses. The weather would +not have been admired by any outsider. But to the men from the Vosges it +owed a reputation, because they extolled it both day and night. The +artillery camp was in open country, to permit of the long ranges, and if +it sunned little enough, neither did it rain. + +The guns and airplanes supplied by the French were simple at first, +becoming, as to guns at least, steadily more numerous and complicated as +the training went on. + +The men began on the seventy-fives, approximately the American +three-inch gun, and on the howitzers of twice that size. + +The airplane service was the only part of the work wholly new to the +men, and, naturally enough, it was the most attractive. + +Although the officers and instructors warned that air observation and +range-finding was by far the most dangerous of all artillery service, +seventy-five per cent of the young officers who were eligible for the +work volunteered for it. This required a two-thirds weeding out, and +insured the very pick of men for the air crews. + +The air service with artillery was made over almost entirely by the +French between the time of the war's beginning and America's entrance. +All the old visual aids were abolished, such as smoke-pointers and +rockets, and the telephone and wireless were installed in their stead. +The observation-balloons had the telephone service, and the planes had +wireless. + +By these means the guns were first fired and then reported on. The +general system of range-finding was: "First fire long, then fire short, +then split the bracket." This was the joint job of planes and +gunners--one not to be despised as a feat. + +In fact, artillery is, of all services, the one most dependent on +co-operation. It is always a joint job, but the joining must be done +among many factors. + +Its effectiveness depends first upon the precision of the mathematical +calculation which goes before the pull of the lanyard. This calculation +is complicated by the variety of types of guns and shells, and, in the +case of howitzers, by the variable behavior of charges of different size +and power. But these are things that can be learned with patience, and +require knowledge rather than inspiration. + +It is when the air service enters that inspiration enters with it. +Observation must be accurate, in spite of weather, visibility, enemy +camouflage, and everything else. More than that, the observer in the +plane must keep himself safe--often a matter of sheer genius. + +The map-maker must do his part, so that targets not so elusive as +field-guns and motor-emplacements can be found without much help from +the air. + +Finally, the artillery depends, even more than any other branch of the +service, on the rapidity with which its wants can be filled from the +rear. The mobility of the big pieces, and their constant connections +with ammunition-stores, are matters depending directly on the training +of the artillerymen. + +These, then, were the things in which the Americans were either tested +or trained. Their mathematics were A1, as has been noted, and their +familiarity with existing models of big guns sufficient to enable them +to pick up the new types without long effort. + +They had a few weeks of heavy going with pad and pencil, then they were +led to the giant stores of French ammunition--more than any of them had +ever seen before--and told to open fire. One dramatic touch exacted by +the French instructors was that the guns should be pointed toward +Germany, no matter how impotent their distance made them. + +Long lanes, up to 12,000 metres, were told off for the ranges. The +training was intensive, because at that time there was a half-plan to +put the artillery first into the battle-line. In any case it is easier +to make time on secondary problems than on primary. + +Throughout September, while the artillerymen grew in numbers as well as +proficiency, the mastering of gun types was perfected, and the theory of +aim was worked out on paper. + +Late in the month the French added more guns, chief among them being a +monster mounted on railway-trucks whose projectile weighed 1,800 pounds. +The artillerymen named her "Mosquito," "because she had a sting," +although she had served for 300 charges at Verdun. It was not long +before every type of gun in the French Army, and many from the British, +were lined up in the artillery camp, being expertly pulled apart and +reassembled. + +By the time the artillery went into battle with the infantry, failing in +their intention to go first alone, but nevertheless first in actual +fighting, they were able to give a fine account of themselves. By the +time they had got back to camp and were training new troops from their +own experience, they were the centre of an extraordinary organization. + +The rolling of men from camp to battle and back again, training, +retraining, and fighting in the circle, with an increasing number of men +able to remain in the line, and a constantly increasing number of new +men permitted to come in at the beginning, ground out an admirable +system before the old year was out. + +The fact that the artillery-school could not take its material raw did +not make the hitches it otherwise would, chiefly, of course, because of +the coast defense, and somewhat because American college men were found +to have a fine substratum of technical knowledge which artillery could +turn to account. + +After all the routine was fairly learned, and there had been a helpful +interim in the line, the artillery practised on some specialties, partly +of their own contribution, and partly those suggested by the other +armies. + +One of these, the most picturesque, was the shattering of the +"pill-boxes," German inventions for staying in No Man's Land without +being hit. + +A "pill-box" is a tiny concrete fortress, set up in front of the +trenches, usually in groups of fifteen to twenty. They have slot-like +apertures, through which Germans do their sniping. They are supposed to +be immune from anything except direct hit by a huge shell. But the +American artillery camp worked out a way of getting them--with luck. +Each aperture, through which the German inmates sighted and shot, was +put under fire from automatic rifles, coming from several directions at +once, so that it was indiscreet for the Boche to stay near his windows, +on any slant he could devise. Under cover of this rifle barrage, bombers +crept forward, and at a signal the rifle fire stopped, and the bombers +threw their destruction in. + +All these accomplishments, which did not take overlong to learn, +enhanced the natural value of the American artilleryman. He became, in a +short time, the pride of the army and a warmly welcomed mainstay to the +Allies. + +Major-General Peyton C. March, who took the artillery to France and +commanded them in their days of organization, before he was called back +to be Chief of Staff at Washington, was always credited, by his men, +with being three-fourths of the reason why they made such a showing. +General March always credited the matter to his men. At any rate, +between them they put their country's best foot foremost for the first +year of America in France, and they served as optimism centres even when +distress over other delays threatened the stoutest hearts. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE EYES OF THE ARMY + + +America's beginnings in the air service were pretty closely kin to her +other beginnings--she furnished the men and took over the apparatus. And +although by September 1, 1917, she had large numbers of aviators in the +making in France, they were flying--or aspiring to--in French schools, +under American supervision, with French machines and French instructors. + +There existed, in prospect, and already in detailed design, several +enormous flying-fields, to be built and equipped by America, as well as +half a dozen big repair-shops, and one gigantic combination repair-shop, +assembling-shop, and manufacturing plant. + +But in the autumn, when there were aviators waiting in France to go up +that very day, there was no waiting on fields trimmed by America. + +When the main school, under American supervision, had filled to +overflowing, the remaining probationers were scattered among the French +schools under French supervision. Meanwhile, the engineers and +stevedores shared the work of constructing "the largest aviation-field +in the world" in central France. + +It was once true of complete armies that they could be trained to +warfare in their own home fields, and then sent to whatever part of the +world happened to be in dispute, and they required no more additional +furbishing up than a short rest from the journey. That is no longer true +of anything about an army except the air service, and it isn't literally +true of them. But they approach it. + +So it was practicable to give the American aviators nine-tenths of their +training at home, and leave the merest frills to a few spare days in +France. This, of course, takes no account of the first weeks at the +battle-front, which are only nominally training, since in the course of +them a flier may well have to battle for his life, and often does catch +a German, if he chances on one as untutored as himself. + +The French estimate of the necessary time to make an aviator is about +four months before he goes up on the line, and about four months in +patrol, on the line, before he is a thoroughly capable handler of a +battle-plane. They cap that by saying that an aviator is born, not made, +anyway, and that "all generalizations about them are untrue, including +this one." + +The air policy of France, however, was in a state of great fluidity at +this time. They were not prepared to lay down the law, because they were +in the very act of giving up their own romantic, adventurous system of +single-man combat, and were borrowing the German system of squadron +formation. They were reluctant enough to accept it, let alone +acknowledge their debt to the Germans. But the old knight-errantry of +the air could not hold up against the new mass attacks. And the French +are nothing if not practical. + +Even their early war aviators had prudence dinned into them--that +prudence which does not mean a niggardliness of fighting spirit, but +rather an abstaining from foolhardiness. + +Each aviator was warned that if he lost his life before he had to, he +was not only squandering his own greatest treasure, but he was leaving +one man less for France. + +This was the philosophy of the training-school. If the French were +impatient with a flier who lost his life to the Germans through excess +of friskiness, they were doubly so at the flier who endangered his life +at school through heedlessness. + +"If you pull the wrong lever," they said, "you will kill a man and wreck +a machine. Your country cannot afford to pay, either, for your fool +mistakes." + +But there their dogma ended. Once the flier had learned to handle his +machine, his further behavior was in the hands of American officers +solely, and these, he found, were stored with several very definite +ideas. + +The first of these--the most marked distinction between the French +system and the American--was that all American aviators should know the +theories of flying and most of its mathematics. + +Concerning these things the French cared not a hang. + +Neither did the American aviators. But they toed the mark just the +same, and many a youngster gnawed his pencil indoors and cursed the fate +that had placed him with a country so finicky about air-currents on +paper and so indifferent to the joys of learning by ear. + +The Americans accepted from the beginning the edict on squadron flying. +It was as much a part of their training as field-manoeuvres for the +infantry. And because they had no golden days of derring-do to look back +upon, they did less grumbling. Besides, there was always the chance of +getting lost, and patrols offered some good opportunities to the +venturesome. + +The air service had at this time an extra distinction. They were the +only arm of America's service that had really impressed the Germans. The +German experts, as they spoke through their newspapers, were +contemptuous of the army and all its works. They maintained that it +would be impossible for American transports to bring more than half a +million men to France, if they tried forever, because the submarines +would add to the inherent difficulties, and make "American +participation" of less actual menace than that of Roumania. + +The Frankfurter Zeitung said: "There is no doubt that the Entente lay +great stress on American assistance on this point (air warfare). Nor do +we doubt that the technical resources of the enemy will achieve +brilliant work in this branch. But all this has its limits ... in this +field, superiority in numbers is by no means decisive. Quality and the +men are what decide." + +Major Hoffe, of the German General Staff, wrote in the Weser Zeitung: +"The only American help seriously to be reckoned with is aerial aid." + +There was a quantity of such talk. Incidentally, the same experts who +limited America's troops to half a million in France at the most +indulgent estimate, said, over and over, that a million were to be +feared, just the number announced to be in France by President Wilson +one year from the time of the first debarkation. + +The aviators worked hard enough to deserve the German honor. In the +French school supervised by the Americans the schedule would have +furnished Dickens some fine material for pathos. + +The day began at 4 A. M., with a little coffee for an eye-opener. The +working-day began in the fields at 5 sharp. If the weather permitted +there were flights till 11, when the pupil knocked off for a midday +meal. He was told to sleep then till 4 in the afternoon, when flying +recommenced, and continued till 8.30. The rest of his time was all his +own. He spent it getting to bed. + +There was an average of four months under this régime. The flier began +on the ground, and for weeks he was permitted no more than a dummy +machine, which wobbled along the ground like a broken-winged duck, and +this he used to learn levers and mechanics--those things he had toiled +over on paper before he was even allowed on the field. + +After a while he was permitted in the air with an instructor, and +finally alone. There were creditably few disasters. For months there was +never a casualty. But if a man had an accident it was a perfectly +open-and-shut affair. Either he ruined himself or he escaped. It was +part of the French system with men who escaped to send them right back +into the air, as soon as they could breathe, so that the accident would +not impair their flying-nerves. + +After the three or four months of foundation work, if the term is not +too inept for flying, the aviator had his final examination, a +triangular flight of about ninety miles, with three landings. The +landings are the great trick of flying. Like the old Irish story, it +isn't the falling that hurts you, it's the sudden stop. + +If the pupil made his landings with accuracy he was passed on to the big +school at Pau, where acrobatics are taught. The flight acrobat was the +ace, the armies found. And no man went to battle till he could do +spiral, serpentine, and hairpin turns, could manage a tail spin, and "go +into a vrille"--a corkscrew fall which permitted the flier to make great +haste from where he was, and yet not lose control of his machine, at the +same time that he made a tricky target for a Boche machine-gun. + +While all this training was going on the ranks of American aviators were +filling in at the top. The celebrated Lafayette Escadrille, the American +aviators who joined the French Army at the beginning of the war, was +taken into the American Army in the late summer. Then all the Americans +who were in the French aviation service who had arrived by way of the +Foreign Legion were called home. + +These were put at instructing for a time, then their several members +became the veteran core of later American squadrons. This air unit was +finally placed at 12 fliers and 250 men, and before Christmas there was +a goodly number of them, a number not to be told till the care-free and +uncensored days after the war. + +By the beginning of the new year American aviation-fields were taking +shape. The engineers had laid a spur of railroad to link the largest of +them with the main arteries of communication, and the labor units had +built the same sort of small wooden city that sprang up all over America +as cantonments. + +There were roomy barracks, a big hall where chapel services alternated +with itinerant entertainers, a little newspaper building, plenty of +office-barracks with typewriters galore and the little models on which +aviators learn their preliminary lessons. + +There is one training-field six miles long and a mile and a half wide, +where all kinds of instruction is going on, even to acrobatics. + +And there are several large training-schools just behind the +fighting-lines, which have plenty of visiting Germans to practise on. + +The enormity of the American air programme made it a little unwieldy at +first, and it got a late start. But on the anniversary of its beginning +it had unmeasured praise from official France, and even before that the +French newspapers had loudly sung its praises. + +The American aviator as an individual was a success from the beginning. +He has unsurpassed natural equipment for an ace, and his training has +been unprecedentedly thorough. And he has dedicated his spirit through +and through. He has set out to make the Germans see how wise they were +to be afraid. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SCHOOLS FOR OFFICERS + + +The first economy effected after the broad sweep of training was in +swing was to segregate the officers for special training, and these +officers' schools fell into two types. + +First, there was the camp for the young commissioned officers from +Plattsburg, and similar camps in America, to give them virtually the +same training as the soldiers had, but at a sharper pace, inclusive also +of more theory, and to increase their executive ability in action; +second, there was the school established by General Pershing, late in +the year, through which non-commissioned officers could train to take +commissions. + +Of the first type, there were many, of the second, only one. + +The camp for the Plattsburg graduates which turned its men first into +the fighting was one having about 300 men, situated in the south of +France, where the weather could do its minimum of impeding. + +These youngsters arrived in September, and they were fighting by +Thanksgiving. The next batch took appreciably less time to train, partly +because the organization had been tried out and perfected on the first +contingent, and partly because they were destined for a longer stay in +the line before they were hauled back for training others. This process +was duplicated in scores of schools throughout France, so that the +Expeditionary Force, what with its reorganization to require fewer +officers, and its complementary schools, never lacked for able +leadership. + +The first school was under command of Major-General Robert Bullard, a +veteran infantry officer with long experience in the Philippines to draw +on, and a conviction that the proper time for men to stop work was when +they dropped of exhaustion. + +His officers began their course with a battalion of French troops to aid +them, and they were put into company formation, of about 75 men to the +company, just as the humble doughboy was. + +They were all infantry officers, who were to take command as first and +second lieutenants, but they specialized in whatever they chose. They +were distinguished by their hat-bands: white for bayonet experts, blue +for the liquid-fire throwers, yellow for the machine-gunners, red for +the rifle-grenadiers, orange for the hand-grenadiers, and green for the +riflemen. These indicated roughly the various things they were taught +there, in addition to trench-digging and the so-called battalion +problems, recognizable to the civilian as team-work. + +Their work was not of the fireside or the library. It was the joint +opinion of General Pershing, General Sibert, and General Bullard that +the way to learn to dig a trench was to dig it, and that nothing could +so assist an officer in directing men at work as having first done the +very same job himself. + +They had a permanent barracks which had once housed young French +officers, in pre-war days, and they had a generous Saturday-to-Monday +town leave. + +These two benefactions, plus their tidal waves of enthusiasm, carried +them through the herculean programme devised by General Bullard and the +assisting French officers and troops. + +They began, of course, with trench-digging, and followed with live +grenades, machine-guns, automatic rifles, service-shells, bayonet work, +infantry formation for attack, and gas tests. Then they were initiated +into light and fire signals, star-shells, gas-bombing, and liquid fire. + +Last, they came in on the rise of the wave of rifle popularity, and +trained at it even more intensively than the first of the doughboys. +"The rifle is the American weapon," was General Pershing's constant +reiteration, "and it has other uses than as a stick for a bayonet." + +But efficacious as schools of this type were, there was a need they did +not meet, a need first practical, then sentimental, and equally valuable +on both counts. + +This was the training for the man from the ranks. The War College in +America, acting in one of its rare snatches of spare time, had ordered a +school for officers in America to which any enlisted man was eligible. + +General Pershing overhauled this arrangement in one particular: he +framed his school in France so that nothing lower than a corporal could +enter it. This was on the theory that a man in the ranks who had ability +showed it soon enough, and was rewarded by a non-com. rank. That was the +time when the way ahead should rightfully be opened to him. + +This school commenced its courses just before Christmas, with everything +connected with it thoroughly worked out first. + +The commissions it was entitled to bestow went up to the rank of major. +Scholars entered it by recommendation of their superior officers, which +were forwarded by the commanders of divisions or other separate units, +and by the chiefs of departmental staffs, to the commander-in-chief. +Before these recommendations could be made, the record of the applicant +must be scanned closely, and his efficiency rated--if he were a +linesman, by fighting quality, and if in training still or behind the +lines, by efficiency in all other duties. + +Then he entered and fared as it might happen. If he succeeded, his place +was waiting for him at his graduation, as second lieutenant in a +replacement division. + +Enormous numbers of these replacement divisions had to be held behind +the lines. From them, all vacancies occurring in the combat units in the +lines were filled. And rank, within them, proceeded in the same manner +as in any other division. Their chief difference was that there was no +limit set upon the number of second lieutenants they could include, so +that promotions waited mainly for action to earn them. + +Within the combat units, the vacancies were to be filled two-thirds by +men in line of promotion within the unit itself, and one-third from the +replacement divisions. + +The replacement division's higher officers were those recovered from +wounds, who had lost their place in line, and those who had not yet had +any assignments. To keep up a sufficient number of replacement +divisions, the arriving depot battalions were held to belong with them. + +This school was located near the fighting-line, and its instructors were +preponderantly American. + +It put the "stars of the general into the private's knapsack," and +began the great mill of officer-making that the experiences of other +armies had shown to be so tragically necessary. Needless to say, it was +packed to overflowing from its first day. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +SOME DISTINGUISHED VISITORS + + +So satisfactory to itself was the progress of the American Expeditionary +Force in becoming an army that by the end of its first month of training +it was ready for important visitors. True, the first to come was one who +would be certain to understand the force's initial difficulties, and who +would also be able to help as well as inspect. He was General Petain, +Commander-in-Chief of the French Army, and he came for inspection of +both French and American troops on August 19, three days after General +Sibert had had a family field-day to take account of his troops. + +General Petain came down with General Pershing, and the first inspection +was of billets. Then the two generals reviewed the Alpine Chasseurs, and +General Petain awarded some medals which had been due since the month +before, when the Blue Devils were in the line. + +After General Petain's visit with the American troops, he recommended +their training and their physique equally, and said: "I think the +American Army will be an admirable fighting force within a short time." + +This was also General Pershing's day for learning--his first session +with one of his most difficult tasks. He had to follow the example of +General Petain, and kiss the children, and accept the bouquets thrust +upon both generals by all the little girls of the near-by Vosges towns. + +General Pershing did better with the kissing as his day wore on, though +its foreignness to his experience was plain to the end. But with the +bouquets he was an outright failure. Graciously as he might accept them, +the holding of them was much as a doughboy might hold his first armful +of live grenades. + +The camp's next distinguished visitor was Georges Clemenceau, the +veteran French statesman who was soon to be Premier of France. +Clemenceau saw American troops that day for the second time, the first +having been when, as a young French senator, he watched General Grant's +soldiers march into Richmond. + +He recalled to the sons and grandsons of those dusty warriors how +inspired a sight it had been, and he added that he hoped to see the +present generation march into Berlin. + +When Clemenceau talked to the doughboys, however, he had more than old +memories with which to stir them. He has a graceful, complete command of +the English language, in which he made the two or three addresses +interspersed in the full programme of his stay. + +In one speech M. Clemenceau said: "I feel highly honored at the +privilege of addressing you. I know America well, having lived in your +country, which I have always admired, and I am deeply impressed by the +presence of an American army on French soil, in defense of liberty, +right, and civilization, against the barbarians. My mind compares this +event to the Pilgrim Fathers, who landed on Plymouth Rock, seeking +liberty and finding it. Now their children's children are returning to +fight for the liberty of France and the world. + +"You men have come to France with disinterested motives. You came not +because you were compelled to come, but because you wished to come. +Your country always had love and friendship for France. Now you are at +home here, and every French house is open to you. You are not like the +people of other nations, because your motives are devoid of personal +interest, and because you are filled with ideals. You have heard of the +hardships before you, but the record of your countrymen proves that you +will acquit yourselves nobly, earning the gratitude of France and the +world." + +At the end of this speech General Sibert said to the men who had heard +it: "You will henceforth be known as the Clemenceau Battalion." That was +the first unit of the American Army to have any designation other than +its number. + +Another civilian visitor was next, though he was civilian only in the +sense that he had neither task nor uniform of the army. He was Raymond +Poincaré, President of the French Republic, the leader of the French +"bitter-enders," and sometimes called the stoutest-hearted soldier +France has ever had. + +President Poincaré made a thorough inspection. He, too, began with the +billets, but he was not content to see them from the outside. In fact, +the first that one new major-general saw of him was the half from the +waist down, the other half being obscured by the floor of the barn attic +he was peering into. + +President Poincaré made cheering speeches to the men, for the force of +which they were obliged to rely upon his gestures and his intonations, +since he spoke no English. But his sense was not wholly lost to the +doughboys. At the peak of one of the President's most soaring flights +those who understood French interrupted to applaud him. + +"What did he say?" asked a doughboy. + +"He said to give 'em hell," said another. + +Fourth, and last, of the great Frenchmen, and greatest, from the soldier +point of view, was Marshal Joffre, Marne hero, who came and spent a +night and a day at camp. + +It was mid-October when he came, and weeks of driving rain had preceded +him. In spite of their gloom over the weather, the doughboys were +eagerly anticipating the visit of Joffre, and they were wondering if the +man of many battles would think them worth standing in the rain to +watch. + +A detachment of French buglers--buglers whom the Americans could never +sufficiently admire or imitate, because they could twirl the bugles +between beats and take up their blasts with neither pitch nor time +lost--waited outside the quarters where the marshal was to spend the +night. Half an hour before his motor came up the sun broke through the +drizzle. + +"He brings it with him," said a doughboy. + +Marshal Joffre was accompanied by General Pershing, the Pershing +personal staff and Joffre's aide, Lieutenant-Colonel Jean Fabry, who was +with the French Mission in America. There were ovations in all the +French villages through which they passed, and there were uproarious +cheers when the party reached the American officers who were to be +addressed by Marshal Joffre. In his short speech he said that America +had come to help deliver humanity from the yoke of German insolence, and +added: "Let us be united. Victory surely will be ours." + +Later, after picked men had shown Joffre what they could do with +grenades and bayonets, the marshal made a short speech to them, telling +them of how his visit to America had cheered and strengthened him, and +how even greater was the stimulation he had had from seeing the +Americans train in France. + +In a statement to the Associated Press he said: "I have been highly +gratified by what I have seen to-day. I am confident that when the time +comes for American troops to go into the trenches and meet the enemy +they will give the same excellent account of themselves in action as +they did to-day in practice." + +Northcliffe came in December, with Colonel House and members of the +House Mission. He wrote a long impression of his visit for the English +at home, in which he said that the finest sight he saw was the American +rifle practice, in which the United States troops did exceptionally +well. Then he praised them for their mastery of the British type of +trench mortar, for their accuracy with grenades and, most significant of +all, for their able handling of themselves after the bombs were thrown, +so that they should have a maximum of safety in battle. The doughboys +had finally learned their hardest lesson. + +Sir Walter Roper Lawrence, who was coming to America on a special war +mission, went to camp in early December to see how the doughboys fared, +so that he might report on them at home. + +He had just inquired of General Sir Julian Byng, who had accidentally +had the assistance of some American engineers at Cambrai, what they +should be valued at, and Sir Julian had answered: "Very earnest, very +modest, and very helpful." + +"I must say that is my opinion, too," said Sir Walter, when he came to +camp. "They are fine fellows to look at--as good-looking soldiers as any +man might wish to see. They have a wonderfully springy step, much more +springy than one sees in other soldiers. They are clean, well set up, +and they are always cheerful. They are splendidly fed and well +quartered, and they are desperately keen to learn, and as desperately +keen to get into the thick of things. If they seem to have any worries +it is that they are not getting in as quickly as they would like to. + +"The American troops have everywhere made a decidedly favorable +impression. I am extremely proud of my British citizenship, I have been +all my life, but if I were an American I would be insufferably proud of +my citizenship. In all history there is nothing that approaches her +transporting such an enormous army so great a distance oversea to fight +for an ideal." + +After the new year W. A. Appleton, secretary of the General Federation +of Trades Unions in England, made a visit to France, and described the +American camps for his own public through the Federation organ. + +"I see everywhere," he wrote, "samples of the American armies that we +are expecting will enable the Allies to clear France of the Germans. +Most of the men are fine specimens of humanity, and those with whom I +spoke showed no signs of braggadocio, too frequently attributed to +America. They were quiet, well-spoken fellows, fully alive to the +seriousness of the task they have undertaken, and they apparently have +but one regret--that they had not come into the war soon enough. It was +pleasant to talk to these men and to derive encouragement from their +quiet, unobtrusive strength." + +These were the things which were playing upon public opinion in France +and England, reinforcing the good-will with which the first American +soldiers were welcomed there. + +When United States soldiers paraded again in the streets of London, late +in the spring of 1918, and when they marched down the new Avenue du +Président Wilson in Paris, on July 4, 1918, the greetings to them had +lost in hysteria and grown in depth, till the magnitude of the +demonstrations and the quality of them drew amazement from the oldest of +the old stagers. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE MEN WHO DID EVERYTHING + + +If the American Expeditionary Force had landed in the middle of the +Sahara Desert instead of France, it would not have been under greater +necessity to do things for itself, and immediately. For even where the +gallant French were entirely willing to pull their belts in one more +notch and make provision for the newcomers, the moral obligation not to +permit their further sacrifice was enormous. And although, as it +happened, there were many things, at first, in which the A. E. F. was +obliged to ask French aid, this number was speedily cut down and finally +obliterated. + +The men on whom fell the largest burden of making American troops +self-sufficing in the first half-year of war, were the nine regiments of +engineers recruited in nine chief cities of America before General +Pershing sailed. They were officered to a certain extent by Regular Army +engineers, but more by railroad officials who were recruited at the +same time from all the large railroads of America. + +And they operated what roads they found, and built more, till finally, +after a year, during which they had assistance from the army engineers +and a fair number of labor and special units, they had created in France +a railroad equal to any one of the middle-sized roads of long standing +in this country, with road-beds, rolling-stock, and equipment equal to +the best, and railway terminals which, in the case of one of their +number, rivalled the port of Hamburg. + +These were the men who were first to arrive in Europe after General +Pershing, who beat them over by only a few days. They were not fighting +units, so that they did not dim the glory of the Regulars, though they +had the honor to carry the American army uniform first through the +streets of London. + +They were the first of the army in the battle-line, too, though again +their civilian pursuit, though failing to serve to protect them against +German attack, deprived them of the flag-flying and jubilation that +attended the infantrymen and artillerymen in late October. + +But though their public honor was so limited, their private honor with +the Expeditionary Force was without stint. It was "the engineers here" +and "the engineers there" till it must have seemed to them that they +were carrying the burden of the entire world. + +On May 6, 1917, the War Department issued this statement: "The War +Department has sent out orders for the raising, as rapidly as possible, +of nine additional regiments of engineers which are destined to proceed +to France at the earliest possible moment, for work on the lines of +communication.... All details regarding the force will be given out as +fast as compatible with the best public interests." + +The recruiting-points were New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, +Pittsburgh, Detroit, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. It was +the job of each city to provide a regiment. And it became the job of the +great railway brotherhoods to see that neither the kind nor the number +of men accepted would cripple the railways at home. + +The War Department asked for 12,000 men, and had offers of about four +times that many. The result was, of course, that the 9 regiments were +men of magnificent physique and sterling equipment. One regiment boasted +125 members who measured more than 6 feet. + +Their first official task was to help to repair and man the French +railways leading up to the lines, carrying food for men and guns. + +Their next was to build and man the railways which were to connect the +American seaport with the training-camps, and last, with the +fighting-line itself. + +The promise of immediate action in France was fulfilled to the letter. +Two months from the day the recruiting began, the "Lucky 13th," the +regiment recruited in Chicago, landed in a far-away French town, whose +inhabitants leaned out of their windows in the late, still night, to +throw them roses and whispers of good cheer--anything louder than +whispers being under a ban because of the nearness to the front--and the +day following, with French crews at their elbows, they were running +French trains up and down the last line of communications. + +These were men who had years of railroading behind them. Many of them +were officered by the same men who had been their directors in civil +life. It was no uncommon thing to hear a private address his captain by +his first name. One day a private said to his captain. "Bill, you got +all the wrong dope on this," to which the captain replied severely: "I +told you before about this discipline--if you want to quarrel with my +orders, you call me mister." + +But military discipline was never a real love with the engineers. +"What's military discipline to us? We got Rock Island discipline," said +a brawny first lieutenant, when, because he was a fellow passenger on a +train with a correspondent, he felt free to speak his mind. + +"I won't say it's not all right in its way, but it's not a patch on what +we have in a big yard. A man obeys in his sleep, for he knows if he +don't somebody's life may have to pay for it--not his own, either, which +would make it worse. That's Rock Island. But it don't involve any +salutin', or 'if-you-pleasin'.' If my fellows say 'Tom' I don't pay any +attention, unless there's some officer around." + +This attitude toward discipline characterizes all the special units to a +certain degree, though the engineers somewhat more than the rest, for +the reason that they had to offer not a mere negation of discipline but +a substitute of their own. + +But, whatever their sentiments toward their incidental job as soldiers, +there was no mistaking their zest for their regular job of railroading. + +They found the railways of France in amazingly fine condition, in spite +of the fact that they had, many of them, been built purely for war uses, +and under the pressure inevitable in such work. Those behind the British +lines were equally fine. + +As soon as the American engineers appeared in the communication-trains, +their troubles with the Germans began. On the second run of the "Lucky +13th" men, a German airplane swept down and flew directly over the +engine for twenty minutes, taking strict account. + +Then they began to bomb the trains, and many a time the crews had to get +out and sit under the trains till the raid was over. + +The engineers kept their non-combatant character till after the December +British thrust at Cambrai, when half a hundred of them, working with +their picks and shovels behind the lines, suddenly found themselves face +to face with German counter-attacking troops, and had to fight or run. +The engineers snatched up rifles and such weapons as they could from +fallen soldiers, and with these and their shovels helped the British to +hold their line. + +The incident was one of the most brilliant of the year, partly because +it was dramatically unexpected, partly because it permitted the +Americans to prove their readiness to fight, in whatever circumstances. +The spectacle of fifty peaceful engineers suddenly turned warriors of +pick and shovel was used by the journals of many countries to +demonstrate what manner of men the Americans were. + +But the work for British and French, on their strategic railways, was +not to continue for long. The great American colony was already on +blue-print, and the despatches from Washington were estimating that many +millions would have to be spent for the work. + +The annual report of Major-General William Black, chief of engineers, +which was made public in December, stated that almost a billion would +be needed for engineering work in France in 1919, if the work then in +progress were to be concluded satisfactorily. + +General Black's report showed that equipment for 70 divisions, or +approximately 1,000,000 men, had been purchased within 350 hours after +Congress declared war, including nearly 9,000,000 articles, among them 4 +miles of pontoon bridges. + +Every unit sent to France took its full equipment along, and the cost of +the "railroad engineers" alone was more than $12,000,000. + +Not long after the men were running the French and British trains, they +were building their lines in Flanders, in the interims of building the +American lines from sea to camp. + +The building was through, and over, such mud as passes description. The +engineers tell a story of having passed a hat on a road, and on picking +it up, found that there was a soldier under it. They dug him out. "But I +was on horseback," the soldier protested. + +The tracks were rather floated than built. Where the shell fire was +heavy, the men could only work a few hours each day, under barrage of +artillery or darkness, and they were soon making speed records. + +"The fight against the morass is as stern and difficult as the fight +against the Boche," said an engineer, speaking of the Flanders tracks. +One party of men, in an exposed position, laid 180 feet of track in a +record time, and left the other half of the job till the following day. +When they came back, they found that their work had been riddled with +shell-holes, whereat they fell to and finished the other half and +repaired the first half in the same time as had starred them on the +first day's job. + +It was not long till they had a European reputation. + +The tracks they were to lay for America, though they were far enough +from the Flanders mud, had a sort of their own to offer. The terminal +was built by tremendous preliminaries with the suction-dredge. The long +lines of communication between camp and sea were varyingly difficult, +some of them offering nothing to speak of, some of them abominable. The +little spur railways leading to the hospitals, warehouses, and +subsidiary training-camps which lay afield from the main line were more +quickly done. + +In addition to all these things, the engineers were the handy men of +France. They picked up some of the versatility of the Regular Army +engineers, whose accomplishments are never numbered, and they built +hospitals and barracks, too, in spare time, and they laid waterways, and +helped out in General Pershing's scheme to put the inland waterways of +France to work. The canal system was finally used to carry all sorts of +stores into the interior of France, and before the engineers were +finished the army was getting its goods by rail, by motor, and by boat, +though it was not till late in the year that the transportation +machinery could avoid great jams at the port. + +The engineers were, from first to last, the most picturesque Americans +in France. They came from the great yards and terminals of East and +West, they brought their behavior, their peculiar flavor of speech, and +their efficiency with them, and they refused to lose any of them, no +matter what the outside pressure. + +"It's a great life," said one of them from the Far West, "and I may say +it's a blamed sight harder than shooing hoboes off the cars back home. +But there's times when I could do with a sight of the missus and the +kids and the Ford. If it takes us long to lick 'em, it won't be my +fault." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +BEHIND THE LINES + + +The difficulty of describing the American organization behind the lines +in France lies in the fact that the story is nowhere near finished. The +end of the first year saw huge things done, but huger ones still in the +doing, and the complete and the incomplete so blended that there was +almost no point at which a finger could be laid and one might say: "They +have done this." + +But at the end of the first year all the foundations were down and the +corner-stones named, and though much necessary secrecy still envelops +the actual facts, something at least can be told. + +America could no more move direct from home to the line in the matter of +her supplies than she could in that of her men. And it was at her +intermediate stopping-point, in both cases, that her troubles lay. It +was, as Belloc put it, the problem of the hour-glass. Plenty of room at +both ends and plenty of material were invalidated by the little strait +between. + +It was not a month from the time of the first landing of troops, in +June, 1917, before the wharfs of the ports chiefly used by incoming +American supplies were stacked high with unmoved cases. + +The transportation men worked with might and main, but the Shipping +Board at home, under the goad of restless and anxious people, was +sending and sending the equipment to follow the men. And once landed, +the supplies found neither roof to cover them nor means to carry them +on. + +This was the point at which General Pershing began to lament to +Washington over his scarcity of stevedores, and labor units, and soon +thereafter was the point at which he got them. + +On September 14, 1917, W. W. Atterbury, vice-president of the +Pennsylvania Railroad, was appointed director-general of transportation +of the United States Expeditionary Force in France, and was given the +rank of brigadier-general. General Atterbury was already in France, and +had been offering such expert advice and assistance to General Pershing +as his civilian capacity would permit. With his appointment came the +announcement of others, giving him the assistance of many well-known +American railroad men. + +When the First Division reached France it was discovered that it +required four tons of tonnage to provide for each man. That meant 80,000 +tons for each division, which, in the figures of the railroad man, meant +eighty trains of 1,000 tons capacity for every division. + +For the first 200,000 men in France, who formed the basis for the first +railroad reckoning, 800 trains were necessary. + +Obviously, these trains could not be taken from the already burdened +French. Obviously, they could not tax further the trackage in France, +though the trains and engines shipped had essential measurements to +conform to the French road-beds, so that interchange was easy. Still +more obviously, the trains could not be made in this country and rolled +onto the decks of ships for transportation. + +So that before the first soldier packed his first kit on his way to +camp the A. E. F. required railway-tracks, enormous reception-wharfs, +assembling-plants and factories, and arsenals and warehouses beyond +number. + +The only things which America could buy in France were those which could +be grown there, by women and old men and children, and those which were +already made. The only continuing surplus product of France was big +guns, which resulted from their terrific specialization in +munition-plants during the war's first three years. + +To find out what could legitimately be bought in France, and to buy it, +paying no more for it than could be avoided by wise purchasing, General +Pershing created a General Purchasing Board in Paris late in August. +This board had a general purchasing agent at its head, who was the +representative of the commander-in-chief, and he acted in concert with +similar boards of the other Allied armies. His further job was to +co-ordinate all the efforts of subordinate purchasing agents throughout +the army. The chief of each supply department and of the Red Cross and +the Y. M. C. A. named purchasing agents to act under this board. + +It was not long till this board was supervising the spending of many +millions of dollars a month, which gives a fair estimate of what the +total expenditure, both at home and abroad, had to be. + +As a case in point, a single branch of this board bought in France, the +first fortnight of November, 26,000 tons of tools and equipment, 4,000 +tons of railway-ties, and 160 tons of cars. The cost was something over +$3,000,000. These purchases alone saved the total cargo space of 20 +vessels of 1,600 tons each. + +The General Purchasing Board adopted the price-fixing policy created at +Washington, in which it was aided by the shrewdest business heads among +the British and French authorities. + +This board also had power to commandeer ships, when they had to--notably +in the case of bringing shipments of coal from England, where it was +fairly plentiful, to France, where there was almost none. + +A second scheme for co-ordination put into effect by General Pershing +was a board at which heads of all army departments could meet and act +direct, without the necessity of going through the commander-in-chief. +When the quartermaster's department made its budgets, the co-ordination +department went over them and revised the estimates downward, or drafted +work or supplies from some other department with a surplus, or +redistributed within the quartermaster's stores, perhaps even granted +the first requests. But there was a vast saving throughout the army +zone. + +The problem of America's "behind the lines," including as it did the +creating of every phase of transportation, from trackage to terminals, +and then providing the things to transport, not only for an army growing +into the millions, but for much of civilian France, was one which, all +wise observers said, was the greatest of the war. Just how staggering +were these difficulties must not be told till later, but surmises are +free. And the praise for overcoming them which poured from British and +French onlookers had the value and authority of coming from men who had +themselves been through like crises, and who knew every obstacle in the +way of the Americans. + +But if the preparatory stages must be abridged in the telling, there is +no ban on a little expansiveness as to what was finally done. + +Within a year American engineers and laborers and civilians working +behind the lines had made of the waste lands around an old French port a +line of modern docks where sixteen heavy cargo-vessels could rest at the +same time, being unloaded from both sides at once at high speed, by the +help of lighters. These docks were made by a big American pile-driver, +which in less than a year had driven 30,000 piles into the marshy ooze, +and made a foundation for enormous docks. + +Just behind the docks is a plexus of railway-lines which, what with +incoming and outgoing tracks and switches and side-lines, contains 200 +miles of trackage in the terminal alone. + +It is for the present no German's business how many hundred miles of +double and triple track lead back to the fighting-line, and it is the +censor's rule that one must tell nothing a German shouldn't know. But +there is plenty of track, figures or no figures. + +Equal preparation has been made for such supplies as must remain +temporarily at the docks. + +There are 150 warehouses, most of them completed, each 400 by 50 feet, +and each with steel walls and top and concrete floors. When the +warehouses are finished they will be able to hold supplies for an army +of a million men for thirty days. They are supplemented by a giant +refrigerating-plant, with an enormous capacity, which is served by an +ice-making factory with an output of 500 tons daily, the whole ice +department being operated by a special "ice unit" of the army, +officially called Ice Plant Company 301. The ice department also has its +own refrigerator-cars for delivering its wares frozen to any part of +France. + +To provide for gun appetites as abundantly as for human, an arsenal was +begun at the same point, which, when completed, will have cost a hundred +million dollars. This arsenal and ordnance-depot is being built by an +American firm, at the request of the French Mission in America, who +vetoed the American project to give the work to French contractors, +because of the man-shortage in France. + +It has been built under the direct supervision of the War Department, +and was specifically planned so that it might in time, or case of need, +become one of the main munition-distribution centres for all the Allies. +Small arms and ammunition are stored and dispensed there, while big guns +go direct from French factories. + +Regiments of mechanical and technical experts were constantly being +recruited in America for this work, and they were sent by the thousands +every month of the first year. Maintenance of the ordnance-base alone +requires 450 officers and 16,000 men. + +Included in the arsenal and ordnance-depot are a gun-repair shop, +equipped to reline more than 800 guns a month, a carriage-repair plant +of large capacity, a motor-vehicle repair-shop, able to overhaul more +than 1,200 cars a month, a small-arms repair-shop, ready to deal with +58,000 small arms and machine-guns a month, a shop for the repair of +horse and infantry equipment, and a reloading-plant, capable of +reloading 100,000 artillery-cartridges each day. + +The assembling-shops in connection with the railroad were built on a +commensurate scale. Even in an incomplete state one shop was able to +turn out twenty-odd freight-cars a day, of three different designs, and +at a neighboring point a plant for assembling the all-steel cars was +making one full train a day. The locomotives were assembled in still a +third place. This will have turned out 1,100 locomotives, built and +shipped flat from America, at the end of its present contract. Already a +third of this work has been done. + +And there were, of course, the necessary number of roundhouses, and the +like, to complete the organization of the self-sufficient railroad. + +Not far away was a tremendous assembling and repair plant for airplanes, +the operators of which had all been trained in the French factories, so +that they knew the planes to the last inner bolthead. + +The last assembly-plant was far from least in picturesqueness. It was +for the construction, from numbered pieces shipped from Switzerland, +of 3,500 wooden barracks, each about 100 feet long by 20 wide, and of +double thickness for protection against French weather. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information._ + +U. S. locomotive-assembling yards in France.] + +The most amusing of the incidental depots was called the Reclamation +Depot, at which the numerous articles collected on the battle-field by +special salvage units were overhauled and refurbished, or altered to +other uses. Nothing was too trifling to be accepted. The "old-clo' man" +of No Man's Land was responsible for an amazing amount of good material, +made at the Reclamation Depot from old belts, coat sleeves, and the +like. Many a good German helmet went back to the "square-heads" as +American bullets. + +In the same American district there was a great artillery camp, with +remount stables, containing thousands of horses and mules. Under French +tutelage, the American veterinarians had learned to extract the bray +from the army mule, reducing his far-carrying silvery cry to a mere +wheeze, with which he could do no indiscreet informing of his presence +near the battle-lines. So the mule-hospital was one of the busiest spots +in the port. + +A short distance from the port, the engineers built a 20,000-bed +hospital, the largest in existence, comprising hundreds of little +one-story structures, set in squares over huge grounds, so that every +room faced the out-of-doors. + +Between the port and the hospital, and beyond the port along the coast, +were the rest-camps, the receiving-camps, and a huge separate camp for +the negro stevedores. Near enough to be convenient, but not for +sociability, were the camps for the German prisoners, who put in plenty +of hard licks in the great port-building. + +Midway between all this activity at the coast and the training and +fighting activity at the fighting-line there was what figured on the +army charts as "Intermediate Section," whose commanders were responsible +for the daily averaging of supply and demand. + +In the intermediate section, linked by rail, were the supplementary +training-camps, schools, base hospitals, rest-areas, engineering and +repair shops, tank-assembling plants, ordnance-dumps and repair-shops, +the chief storage for "spare parts," all machinery used in the army, +cold-storage plants, oil and petrol depots, the army bakeries, the +camouflage centre, and the forestry departments, busy with fuel for the +army and timber for the engineers. + +The achievement of the first year was literally worthy of the unstinted +praise it received. And perhaps its finest attribute was that most of it +was permanent, and will remain, while France remains, as America's +supreme gift toward her post-war recovery. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +FRANCE AND THE MEDICOES + + +The history of the A. E. F. will be in most respects the history of +resources cunningly turned to new ends, of force redirected, with some +of its erstwhile uses retained, and of a colossal adventure in making +things do. Where the artillery was weak, the A. E. F. eked out with the +coast-artillery. Where the engineer corps was insufficient, the +railroads were called on for special units, frankly unmilitary. A whole +citizenry was abruptly turned to infantry. But one branch of the +service, though scarcely worthy of much responsibility when the war +began, was, nevertheless, the one most thoroughly prepared. The prize +service was the Medical Corps, and it was in this state of astonishing +preparedness because immediately before it became the Medical Corps, it +had been the Red Cross, and the Red Cross knows no peace-times. + +The question of what is Medical Corps and what is Red Cross has always +been a facer for the superficial historian. + +Broadly speaking, the base hospitals of the army are organizations +recruited and equipped in America by the Red Cross, and transported to +France, where they become units of the army, under army discipline and +direction, and supplied by the Medical Corps stores except in cases +where these are inadvertently lacking, or unprovided for by the +strictness of military supervision. In any case, where sufficient +supplies are not forthcoming from the Medical Corps, they are given by +the Red Cross. + +This is the Red Cross on its military side. In its civilian work, which +is extensive, and in its recreational work it carries on under its own +name and by its own authority. Where it divides territory with the Y. M. +C. A., the division is that the Y. M. C. A. takes the well soldier and +the Red Cross the sick one, whenever either has time on his hands. + +But the Medical Corps plus the Red Cross created between them a branch +of the American Army in France which, from the moment of landing, was +the boast of the nation. + +For a year before America entered the war Colonel Jefferson Kean, +director-general of the military department of the American Red Cross, +had been organizing against the coming of American participation. Within +thirty days after America's war declaration Colonel Kean announced that +he had six base hospitals in readiness to go to the front, and within +another thirty days these six units were on their way, equipped and +ready to step into the French hospitals, schools, and what-not, waiting +to receive them, and to do business as usual the following morning. + +The six were organized at leading hospitals and medical schools: the +Presbyterian Hospital of New York, with Doctor George E. Brewer in +command; the Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland, with Doctor George W. Crile; +the Medical School of Harvard University, with Doctor Harvey Cushing; +the Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, with Doctor Richard Harte; the +Medical School of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, with +Doctor Frederick Besley, and Washington University Hospital, Saint +Louis, with Doctor Frederick T. Murphy. + +A little while later the Postgraduate unit went from New York, the +Roosevelt Hospital unit from there, and the Johns Hopkins unit from +Baltimore. Many others followed in due time. + +These hospital units, recruited and organized under the Red Cross, took +their full complement of surgeons, physicians, and nurses. All these +became members of the army as soon as they landed in France, and they +were supplemented, either there or before they crossed, with members of +Medical Corps, enlisted just after America entered the war. + +The military rank of the physicians and surgeons conformed in a general +way to the unofficial rank of the same men when they had worked together +in the hospitals from which they came. There were, of course, some +exceptions to this rule, but not enough to make it no rule at all. + +It was true of the medicoes, as it was of the engineers, that they took +military discipline none too seriously, because they brought a +discipline of their own. Wherever, in civilian pursuits, the lives of +others hang on prompt obedience, there is a strictness which no +military strictness can outdo. This was true of the personnel of any +hospital in America, before there was thought of war. It was equally +true, of course, after the units were established behind the +fighting-lines. But there was a certain lack of prompt salute and a +certain freedom with first names which not the stoutest management from +the military arm of the service could obliterate from the base +hospitals. The Medical Corps enlisted men were naturally not sinners in +this respect. The routine work of the base hospitals all fell to them. +It was usually a sergeant of the army--though he was never a +veteran--who attended the reception-rooms, kept account of symptoms, +clothes, and first and second names, and did the work of orderly in the +hospital. It was the privates who kept the mess and washed the dishes +and changed the sheets. + +The nurses went under military discipline and into military +segregation--sometimes a little nettlesome, when the hospitals were far +from companionship of any outside sort. + +The sites selected for the hospitals were either French hospitals which +were given over, or schools or big public buildings remade into +hospitals by the engineers. Each site was arranged so that it could be +enlarged at will. And the railways which connected the outlying +hospitals with the rest of the American communications were laid so that +other hospitals could be easily placed along their line. There was a +splendid elasticity in the Medical Corps plan. + +One base hospital was much like another, except for size. Those near the +line differed somewhat from those farther back, but their scheme was +uniform. At any rate, the history of their doings was similar enough to +have one history do for them all. Take, for example, one of the New York +units which landed in August and was placed nearer the coast than the +fighting. It was put in trim by the engineers, then sanitated by the +humbler members of the Medical Corps. The great wards were laid out, the +kitchens were built, windows were pried open--always the first American +job in France, to the great disgust and alarm of the French--and baths +were put in. + +The chief surgeon had specialized in noses and throats at home. When the +hospital was ready, naturally the soldiers were not in need of it--being +still in training in the Vosges--so the services of the hospital were +opened to the civilian population of France. + +By November there was not an adenoid in all those parts. The death-rate +almost vanished. Into this rural France, where there had been no +hospital and only a nursing home kept by some Sisters of Mercy who saw +their first surgical operation within the base hospital, there came this +skilful organization, handled by men whose incomes at home had been +measured in five figures, and all the healing they had was free. + +Multiply this by twenty, and then by thirty, before the pressing need +for care for soldiers directed the Medical Corps back to first channels, +and there will be some gauge of what this service did for France. + +And the gratitude of France was more than commensurate. Praise of the +American Medical Service flowed unceasingly from officials and +civilians, statesmen and journalists. There were constant demands made +upon the French Government that it should pattern its own medical forces +exactly upon the American, making it the branch of the medical +specialist and not of the politician or the military man. + +The individual officers of the Medical Corps had much to learn, however, +from the French and the British. Though they knew hygiene, prophylaxis, +antisepsis, and surgery as few groups of men have ever known it, they +became scholars of the humblest in the surgery of the battle-field. +Every officer of the Medical Corps was kept on a round of visits behind +French and British fronts during the fairly peaceful interim between +their landing and the American occupation of a front-line sector. + +The Red Cross was the great auxiliary of the Medical Corps. It kept up +its recruiting in America, both for nurses and physicians, and for +supplies. + +And in supplies it played its greatest part. The Red Cross maintained +enormous warehouses, separate entirely from army control, which +contained provisions to meet every possible shortage. It was known by +the Red Cross that never in the history of the world had there been a +medical corps of any army that had not finally broken down. No matter +how painstaking the provision, the need was always tragically greater. + +And so surgical dressings, sets of surgical instruments, medicines, +antiseptics, and anæsthetics piled up in the great A. R. C. +store-houses. + +Then there were the things for which the Medical Corps frankly made no +provision, which could have no place in a strictly military programme, +such as food delicacies of great cost, special articles of clothing, and +amusements. Every hospital convalescent ward had its phonograph, its +checker-boards, its chess-sets, and its dominoes. That was the Red +Cross. + +[Illustration: Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly, formerly +the American Ambulance Hospital] + +The Red Cross had three hospitals of its own in Paris. The first of +these was at Neuilly, the hospital which had been the American Ambulance +Hospital from the beginning of the war, given over on the third +anniversary of its inauguration. Here French and American soldiers, +American civilians who worked with the army, and Red Cross officers +and men were cared for. The second had been Doctor Blake's Hospital, and +when it became a Red Cross hospital, it was made to include the gigantic +laboratory where investigations were made, and where the American Red +Cross had the honor to ferret out the cause of trench-fever. This fever +had been one of the baffling tragedies of the war, because in the press +of caring for their wounded, other hospitals had been unable to give it +sufficient research. + +The third was the Reid Hospital, equipped and supplied by Mrs. Whitelaw +Reid. + +In the long period when all this hospital organization was at the +command of civilian France, inestimably fine work was done. It was a +sort of poetic tuition fee for the instruction in war surgery which was +meanwhile going on from veteran French surgeons to the American +newcomers. At the end of the first year, the Medical Corps was itself +ready for any stress, and it had mightily relieved the stress it had +already found. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +IN CHARGE OF MORALE + + +If the army as a whole was a story of old skill in new uses, certainly +the most extraordinary single upheaval was that of the Y. M. C. A. +Though it had grown into many paths of civil life, in peace-times, that +could not have been foreshadowed by its founders, probably the wildest +speculation of its future never included the purveying of vaudeville and +cigarettes to soldiers in France. + +Yet just that was what the Y. M. C. A. was doing, within less than a +year from the American Army's arrival in France, and its only +lamentation was that it had nowhere near enough cigarettes and +vaudeville to purvey. + +It accepted the offer of the United States Government to watch over the +morale of the soldiers abroad, partly because it was so excellently +organized that it could handle a task of such vast scope, and partly +because both French and British Armies had got such fine results from +similar organizations that the American Y. M. C. A. felt itself to be +historically elected. + +The Y. M. C. A. had cut its wisdom-teeth long before it became a part of +the army. Its directors had accepted the fact that a young man is apt to +be more interested in his biceps than in his soul, and that if he can +have athletics aplenty, and entertainment that really entertains, he'd +as lief be out of mischief as in it. + +But even this was not quite broad enough for the needs of the army away +from home. And one of the first things the Y. M. C. A. did in France, +and the stoutest pillar of its great success, was to abandon the +slightest aversion to bad language, or to the irreligion that brims out +of a cold, wet, and tired soldier in defiant spurts, and to cultivate, +in their stead, a sympathetic feeling for the want of smokes and a good +show. + +The secretaries sent abroad to build the first huts and watch over the +first soldiers were men selected for their skill in getting results +against considerable obstacles. Those who followed, as the organization +grew, were specialists of every sort. There were nationally famous +sportsmen, to keep the baseball games up to scratch, and to see that +gymnastics out-of-doors were helped out by the rules. There were men who +could handle crowds, keep an evening's entertainment going, play good +ragtime, make good coffee, and produce cigarettes and matches out of +thin air. + +And, most important of all, they were men who could eradicate the +doughboy's suspicion that the Y. M. C. A. was a doleful, overly +prayerful, and effeminate institution. + +The Y. M. C. A. was dealing with the doughboy when he was on his own +time. If he didn't want to go to the "Y" hut, nobody could make him. +Certain things that were bad for him were barred to him by army +regulation. But there was a margin left over. If the doughboy was doing +nothing else, he might be sitting alone somewhere, feeling of his +feelings, and finding them very sad. The army did not cover this, but +the Y. M. C. A. took the ground that being melancholy was about as bad +as being drunk. + +But, naturally, the Red Triangle man had to use his tact. If he didn't +have any, he was sent home. His job was to persuade the doughboy, not +to instruct him. And before long, the rule of the Y. M. C. A. was flatly +put: "Never mind your own theories--do what the soldiers want." + +That is why the "Y" huts--the combination shop, theatre, chapel, and +reading-room, coffee-stall and soda fountain, baseball-locker and +cigarette store, post-office and library which are run by the Y. M. C. +A. from coast to battle-line--are packed by soldiers every hour of the +day and evening. + +The "Y" huts began with the army. Before the second day of the First +Division's landing, there was a circus banner across the foot of the +main street stating: "This is the way to the Y. M. C. A. Get your money +changed, and write home." By following the pointing red finger painted +on the banner, one found a wooden shack, with a few chairs, a lot of +writing-paper and French money, a secretary and a heap of good-will. + +As the army moved battleward, these huts appeared just ahead of the +soldiers, with increased stores at each new place. American cigarettes +were on the counters. A few books arrived. + +The Y. M. C. A. proved its persuasiveness by its huts. A member of the +quartermasters' corps said, one day, in a fit of exasperation over a +waiting job: "How do these 'Y' fellows do it--I can't turn without +falling over a shack, built for them by the soldiers in their off time. +Do I get any work out of these soldiers when they're off? I do not. +They're too busy building 'Y' huts." + +The first entertainment in the "Y" huts was when the company bands moved +into them because the weather was too bad to play out-of-doors. The +concerts were a great success. By and by, men who knew something +interesting were asked to make short lectures to the soldiers. It was an +easy step to asking some clever professional entertainer to come down +and give a one-man show. Then Elsie Janis, who was in Europe, made a +flying tour of the "Y" huts, and a little while after, E. H. Sothern and +Winthrop Ames went over to see how much organized entertainment could be +sent from America. + +The result of their visit was The Over-There Theatre League, to which +virtually every actor and actress in America volunteered to belong. By +the end of the first year, about 300 entertainers were either in France +or on their way there or back. + +Three months was the average time the performers were asked to give, and +they circled so steadily that there were always about 200 of them at +work on the "Y" circuit. + +The work of the Y. M. C. A. did not stop with affording entertainment to +the soldiers in the camps. They rented a big hotel in Paris and another +in London, and they established many canteens in these two cities, so +that their patrols--secretaries whose job was to rescue stray, lonely +soldiers in the streets--would always have a near and comfortable place +to offer to the wanderers. + +Then they preceded the army to Aix-les-Bains and Chambery, the two +resorts in the Savoy Alps where American soldiers were sent for their +eight-day leaves, and arranged for cheap hotel accommodations, guides, +theatres, etc., and they took over the Casino entirely for the soldiers. + +Their field canteens were just back of the fighting-line, and late at +night it was the duty of the secretaries to store their pockets with +cigarettes and chocolate and with letters from home, and shoulder the +big tins of hot coffee made in the canteens and go into the front-line +trenches to serve the men there. In fact, the "Y" men did everything +with the army except go over the top. + +The largest part of work of this type fell to the Y. M. C. A. because +they had the most flexible organization ready at the beginning of +American participation. But they had substantial help, which as time +went on grew more and more in volume, from several other associations. +The Knights of Columbus and the Salvation Army both did magnificent +service, in canteens and trenches. And of course the Red Cross took over +the sick soldier and entertained and supplied him, as a part of their +co-army work. + +There was one branch of the Red Cross which perhaps did more than any +other one thing to keep up the hearts and spirits of the soldiers--it +was called the Department of Home Communications, and it was directed by +Henry Allen, a Wichita, Kansas, newspaper man. + +Mr. Allen believed that a soldier's letters did more for him than any +other one thing, and that, failing letters, he must at least have +reliable news of his home folks from time to time. Further, that every +soldier was easier in his mind if he knew that his home folks would have +news of him, fully and authentically, no matter what happened to him. + +So Mr. Allen posted his representatives in every hospital, in every +trench sector, and through them kept track of every soldier. If a man +was taken prisoner Mr. Allen knew it. If he was wounded Mr. Allen knew +just where and how. The man's family was told of it immediately. +Presently, where this was possible, Mr. Allen's representative was +writing letters from the wounded men to their relatives, and was +receiving all Mr. Allen's news of these relatives for the men in the +hospital. + +In addition to things of this kind, done by Red Triangle men, Red Cross +men, and the Salvation Army and the Knights of Columbus, all these +organizations worked together to effect distributions of comfort kits +and sweaters, gift cigarettes and chocolate, and all the dozen and one +things that made the soldiers find life a little more agreeable. + +There was more than co-operation from the army itself. There was the +deepest gratitude, openly expressed, from every member of the army, +whether general or private, because it was a recognized fact that, +though an army cannot do these things itself, it owes them more than it +can ever repay. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +INTO THE TRENCHES + + +After months of training behind the lines the doughboys began to long +for commencement. It came late in October. The point selected for the +trench test of the Americans was in a quiet sector. The position lay +about twelve miles due east from Nancy and five miles north of +Lunéville. It extended roughly from Parroy to Saint-Die. Even after the +entry of the Americans the sector remained under French command. In +fact, the four battalions of our troops which made up the first American +contingent on the fighting-line were backed up by French reserves. No +better training sector could have been selected, for this was a quiet +front. American officers who acted as observers along this line for +several days before the doughboys went in found that shelling was +restricted and raids few. Many villages close behind the lines on either +side were respected because of a tacit agreement between the contending +armies. French and Germans sent war-weary troops to the Lunéville sector +to rest up. It also served to break in new troops without subjecting +them to an oversevere ordeal, so that they might learn the tricks of +modern warfare gradually. + +Of course, even quiet sectors may become suddenly active, and care was +taken to screen the movements of the soldiers carefully. It proved +impossible, however, to keep the move a complete mystery, for when +camion after camion of tin-hatted Americans moved away from the training +area the villagers could not fail to suspect that something was about to +happen. Perhaps these suspicions grew stronger when each group of +fighting men sang loudly and cheerfully that they were "going to hang +the Kaiser to a sour apple-tree." + +The weather was distinctly favorable for the movement of troops. One of +the blackest nights of the month awaited the Americans at the front. +Rain fell, but not hard enough to impede transportation. Still, such +weather was something of a moral handicap. Many of the newcomers would +have been glad to take a little shelling if they could have had a bit +of a moon or a few stars to light their way to the trenches. Instead +they groped their way along roads which were soft enough to deaden every +sound. A wind moaned lightly overhead and the strict command of silence +made it impossible to seek the proper antidote of song. One or two men +struck up "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are Marching," as they headed +for the front, but they were quickly silenced. + +The march began about nine o'clock, after the soldiers had eaten +heartily in a little village close to the lines. At the very edge of +this village stood a cheerful inn and a moving-picture theatre. The +doughboys looked a little longingly at both houses of diversion before +they swung round the bend and followed the black road which led to the +trench-line. The people of the village did not seem to be much excited +by the fact that history was being made before their eyes. They had seen +so many troops go by up that road that they could achieve no more than a +friendly interest. They did not crowd close about the marchers as the +people had done in Paris. + +Seemingly the Germans had not been able to ascertain the time set for +the coming of the Americans. The roads were not shelled at all. In fact, +the German batteries were even more indolent than usual at this point. +The relief was effected without incident, although a few stories drifted +back about enthusiastic poilus who had greeted their new comrades with +kisses. + +The artillery beat the infantry into action. They had to have a start in +order to get their guns into place, and some fifteen hours before the +doughboys went into the trenches America had fired the first shot of the +war against Germany. Alexander Arch, a sergeant from South Bend, +Indiana, was the man who pulled the lanyard. The shot was a shrapnel +shell and was directed at a German working-party who were presuming on +the immunity offered by a misty dawn. They scattered at the first shot, +but it was impossible to tell whether it caused any casualties. When the +working-party took cover there were no targets which demanded immediate +attention, and the various members of the gun crew were allowed the +privilege of firing the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, +eighth, and ninth shots of the war. After that, shooting at the Germans +ceased to become a historical occasion, but was a mere incident in the +routine of duty, and was treated as such. + +The only unusual incident which seriously threatened the peace of mind +of the infantrymen in their first night in the trenches was the flash of +a green rocket which occurred some fifteen or twenty minutes after they +arrived. They had been taught that a green rocket would be the alarm for +a gas attack, but this particular signal came from the German trenches +and had no message for the Americans. The Germans may have suspected the +presence of new troops, for the men were just a bit jumpy, as all +newcomers to the trenches are, and a few took pot-shots at objects out +in No Man's Land which proved to be only stakes in the barbed wire or +tufts of waving grass. + +Although the Germans made the first successful raid, the Americans took +the first prisoner. He was captured only a few nights after the coming +of the doughboys. A patrol picked him up close to the American wire. He +was a mail-carrier, and in cutting across lots to reach some of his +comrades he lost his way and wandered over to the American lines. +Although he was surprised, he was not willing to surrender, but made an +attempt to escape after he had been ordered to halt. One of the +doughboys fired at him as he ran and he was carried into the American +trenches badly wounded. He died the next day. + +Beginning on the night of November 2 and extending over into the early +morning of November 3, the Germans made a successful raid against the +American lines immediately after a relief. After a severe preliminary +bombardment a large party of raiders came across. The bombardment had +cut the telephone wires of the little group of Americans which met the +attack and they were completely isolated. They fought bravely but +greenly. Three Americans were killed, five were wounded, and twelve were +captured. The Germans retired quickly with their prisoners. + +American morale was not injured by this first jab of the Germans. On the +other hand, it made the doughboys mad, and, better than that, made them +careful. A German attempt to repeat the raid a few nights later was +repulsed. The three men who were killed in this first clash were buried +close to the lines, while minute-guns fired shells over the graveyard +toward the Germans. General Bordeaux, who commanded the French division +at this point, saluted before each of the three graves, and then turned +to the officers and men drawn up before him and said: + +"In the name of the division, in the name of the French Army, and in the +name of France, I bid farewell to Private Enright, Private Gresham, and +Private Hay of the American Army. + +"Of their own free will they had left a prosperous and happy country to +come over here. They knew war was continuing in Europe; they knew that +the forces fighting for honor, love of justice and civilization were +still checked by the long-prepared forces serving the powers of brutal +domination, oppression, and barbarity. They knew that efforts were still +necessary. They wished to give us their generous hearts, and they have +not forgotten old historical memories while others forget more recent +ones. They ignored nothing of the circumstances and nothing had been +concealed from them--neither the length and hardships of war, nor the +violence of battle, nor the dreadfulness of new weapons, nor the perfidy +of the foe. + +"Nothing stopped them. They accepted the hard and strenuous life; they +crossed the ocean at great peril; they took their places on the front by +our side, and they have fallen facing the foe in a hard and desperate +hand-to-hand fight. Honor to them. Their families, friends, and fellow +citizens will be proud when they learn of their deaths. + +"Men! These graves, the first to be dug in our national soil and but a +short distance from the enemy, are as a mark of the mighty land we and +our allies firmly cling to in the common task, confirming the will of +the people and the army of the United States to fight with us to a +finish, ready to sacrifice so long as is necessary until victory for the +most noble of causes, that of the liberty of nations, the weak as well +as the mighty. Thus the deaths of these humble soldiers appear to us +with extraordinary grandeur. + +"We will, therefore, ask that the mortal remains of these young men be +left here, be left with us forever. We inscribe on the tombs: 'Here lie +the first soldiers of the Republic of the United States to fall on the +soil of France for liberty and justice.' The passer-by will stop and +uncover his head. Travellers and men of heart will go out of their way +to come here to pay their respective tributes. + +"Private Enright! Private Gresham! Private Hay! In the name of France I +thank you. God receive your souls. Farewell!" + +After the Germans had identified Americans on the Lunéville front it was +supposed that they might maintain an aggressive policy and make the +front an active one. The Germans were too crafty for that. They realized +that the Americans were in the line for training, and so they gave them +few opportunities to learn anything in the school of experience. In +spite of the lack of co-operation by the Germans, the doughboys gained +valuable knowledge during their stay in the trenches. There were several +spirited patrol encounters and much sniping. American aviators got a +taste of warfare by going on some of the bombing expeditions of the +French. They went as passengers, but one American at least was able to +pay for his passage by crawling out from his seat and releasing a bomb +which had become jammed. When every battalion had been in the trenches +the American division was withdrawn, and for a short time in the winter +of 1917 there was no American infantry at the front. + +Curiously enough, the honor of participation in a major engagement +hopped over the infantry and came first to the engineers. It came quite +by accident. The 11th Engineers had been detailed for work behind the +British front. Early on the morning of November 30 four officers and 280 +men went to Gouzeaucourt, a village fully three miles back of the line. +But this was the particular day the Germans had chosen for a surprise +attack. The engineers had hardly begun work before the Germans laid a +barrage upon the village, and almost before the Americans realized what +was happening German infantry entered the outskirts of the place while +low-flying German planes peppered our men with machine-gun fire. The +engineers were unarmed, but they picked up what weapons they could find +and used shovels and fists as well as they retired before the German +attack. According to the stories of the men, one soldier knocked two +Germans down with a pickaxe before they could make a successful bayonet +thrust. He was eventually wounded but did not fall into the hands of the +enemy. Seventeen of the engineers were captured, but the rest managed to +fight their way out or take shelter in shell-holes, where they lay until +a slight advance by the British rescued them. + +Having had a taste of fighting, the engineers were by no means disposed +to have done with it. The entire regiment, including the survivors of +Gouzeaucourt, were ordered first to dig trenches and then to occupy +them. This time they were armed with rifles as well as intrenching-tools. +They held the line until reinforcements arrived. + +The conduct of the engineers was made the subject of a communication +from Field-Marshal Haig to General Pershing. "I desire to express to you +my thanks and those of the British engaged for the prompt and valuable +assistance rendered," wrote the British commander, "and I trust that +you will be good enough to convey to these gallant men how much we all +appreciate their prompt and soldierly readiness to assist in what was +for a time a difficult situation." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +OUR OWN SECTOR + + +THE Lunéville sector was merely a sort of postgraduate school of +warfare, but shortly after the beginning of 1918 the American Army took +over a part of the line for its very own. This sector was gradually +enlarged. By the middle of April the Americans were holding more than +twenty miles. The sector lay due north of Toul and extended very roughly +from Saint-Mihiel to Pont-à-Mousson. Later other sections of front were +given over to the Americans at various points on the Allied line. +Perhaps there was not quite the same thrill in the march to the Toul +sector as in the earlier movement to the trenches of the Lunéville line. +After all, even the limited service which the men had received gave them +something of the spirit of veterans. Then, too, the movement was less of +an adventure. Motor-trucks were few and most of the men marched all the +way over roads that were icy. The troops stood up splendidly under the +marching test and under the rigorous conditions of housing which were +necessary on the march. They had learned to take the weather of France +in the same easy, inconsequential way they took the language. + +For a second time the German spy system fell a good deal short of its +reputed omniscience. Seemingly, the enemy was not forewarned of the +coming of the Americans. Despite the fact that the troops were tired +from their long march, the relief was carried out without a hitch. Toul +had been regarded as a comparatively quiet sector, and, while it never +did blaze up into major actions during the early months of 1918, it was +hardly a rest-camp. It was, as the phrase goes, "locally active." Few +parts of the front were enlivened with as many raids and minor thrusts, +and No Man's Land was the scene of constant patrol encounters, which +lost nothing in spirit, even if they bulked small in size and +importance. + +It is probable that the Germans had no ambitious offensive plans in +regard to the Toul sector. They tried, however, to keep the Americans at +that point so busy and so harassed that it would be impossible for +Pershing to send men to help stem the drives against the French and the +English. The failure of this plan will be shown in the later chapters. + +Before going on to take up in some detail the life of the men in the +Toul sector, it is necessary to record a casualty suffered by +Major-General Leonard Wood. While inspecting the French lines General +Wood was wounded in the arm when a French gun exploded. Five French +soldiers were killed and Lieutenant-Colonel Charles E. Kilbourne and +Major Kenyon A. Joyce, who accompanied General Wood, were slightly +wounded. Wood returned to America shortly after the accident, and did +not have the privilege of coming back to France with the division he had +trained. But for all that he had a unique distinction. Leonard Wood was +the first American major-general to earn the right to a wounded stripe. + +The German artillery was active along the Toul front and the percentage +of losses, while small, was higher than it had been in the Lunéville +trenches. Of course, the American artillery was not inactive. It had a +deal of practice during the early days of February. The Germans +attempted to ambush a patrol on the 19th and failed, and on the next +night a sizable raid broke down under a barrage which was promptly +furnished by the American batteries in response to signals from the +trench which the Germans were attempting to isolate. + +The first job for America did not come on the Toul sector, but near the +Chemin-des-Dames. American artillery had already shown proficiency in +this sector by laying down a barrage for the French, who took a small +height near Tahure. Hilaire Belloc referred to this action as "small in +extent but of high historical importance." The importance consisted in +the fact that for the first time American artillerymen had an +opportunity of rolling a barrage ahead of an attacking force. They +showed their ability to solve the rather difficult timing problems +involved. Certain historical importance, then, must be given to the +action of February 23, when an American raiding-party in conjunction +with the French penetrated a few hundred yards into the German lines and +captured two German officers, twenty men, and a machine-gun. This +little action should not be forgotten, because it was practically the +first success of the Americans. It gave some indication of the efficient +help which Pershing's men were to give later on in Foch's great +counter-attack which drove the Germans across the Marne. + +It is interesting to know that every man in the American battalion +stationed on the Chemin-des-Dames volunteered for the raid. Of this +number only twenty-six were picked. There were approximately three times +as many French in the party, and it must be remembered that the affair +was strictly a French "show." The raid was carefully planned and +rehearsals were held back of the line, over country similar to that +which the Americans would cross in the raid. At 5.30 in the morning the +barrage began and it continued for an hour with guns of many calibres +having their say. The attack was timed almost identically with the +relief in the German trenches and the Boches were caught unawares. The +fact that a shell made a direct hit on a big dugout did not tend to +improve German morale. The little party of Americans had already cut +2,999 miles and some yards from the distance which separated their +country from the war, and they were anxious to cover the remaining +distance. Their French companions set them the example of not running +into their own barrage. Poilus and doughboys jumped into the enemy +trench together. There was a little sharp hand-to-hand fighting, but not +a great deal, as the German officers ordered their men to give ground. +The group of prisoners were captured almost in a body. Further +researches along communicating trenches and into dugouts failed to yield +any more. + +Attackers and prisoners started back for their own lines on schedule +time. The German artillery tried to cut them off. One shell wounded five +of the Germans and six Frenchmen, but the American contingent was +fortunate enough to escape without a single casualty. The French +expressed themselves as well pleased with the conduct of their pupils. +They said that the Americans had approached the barrage too closely once +or twice, but this was not remarkable, as it was the first time American +infantry had advanced behind a screen of shell fire. Their inexperience +also excused their tendency to go a little too far after the German +trench-line had been reached. + +On February 26 the Americans on the Toul front had their first +experience with a serious gas attack. Of course, gas-shells had been +thrown at them before, but this was the first time they had been +subjected to a steady bombardment. Some of the men were not sufficiently +cautious. A few were slow in getting their masks on and others took +theirs off too soon. The result was that five men were killed and fifty +or sixty injured by the gas. Two days later the Americans on the +Chemin-des-Dames were heavily attacked, but the Germans were driven off. + +March found the Toul sector receiving more attention than usual from the +Germans. The Germans made a strong thrust on the morning of March 1. The +raid was a failure, as three German prisoners remained in American hands +and many Germans were killed. Gas did not prove as effective as on the +last occasion. The doughboys were quick to put on their masks and as +soon as the bombardment ended they waited for the attacking-party and +swept them with machine-guns. About 240 Germans participated in the +attack. Some succeeded in entering the American first-line trench, but +they were expelled after a little sharp fighting. An American captain +who tried to cut off the German retreat by waylaying the raiders as they +started back for their own lines was killed. On the same day a raid +against the Chemin-des-Dames position failed. The Germans left four +prisoners. + +Two days after the attempted Toul raid Premier Clemenceau visited the +American sector and awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm to two +lieutenants, two sergeants, and two privates. The premier, who knows +American inhibitions just as well as he knows the language, departed a +little from established customs in awarding the medals. Nobody was +kissed. Instead Clemenceau patted the doughboys on the shoulder and +said: "That's the way to do it." One soldier was late in arriving, and +he seemed to be much afraid that this might cost him his cross, but the +premier handed it to him with a smile. "You were on time the other +morning," he said. "That's enough." In an official note Clemenceau +described the action of the Americans as follows: "It was a very fine +success, reflecting great honor on the tenacity of the American infantry +and the accuracy of the artillery fire." + +The Americans made a number of raids during March, but the Germans were +holding their front lines loosely, and usually abandoned them when +attacked, which made it difficult to get prisoners. An incident which +stands out occurred on March 7, when a lone sentry succeeded in +repulsing a German patrol practically unaided. He was fortunate enough +to kill the only officer with his first shot. This took the heart out of +the Germans. The lone American was shooting so fast that they did not +realize he was a solitary defender, and they fled. On March 14 American +troops made their first territorial gain, but it can hardly be classed +as an offensive. Some enemy trenches northeast of Badonviller, in the +Lunéville sector, were abandoned by the Germans because they had been +pretty thoroughly smashed up by American artillery fire. These trenches +were consolidated with the American position. + +April saw the first full-scale engagement in which American troops took +part at Seicheprey, but earlier in the month there was some spirited +fighting by Americans. Poilus and doughboys repelled an attack in the +Apremont Forest on April 12. The American elements of the defending +force took twenty-two prisoners. The German attack was renewed the next +day, but the Franco-American forces dislodged the Germans by a vigorous +counter-attack, after they had gained a foothold in the first-line +trenches. The biggest attack yet attempted on the Toul front occurred on +April 14. Picked troops from four German companies, numbering some 400 +men, were sent forward to attack after an unusually heavy bombardment. +The Germans were known to have had 64 men killed, and 11 were taken +prisoner. + +Numerous stories, more or less authentic, were circulated after this +engagement. One which is well vouched for concerns a young Italian who +met eight Germans in a communicating trench and killed one and captured +three. The remaining four found safety in flight. The youngster turned +his prisoners over to a sergeant and asked for a match. "I'll give you +a match if you'll bring me another German," said the non-commissioned +officer. The little Italian was a literal man and he wanted the match +very much. He went back over the parapet, and in five minutes he +returned escorting quite a large German, who was crying: "Kamerad." + +While American soldiers on the front were gaining experience, which +stood them in good stead at Seicheprey and later at Cantigny, great +progress was made in the organization of the American forces. Late in +the spring the first field-army was formed. This army was composed of +two army corps each made up of one Regular Army division, one National +Army division, and one division of National Guard. Major-General Hunter +Liggett became the first field-army commander of the overseas forces, +and it was his men who covered themselves with so much distinction in +the great counter-blows of July. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A CIVILIAN VISITOR + + +Destiny always plays the flying wedge. There is always the significant +little happening, half noticed or miscalculated, which trails great +happenings after it. On March 19, 1918, a derby hat appeared in the +front-line trenches held by the American Army in France. This promptly +was accorded the honor by the army and the Allied representatives of +being the first derby hat that had ever been seen in a trench. The hat +had the honor to be on the head of the first American Secretary of War +who had ever been in Europe in his term of office. And this first +American Secretary of War away from home was presently to have the honor +of helping to create the first generalissimo who had ever commanded an +army of twenty-six allies. + +All of which is to say that Newton D. Baker, on a tour of inspection of +the A. E. F., whose visit was to have such terrific fruition, +repudiated the war counsels which would have kept him out of the +trenches on this gusty March day, and went down to see for himself and +all the Americans at home how the doughboy was faring, and what could be +done for him. + +And as he peered over the parapet into No Man's Land, Secretary Baker +said: "I am standing on the frontier of freedom." The phrase grew its +wings in the saying, and by nightfall it had found the farthest +doughboy. + +The Paris newspapers announced, on the morning of March 12, that +Secretary Baker was in France. The troops had it by noon. And questions +flew in swarms. It was discovered that he would review the brigade of +veterans who had returned from service at the front on March 20, and +that meanwhile he would investigate the lines of communication. + +After a few days in Paris, during which Secretary Baker delivered all +the persuasions he had brought from President Wilson on behalf of a +unified command of the Allied armies, and had, it was rumored, turned +the scale in favor of a generalissimo, the distinguished civilian went +to the coast to see the port city which was the pride of the army and +the marvel of France. + +The secretary rode to the coast on a French train, but, once there, he +was transferred to an American train, which had to make up in +sentimental importance the large lack it had of elegance. + +A flat car was rapidly rigged up with plank benches. This had the merit +of affording plenty of view, and, after all, that was what the secretary +had come for. + +After rolling over the main arteries of the 200 miles of terminal +trackage, Secretary Baker inspected the warehouses, assembling-plants, +camps, etc., and walked three mortal miles of dock front which his +countrymen had evolved from an oozing marsh. He paid his highest +compliments to the engineers and the laborers, and amazed the officers +by the acuteness of his questions. If his visit did nothing else, it +convinced the men on the job that the man back home knew what the +obstacles were. + +Secretary Baker's next visit was to the biggest of the aviation-fields, +where again his technical understanding, as it came out in his +questions, astounded and cheered the men who were doing the building. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information_. + +Secretary Baker riding on flat car during his tour of inspection of the +American Expeditionary Forces.] + +Secretary Baker carried his office with him, a delightful discovery to +the men in the aviation-fields, who had some problems sorely pressing +for decision, and who found, when they told them to Mr. Baker, that he +had no aversion to taking action on the spot. For example, at aviation +headquarters, Mr. Baker asked if the fliers who came first from America +were the first to have their commissions after the final flights in +France. He learned that because of some delay in giving final +instruction, through no fault of the aviators, these first commissions +had not been given. Mr. Baker instituted a full inquiry at once, and at +the end of it directed that the commissions, when finally awarded, +should bear a date one day in advance of all others, so that the +priority rightfully earned should not be lost. + +After hours in the field, during which hundreds of machines with +American pilots flew in squadron formation, and many experts did +spectacular single flights, Mr. Baker made a short speech to the fliers. +A French officer, who had been instructing at the field, said to Mr. +Baker: "With all these machines in the air, you see no more than a tenth +of what America has in this one school. You will soon have no more need +of French instruction. We have shown everything we know, and your young +men have taken to the art with astonishing facility, as well as +audacity, nerve, and resource. The danger and difficulties fascinate and +inspire them. I think it must be what you call the 'sporting spirit.'" + +As he was leaving the aviation-field Secretary Baker said: "The spirit +of every man in this camp seems in keeping with the mission which +brought him to France. The camps, appointments, and organization are +admirable. It is gratifying to learn from their French instructors that +our young aviators are proving themselves daring, cool, and skilful." + +On the night of March 18 Secretary Baker began his preparations for a +visit to the trenches. With a general commanding a division and one +other officer he motored to the farthest point, where he dined and +stayed the night in a French château. At dawn the next morning the +party made ready to go on. But the Boches appeared to have a hunch. +They shelled the road on which Secretary Baker had planned to travel +with such ferocity that the officers in command refused to take the risk +of permitting Mr. Baker to go over it. The American general and all the +French officers then begged Mr. Baker to give up the trip to the +trenches. They wasted a lot of persuasion. Mr. Baker just went by +another road. A colonel of about Mr. Baker's build had loaned him a +trench overcoat, and some rubber boots, and the secretary had a tin +helmet and a gas-mask, but he would wear the tin helmet only for a +moment, and the mask not at all. + +The officers in charge of the party found presently, to their acute +horror, that even the trenches were not enough for Mr. Baker. Nothing +would do him but a listening-post. And when he had finally got back +safe, and had come back to the communication-trenches from the front, +everybody breathed a sigh of relief. The relief was premature, for the +liveliest danger of all was on the return motor trip, when an immense +shell buried itself in a crater not fifty yards from the secretary. +Fortunately, the débris flew all in the opposite direction, and nobody +was hurt. + +The First Division heard an address the following day from Secretary +Baker. "It would seem more fit," he said, "and I should much prefer it, +if, instead of addressing you, I should listen to your experiences. Your +division has the distinction of being the first to arrive in France. May +every man in your ranks aim to make the First Division the first in +accomplishment. With you came a body of the marines, those +well-disciplined, ship-shape soldiers of the navy. + +"Yours was the first experience in being billeted, and in all the +initial details of adjusting yourselves to new and strange conditions. +In this, as in developing a system of training, you were the pioneers, +blazing the way, while succeeding contingents could profit by your +mistakes. + +"Day after day and week after week you had to continue the hard drudgery +of instruction which is necessary to proficiency in modern war. You had +to restrain your impatience to go into the trenches under General +Pershing's wise demand for that thoroughness, the value of which you now +appreciate as a result of actual service in the trenches. + +"If sometimes the discipline seemed wearing, you now know you would have +paid for its absence with your lives. + +"If I had any advice to give, it is to strike hard and shoot straight, +and I would warn you at the same time against any carelessness, any +surrendering to curiosity, which would make you a mark needlessly. The +better you are trained the more valuable is your life to your country, +as a fighter who seeks to make the soldier of the enemy, rather than +yourself, pay the supreme price of war. + +"On every hand I am told that you are prepared to fight 'to the end,' +and I see this spirit in your faces. Depend upon us at home to stand by +you in a spirit worthy of you." + +Next Secretary Baker spoke, though informally, to the Forty-second +Division, far better known as the Rainbow Division. There he explained +some of the reasons for military secrecy. + +"While it was in training at home I saw a good deal of the Rainbow +Division," he said "Then, one day, it was gone to France, where it +disappeared behind the curtain of military secrecy which must be drawn +unless we choose to sacrifice the lives of our men for the sake of +publicity. The enemy's elaborate intelligence system seeks at any cost +to learn the strength, the preparedness, and the character of our +troops. Our own intelligence service assures us that the knowledge of +our army in France which some assume to exist does not, in fact, exist. + +"If we were to announce the identity of each unit that comes to France, +then we would fully inform the enemy of the number and nature of our +forces. Published details about any division are most useful to expert +military intelligence officers in determining the state of the +division's preparedness, and the probable assignment of the division to +any section. + +"But now it is safe to mention certain divisions which were first to +arrive in France and have already been in the line. This includes the +Rainbow Division, famous because it is representative of all parts of +the United States. This division should find in its character an +inspiration to _esprit de corps_ and general excellence. It should be +conscious of its mission as a symbol of national unity. + +"The men of Ohio I know as Ohioans, and I am proud that they have been +worthy of Ohio. A citizen of another State will find himself equally at +home in some other group, and the gauge of this State's pride will be +the discipline of that group of soldiers, its conduct as men, its +courage, and its skill in the trenches. You may learn more than war in +France. You may learn lessons from France, whose unity and courage have +been a bulwark against that sinister force whose character you are +learning in the trenches. The Frenchman is, first of all, a Frenchman, +which stimulates, rather than weakens, his pride in Brittany as a +Breton, in Lorraine as a Lorrainer, and his loyalty and affection for +his own town, or village, or home. In truth he fights for his family and +his home when he fights for France and civilization. Thus, you will +fight best and serve best by being first an American, with no diminution +of your loyalty to your State and your community. + +"With us at home the development of a new national unity seems a vague +process compared to the concrete process you are undergoing. You are +uniting North, East, South, and West in action. We aim to support you +with all our resources, to make sure that you do not fight in vain." + +The brigade of the veterans was reviewed on the last day of the camp +inspection. + +Secretary Baker went by motor, with officers and aides, as far as the +foot of the hill from which he was to review the troops deploying in the +Marne valley. Twenty days of rain had made the hilltop inaccessible by +motor. As Secretary Baker started up one slope, General Pershing and his +aides ascended another, and the two men met at the top. + +The brigade swept by at company front, with full marching equipment. +They were the first brigade to be reviewed after it had been in action, +and they held to their flawless formation, chins up and chests out, in +spite of clogging mud that was almost too much for the mules. + +The review ended in compliments all around. Secretary Baker's +enthusiasm was conveyed even to the lesser officers. General Pershing +said: "These men have been there and know what it is. You can tell that +by the way they throw out their chests as they swing by." + +America at last had her veterans. They were to dignify the coming gift +of them to heroic size. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A FAMOUS GESTURE + + +When America had put the power of all her eloquence into the growing +demand among the Allies for a unified command, and when, as a result of +this pressure, General Foch, chief of staff of the French Army and hero +of the battle of the Marne, had been made generalissimo, General +Pershing put into words in what the French called a "superb gesture" the +final sacrifice his country was prepared to make. + +The first of the great German drives of 1918 had halted, but the battle +was nowhere near its end. General Foch was sparing every possible energy +on the battle-front and heaping up every atom of force for his reserve. + +And on the morning of March 28 General Pershing went to headquarters and +offered the American Army in full to General Foch, to put where he +pleased, without any regard whatever for America's earlier wish to fight +with her army intact. + +It was the final sacrifice to the idealistic point of view. It had +indisputably the heroic quality. And as such it was rewarded in the +countries of the Allies with appreciation beyond measure. + +"I have come," said General Pershing to General Foch that morning, "to +say to you that the American people would hold it a great honor for our +troops if they were engaged in the present battle. I ask it of you in my +name and in that of the American people. + +"There is at this moment no other question than that of fighting. +Infantry, artillery, aviation--all that we have are yours, to dispose of +them as you will. Others are coming, which are as numerous as will be +necessary. I have come to say to you that the American people would be +proud to be engaged in the greatest battle in history." + +This offer was placed immediately by General Foch before the French +war-council at the front, a council including Premier Clemenceau, +Commander-in-Chief Pétain, and Louis Loucheur, Minister of Munitions, +and was immediately accepted. American Army orders went forth in French +from that day. And on those orders the army was presently scattered +through the vast reserve army, from Flanders with the British to Verdun +with the Italians and the French. They were not to go into actual +battle, except near their own sectors, till the third monster drive, in +July, for General Foch makes a religion of the reserve army and Fabian +tactics. But they spread through the battle-line from Switzerland to the +sea, as General Pershing had suggested, and "all we have" was at work. + +Paris acclaimed the move royally. _La Liberté_ wrote: "General Pershing +yesterday took, in the name of his country, action which was grand in +its simplicity and of moving beauty. In a few words, without adornment, +but in which vibrated an accent of chivalrous passion, General Pershing +made to France the offer of an entire people. 'Take all,' he said; 'all +is yours.' The honor Pershing claims is shared by us, and it is with the +sentiment of real pride that our soldiers will greet into their ranks +those of the New World who come to them as brothers." + +Secretary Baker, from American General Headquarters, gave out a +statement. "I am delighted at General Pershing's prompt and effective +action," he said, "in placing all the American troops and facilities at +the disposal of the Allies in the present situation. + +"It will be met with hearty approval in the United States, where the +people desire their expeditionary force to be of the utmost service in +the common cause. I have visited all the American troops in France, some +of them recently, and had an opportunity to observe the enthusiasm with +which officers and men received the announcement that they would be used +in the present conflict. One regiment to which the announcement was made +spontaneously broke into cheers." + +The British Government issued an official statement on the night of +April 1: "As a result of communications which have passed between the +Prime Minister and President Wilson; of deliberations between Secretary +Baker, who visited London a few days ago, and the Prime Minister, Mr. +Balfour, and Lord Derby, and consultations in France in which General +Pershing and General Bliss participated, important decisions have been +come to by which large forces of trained men in the American Army can be +brought to the assistance of the Allies in the present struggle. + +"The government of our great Western ally is not only sending large +numbers of American battalions to Europe during the coming critical +months, but has agreed to such of its regiments as cannot be used in +divisions of their own being brigaded with French and British units so +long as the necessity lasts. + +"By this means troops which are not sufficiently trained to fight as +divisions and army corps will form part of seasoned divisions, until +such time as they have completed their training and General Pershing +wishes to withdraw them in order to build up the American Army. + +"Throughout these discussions President Wilson has shown the greatest +anxiety to do everything possible to assist the Allies, and has left +nothing undone which could contribute thereto. + +"This decision, however of vital importance it will be to the +maintenance of the Allied strength in the next few months, will in no +way diminish the need for those further measures for raising fresh +troops at home to which reference has already been made. + +"It is announced at once, because the Prime Minister feels that the +singleness of purpose with which the United States have made this +immediate and, indeed, indispensable contribution toward the triumph of +the Allied cause should be clearly recognized by the British people." + +Lord Reading, the British Ambassador at Washington, conveyed to +President Wilson a message of thanks from the British Government, for +"the instant and comprehensive measures" which the President took in +response to the request that American troops be used to reinforce the +Allied armies in France. The Embassy then gave out a statement that "the +knowledge that, owing to the President's prompt co-operation, the Allies +will receive the strong reinforcement necessary during the next few +months is most welcome to the British Government and people." + +The London papers reflected this sentiment in even stronger terms. Said +the _Westminster Gazette_: "It seals the unity of the Allied forces in +France, and so far from weakening the determination to provide all +possible reinforcements from this country, it will, we are confident, +give it fresh energy. All the big loans America has made to Great +Britain and France, her heavy contributions of food, her princely gifts +through the Red Cross, and the high, stimulating utterances of President +Wilson, have done much to strengthen the Allied morale and lend material +assistance to the war against autocracy, but none of these counts so +heavily with the masses, because there are few families here or in +France who have not a personal and intimate interest in the soldiers +battling on the plains of Picardy." + +The _Evening Star_ wrote: "In a true spirit of soldierly comradeship +they will march to the sound of guns, and will merge their national +pride in a common stock of courage for the common good. It is a +chivalrous decision, and President Wilson, Mr. Baker, and General Bliss +have done a very great thing in a very great way. The British and French +people are moved by this splendid proof of America's fellowship in the +fight for world freedom." + +If this gift was so significant in spirit, it was also bravely helpful +in round numbers. At the end of March, 1918, General Pershing had +366,142 soldiers in his command in France, and of these, after nine +months of training and adjustment, he could put about 100,000 in the +line. + +And within three months after this time he had more than 1,000,000 +soldiers in France, the Navy Department having accomplished the +astounding feat of transporting 637,929 in April, May, and June. The +month that the reinforcement of the French and British Armies was +planned and accepted the transport figures jumped from forty-eight +thousand odd to eighty-three thousand odd. The month of its first +practical operation the figures jumped again to one hundred and +seventeen thousand odd, and in the month of June, the month of the +anniversary of the first debarkation, there was a transportation of +276,372 men. + +The last few days of March, 1918, saw the first large troop movements +from the American zone--that is, saw them strictly in the mind's eye. +Actually, the rain came down in such drenching downpours that the +French villagers whom the motor-trucks passed did not so much see as +hear the doughboys. Throughout the whole zone the activity was +prodigious. Along the muddy roads two great processions of motor-trucks +crossed each other day and night, the one taking the soldiers to one +front, the other to another. Sometimes the camions slithered in the mud +till they came to a stop in the gutter. Then the boisterous, jubilant +soldiers would tumble out and set their shoulders under wheels and +mud-guards, and hoist the car into the road again. The singing was +incessant. The mood of the songs swung from "The Battle Hymn of the +Republic" to "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town To-night." + +The exuberance of the soldiers knew no bounds. They were about to answer +"present" to the roll-call of the big guns, the call they had been +hearing for so many months, that had seemed to them so persistently and +personally compelling. They were going to become a part of that living +wall which for three years and a half had held the enemy out of Paris. + +Those who were going to the British front were particularly exultant +because they expected to find open fighting there, the kind they called +"our specialty." + +To all the units going into the French and British Armies a general +order was read, jacking up discipline to the topmost notch. + +"The character of the service this command is now about to undertake," +read the order, "demands the enforcement of stricter discipline and the +maintenance of higher standards of efficiency than any heretofore +required. + +"In future the troops of this command will be held at all times to the +strictest observance of that rigid discipline in camp and on the march +which is essential to their maximum efficiency on the day of battle." + +The first of the fighting troops arrived on the British front on the +morning of April 10, after an all-night march. They were grimed and +mud-spattered, hungry, and tired, and cold. But the cheering that rose +from the Tommies when they recognized the American uniforms at the head +of the column would have revived more exhausted men than they. + +The first comers were infantry, a battalion of them. Others came up +during the day, with artillerymen and machine-gunners. The celebration +of their coming lasted far into the next night, and the commanders of +the British front exchanged telegrams of congratulation with the +commanders of the French front that they were to be so welcomely +refreshed. + +But Generalissimo Foch, with his stanch determination not to be done out +of his reserve, held the Americans back, and they were destined to +remain behind the main battle-line for three and a half months longer. + +Meanwhile the American strength was piling steadily up in the reserve, +and in mid-May a large contingent of the National Army, said to be the +first of them to land in Europe, reached the Flanders front and began to +train at once behind the British lines, without preliminary work in +American camps in France. + +These men had what was probably the most exhilarating welcome of the +war. The Tommies, many of them wounded and sick, poured out into the +roadways as the new American Army arrived, and threw their caps into the +air and split their throats with cheers. The British had been +terrifically hard pressed in the German offensive. They had given ground +only after incredible fighting. They were, in the phrase of General +Haig, at last "with their backs to the wall." They held their line +magnificently, but they could not have been less than filled with +thanksgiving that they were now to have the help of the least war-worn +of all their allies. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FIRST TWO BATTLES + + +While Generalissimo Foch was strengthening his long line, with American +troops as flying buttresses, those sectors delegated to the Americans in +their own right saw two battles, within a few weeks of each other, which +attained to the dignity of names. The battle of Seicheprey, the first +big American defensive action, and the battle of Cantigny, the first big +offensive, the one in the Toul sector, the other in Picardy, were the +occasions of the American baptism of fire. The one was so valiant, the +other so brilliant, and both were so reassuring to the high commands of +the Allies, that they would deserve a special emphasis even if they had +not the distinction of being America's first battles. + +On the night of April 20-21 the German bombardment of Seicheprey, a +village east of the Renners wood, and just northwest of Toul, grew to +monstrous proportions. Frenchmen who had seen the great Verdun +offensive, in which the German Crown Prince had made a new record for +artillery preparation, said that the heavy firing on the American sector +eclipsed any of the action at Verdun. + +The firing covered a front of a mile and a quarter. The bombardment was +of high explosive shells and gas, apparently an effort to disable the +return fire from American artillery. But all through the night the +artillerymen sent their shells, encasing themselves in gas-masks. + +Toward dawn the attack began. A full regiment of German soldiers, +preceded by 1,200 shock troops, advanced under a barrage. Halfway across +No Man's Land the American artillery laid down a counter-barrage, and +many of the Germans dropped under it, but still the great waves of them +came on, focussing on the village of Seicheprey. + +The impact of their terrific numbers was too powerful to be withstood at +once. The American troops fell back from some of their first-line +trenches, which the first bombardment had caused them to hold loosely, +and part of the forces fell back even from the village. The Germans +marched into the village, evidently believing it to have been totally +abandoned, carrying their flame-throwers and grenades, but making no use +of them. Suddenly they discovered that certain American troops had been +left to defend the village, while the main force reformed at the rear, +and hand-to-hand fighting in the street became necessary. An American +commander sent word back that the troops were giving ground by inches, +and that they could hold for a few hours. + +Seicheprey, the first big American battle, had every element of the +World War in little. Before the loss of the village, which occurred +about noon, the troops defending it had fought from ambush and in the +open, had fought with gas and liquid fire, with grenades, rifles, and +machine-guns. In the inferno the new troops were giving proof of valor +that was to come out later and be scattered broadcast, as a measure of +what America would bring. + +In and out of the streets of Seicheprey, in its little public square, +from the yards of its houses, hundreds of American soldiers were +fighting for their lives. France lay behind them, trusting to be saved. +Other Americans were behind them, racing into formation with French +troops for the counter-attack. The defenders of Seicheprey, "giving by +inches," had a battle-cry of their own, brief and racy, of the +football-fields: "Hold 'em." + +After a while the Germans took Seicheprey. The hideously pressed, +slow-giving outpost moved back. Before the day had finished the +shell-stripped streets of Seicheprey, sheltering the invaders, weltered +again under the first American shells of the counter-attack. By +nightfall the troops were creeping forward under the counter-barrage. +The army, reformed, refreshed, and replenished, was on its way to take +its own back again. The counter-battle lacked the monstrous gruelling of +the first attack. It took less time. The superiority of numbers had +shifted to the other side, and the white heat of determination did its +share. + +The Germans held Seicheprey about four hours. + +The main positions of the army, which were threatened, were untouched +because of the stoutness of the resistance at the village, and most of +the first-line positions were retaken with the rush of the +counter-attack. + +The German prisoners who were captured had many days' rations in their +kits and extra loads of trench-tools on their backs. They had intended +to hold the American trenches for several days, facing them the other +way, before they commenced the new attack, which, in the plan of the +German high command, was to break apart the French and American lines +where they joined, above Toul. Once this wedge was into the Allied +vitals the rest was to be easy. + +Though Seicheprey did not count as a big battle in point of numbers +engaged or numbers lost, it loomed large enough in the importance it had +strategically. The German high command obviously expected little or +nothing from the "green American troops." The shock troops had been +rehearsed for weeks to take the American lines and hold them till the +Allied line should be broken apart. In fact, it was nobly planned. The +only compliment the Americans could squeeze out of it was that the +Germans were sent over in many places eight to their one. But the +capture of Seicheprey lasted just four hours, and the disruption of the +Franco-American line remained a mere brain-child of the Wilhelmstrasse. + +The French soldiers who joined the counter-attack told thrilling stories +of the Americans. They told that in one place north of Seicheprey, an +American detachment was separated into small groups, and was cut off +from the company to which it belonged through the entire fight. Behind +the Americans and on their left flank were German units, but they could +have retired on the right. They decided to stay and fight, so there they +stayed, notwithstanding incessant enemy bombardment. + +In the town of Seicheprey a squad of Americans found a few cases of +hand-grenades. With these they put up a tremendous fight through the +whole day, holding to a strip at the northern end of the village. They +refused to surrender when they were ordered to, and at the end of the +fighting only nine of the original twenty-three were left. By the grace +of these nine men Seicheprey was never wholly German, even for the four +hours. + +One New England boy passed through the enemy barrage seven times to +carry ammunition to his comrades. A courier who was twice blown off the +road by shell explosions carried his message through and dropped as he +reported. A lieutenant with only six men patrolled six hundred yards of +the front throughout the day, holding communications open between the +battalions to the right and left of him. A sanitary-squad runner +captured by the Germans, escaped them and made his way into Seicheprey, +tending the wounded there till help came. A machine-gunner found himself +alone with his gun, and on being asked by a superior officer if he could +hold the line there, replied that he could if he were not killed. He +did. A regimental chaplain went to the assistance of a battery which was +hard pressed, and carried ammunition for them for hours, then took his +turn at the gun. + +These make no roster of the heroes of Seicheprey. There were hundreds of +them. But the censor's passionate aversion to details of all battles has +scotched the narrative of heroes for the present. + +Cantigny will warm the cockles of the American heart as long as it +beats. There was a battle that for spirit, flare, brilliancy, came up to +the rosiest dream that ever was dreamed, in Washington, or London, or +Paris. + +Cantigny, like Seicheprey, was not an engagement of great numbers. It +was a little town that was hard to capture. It commanded a fine view of +the American lines for miles back, and it had been able to withstand +some violent attempts earlier, so it was particularly desirable. And it +was in a salient, so that it formed an angle in the line. Its taking +straightened the line, heartily disgruntled the Boches, who lost 200 +prisoners and many hundred wounded and dead in defending it, and it gave +the American troops their first taste of the offensive. But more than +all that, it gave these same troops a record of absolutely flawless +workmanship which, if not large, was at least complete. + +The capture of Cantigny and 200 yards beyond it, which included the +German second line, took just three-quarters of an hour. + +In the niggardly terms of the communique: "This morning in Picardy our +troops attacked on a front of one and a fourth miles, advanced our +lines, and captured the village of Cantigny. We took 200 prisoners and +inflicted on the enemy severe losses in killed and wounded. Our +casualties were relatively small. Hostile counter-attacks broke down +under our fire." + +It was on the morning of May 28. At a quarter to six a bombardment +began. At a quarter to seven the troops went over the top. The barrage +went first, a dense gray veil. Then came twelve French tanks. Just +behind the tanks stalked the doughboys. + +The soldiers moved like clockwork. There were no unruly fringes to be +nipped by the barrage. There was no break in the methodical stride. They +went forward first a hundred yards in two minutes. Then the barrage +slowed to a hundred yards in four minutes. In a little while the troops +had arrived at the edge of the village; then the close-quarter fighting +began. + +At 7.30 a white rocket rose from the centre of Cantigny, dim against the +smoky sky, to tell the men behind that "the objective is reached and +prisoners are coming." + +The Americans found the enemy in confusion and unreadiness, and the +initial resistance from machine-guns at the town's edge was easily +overcome. Where the burden of hard fighting came was in routing the +Germans out from the caves and tunnels and cellars of the town into +which they had retired. + +There was a long tunnel in the town, which, after furious fighting, was +surrounded and isolated. The flame-throwers were placed at both ends of +the tunnel, and that episode was ended. Some of the caves were large +enough to hold a battalion. These were handled by the mopping-up troops, +who threw hand-grenades. + +The prisoners began to file back almost immediately. One grinning +Pittsburgher, wounded in the arm, marched in the rear of a prison squad. +"That's handin' it to them Huns, blankety-blank 'em," he said +cheerfully. + +The village caught fire from the bombardment and the firing of the +tunnel, and for hours after its capture the soldiers had to fight +flames. + +The first of the American "shock troops" went from the village on to the +German second-line trenches, and under a hail of bullets from German +machine-guns dug themselves in and faced the trenches the other way. + +All that day they held their prize unmolested. They had all the high +ground beyond Cantigny, and an approach was, to put it mildly, +precarious. But by five of the afternoon the German counter-attacks had +begun. One wave after another stormed half-way up the hill, then tumbled +down again, broken under the American artillery. Four counter-attacks +were made against Cantigny, but all of them failed. The new positions +were consolidated, under heavy fire and gas attack, and there they +stayed. + +This gallant battle called forth intemperate commendation from the +headquarters of the Allies. The French despatch to Washington told +officially of the high opinion the French held of it, and there were +many congratulatory telegrams from London. The press of London and Paris +glowed with praises. The London _Evening News_ wrote: + +"Bravo, the young Americans! Nothing in to-day's battle narrative from +the front is more exhilarating than the account of their fight at +Cantigny. It was clean-cut from beginning to end, like one of their +countrymen's short stories, and the short story of Cantigny is going to +expand into a full-length novel, which will write the doom of the Kaiser +and Kaiserism. We expected it. We have seen those young Americans in +London, and merely to glance at them was to know that they are +conquerors and brothers in that great Anglo-Saxon-Latin compact which +will bring down the Prussian idol.... They do not swagger, and they have +no war illusions. They have done their first job with swift precision, +characteristic of the United States, and Cantigny will one day be +repeated a thousand-fold." + +_The Times_ wrote: + +"Our allies know the significance of that as well as we do. So, too, do +the German generals and the German statesmen. It means that the last +great factor between autocracy and freedom is coming into effective play +on the battle-field.... There could be no reflection more heartening for +the Allies or more dismaying to their adversaries." + +"Their adversaries," meanwhile, were doing what they could to keep their +dismay to themselves. In the German announcement of the loss of +Cantigny there was mention only of "the enemy." The German people were +not to know for a while that the "ridiculous little American Army" had +got to work. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +TEUFEL-HUNDEN + + +No branch of service in the American Army was so quick to achieve group +consciousness as the marines. To be sure, these soldiers of the sea had +a considerable tradition behind them before they came to France. The +world is never so peaceful that there is nothing for the marines to do. +Always there is some spot for them to land and put a situation into +hand. It is no fault of the marines that most of these brushes have been +little affairs, and they have found, as Mr. Kipling says, that "the +things that you learn from the yellow and brown will 'elp you a heap +with the white." + +The Navy Department has always been careful to preserve the tradition of +the marines. The organization has never lacked for intelligent +publicity. "First to fight" was a slogan which brought many a recruit +into the corps. Even the dreary work of policing, which falls largely +to the marines, has been dramatized to a certain extent by that fine +swaggering couplet of their song: + + "If the army or the navy ever gaze on heaven's scenes, + They will find the streets are guarded by United States marines." + +The belief that the marines would make a distinctive mark in the great +World War was practically unanimous. Army officers couldn't deny it, war +correspondents hastened to proclaim it, and the Germans admitted it by +bestowing the name "Teufel-hunden" (devil-dogs) on the marines +immediately after their first engagement. The marines themselves were +second to no one in the consciousness of their own prowess. + +"I understand," said a little marine just two days off the transport, +"that this Kaiser isn't afraid of the American Army so much, but that he +is afraid of the marines." + +The boy didn't say whether one of his officers had told him that, but +his belief was passionate and complete. However, the marines did not +allow their high confidence to interfere in any way with their +preparations. They showed the same anxiety to make good on the +training-fields that they later displayed on the line. Their camp in the +American area was just a bit farther from the centre of things than that +of any other organization. Whenever there was a review or a special show +of any sort for a distinguished visitor, the marines had to march twelve +miles to attend. And after that it was twelve miles home again. But they +thrived on hard work. They shot, bayoneted, and bombed just a little +better than any other organization in the first division. Sometimes +individual marines would complain a little about the fact that they were +worked harder than any men in the division, but they always took care to +add that they had finished the construction of their practice-trench +system days before any of the others. When they mentioned the fact that +they had achieved this result by working in day and night shifts it was +never possible to tell whether they were airing a grievance or making a +boast. It is probable that they were something of the mind of Job, whose +boils were both a tribulation and a triumph. + +There was no doubt as to the opinion of the marines when it seemed for a +time as if they might not get into the fighting. They did not go into +the trenches with the first division, but were broken up and sent to +various points for police duty. Of course they were bitterly +disappointed, but they merely policed a little harder, and it was a +severe winter for soldiers who went about with their overcoats +unbuttoned, or committed other breaches of military regulations. + +Since the marines did hard work well, they were rewarded by more hard +work, and this was labor more to their taste. The reward came suddenly. +On May 30 a unit of marines was in a training-camp so far back of the +lines that it was impossible to hear the sound of the guns even when the +Germans turned everything loose for a big offensive. On that same day +the Germans reached the Marne east of Château-Thierry and began an +advance along the north bank toward the city. That night the marines +were ordered to the front. + +They rode almost a hundred kilometres to get into the fight. It was late +afternoon when they reached a hill overlooking Château-Thierry. French +guns all about them were being fired up to their very limit or a little +beyond. The Germans were coming on. These marines had never been in a +battle before, with the exception of a few who had chased little brown +rebels in various brief encounters on small islands. They had never been +under shell fire. And this their first engagement was one of the biggest +in the greatest war in history. From the hill they could see houses fold +up and fields pucker under the pounding of big guns. The marines were +told that as soon as darkness came they would march into the town and +hold the bridges against the German Army, which was coming on. Somebody +asked a French officer some days later how these green troops had taken +their experience as they waited the word to go forward. "They were +concombres," said the Frenchman. Our word is cucumbers. + +Finally, the order came for the advance. It was a dark night, but the +marines could see their way forward well enough. The German bombardment +had set fire to the railroad-station. The Americans kept in the shadows +as much as they could, but they danced around so much that it was +difficult. They placed their machine-guns here and there behind walls +and new barricades, so that they could enfilade the approaches to the +bridges and the streets on the opposite side of the river. One +lieutenant with twelve men and two guns took up a position across the +river. It was up to him to stand off the first rush. + +The shelling from the enemy guns was intensified during the night, but +the infantry had not yet reached the town. It was five o'clock of a +bright morning when the little advance post of the Americans saw the +Germans coming across the open field toward the river. They were +marching along carelessly in two columns and there were twelve men in +every line. One of the machine-guns swung her nose around a little and +the fight was on. At last the American was definitely in one of the +major engagements of the war. American machine-gunners were doing their +bit to block the advance on Paris. All day long the marines held the +Germans back with their machine-guns. And that night they beat back a +German mass attack when the Boches came on and on in waves, with men +locked arm in arm. They could hear them, for they sang as they rushed +forward, and the machine-gunners pumped their bullets into the spots +where the notes were loudest. + +The next day the Americans were forced to give some ground when the +order came to retire, but they had been through, perhaps, the most +intensive two days of training which ever fell to the lot of green +troops. + +The marines did not have to wait long for retaliation. Other units of +marines from other camps had been hurrying up to the front, and on June +6 an offensive was launched on a front of two and a half miles. The +first day's gain was two and three-sixteenth miles and 100 prisoners +were captured. This attack yielded all the important high ground +northwest of Château-Thierry. The marines did not rest with this gain. +They struck again at five o'clock in the afternoon, and by June 7 the +attack had grown to much greater proportions. Four villages, Vinly, +Veuilly-la-Poterie, Torcy, and Bouresches, fell into the hands of the +French and Americans. The thrust was pressed to a maximum depth of two +miles on a ten-mile front. More than 300 prisoners were captured by the +Americans. The attack was carried out under American command, +Major-General James G. Harbord being in charge of the operation. + +As in the Cantigny offensive, the Americans worked with great speed, and +showed that they could make the rifle an effective weapon even under the +changed conditions of modern warfare. But though they were swift they +were not silent. They went over the top shouting like Indians, and they +kept up the noise as they went forward. The second attack was carried +out by the same men who had advanced in the morning. The early showing +had been so promising that it was decided to go on, particularly as the +Germans seemed to be somewhat shaken by the violence of the assault. In +this new sweep the marines took ground on either side of Belleau Wood. +They also captured the ravine south of Torcy. The Germans were not able +to organize an effective counter-attack immediately, for they had been +too much surprised by the thrust. Also the effective work of the +American artillery made it difficult for the Germans to bring up fresh +troops. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information._ + +U. S. Marines in readiness to march to the front.] + +In the rough country over which the battle was fought there was +opportunity for the fight to disintegrate into the little eddies where +individual initiative counts for so much. In a fight near Le Thiolet, +Captain James O. Green, Jr., found himself cut off by the Germans. He +was accompanied by five privates. Back at regimental headquarters Green +had already been reported as killed or captured. He proved the need of +clerical revision, for he and his men fought their way back to the +American lines. At one point ten Germans tried to intercept him, but the +six Americans succeeded in killing or wounding every member of the enemy +party. A single marine who was taking back a prisoner ran into two +German officers and ten men. He fell upon them with rifle and bayonet +and disposed of both officers and several of the men. Then he made his +escape. Somebody told the marine when he got back to the American lines +that he certainly had been "in luck." + +"Hell! no," said the fighting man; "they took my prisoner away from +me." + +Still another marine was captured while dazed by a blow on the head. He +recovered in time to deal his captor a tremendous punch on the jaw, and +made his way back to the American lines. The favorite slogan of the +Americans was: "Each man get a German; don't let a German get you." + +Early on June 8 the Germans launched a counter-attack against the +American position between Bouresches and Le Thiolet. This attack broke +down. The trenches which the Americans held were new and shallow, but +the troops were well supplied with machine-guns, and the German infantry +never got closer than within a couple of hundred yards of the position. +The marines were not yet content with their success. They took the +initiative again on June 10 and smashed into the German lines for about +two-thirds of a mile on a 600-yard front. In this attack two minenwerfer +were captured. The object of the attack was to clean out Belleau Wood. +The Germans retained only the northern fringe. + +By this time the offensive had ceased to be wholly a marine affair. The +9th and 23d Regiments of infantry, comprising what is known as the +Syracuse Brigade, took up their positions on the right of the soldiers +of the sea. During the next few days the Germans made several violent +counter-attacks, but without success, and on June 26 the Americans +pushed their gains still further by a successful assault south of Torcy, +in which more than 250 Germans were captured. This victory gave +Pershing's men absolute command of the Bois de Belleau, which was the +strategic point for which the Germans had fought so hard. + +It was after the Château-Thierry offensive that for the first time the +American Army won a place in the German official communique. Before that +they had been simply "the enemy," and once, upon the occasion of a +successful German raid, North American troops. But now Berlin unbent a +little and used the term "an American regiment." Germany was prepared to +admit that America was in the war. It is just possible that some of +their men who broke before the rush of the marines returned to give +headquarters the information. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE ARMY OF MANOEUVRE + + +While the American Army was showing its quality in the minor battles of +Seicheprey, Cantigny, Château-Thierry, and Vaux, and its quantity was +showing itself in leaps of hundreds of thousands of men a month, a +destiny was shaping for it, equally in circumstances and in the mind of +Generalissimo Foch, which was to be even greater than that it had +sacrificed in late March, when it submerged its identity and said: "Put +us where you will." + +For when, on July 18, the fifth German offensive suddenly shivered into +momentary equilibrium and then rolled back, with Foch and the Allies +pounding behind it, and when this counter-attack developed into a +continuing offensive which was to straighten the Marne salient and throw +back the Germans from before Amiens and do the future only knows what +else besides, the Allied world said, in one voice: "Foch has found his +army of manoeuvre, and it's the Americans." + +This "army of manoeuvre" has always been the king-pin of French +strategy. While the Germans were trying two systems--first, the broad +front attack which trusted to overbear by sheer weight anything which +opposed it, and, second, the so-called Hutier system of draining the +line of all its best fighters, and organizing shock troops immeasurably +above the average for offensive, while the line was held by the rag-tag +and bobtail--the French stuck to their traditional system. This was to +hold the lines with the lightest possible number of men, of the highest +possible caliber, and to thrust with a mobile force, foot-loose and +ready to be swung wherever a spot seemed likely to give way. + +It was with the "army of manoeuvre," thrown up from Paris in frantic +haste by Galliéni, in taxicabs and trucks, that General Foch made the +miraculous plunge through the Saxon army at Fère-en-Tardenois, in +September, 1914, which saved the first battle of the Marne. + +When General Foch became generalissimo, in late March, just after the +first German offensive on March 21 had thrown the British back, and when +the French were retreating at Montdidier, the expectation universally +was that the Allies would begin an offensive, within the shortest +possible time. Foch had been quoted all over the world as saying that +"defensive fighting was no defense." Yet April, May, and June passed, +and part of July, and except for scattering attacks along the Marne +salient, and patient rear-guard action when the retreats were necessary, +the Allies made no move. + +The Austrian debacle came and went. Foch had Italy off his mind, and the +Italians were more than taking care of themselves. Still he did not +strike. And finally it became clear that he was showing this long +patience because he wanted what every Frenchman wants first in every +battle, and what he did not surely have until July--his army of +manoeuvre. + +The fitness of the American Army for this brilliant use was dual: first, +that its source was virtually inexhaustible; second, that it was better +at offensive than defensive fighting. + +The American Army had a quality, and the defect of that quality: it +wanted to get to Berlin regardless of tactics. And while General Foch +was trusting to time to prove to them that, pleasant or unpleasant, the +tactics had to be observed, he turned their spectacular fire and +exuberance to direct account. + +Of course, the American troops in France then ready to fight could not +alone make up the Allied army of manoeuvre. They were the core of it, +however, and their growing numbers guaranteed it almost indefinitely, so +that the attack of which it was to be the backbone could safely be +begun. Some of the troops originally intended for welding with the +British and French Armies were kept in the line without change. + +But in the main the statement was true: the American Army was to rove +behind the Allied lines till Foch discovered or divined a German +weakness to strike into. + +In the second battle of the Marne, begun that July 18, when the Allies +took the offensive again for the first time in more than a year, the +crown prince and his army of approximately half a million were tucked +down in the Marne salient, driving for Paris. The German line came down +from Soissons to Château-Thierry, ran east from Château-Thierry along +the Marne River, then turned up again to Rheims. In a space about thirty +miles square the crown prince had imprudently poured all his troops, +which, for the fifth offensive, begun July 15, included about a third of +the man-power of the western front. + +The Allied troops lying around the three sides of this salient were +French and American on the western side, Americans across the bottom, +east from Château-Thierry, and French, British, and Italian from the +Marne up to Rheims. While the French and British were squeezing in the +two sides at the top, it was the American job to keep the Germans from +bursting out from the bottom, and, if possible, to break through or roll +them back. + +The Americans began the attack east of Château-Thierry, where the +Germans had crossed the Marne and lay a few miles to the south of it. +There had been lesser actions here for several days, in the process of +stopping the enemy offensive, and by the morning of the 18th the +Americans dominated the positions around the Marne. The first day of the +counter-offensive had magnificent results. The Germans were forced back +on a 28-mile front, for a depth varying from 3 to 6 miles, and the +Americans captured 4,000 prisoners and 50 guns. Twenty French towns were +delivered, and the Germans began what appeared to be a precipitate +retreat. Foch's attack was mainly on the flank of the crown prince's +army, which had been left exposed in the rush toward Epernay and +Châlons, far south of the Marne. + +The infantry attack was made with little or no artillery preparation. +The German general, Von Boehm, was plainly caught napping. + +The communiqués of both sides were for once in agreement. The French +said: "After having broken the German offensive on the Champagne and +Rheims mountain fronts on the 15th, 16th, and 17th, the French troops, +in conjunction with the American forces, attacked the German positions +on the 18th, between the Aisne and the Marne on a front of forty-five +kilometres [about twenty-eight miles]. We have made an important +advance into the enemy lines, and have reached the plateau dominating +Soissons ... more than twenty villages have been retaken by the +admirable dash of the Franco-American troops.... South of the Ourcq our +troops have gone beyond the general line of Marizy, Ste.-Genevieve, +Hautvesnes, and Belleau." + +The German communiqué said: "Between the Aisne and the Marne, the French +attacked with strong forces and tanks, and captured some ground." Later +in the same communiqué the conclusion was drawn: "The battle was decided +in our favor." + +On the second day, while the march under Soissons continued, and there +were scattering gains on the Marne side, the number of Allied prisoners +grew to 17,000, and the number of guns captured to 360. Nobody could +tell, at this point, whether the crown prince's army was retreating +voluntarily or involuntarily. In many places the Germans were taken by +American soldiers from the peaceful pursuit of cutting wheat behind the +lines. Some high officers were nabbed from their beds. On the other +hand, the fact that the German rear-guard actions were chiefly with +machine-guns seemed to indicate that they were moving their heavy pieces +back in fair orderliness. + +On the third day the Germans were thrown back over the Marne, and the +crown prince, having sent an unavailing plea to Prince Rupprecht for new +troops, suddenly showed fight with the crack Prussian guards. + +These guards had their worst failure of the war when they met the +Americans. It is difficult to prevent the statement from sounding +offensively boastful. It is, none the less, true. The Germans, having +decided that their retreat was wearing the look of utter rout, and that +they must resist fiercely enough to stop it, risked a British +break-through to the north by throwing in Ludendorf's prize soldiers +above the Marne. And although the American total of prisoners around +Soissons had risen to nearly 6,000, and though they did force back the +Prussian guard, they did not make prisoners from their number. One +American after another told, afterward, with a sort of reluctant +admiration, that the Prussian guard had died where it stood. This +fighting near the Ourcq, and fatally near the vitals of the encircled +crown prince, was the most desperate of the second Marne battle. + +On July 21 Château-Thierry was given up by the Germans, and the pursuing +Allies, French and American, drove the enemy beyond the highroad to +Soissons, and threatened the only highway of retreat, as well as the +German stores. The supply-centre within the salient was +Fère-en-Tardenois, and it was being raked by Allied guns from both sides +of the salient. + +The character of the fighting changed again, so that again it was +impossible to make sure if Von Boehm intended to stand somewhere north +of the Marne and put up a fight, or if he intended to make all speed +back to a straight line between Soissons and Rheims. The resistance was +by machine-gun, so that Americans, having their first big experience +with the enemy, insisted that he had nothing but machine-guns to trust +to. It is, of course, possible that the crown prince and Von Boehm knew +no more than anybody else whether they were going to clear out, men and +supplies, or whether they would stop again and fight face foremost. + +On July 22 the German command answered the question at least partially. +On a line well above the Marne, they brought the big guns into play, and +poured in shock troops. Airplanes from the Allied lines discovered, +however, that the Germans were burning towns and store-houses for many +miles behind the line. + +The pressure on the Germans was being brought from the south, where the +Americans were six or seven miles above Château-Thierry, and from the +west and north, where the Franco-American troops were flaying the +exposed side. + +The stiffened resistance and the German artillery slowed, but could not +stop, the Allied advance. The eastern side of the salient, from the +Marne to Rheims, bore some desperate blows, but did not give way. As the +pincers closed in, at the top of the salient, the German command +appeared to go back to its original plan of attacking Rheims from the +south. + +This was the side on which British and Italian troops were co-operating +with the French, and the German command got for its pains in that +direction a counter-attack which narrowed the distance from battle-line +to battle-line across the top of the salient. The French menaced +Fère-en-Tardenois, the German base of supplies. + +Allied aviators bombed these stores, the long-range guns pounded at +them, and what with these and the conflagrations started defensively by +the Germans the Marne salient was a caldron which turned the skies +blood-red. + +On July 24 the ground gained all along the line averaged two miles. The +British southwest of Rheims made a damaging curve inward, and the shove +around the other two sides was fairly even. + +On July 25, one week from the beginning of the offensive, the Americans +and French from the Soissons side and the British and French from the +Rheims side had squeezed in the neck of the trap till it measured only +twenty-one miles. The French arrived within three miles of +Fère-en-Tardenois, and although the German resistance increased again, +the evacuation of Fère and the removal of stores to Fismes, far up on +the straight line, were foreshadowed. + +The road leading between the two supply-bases was shelled incessantly, +and the difficulties of resistance within the fast-narrowing salient +became almost superhuman. But the rear-guard of the Germans "died to a +man," to quote the observers, and the rear action held the Allied gains +to a few miles daily. + +A definite retreat began on the morning of July 27, with what the airmen +reported as an obvious determination to make a stand on the Ourcq. The +forest of Fère was taken, and many villages, but the fighting was +insignificant because, in the language of the communiqués, "our forces +lost contact with the enemy." Possibly this is what the famous phrase of +the Ludendorf communiqué, "The enemy evaded us," had in mind. + +There was a certain psychological stupidity in this German decision to +make a stand on the Ourcq. It was on the Ourcq that Joffre and Foch made +the fatal stroke of the first Marne battle, and the very name of the +river inspired France. + +While this retreat was in progress, the swiftest of the battle, the +German communiqué read: "Between the Ourcq and the Marne, the enemy's +resistance has broken down. Our troops, with those of our allies, are in +pursuit." + +On the 29th the Germans crossed the Ourcq, with the Americans behind +them. The "pursuit" continued. The American troops, with French to the +right and left of them, forced the enemy to within a mile of the Vesle, +where his halt had no hope of being more than temporary. The brilliant +charge across the Ourcq was done by New Yorkers--the "fighting 69th," +which refuses to be known by its new name of "165th." Edwin L. James, +writing of this charge for the New York _Times_, said: "There is doubt +if any chapter of our fighting reached the thrills of our charge across +the Ourcq yesterday. Americans of indomitable spirit met a veritable +hell of machine-guns, shells, gas, and bombs in a strong position, and +broke through with such violence that they made a salient jutting into +the enemy line beyond what the schedule called for." + +This American charge cured the Germans of any intention to stay on the +Ourcq. The resistance, after that first attack, was sporadic and +ineffectual. Village after village was reclaimed. + +It became plain that the whole Marne salient was to be obliterated, and +that the Germans could not stop till they reached the thirty-six-mile +stretch directly from Soissons to Rheims, at which they had strong +intrenchments. + +One terrific stand was made by the Germans at Sergy, just above the +Ourcq. It changed hands nine times during twenty-four hours, with +Americans fighting hand to hand with the Prussian guards. Sergy was +taken in the first rush over the Ourcq, but a counter-attack by the +Prussian Fourth Guard Division, under artillery barrage, gave them the +city. Once these guards were in the city, the artillery barrage could no +longer play over it, and to the stupefaction of the Germans, the +Americans rushed in and fought hand to hand till they cleared the town, +while the German guns were powerless. Time and again this process was +repeated, till at last the Germans gave it up and joined the general +retreat. This counter-attack is believed, however, to have enabled the +crown prince to reclaim great stores of supplies in a woods north of the +village. + +At the end of these two weeks of infantry fighting the artillery took +up the task, and the infantry rested for a day, though on August 2 they +made a two-mile gain. + +The total of German prisoners for that fortnight was 33,400. + +The hideous fighting above the Ourcq between the Americans and the +picked German divisions continued for days, with each day marking a +small advance for the Americans. On August 2 the French regained +Soissons. + +On August 3 the Allies advanced six miles, retook fifty villages, and +reached the south bank of the Vesle. American forces entered Fismes. The +salient was annihilated. + +On August 4 Fismes fell, and the great supply and ammunition depot +became Allied property. The enemy was forced to cross the Vesle, and +victory on victory was reported along the line which so lately had +dipped into the nerve-centres of France. + +The second battle of the Marne had been won. + +[Illustration: The capture of Sergy. + +"The Americans rushed in and fought hand to hand till they cleared the +town."] + +The part of it achieved by America could not fail to stir her heart to +pride and to exaltation. Though numerically the troops were few +enough, not more than 270,000, they traversed the longest distance of +the salient, from Vaux, at its lowest tip, to Fismes, on the straight +line. Their fighting called forth comment from French officers who had +been through the four years of the war, which could not be called less +than rapturous. "They are glorious, the Americans," rang through France. +Clemenceau, speaking of Foch at the end of the battle to which the +Americans had contributed so much, said: "He looks twenty years +younger." He had both found and proved his "army of manoeuvre." + +The story of this first battle's heroes must wait, though it will be +long enough when it comes, and can include something more heartening +than that "a boy from New England did thus and so," and "the army is +thrilled by the heroic feat of---- of Michigan." + +Probably the first death in France in which the whole nation grieved was +that of young Quentin Roosevelt, aviation lieutenant, son of the +ex-President, who fell in an air fight in the preliminary to the battle +on July 17. He was last seen in a fight with two enemy planes. His +machine fell within the German lines. Weeks later the onward Allied +army found his grave, marked, in English, "Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, +buried by the Germans," and an official despatch from Germany stated +that he had been buried with full military honors. + +Colonel Roosevelt made a brief statement: "Quentin's mother and I are +very glad that he got to the front, and had a chance to render some +service to his country and to show the stuff there was in him before his +fate befell him." The news of his death arrived just a few weeks after +the news that he had downed his first German plane. The simple sincerity +of this statement, and its courage, gave an example to the mothers and +fathers of fighters which no one feared they would fail to come up to. +And when the casualty lists from the second Marne battle came in, every +bereavement was stanched by the fact that "they had shown the stuff +there was in them." + +Certainly not least in importance was the fact that they had shown it to +the Germans. An official German Army report was captured, July 7, on an +officer taken in the Marne region. After giving a prodigious amount of +detail concerning the American Army, its composition, destination, and +so on, it appended the following opinion: + +"The 2d American Division may be classified as a very good division, +perhaps even as assault troops. The various attacks of both regiments on +Belleau Wood were carried out with dash and recklessness. The moral +effect of our firearms did not materially check the advance of the +infantry. The nerves of the Americans are still unshaken.... Only a few +of the troops are of pure American origin; the majority is of German, +Dutch, and Italian parentage, but these semi-Americans, almost all of +whom were born in America and never have been in Europe, fully feel +themselves to be true-born sons of their country." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +ST. MIHIEL + + +Historians and military experts are fond of taking one particular battle +or campaign, and saying: "This was decisive." It enables one to simplify +history, to be sure, but often any such process is more simple than +truthful. After all, every battle is to some degree decisive, and the +great actions of the war are so closely connected with smaller ones that +it is difficult to separate them. It is the fashion now to speak of the +second battle of the Marne as the deciding factor in the war. Indeed, +there is one school of strategists which goes back to the first Marne, +and speaks as if nothing which happened after that really mattered. + +In this spirit, it is true, that the great tide in the allied fortunes +which began at Château-Thierry and swept higher and higher until the +Germans had been smashed in the second battle of the Marne, did put a +new complexion on the war. The battle definitely robbed the German +offensive of its threat. Paris was saved, in all human probability, from +ever coming into danger again during the course of the war. +Nevertheless, it is far-fetched to take the attitude that the war had +already been won early in August. It was evident by this time that the +German Army had suffered a great defeat. Perhaps a great disaster would +be better. And yet other armies have suffered great disasters and grown +again to power and success. The plight of the Germans was certainly +little worse than that of the Italians after the German offensive, and +yet everybody knows that the Italian Army came back from that defeat to +final victory. + +Morale is subject to miracles, and soldiers can be born again. There +might have been combinations of circumstances which would have permitted +the German Army to recover from its fearful defeat and find again its +old arrogance and confidence. Only it had no rest. It is fitting, then, +that the men of all the armies who completed the downfall of the Germans +in the marvellous campaigns at the close of the year 1918 should have +due credit. Their work was also decisive. No one can tell what would +have happened to the German Army if it had not been subjected to the +steady pounding of the allied armies. + +No attempt will be made here to estimate the relative importance of the +work done by the various allied armies in the closing campaigns of the +war. This is an interesting, although somewhat ungrateful, task for +military experts. In this account we are dealing simply with the +fortunes of the American Army. It might not be amiss to suggest that the +final victories of the war were won by team-play, and that in such +combinations of effort the praise should go to all, just as the labor +does. + +There need be no controversy, however, about the battle of St. Mihiel. +This was an American action. It was under the command of General +Pershing himself, and his forces were made up almost entirely of +Americans. The French acted in an advisory capacity, and we were +dependent, in part, upon them for certain material. General Pershing in +his official report says: "The French were generous in giving us +assistance in corps and army artillery, with its personnel." We were +also under obligation to the French for tanks, but here they were not +able to assist us so liberally, because they had barely enough tanks for +their own use. One of the surprising features of the St. Mihiel victory +is that it was achieved with comparatively slight tank preparation. + +St. Mihiel represented the biggest staff problem attempted by the +American Army up to that time. It was, of course, a battle which dwarfed +any previous action in the military history of America. Compared to the +battle of St. Mihiel, the whole Spanish-American War was a mere patrol +encounter, and Gettysburg itself a minor engagement. With the force at +his command, and the weapons, General Pershing could have annihilated +the army of either Grant or Lee in half an hour. Some idea of the +magnitude of the battle may be gathered from the report of General +Pershing: that he had under his command approximately 600,000 troops, or +four times the peace standing of the entire American military +establishment before the war. + +It is difficult enough to move an army of that size, with its supplies +and its guns, under any conditions, but the plan for the St. Mihiel +offensive called for a surprise attack, and it was necessary to make all +the troop movements at night. In spite of the vaunted efficiency of the +German intelligence, there seems to be evidence that their high command +had little inkling of the magnitude of the blow impending or the date on +which it would fall. The St. Mihiel salient had been so long a fixture +in the geography of the battle-lines that no change was expected. + +In preparation for the offensive the First Army was organized on August +10, under the personal command of General Pershing. Following this move +the Americans took over part of the line. This became a permanent +American sector. Pershing took command of the sector on August 30. At +that time the sector under his command began at Port sur Seille, and +extended through a point opposite St. Mihiel, then twisting north to a +point opposite Verdun. The preparations for the offensive included, in +addition to guns, men, and tanks, the greatest concentration which the +American Army had ever known in transport, ambulances, and aircraft. +Most of the planes in action were of French make, and some were flown by +the French, but there were a few of our manufacture, for on August 7 an +American squadron, completely equipped by American production, made its +appearance at the front. + +The preparations for the offensive were minute as well as extensive. It +is, perhaps, worth noting as a sample of the thoroughness with which the +American Army went about the job that no less than 100,000 maps were +issued which showed the character of the terrain around St. Mihiel, with +all the natural and artificial defenses carefully noted, and some +estimate of the strength in which the enemy was likely to be found at +each point. The army had 6,000 telephone instruments, and at least 5,000 +miles of wire, so there was no difficulty in keeping in touch with what +the men were doing at every point. The attack began at 1 A.M. on +September 12. The American artillery had been crowded into the sector to +such an extent that the German artillery was completely dominated. The +bombardment lasted for four hours, and then the troops went forward, +preceded by a few tanks, but there were points where infantry went +forward without the aid of these auxiliaries. It was misty when the +seven divisions in the front line sprang out of their trenches, and this +helped to keep losses down. Indeed, throughout the battle the resistance +proved much less determined than had been anticipated. + +Although the bombardment had been short, most of the wire had been cut. +There remained a few jobs, however, for the wire-cutters, and for other +soldiers armed with torpedoes. With one method or the other our men +smashed what was left of the wire guarding the enemy first-line +trenches. And then the waves came on and over. There was little +resistance in the first line, for the Germans in these positions were +pretty well demoralized by the terrific artillery pounding which they +had received and the sight of thousands upon thousands of Americans +rushing upon them from out of the fog. For the most part they +surrendered without resistance. As the advance progressed resistance +became stiffer at some points, but the attackers kept pretty generally +up to schedule, or ahead of it. Thiaucourt was taken by the First Corps. +The Fourth Corps fought its way through Nonsard. The Second Colonial +Corps was not asked to make a very great advance, but it had the most +difficult terrain over which to work. It had won all its objects early +in the day. A difficult task was also set for the Fifth Corps, which +took three ridges and then immediately had to repulse a counter-attack. +St. Mihiel fell early in the day. And in an incredibly short period a +salient which had been in the enemy hands for almost four years was +pinched out of existence. + +Everybody was delighted to find that in one respect the American +preparations had been too extensive. No less than thirty-five +hospital-trains had been assembled back of the attacking forces, and +there were beds for 16,000 men in the advanced areas, with 55,000 a +little farther back. As a matter of fact, less than one-tenth of these +facilities proved necessary, for the American casualties were only +7,000, and many of these were slight. The German General Staff always +maintained that it had anticipated the attack and that its men were +under orders to retire, as the salient was of no strategic importance. +The last assertion may be true, but there seems to be little to support +the rest, for the total of prisoners was 16,000, with 443 guns. The +quantity of material captured was enormous. In a single depot there were +found 4,000 shells for 77's and 350,000 rounds of rifle cartridges. +Among the other assorted booty were 200 machine-guns, 42 trench-mortars, +30 box-cars, 4 locomotives, 30,000 hand-grenades, 13 trucks, and 40 +wagons. The number of German helmets which fell to the doughboys was +naturally countless. + +The attack was so completely successful and ran so closely to schedule +that there were few surprises. A little group of newspaper men, however, +were frank to admit that they had encountered one. Following closely +upon the heels of the attacking troops, they came to a village which was +being heavily shelled by the Germans. Accordingly, the newspaper men +took refuge in a dugout until such time as the opportunity for +observation should be more favorable. Coming from the other direction, +a group of German prisoners entered the same village. They had +surrendered to one of the waves of onrushing Americans, but everybody +was too busy to conduct them personally to the rear. They had merely +been instructed to keep marching until they encountered some American +officers or doughboys who were not otherwise engaged, and then surrender +themselves. When the shells fell fast about them the Germans darted for +the dugout in which the newspaper men had previously taken refuge. The +correspondents were astounded and disturbed when sixteen field-gray +soldiers came tumbling in upon them. They could only imagine that at +some point the Germans had struck back and that the counter-attack had +broken through. And the correspondents admit that without a moment's +hesitation they gave one look at the Germans and then raised their +weaponless hands and cried "Kamerad." The perplexing feature of the +situation was that the Germans did exactly the same thing, and a +complete deadlock ensued until a squad of doughboys happened along that +way and took the Germans in charge. + +Both sides in the battle were willing to admit that their foemen had +fought with courage. While it is true that the first waves of the +American Army had an easy time, there was stiff but ineffectual +resistance by German machine-gunners later in the day. Many of these men +served their guns without offering surrender, and had to be bombed or +bayoneted. In a document by a German intelligence officer, which fell +into American hands much later in the war, a very frank tribute was paid +to the extraordinary courage of the Americans. The German officer said +that they seemed to be absolutely without fear on the offensive, and +must be reckoned with as shock troops, although they sometimes fought +greenly. He reported, however, that American leadership was less +impressive, and stated that the American Army might have gone much +farther if it had been more quick to take advantage of its early +success. But this would seem to be a mere effort to whistle up courage +in the German General Staff, for a consideration of the territory which +fell into American hands as a result of the attack shows some measure of +its success. This comprised 152 square miles which was recovered from +the Germans. And in this liberated district were 72 villages. + +And yet the importance of the battle can hardly be measured in territory +regained, and much less in booty or in guns. "This signal success of the +American Army in its first offensive was of prime importance," wrote +General Pershing in his report to Secretary Baker. "The Allies found +that they had a formidable army to aid them, and the enemy learned +finally that he had one to reckon with." Moreover, the pinching out of +the St. Mihiel salient put the American Army in a position to threaten +Metz. This threat was one of the factors which caused the enemy to +realize a few months later that further resistance could not hope to +check the allied armies for any considerable time. + +The divisions employed at St. Mihiel comprised many of our best units. +Among the divisions engaged were the Eighty-second, the Ninetieth, the +Fifth, and the Second, which made up the First Corps, under +Major-General Hunter Liggett. In the Third Corps were the Eighty-ninth, +the Forty-second, and the First Divisions, under Major-General Joseph +T. Dickman. The Fifth Corps, under Major-General George H. Cameron, had +the Twenty-sixth Division and a French division. In reserve were the +Seventy-eighth, Third, Thirty-fifth, and Ninety-first Divisions. The +Eighteenth and Thirty-third were also available. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +MEUSE-ARGONNE BEGINS + + +Having successfully accomplished one piece of work, the American Army +received as its reward another piece of work. The reward consisted in +the fact that the second task assigned to Pershing's men was, perhaps, +the hardest possible at any point in the line. Since 1915 the Argonne +Forest had been a rest area for the German Army. Everything had been +done to make the position impregnable, and so it was in theory. But the +Americans broke that theory and took the forest. So confident were the +Germans of their tenancy that they had built all sorts of palatial +underground dwellings. Barring light, there was no modern convenience +which these dugouts (although that is no fit name) did not possess. Some +had running water. All the most pretentious ones had feather-beds, and +the big underground rooms were gay with pictures and furniture stolen +from the French. The defenses of the positions in the forest included +miles and miles of barbed wire, sometimes hidden in the underbrush, and +again carried around tree-trunks higher than a man could reach. There +were high concrete walls to stop the progress of tanks and deep-pit +traps into which they might fall. And machine guns were everywhere. + +The Meuse-Argonne campaign, which falls into three phases, reads far +differently than the taking of St. Mihiel. Except in its early stages +this was no grand running, flawless offensive without a hitch worth +mentioning. In the nature of things it could not be so. The Argonne was +less susceptible to the laws of military strategy. Warfare in these +woods became a struggle between small detached units. Much of the +fighting took place in the dark and practically all of it in the rain. +The American victory was a triumph of the bomb and the rifle, and +perhaps the wire-cutter should be added, over the machine-gun. In many +encounters the opposing units fired at each other from short ranges, and +directed their fire solely by the flashes of the other fellow's +machine-gun. War in the Argonne Forest was a cat-and-dog fight, and +Germany was destined to play the cat's usual rôle, though she clawed her +hardest. + +And yet though many of the phases of the Meuse-Argonne were primitive +and elemental in their nature, sound strategy lay behind the campaign. +General Pershing in his vivid report explains not only the necessity for +the campaign but the objects which he sought and gained. St. Mihiel +shook the confidence of the Germans, but neither that success nor those +scored by other allied armies was sufficient to batter the Germans into +defeat. + +"The German Army," wrote General Pershing, "had as yet shown no +demoralization, and while the mass of its troops had suffered in morale, +its first-class divisions, and notably its machine-gun defense, were +exhibiting remarkable tactical efficiency as well as courage. The German +General Staff was fully aware of the consequences of a success on the +Meuse-Argonne line. Certain that he would do everything in his power to +oppose us, the action was planned with as much secrecy as possible, and +was undertaken with the determination to use all our divisions in +forcing decision. We expected to draw the best German divisions to our +front and to consume them while the enemy was held under grave +apprehension lest our attack should break his line, which it was our +firm purpose to do." + +"Our right flank," wrote General Pershing in describing his position at +the beginning of the battle, "was protected by the Meuse, while our left +embraced the Argonne Forest, whose ravines, hills, and elaborate defense +screened by dense thickets, had been generally considered impregnable. +Our order of battle from right to left was: the Third Corps from the +Meuse to Malancourt, with the Thirty-third, Eightieth, and Fourth +Divisions in line, and the Third Division as corps reserve; the Fifth +Corps from Malancourt to Vauquois, with Seventy-ninth, Eighty-seventh, +and Ninety-first Divisions in line, and the Thirty-second in corps +reserve; and the First Corps, from Vauquois to Vienne Le Château, with +Thirty-fifth, Twenty-eighth, and Seventy-seventh Divisions in line, and +the Ninety-second in corps reserve. The army reserve consisted of the +First, Twenty-ninth, and Eighty-second Divisions." + +The American Army had no extended vacation after the victory at St. +Mihiel. That action had hardly been completed when some of the artillery +left its positions and departed for the Meuse-Argonne front. St. Mihiel +began on September 12. Just two weeks later the first attack in the +long-protracted Meuse-Argonne campaign began. The first portion of this +offensive was by far the easiest. It was difficult, to be sure, but the +terrific hardships were still to come. One factor which mitigated the +task of the troops engaged in the first attack was that again the +Germans seemed to have been taken by surprise. The Americans moved very +fast over difficult terrain. This was country which had already been +sorely disputed, and shell-holes were everywhere. In the places where +there were no shell-holes there was barbed wire. + +As the attack progressed the German resistance increased. Artillery was +moved forward and machine-guns seemed to spring up overnight in that +much ploughed and harrowed land. Yet after three days' fighting the +Americans had penetrated a distance of from three to seven miles into +the enemy's positions, in spite of the large numbers of reserves which +were thrown in to check them. Even a German _communiqué_ writer would +hardly have the face to maintain that the territory captured by the +Americans was of no strategic importance. Every mile that Pershing's men +went forward brought them that much nearer to Sedan, and on Sedan rested +the whole fate of the German lines in France. But Sedan was still many a +weary mile away. The territorial gains in the onward rush of the first +three days included the villages of Montfaucon, Exermont, Gercourt, +Cuisy, Septsarges, Malancourt, Ivoiry (known to the doughboys, of +course, as Solid Ivory), Epinonville, Charpentry, and Very. Ten thousand +prisoners were taken. + +In spite of this great success it was not possible for the Americans to +drive straight forward. The country over which the action was fought was +so bad that several days were needed to build new roads up to the +positions which had been won. Even with the best efforts in the world, +the moving of supplies was a prodigious job. The mud was almost as great +a foe as the German guns. In the necessary lull the Germans, of course, +rushed new troops into the sector to combat the American advance. +Naturally, the lull was not complete. There was constant raiding by +Americans to identify units opposed to them, and here and there in small +local attacks strategic points were taken which would be of advantage in +the big push to come. From prisoners the Americans learned that among +the divisions opposite them were many of the crack units of the German +Army. America was also represented by its best organizations, but under +the constant losses incurred in attacks against strongly intrenched +positions units dwindled, and replacements were poured in. Under the +circumstances it was necessary to send many soldiers to the front who +had been in training but a short while. These were mixed in, however, +with veterans, and it should be said to the credit of these green men +that in practically every case they upheld the reputation of the units +to which they were sent. They were quick to feel themselves as sharers +in the reputation of their new-found organizations. + +There was no element of surprise to help the American Army when the +attack began again in full force on October 4. Where progress before had +been measured in miles, now it was counted in yards. Possibly it was +even a matter of feet at some points in the line. Yet always the +movement was forward. Weight of numbers and dogged courage proved that +machine-gun nests of the strongest sort were vulnerable. The Germans +counter-attacked constantly, but such tactics were actually welcomed by +the Americans as they brought the Germans into the open and gave our +riflemen and machine-gunners something at which to shoot. The +difficulties with which the Americans had to contend may be judged by +the fact that, according to an official report, the Germans had +machine-guns at intervals of every yard all along their line. + +The Argonne fighting produced many actions more important than the +rescue of the Lost Battalion, but hardly any as dramatic. The incident +could have happened only in the Argonne, where communication with +co-operating units was always difficult, and sometimes impossible. +Major Whittlesey's battalion, in making an attack through the forest, +gained their objectives, only to find that they were out of touch with +the American and French units with which they were co-operating. It is +not true, as sometimes reported, that Whittlesey pushed ahead beyond the +objectives which had been set for him. Nevertheless, he was so far away +from help as to make his chances of rescue small. German machine-guns +were behind him. His men were raked by fire from all sides. Yet their +position was a strong one and they hung on. Soon their rations were +gone. For more than twenty-four hours even their position was unknown to +the American Army. Eventually they were located by aeroplanes and an +attempt was made to supply them with food and ammunition. Even yet +rescue seemed a long chance. The Germans thought the battalion was at +their mercy and sent a messenger asking Whittlesey to surrender. He +refused, and the "Go to Hell" which has been put into his mouth as a +fitting expression for the occasion will probably go down in American +history in spite of the fact that Whittlesey has done his best to +convince people that he never said it. Several attacks were made in an +effort to rescue the Americans but without success until a force under +Lieutenant-Colonel Gene Houghton broke through and brought the exhausted +men back to safety. + +The last strongly fortified line of the Germans was the Kriemhilde, and +the second phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive had not been in progress +long before our men were astride the line at many points. But there was +still much desperate fighting to do before the Germans were completely +driven from their scientifically perfect positions. The honor of +actually breaching the line fell to the Fifth Corps, which entered the +line on October 14 and drove the Germans out after some fearful close +fighting. In the meantime the continual pressure of the American forces +was beginning to tell. Châtel-Chehery fell to the First Corps on October +7. On the 9th the Fifth Corps took Fleville, and the Third Corps, after +some desperate fighting, worked its way through Brieulles and Cunel. By +October 10 the Argonne Forest was practically clear of the enemy. + +One of the important factors in the Argonne campaign was aviation. +Aerial activity was great on both sides, since in no other campaign was +observation so difficult or so important. Both sides did a great deal of +day bombing, and during one such American foray the greatest battle of +the air took place. The American expedition consisted of thirty-four +machines. It was attacked by thirty-six Fokkers. Although the German +machines are faster, the American squadron managed to hold its +formation. Seven Fokker machines were brought down in the battle and +five American. + +All in all, the Meuse-Argonne campaign was one of the most remarkable in +the history of the war. Its second phase in particular is sure to be a +bone of contention for military experts. General Pershing himself +declared very frankly in his report to Secretary Baker that he had +purposely abandoned traditional military tactics in the campaign. "The +enemy," he wrote, "had taken every advantage of the terrain, which +especially favored the defense, by a prodigal use of machine-guns manned +by highly trained veterans, and by using his artillery at short ranges. +In the face of such strong frontal positions we should have been unable +to accomplish any progress according to previously accepted standards, +but I had every confidence in our aggressive tactics and the courage of +our troops." + +Such strategists as oppose the theory of the Meuse-Argonne campaign will +undoubtedly assert that American losses were high. In rebuttal defenders +of the plan of the campaign will say that the losses were very light +considering the nature of the fighting, and that the campaign shortened +the duration of the war appreciably by putting the Germans into a +position where they were compelled either to surrender or be +overwhelmed. But whatever decision may be reached by the experts, there +is no necessity of calling for testimony as to the part the American +soldier played in this campaign. It seems fair to say that he has never +shown more dogged courage or resourcefulness than in the fighting in the +forest. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +CEASE FIRING + + +Before taking up the final phases of the Meuse-Argonne campaign, and the +final phases of the war, it is fitting to follow the fortunes of some +divisions which saw action in other parts of the front. The Second +Corps, for example, remained with the British and saw desperately hard +service and won corresponding fame. This corps was composed of the +Twenty-seventh and Thirtieth Divisions, and in conjunction with the +Australian Corps it participated in the attack which broke the +Hindenburg line near St. Quentin. The Twenty-seventh Division had the +honor of being the first unit actually to breach the famous defensive +system of the Germans. + +The attack began on September 29 and continued through October 1. Both +divisions were compelled to advance over difficult terrain against +strongly fortified positions. They were raked from both sides by +machine-gun fire as they cut their way through innumerable lines of +barbed wire. But in spite of the determined resistance of the Germans, +they broke the line. The divisions also saw hard service from October 6 +to October 19. In these operations the Second Corps was credited with +the capture of more than 6,000 prisoners, and advanced into enemy +territory for a distance of thirteen miles. Marshal Haig expressed his +admiration of the conduct and achievements of both the American +divisions which served with his forces. + +American divisions also played an important rôle in conjunction with the +French when they assisted in an attack against the Germans just outside +of Rheims. This operation continued from October 2 to October 9 and was +marked by severe and bitter fighting. The American forces engaged were +the Second and Thirty-sixth Divisions. Perhaps the most noteworthy +achievement in the campaign was the capture of Blanc Mont by the Second +Division. Blanc Mont is a wooded hill, and was very strongly held by the +Germans. The Americans were repulsed in their first assault, but came +back and tried again. This time they swept the German defenders before +them. The assault by no means completed their labors, for after the +capture of the hill the division was called upon to repulse strong +counter-attacks in front of the village of St. Etienne. Not content with +driving the Germans back, the Second went on and took the town. The +Germans were forced to abandon positions they had held ever since the +autumn of 1914. + +By this time the Second Division had earned a rest, and it was relieved +by the Thirty-sixth. The relieving troops were inexperienced. They had +never been under fire, and the Germans subjected them to a severe +artillery strafing, but did not shake their confidence. The division +performed useful work in pursuing the Germans in their retirement behind +the Aisne. + +Other divisions saw service with the French in Belgium. After the ending +of the second phase of the Meuse-Argonne campaign, the Thirty-seventh +and Ninety-first Divisions were withdrawn and sent to join the French +near Ypres. They took part in a heavy attack on October 31. The +Thirty-seventh inflicted a severe defeat upon opposing troops at the +Escaut River on November 3, and the Ninety-first won much praise from +the French for a flanking movement which resulted in the capture of the +Spitaals Bosschen Wood. + +Although the German Army had begun to disintegrate by November 1, the +Americans saw some hard fighting after that date. The task set for +Pershing's men was in theory almost as difficult as clearing the Argonne +Forest. The offensive was aimed at the Longuyon-Sedan-Mézierès railway, +which was one of the most important lines of communication of the German +Army. Germany was aware of the gravity of this threat and used her very +best troops in an effort to stop the Americans. For a time the Germans +fought steadily, but their morale was waning at the end. The Americans +found on several occasions that their second-day gains were greater than +those of the first day, which was formerly an unheard of thing on the +western front. + +In the final days of the war the Americans had to go their fastest in an +effort to reach Sedan before the armistice went into effect. During one +phase of the battle doughboys mounted on auto-trucks went forward in a +vain effort to establish contact with the enemy. The roads were so bad, +however, that the Americans were unable to catch up with the fleeing +Germans. + +The third phase of the Meuse-Argonne campaign found the Americans +absolutely confident of success. They knew their superiority over the +Germans, and the American Army was constantly growing stronger while the +Germans grew weaker. Pershing was able to send well-rested divisions +into the battle. The final advance began on November 1. American +artillery was stronger than ever in numbers and much more experienced. +Never before had our army seen such a barrage, and the German infantry +broke before the advance of the doughboys. The German heart to fight had +begun to develop murmurs, although there were some units among the enemy +forces which fought with great gallantry until the very end. +Aincreville, Doulcon, and Andevanne fell in the first day of the attack. +Landres et St. Georges was next to go, as the Fifth Corps, in an +impetuous attack, swept up to Bayonville. On November 2, which was the +second day of the attack, the First Corps was called in to give added +pressure. By this time the German resistance was pretty well broken. It +was now that the motor-truck offensive began. Behind the trucks the +field-guns rattled along as the artillerymen spurred on their horses in +a vain effort to catch up with something at which they could shoot. At +the end of the third day of the attack the American Army had penetrated +the German line to a depth of twelve miles. A slight pause was then +necessary in order that the big guns might come up, but on November 5 +the Third Corps crossed the Meuse. They met a sporadic resistance from +German machine-gunners but swept them up with small losses. By the 7th +of November the chief objective of the offensive thrust was obtained. On +that day American troops, among them the Rainbow Division, reached +Sedan. Pershing's army had cut the enemy's line of communication. +Nothing but surrender or complete defeat was left to him. + +In estimating the extent of the American victory it is interesting to +note that General Pershing reported that forty enemy divisions +participated in the Meuse-Argonne battle. Our army took 26,059 prisoners +and captured 468 guns. Colonel Frederick Palmer estimates that 650,000 +American soldiers were engaged in the battle. This is a greater number +than were engaged at St. Mihiel, and it was, of course, a new mark in +the records of the American Army. Colonel Palmer has stated his opinion +that Meuse-Argonne was one of the four decisive battles of the war. The +other three which he names are the first battle of the Marne, the first +battle of Ypres, and Verdun. + +Curiously enough, Château-Thierry looms larger in the mind of the +average American than Meuse-Argonne, although the number of Americans +engaged in the former battle was not half as great as those who battered +their way through the forest. Of course the importance of a battle is +not to be judged solely by the number of men engaged, but there seems to +be no good reason for assigning a strategic importance to +Château-Thierry which is denied to Meuse-Argonne. Most of the military +critics are of the opinion that the wide-spread belief that the +Americans saved Paris at the battle of Château-Thierry is not literally +true. The American victory was a factor, to be sure. It was even an +important factor. Perhaps, from the point of view of morale, it was +vital, but judged by strict military standards there is no support for +the frequent assertion that only a few marines stood between Paris and +the triumphant entry of the German Army. Meuse-Argonne, on the other +hand, was not only a campaign solely under American control but a +large-scale battle which probably shortened the war by many months. This +victory was America's chief contribution in the field to the cause of +the Allies. It is on Meuse-Argonne that our military prestige will rest. +The divisions engaged were the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, +Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, Thirty-second, Thirty-third, +Thirty-fifth, Thirty-seventh, Forty-second, Seventy-seventh, +Seventy-eighth, Seventy-ninth, Eightieth, Eighty-second, Eighty-ninth, +Ninetieth, and Ninety-first. The First, Fifth, Twenty-sixth, +Forty-second, Seventy-seventh, Eightieth, Eighty-ninth, and Ninetieth +were particularly honored by being put in the line twice during the +campaign. + +Though the armistice was now close at hand the war had not ended. The +policy of allied leadership was to fight until the last minute lest +there should be some hitch. The American plans called for an advance +toward Longwy by the First Army in co-operation with the Second Army, +which was to threaten the Briey iron-fields. If the war had kept up, +this would have been followed by an offensive in the direction of +Château-Salins, with the ultimate object of cutting off Metz. The attack +of the Second Army was actually in progress when the time came set in +the armistice for the cessation of hostilities. At eleven o'clock the +hostilities ceased suddenly, although just before that the Second Army +was advancing against heavy and determined machine-gun fire, with both +sides apparently unwilling to believe that the war was almost over. At +other points in the line where no offensive was set for the last day, +the artillerymen had the final word to say. Most of the American guns +fired at the foe just before eleven o'clock, and in many batteries the +gunners joined hands to pull the lanyards so that all might have a share +in the final defiance to Germany. + +When the war ended, the American position ran from Port-sur-Seille +across the Moselle to Vandieres, through the Woevre to Bezonvaux, +thence to the Meuse at Mouzay, and ending at Sedan. There were abroad or +in transit 2,053,347 American soldiers, less the losses, and of these +there were 1,338,169 combatant troops in France. The American Army +captured about 44,000 prisoners and 1,400 guns. The figures on our +losses are not yet entirely checked up at the time of this writing, but +they were approximately 300,000 in killed, died of disease, wounded, and +missing. + +When he wrote his report to Secretary Baker, General Pershing reserved +his final paragraph for a tribute to his men, and in it he said: + +"Finally, I pay the supreme tribute to our officers and soldiers of the +line. When I think of their heroism, their patience under hardships, +their unflinching spirit of offensive action, I am filled with emotion +which I am unable to express. Their deeds are immortal, and they have +earned the eternal gratitude of our country." + + + + +GENERAL PERSHING'S REPORT + +BATTLES FOUGHT BY AMERICAN ARMIES IN FRANCE FROM THEIR ORGANIZATION TO +THE FALL OF SEDAN + +[CABLED BY GENERAL PERSHING TO MR. BAKER, SECRETARY OF WAR, AND MADE +PUBLIC WITH HIS ANNUAL REPORT, DEC. 5, 1918] + + +November 20, 1918. + +_My dear Mr. Secretary:_ In response to your request, I have the honor +to submit this brief summary of the organization and operation of the +American Expeditionary Force from May 26, 1917, until the signing of the +armistice Nov. 11, 1918. Pursuant to your instructions, immediately upon +receiving my orders I selected a small staff and proceeded to Europe in +order to become familiar with conditions at the earliest possible +moment. + +The warmth of our reception in England and France was only equalled by +the readiness of the Commanders in Chief of the veteran armies of the +Allies, and their staffs, to place their experience at our disposal. In +consultation with them the most effective means of co-operation of +effort was considered. With the French and British Armies at their +maximum strength, and when all efforts to dispossess the enemy from his +firmly intrenched positions in Belgium and France had failed, it was +necessary to plan for an American force adequate to turn the scale in +favor of the Allies. Taking account of the strength of the Central +Powers at that time, the immensity of the problem which confronted us +could hardly be overestimated. The first requisite being an organization +that could give intelligent direction to effort, the formation of a +General Staff occupied my early attention. + +A well-organized General Staff, through which the Commander exercises +his functions, is essential to a successful modern army. However capable +our division, our battalion, and our companies as such, success would be +impossible without thoroughly co-ordinated endeavor. A General Staff +broadly organized and trained for war had not hitherto existed in our +army. Under the Commander in Chief, this staff must carry out the policy +and direct the details of administration, supply, preparation, and +operations of the army as a whole, with all special branches and bureaus +subject to its control. As models to aid us we had the veteran French +General Staff and the experience of the British, who had similarly +formed an organization to meet the demands of a great army. By selecting +from each the features best adapted to our basic organization, and +fortified by our own early experience in the war, the development of our +great General Staff system was completed. + +The General Staff is naturally divided into five groups, each with its +chief, who is an assistant to the Chief of the General Staff. G. 1 is in +charge of organization and equipment of troops, replacements, tonnage, +priority of overseas shipment, the auxiliary welfare association, and +cognate subjects; G. 2 has censorship, enemy intelligence, gathering and +disseminating information, preparation of maps, and all similar +subjects; G. 3 is charged with all strategic studies and plans, movement +of troops, and the supervision of combat operations; G. 4 co-ordinates +important questions of supply, construction, transport arrangements for +combat, and of the operations of the service of supply, and of +hospitalization and the evacuation of the sick and wounded; G. 5 +supervises the various schools and has general direction and +co-ordination of education and training. + +The first Chief of Staff was Colonel (now Major Gen.) James G. Harbord, +who was succeeded in March, 1918, by Major Gen. James W. McAndrew. To +these officers, to the Deputy Chief of Staff, and to the Assistant +Chiefs of Staff, who, as heads of sections, aided them, great credit is +due for the results obtained, not only in perfecting the General Staff +organization, but in applying correct principles to the multiplicity of +problems that have arisen. + + +ORGANIZATION AND TRAINING + +After a thorough consideration of allied organizations, it was decided +that our combat division should consist of four regiments of infantry of +3,000 men, with three battalions to a regiment and four companies of 250 +men each to a battalion, and of an artillery brigade of three regiments, +a machine-gun battalion, an engineer regiment, a trench-mortar battery, +a signal battalion, wagon trains, and the headquarters staffs and +military police. These, with medical and other units, made a total of +over 28,000 men, or practically double the size of a French or German +division. Each corps would normally consist of six divisions--four +combat and one depot and one replacement division--and also two +regiments of cavalry, and each army of from three to five corps. With +four divisions fully trained, a corps could take over an American sector +with two divisions in line and two in reserve, with the depot and +replacement divisions prepared to fill the gaps in the ranks. + +Our purpose was to prepare an integral American force which should be +able to take the offensive in every respect. Accordingly, the +development of a self-reliant infantry by thorough drill in the use of +the rifle and in the tactics of open warfare was always uppermost. The +plan of training after arrival in France allowed a division one month +for acclimatization and instruction in small units from battalions down, +a second month in quiet trench sectors by battalion, and a third month +after it came out of the trenches when it should be trained as a +complete division in war of movement. + +Very early a system of schools was outlined and started which should +have the advantage of instruction by officers direct from the front. At +the great school centre at Langres, one of the first to be organized, +was the staff school, where the principles of general staff work, as +laid down in our own organization, were taught to carefully selected +officers. Men in the ranks who had shown qualities of leadership were +sent to the school of candidates for commissions. A school of the line +taught younger officers the principles of leadership, tactics, and the +use of the different weapons. In the artillery school, at Saumur, young +officers were taught the fundamental principles of modern artillery; +while at Issoudun an immense plant was built for training cadets in +aviation. These and other schools, with their well-considered +curriculums for training in every branch of our organization, were +co-ordinated in a manner best to develop an efficient army out of +willing and industrious young men, many of whom had not before known +even the rudiments of military technique. Both Marshal Haig and General +Pétain placed officers and men at our disposal for instructional +purposes, and we are deeply indebted for the opportunities given to +profit by their veteran experience. + + +AMERICAN ZONE + +The eventual place the American Army should take on the western front +was to a large extent influenced by the vital questions of communication +and supply. The northern ports of France were crowded by the British +Armies' shipping and supplies, while the southern ports, though +otherwise at our service, had not adequate port facilities for our +purposes, and these we should have to build. The already overtaxed +railway system behind the active front in Northern France would not be +available for us as lines of supply, and those leading from the southern +ports of Northeastern France would be unequal to our needs without much +new construction. Practically all warehouses, supply depots, and +regulating stations must be provided by fresh constructions. While +France offered us such material as she had to spare after a drain of +three years, enormous quantities of material had to be brought across +the Atlantic. + +With such a problem any temporization or lack of definiteness in making +plans might cause failure even with victory within our grasp. Moreover, +broad plans commensurate with our national purpose and resources would +bring conviction of our power to every soldier in the front line, to the +nations associated with us in the war, and to the enemy. The tonnage for +material for necessary construction for the supply of an army of three +and perhaps four million men would require a mammoth programme of +shipbuilding at home, and miles of dock construction in France, with a +corresponding large project for additional railways and for storage +depots. + +All these considerations led to the inevitable conclusion that if we +were to handle and supply the great forces deemed essential to win the +war we must utilize the southern ports of France--Bordeaux, La Pallice, +St. Nazaire, and Brest--and the comparatively unused railway systems +leading therefrom to the northeast. Generally speaking, then, this would +contemplate the use of our forces against the enemy somewhere in that +direction, but the great depots of supply must be centrally located, +preferably in the area included by Tours, Bourges, and Châteauroux, so +that our armies could be supplied with equal facility wherever they +might be serving on the western front. + + +GROWTH OF SUPPLY SERVICE + +To build up such a system there were talented men in the Regular Army, +but more experts were necessary than the army could furnish. Thanks to +the patriotic spirit of our people at home, there came from civil life +men trained for every sort of work involved in building and managing the +organization necessary to handle and transport such an army and keep it +supplied. With such assistance the construction and general development +of our plans have kept pace with the growth of the forces, and the +Service of Supply is now able to discharge from ships and move 45,000 +tons daily, besides transporting troops and material in the conduct of +active operations. + +As to organization, all the administrative and supply services, except +the Adjutant General's, Inspector General's, and Judge Advocate +General's Departments, which remain at general headquarters, have been +transferred to the headquarters of the services of supplies at Tours +under a commanding General responsible to the Commander-in-Chief for +supply of the armies. The Chief Quartermaster, Chief Surgeon, Chief +Signal Officer, Chief of Ordnance, Chief of Air Service, Chief of +Chemical Warfare, the general purchasing agent in all that pertains to +questions of procurement and supply, the Provost Marshal General in the +maintenance of order in general, the Director General of Transportation +in all that affects such matters, and the Chief Engineer in all matters +of administration and supply, are subordinate to the Commanding General +of the Service of Supply, who, assisted by a staff especially organized +for the purpose, is charged with the administrative co-ordination of all +these services. + +The transportation department under the Service of Supply directs the +operation, maintenance, and construction of railways, the operation of +terminals, the unloading of ships, and transportation of material to +warehouses or to the front. Its functions make necessary the most +intimate relationship between our organization and that of the French, +with the practical result that our transportation department has been +able to improve materially the operations of railways generally. +Constantly laboring under a shortage of rolling stock, the +transportation department has nevertheless been able by efficient +management to meet every emergency. + +The Engineer Corps is charged with all construction, including light +railways and roads. It has planned and constructed the many projects +required, the most important of which are the new wharves at Bordeaux +and Nantes, and the immense storage depots at La Pallice, Mointoir, and +Glèvres, besides innumerable hospitals and barracks in various ports of +France. These projects have all been carried on by phases keeping pace +with our needs. The Forestry Service under the Engineer Corps has cut +the greater part of the timber and railway ties required. + +To meet the shortage of supplies from America, due to lack of shipping, +the representatives of the different supply departments were constantly +in search of available material and supplies in Europe. In order to +co-ordinate these purchases and to prevent competition between our +departments, a general purchasing agency was created early in our +experience to co-ordinate our purchases and, if possible, induce our +allies to apply the principle among the allied armies. While there was +no authority for the general use of appropriations, this was met by +grouping the purchasing representatives of the different departments +under one control, charged with the duty of consolidating requisitions +and purchases. Our efforts to extend the principle have been signally +successful, and all purchases for the allied armies are now on an +equitable and co-operative basis. Indeed, it may be said that the work +of this bureau has been thoroughly efficient and businesslike. + + +ARTILLERY, AIRPLANES, TANKS + +Our entry into the war found us with few of the auxiliaries necessary +for its conduct in the modern sense. Among our most important +deficiencies in material were artillery, aviation, and tanks. In order +to meet our requirements as rapidly as possible, we accepted the offer +of the French Government to provide us with the necessary artillery +equipment of seventy-fives, one fifty-five millimeter howitzers, and one +fifty-five G. P. F. guns from their own factories for thirty divisions. +The wisdom of this course is fully demonstrated by the fact that, +although we soon began the manufacture of these classes of guns at home, +there were no guns of the calibres mentioned manufactured in America on +our front at the date the armistice was signed. The only guns of these +types produced at home thus far received in France are 109 seventy-five +millimeter guns. + +In aviation we were in the same situation, and here again the French +Government came to our aid until our own aviation programme should be +under way. We obtained from the French the necessary planes for training +our personnel, and they have provided us with a total of 2,676 pursuit, +observation, and bombing planes. The first airplanes received from home +arrived in May, and altogether we have received 1,379. The first +American squadron completely equipped by American production, including +airplanes, crossed the German lines on Aug. 7, 1918. As to tanks, we +were also compelled to rely upon the French. Here, however, we were less +fortunate, for the reason that the French production could barely meet +the requirements of their own armies. + +It should be fully realized that the French Government has always taken +a most liberal attitude, and has been most anxious to give us every +possible assistance in meeting our deficiencies in these as well as in +other respects. Our dependence upon France for artillery, aviation, and +tanks was, of course, due to the fact that our industries had not been +exclusively devoted to military production. All credit is due our own +manufacturers for their efforts to meet our requirements, as at the time +the armistice was signed we were able to look forward to the early +supply of practically all our necessities from our own factories. + +The welfare of the troops touches my responsibility as Commander in +Chief to the mothers and fathers and kindred of the men who came to +France in the impressionable period of youth. They could not have the +privilege accorded European soldiers during their periods of leave of +visiting their families and renewing their home ties. Fully realizing +that the standard of conduct that should be established for them must +have a permanent influence in their lives and on the character of their +future citizenship, the Red Cross, the Young Men's Christian +Association, Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army, and the Jewish +Welfare Board, as auxiliaries in this work, were encouraged in every +possible way. The fact that our soldiers, in a land of different customs +and language, have borne themselves in a manner in keeping with the +cause for which they fought, is due not only to the efforts in their +behalf, but much more to their high ideals, their discipline, and their +innate sense of self-respect. It should be recorded, however, that the +members of these welfare societies have been untiring in their desire to +be of real service to our officers and men. The patriotic devotion of +these representative men and women has given a new significance to the +Golden Rule, and we owe to them a debt of gratitude that can never be +repaid. + + +COMBAT OPERATIONS + +During our period of training in the trenches some of our divisions had +engaged the enemy in local combats, the most important of which was +Seicheprey by the 26th on April 20, in the Toul sector, but none had +participated in action as a unit. The 1st Division, which had passed +through the preliminary stages of training, had gone to the trenches for +its first period of instruction at the end of October, and by March 21, +when the German offensive in Picardy began, we had four divisions with +experience in the trenches, all of which were equal to any demands of +battle action. The crisis which this offensive developed was such that +our occupation of an American sector must be postponed. + +On March 28 I placed at the disposal of Marshal Foch, who had been +agreed upon as Commander in Chief of the Allied Armies, all of our +forces, to be used as he might decide. At his request the 1st Division +was transferred from the Toul sector to a position in reserve at +Chaumont en Vexin. As German superiority in numbers required prompt +action, an agreement was reached at the Abbeville conference of the +allied Premiers and commanders and myself on May 2 by which British +shipping was to transport ten American divisions to the British Army +area, where they were to be trained and equipped, and additional British +shipping was to be provided for as many divisions as possible for use +elsewhere. + +On April 26 the 1st Division had gone into the line in the Montdidier +salient on the Picardy battle-front. Tactics had been suddenly +revolutionized to those of open warfare, and our men, confident of the +results of their training, were eager for the test. On the morning of +May 28 this division attacked the commanding German position in its +front, taking with splendid dash the town of Cantigny and all other +objectives, which were organized and held steadfastly against vicious +counter-attacks and galling artillery fire. Although local, this +brilliant action had an electrical effect, as it demonstrated our +fighting qualities under extreme battle conditions, and also that the +enemy's troops were not altogether invincible. + + +HOLDING THE MARNE + +The Germans' Aisne offensive, which began on May 27, had advanced +rapidly toward the River Marne and Paris, and the Allies faced a crisis +equally as grave as that of the Picardy offensive in March. Again every +available man was placed at Marshal Foch's disposal, and the 3d +Division, which had just come from its preliminary training in the +trenches, was hurried to the Marne. Its motorized machine-gun battalion +preceded the other units and successfully held the bridgehead at the +Marne, opposite Château-Thierry. The 2d Division, in reserve near +Montdidier, was sent by motor trucks and other available transport to +check the progress of the enemy toward Paris. The division attacked and +retook the town and railroad station at Bouresches and sturdily held its +ground against the enemy's best guard divisions. In the battle of +Belleau Wood, which followed, our men proved their superiority and +gained a strong tactical position, with far greater loss to the enemy +than to ourselves. On July 1, before the 2d was relieved, it captured +the village of Vaux with most splendid precision. + +Meanwhile our 2d Corps, under Major Gen. George W. Read, had been +organized for the command of our divisions with the British, which were +held back in training areas or assigned to second-line defenses. Five of +the ten divisions were withdrawn from the British area in June, three to +relieve divisions in Lorraine, and in the Vosges and two to the Paris +area to join the group of American divisions which stood between the +city and any further advance of the enemy in that direction. + +The great June-July troop movement from the States was well under way, +and, although these troops were to be given some preliminary training +before being put into action, their very presence warranted the use of +all the older divisions in the confidence that we did not lack reserves. +Elements of the 42d Division were in the line east of Rheims against the +German offensive of July 15, and held their ground unflinchingly. On the +right flank of this offensive four companies of the 28th Division were +in position in face of the advancing waves of the German infantry. The +3d Division was holding the bank of the Marne from the bend east of the +mouth of the Surmelin to the west of Mézy, opposite Château-Thierry, +where a large force of German infantry sought to force a passage under +support of powerful artillery concentrations and under cover of smoke +screens. A single regiment of the 3d wrote one of the most brilliant +pages in our military annals on this occasion. It prevented the crossing +at certain points on its front while, on either flank, the Germans, who +had gained a footing, pressed forward. Our men, firing in three +directions, met the German attacks with counter-attacks at critical +points and succeeded in throwing two German divisions into complete +confusion, capturing 600 prisoners. + + +OFFENSIVE OF JULY 18 + +The great force of the German Château-Thierry offensive established the +deep Marne salient, but the enemy was taking chances, and the +vulnerability of this pocket to attack might be turned to his +disadvantage. Seizing this opportunity to support my conviction, every +division with any sort of training was made available for use in a +counter-offensive. The place of honor in the thrust toward Soissons on +July 18 was given to our 1st and 2d Divisions in company with chosen +French divisions. Without the usual brief warning of a preliminary +bombardment, the massed French and American artillery, firing by the +map, laid down its rolling barrage at dawn while the infantry began its +charge. The tactical handling of our troops under these trying +conditions was excellent throughout the action. The enemy brought up +large numbers of reserves and made a stubborn defense both with machine +guns and artillery, but through five days' fighting the 1st Division +continued to advance until it had gained the heights above Soissons and +captured the village of Berzy-le-Sec. The 2d Division took Beau Repaire +Farm and Vierzy in a very rapid advance and reached a position in front +of Tigny at the end of its second day. These two divisions captured +7,000 prisoners and over 100 pieces of artillery. + +The 26th Division, which, with a French division, was under command of +our 1st Corps, acted as a pivot of the movement toward Soissons. On the +18th it took the village of Torcy, while the 3d Division was crossing +the Marne in pursuit of the retiring enemy. The 26th attacked again on +the 21st, and the enemy withdrew past the Château-Thierry-Soissons road. +The 3d Division, continuing its progress, took the heights of Mont St. +Père and the villages of Chartèves and Jaulgonne in the face of both +machine-gun and artillery fire. + +On the 24th, after the Germans had fallen back from Trugny and Epieds, +our 42d Division, which had been brought over from the Champagne, +relieved the 26th, and, fighting its way through the Forêt de Fère, +overwhelmed the nest of machine guns in its path. By the 27th it had +reached the Ourcq, whence the 3d and 4th Divisions were already +advancing, while the French divisions with which we were co-operating +were moving forward at other points. + +The 3d Division had made its advance into Ronchères Wood on the 29th and +was relieved for rest by a brigade of the 32d. The 42d and 32d undertook +the task of conquering the heights beyond Cierges, the 42d capturing +Sergy and the 32d capturing Hill 230, both American divisions joining in +the pursuit of the enemy to the Vesle, and thus the operation of +reducing the salient was finished. Meanwhile the 42d was relieved by the +4th at Chéry-Chartreuve, and the 32d by the 28th, while the 77th +Division took up a position on the Vesle. The operations of these +divisions on the Vesle were under the 3d Corps, Major Gen. Robert L. +Bullard commanding. + + +BATTLE OF ST. MIHIEL + +With the reduction of the Marne salient, we could look forward to the +concentration of our divisions in our own zone. In view of the +forthcoming operation against the St. Mihiel salient, which had long +been planned as our first offensive action on a large scale, the First +Army was organized on Aug. 10 under my personal command. While American +units had held different divisional and corps sectors along the western +front, there had not been up to this time, for obvious reasons, a +distinct American sector; but, in view of the important parts the +American forces were now to play, it was necessary to take over a +permanent portion of the line. Accordingly, on Aug. 30, the line +beginning at Port sur Seille, east of the Moselle and extending to the +west through St. Mihiel, thence north to a point opposite Verdun, was +placed under my command. The American sector was afterward extended +across the Meuse to the western edge of the Argonne Forest, and +included the 2d Colonial French, which held the point of the salient, +and the 17th French Corps, which occupied the heights above Verdun. + +The preparation for a complicated operation against the formidable +defenses in front of us included the assembling of divisions and of +corps and army artillery, transport, aircraft, tanks, ambulances, the +location of hospitals, and the molding together of all the elements of a +great modern army with its own railheads, supplied directly by our own +Service of Supply. The concentration for this operation, which was to be +a surprise, involved the movement, mostly at night, of approximately +600,000 troops, and required for its success the most careful attention +to every detail. + +The French were generous in giving us assistance in corps and army +artillery, with its personnel, and we were confident from the start of +our superiority over the enemy in guns of all calibres. Our heavy guns +were able to reach Metz and to interfere seriously with German rail +movements. The French Independent Air Force was placed under my command, +which, together with the British bombing squadrons and our air forces, +gave us the largest assembly of aviators that had ever been engaged in +one operation on the western front. + +From Les Eparges around the nose of the salient at St. Mihiel to the +Moselle River the line was, roughly, forty miles long and situated on +commanding ground greatly strengthened by artificial defenses. Our 1st +Corps (82d, 90th, 5th, and 2d Divisions), under command of Major Gen. +Hunter Liggett, resting its right on Pont-à-Mousson, with its left +joining our 3d Corps (the 89th, 42d, and 1st Divisions), under Major +Gen. Joseph T. Dickman, in line to Xivray, was to swing toward +Vigneulles on the pivot of the Moselle River for the initial assault. +From Xivray to Mouilly the 2d Colonial French Corps was in line in the +centre, and our 5th Corps, under command of Major Gen. George H. +Cameron, with our 26th Division and a French division at the western +base of the salient, was to attack three difficult hills--Les Eparges, +Combres, and Amaranthe. Our 1st Corps had in reserve the 78th Division, +our 4th Corps the 3d Division, and our First Army the 35th and 91st +Divisions, with the 80th and 33d available. It should be understood that +our corps organizations are very elastic, and that we have at no time +had permanent assignments of divisions to corps. + +After four hours' artillery preparation, the seven American divisions in +the front line advanced at 5 A. M. on Sept. 12, assisted by a limited +number of tanks, manned partly by Americans and partly by French. These +divisions, accompanied by groups of wire cutters and others armed with +bangalore torpedoes, went through the successive bands of barbed wire +that protected the enemy's front-line and support trenches in +irresistible waves on schedule time, breaking down all defense of an +enemy demoralized by the great volume of our artillery fire and our +sudden approach out of the fog. + +Our 1st Corps advanced to Thiaucourt, while our 4th Corps curved back to +the southwest through Nonsard. The 2d Colonial French Corps made the +slight advance required of it on very difficult ground, and the 5th +Corps took its three ridges and repulsed a counterattack. A rapid march +brought reserve regiments of a division of the 5th Corps into Vigneulles +and beyond Fresnes-en-Woevre. At the cost of only 7,000 casualties, +mostly light, we had taken 16,000 prisoners and 443 guns, a great +quantity of material, released the inhabitants of many villages from +enemy domination, and established our lines in a position to threaten +Metz. This signal success of the American First Army in its first +offensive was of prime importance. The Allies found they had a +formidable army to aid them, and the enemy learned finally that he had +one to reckon with. + + +MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE, FIRST PHASE + +On the day after we had taken the St. Mihiel salient much of our corps +and army artillery which had operated at St. Mihiel, and our divisions +in reserve at other points, were already on the move toward the area +back of the line between the Meuse River and the western edge of the +Forest of Argonne. With the exception of St. Mihiel the old German front +line from Switzerland to the east of Rheims was still intact. In the +general attack all along the line the operations assigned the American +Army as the hinge of this allied offensive were directed toward the +important railroad communications of the German armies through Mézières +and Sedan. The enemy must hold fast to this part of his lines, or the +withdrawal of his forces, with four years' accumulation of plants and +material, would be dangerously imperiled. + +The German Army had as yet shown no demoralization, and, while the mass +of its troops had suffered in morale, its first-class divisions, and +notably its machine-gun defense, were exhibiting remarkable tactical +efficiency as well as courage. The German General Staff was fully aware +of the consequences of a success on the Meuse-Argonne line. Certain that +he would do everything in his power to oppose us, the action was planned +with as much secrecy as possible and was undertaken with the +determination to use all our divisions in forcing decision. We expected +to draw the best German divisions to our front and to consume them while +the enemy was held under grave apprehension lest our attack should break +his line, which it was our firm purpose to do. + +Our right flank was protected by the Meuse, while our left embraced the +Argonne Forest, whose ravines, hills, and elaborate defense, screened by +dense thickets, had been generally considered impregnable. Our order of +battle from right to left was the 3d Corps from the Meuse to Malancourt, +with the 33d, 80th, and 4th Divisions in line and the 3d Division as +corps reserve; the 5th Corps from Malancourt to Vauquois, with the 79th, +87th, and 91st Divisions in line and the 32d in corps reserve, and the +1st Corps from Vauquois to Vienne le Château, with the 35th, 28th, and +77th Divisions in line and the 92d in corps reserve. The army reserve +consisted of the 1st, 29th, and 82d Divisions. + +On the night of Sept. 25 our troops quietly took the place of the +French, who thinly held the line in this sector, which had long been +inactive. In the attack which began on the 26th we drove through the +barbed-wire entanglements and the sea of shell craters across No Man's +Land, mastering all the first-line defenses. Continuing on the 27th and +28th, against machine guns and artillery of an increasing number of +enemy reserve divisions, we penetrated to a depth of from three to seven +miles and took the village of Montfaucon and its commanding hill and +Exermont, Gercourt, Cuisy, Septsarges, Malancourt, Ivoiry, Epinonville, +Charpentry, Very, and other villages. East of the Meuse one of our +divisions, which was with the 2d Colonial French Corps, captured +Marcheville and Rieville, giving further protection to the flank of our +main body. We had taken 10,000 prisoners, we had gained our point of +forcing the battle into the open, and were prepared for the enemy's +reaction, which was bound to come, as he had good roads and ample +railroad facilities for bringing up his artillery and reserves. + +In the chill rain of dark nights our engineers had to build new roads +across spongy, shell-torn areas, repair broken roads beyond No Man's +Land, and build bridges. Our gunners, with no thought of sleep, put +their shoulders to wheels and drag ropes to bring their guns through the +mire in support of the infantry, now under the increasing fire of the +enemy's artillery. Our attack had taken the enemy by surprise, but, +quickly recovering himself, he began to fire counter-attacks in strong +force, supported by heavy bombardments, with large quantities of gas. +From Sept. 28 until Oct. 4 we maintained the offensive against patches +of woods defended by snipers and continuous lines of machine guns, and +pushed forward our guns and transport, seizing strategical points in +preparation for further attacks. + + +OTHER UNITS WITH ALLIES + +Other divisions attached to the allied armies were doing their part. It +was the fortune of our 2d Corps, composed of the 27th and 30th +Divisions, which had remained with the British, to have a place of honor +in co-operation with the Australian Corps on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 in the +assault on the Hindenburg line where the St. Quentin Canal passes +through a tunnel under a ridge. The 30th Division speedily broke through +the main line of defense for all its objectives, while the 27th pushed +on impetuously through the main line until some of its elements reached +Gouy. In the midst of the maze of trenches and shell craters and under +crossfire from machine guns the other elements fought desperately +against odds. In this and in later actions, from Oct. 6 to Oct. 19, our +2d Corps captured over 6,000 prisoners and advanced over thirteen miles. +The spirit and aggressiveness of these divisions have been highly +praised by the British Army commander under whom they served. + +On Oct. 2-9 our 2d and 36th Divisions were sent to assist the French in +an important attack against the old German positions before Rheims. The +2d conquered the complicated defense works on their front against a +persistent defense worthy of the grimmest period of trench warfare and +attacked the strongly held wooded hill of Blanc Mont, which they +captured in a second assault, sweeping over it with consummate dash and +skill. This division then repulsed strong counter-attacks before the +village and cemetery of Ste. Etienne and took the town, forcing the +Germans to fall back from before Rheims and yield positions they had +held since September, 1914. On Oct. 9 the 36th Division relieved the 2d, +and in its first experience under fire withstood very severe artillery +bombardment and rapidly took up the pursuit of the enemy, now retiring +behind the Aisne. + + +MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE, SECOND PHASE + +The allied progress elsewhere cheered the efforts of our men in this +crucial contest, as the German command threw in more and more +first-class troops to stop our advance. We made steady headway in the +almost impenetrable and strongly held Argonne Forest, for, despite this +reinforcement, it was our army that was doing the driving. Our aircraft +was increasing in skill and numbers and forcing the issue, and our +infantry and artillery were improving rapidly with each new experience. +The replacements fresh from home were put into exhausted divisions with +little time for training, but they had the advantage of serving beside +men who knew their business and who had almost become veterans +overnight. The enemy had taken every advantage of the terrain, which +especially favored the defense, by a prodigal use of machine guns manned +by highly trained veterans and by using his artillery at short ranges. +In the face of such strong frontal positions we should have been unable +to accomplish any progress according to previously accepted standards, +but I had every confidence in our aggressive tactics and the courage of +our troops. + +On Oct. 4 the attack was renewed all along our front. The 3d Corps, +tilting to the left, followed the Brieulles-Cunel road; our 5th Corps +took Gesnes, while the 1st Corps advanced for over two miles along the +irregular valley of the Aire River and in the wooded hills of the +Argonne that bordered the river, used by the enemy with all his art and +weapons of defense. This sort of fighting continued against an enemy +striving to hold every foot of ground and whose very strong +counter-attacks challenged us at every point. On the 7th the 1st Corps +captured Chatal-Chênéry and continued along the river to Cornay. On the +east of Meuse sector one of the two divisions, co-operating with the +French, captured Consenvoye and the Haumont Woods. On the 9th the 5th +Corps, in its progress up the Aire, took Flêville, and the 3d Corps, +which had continuous fighting against odds, was working its way through +Brieulles and Cunel. On the 10th we had cleared the Argonne Forest of +the enemy. + +It was now necessary to constitute a second army, and on Oct. 9 the +immediate command of the First Army was turned over to Lieut. Gen. +Hunter Liggett. The command of the Second Army, whose divisions +occupied a sector in the Woevre, was given to Lieut. Gen. Robert L. +Bullard, who had been commander of the 1st Division and then of the 3d +Corps. Major Gen. Dickman was transferred to the command of the 1st +Corps, while the 5th Corps was placed under Major Gen. Charles P. +Summerall, who had recently commanded the 1st Division. Major Gen. John +L. Hines, who had gone rapidly up from regimental to division commander, +was assigned to the 3d Corps. These four officers had been in France +from the early days of the expedition and had learned their lessons in +the school of practical warfare. + +Our constant pressure against the enemy brought day by day more +prisoners, mostly survivors from machine-gun nests captured in fighting +at close quarters. On Oct. 18 there was very fierce fighting in the +Caures Woods east of the Meuse and in the Ormont Woods. On the 14th the +1st Corps took St. Juvin, and the 5th Corps, in hand-to-hand encounters, +entered the formidable Kriemhilde line, where the enemy had hoped to +check us indefinitely. Later the 5th Corps penetrated further the +Kriemhilde line, and the 1st Corps took Champigneulles and the important +town of Grandpré. Our dogged offensive was wearing down the enemy, who +continued desperately to throw his best troops against us, thus +weakening his line in front of our allies and making their advance less +difficult. + + +DIVISIONS IN BELGIUM + +Meanwhile we were not only able to continue the battle, but our 37th and +91st Divisions were hastily withdrawn from our front and dispatched to +help the French Army in Belgium. Detraining in the neighborhood of +Ypres, these divisions advanced by rapid stages to the fighting line and +were assigned to adjacent French corps. On Oct. 31, in continuation of +the Flanders offensive, they attacked and methodically broke down all +enemy resistance. On Nov. 3 the 37th had completed its mission in +dividing the enemy across the Escaut River and firmly established itself +along the east bank included in the division zone of action. By a clever +flanking movement troops of the 91st Division captured Spitaals +Bosschen, a difficult wood extending across the central part of the +division sector, reached the Escaut, and penetrated into the town of +Audenarde. These divisions received high commendation from their corps +commanders for their dash and energy. + + +MEUSE-ARGONNE--LAST PHASE + +On the 23d the 3d and 5th Corps pushed northward to the level of +Banthéville. While we continued to press forward and throw back the +enemy's violent counter-attacks with great loss to him, a regrouping of +our forces was under way for the final assault. Evidences of loss of +morale by the enemy gave our men more confidence in attack and more +fortitude in enduring the fatigue of incessant effort and the hardships +of very inclement weather. + +With comparatively well-rested divisions, the final advance in the +Meuse-Argonne front was begun on Nov. 1. Our increased artillery force +acquitted itself magnificently in support of the advance, and the enemy +broke before the determined infantry, which, by its persistent fighting +of the past weeks and the dash of this attack, had overcome his will to +resist. The 3d Corps took Ancreville, Doulcon, and Andevanne, and the +5th Corps took Landres et St. Georges and pressed through successive +lines of resistance to Bayonville and Chennery. On the 2d the 1st Corps +joined in the movement, which now became an impetuous onslaught that +could not be stayed. + +On the 3d advance troops surged forward in pursuit, some by motor +trucks, while the artillery pressed along the country roads close +behind. The 1st Corps reached Authe and Châtillon-sur-Bar, the 5th +Corps, Fosse and Nouart, and the 3d Corps, Halles, penetrating the +enemy's line to a depth of twelve miles. Our large-calibre guns had +advanced and were skillfully brought into position to fire upon the +important lines at Montmedy, Longuyon, and Conflans. Our 3d Corps +crossed the Meuse on the 5th, and the other corps, in the full +confidence that the day was theirs, eagerly cleared the way of machine +guns as they swept northward, maintaining complete co-ordination +throughout. On the 6th a division of the 1st Corps reached a point on +the Meuse opposite Sedan, twenty-five miles from our line of departure. +The strategical goal which was our highest hope was gained. We had cut +the enemy's main line of communications, and nothing but surrender or an +armistice could save his army from complete disaster. + +In all forty enemy divisions had been used against us in the +Meuse-Argonne battle. Between Sept. 26 and Nov. 6 we took 26,059 +prisoners and 468 guns on this front. Our divisions engaged were the +1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 32d, 33d, 35th, 37th, 42d, +77th, 78th, 79th, 80th, 82d, 89th, 90th, and 91st. Many of our divisions +remained in line for a length of time that required nerves of steel, +while others were sent in again after only a few days of rest. The 1st, +5th, 26th, 42d, 77th, 80th, 89th, and 90th were in the line twice. +Although some of the divisions were fighting their first battle, they +soon became equal to the best. + + +EAST OF THE MEUSE + +On the three days preceding Nov. 10, the 3d, the 2d Colonial, and the +17th French Corps fought a difficult struggle through the Meuse hills +south of Stenay and forced the enemy into the plain. Meanwhile, my plans +for further use of the American forces contemplated an advance between +the Meuse and the Moselle in the direction of Longwy by the First Army, +while, at the same time, the Second Army should assure the offensive +toward the rich coal fields of Briey. These operations were to be +followed by an offensive toward Château-Salins east of the Moselle, thus +isolating Metz. Accordingly, attacks on the American front had been +ordered, and that of the Second Army was in progress on the morning of +Nov. 11 when instructions were received that hostilities should cease at +11 o'clock A. M. + +At this moment the line of the American sector, from right to left, +began at Port-sur-Seille, thence across the Moselle to Vandières and +through the Woevre to Bezonvaux, in the foothills of the Meuse, thence +along to the foothills and through the northern edge of the Woevre +forests to the Meuse at Mouzay, thence along the Meuse connecting with +the French under Sedan. + + +RELATIONS WITH THE ALLIES + +Co-operation among the Allies has at all times been most cordial. A far +greater effort has been put forth by the allied armies and staffs to +assist us than could have been expected. The French Government and Army +have always stood ready to furnish us with supplies, equipment, and +transportation, and to aid us in every way. In the towns and hamlets +wherever our troops have been stationed or billeted the French people +have everywhere received them more as relatives and intimate friends +than as soldiers of a foreign army. For these things words are quite +inadequate to express our gratitude. There can be no doubt that the +relations growing out of our associations here assure a permanent +friendship between the two peoples. Although we have not been so +intimately associated with the people of Great Britain, yet their troops +and ours when thrown together have always warmly fraternized. The +reception of those of our forces who have passed through England and of +those who have been stationed there has always been enthusiastic. +Altogether it has been deeply impressed upon us that the ties of +language and blood bring the British and ourselves together completely +and inseparably. + + +STRENGTH + +There are in Europe altogether, including a regiment and some sanitary +units with the Italian Army and the organizations at Murmansk, also +including those en route from the States, approximately 2,053,347 men, +less our losses. Of this total there are in France 1,338,169 combatant +troops. Forty divisions have arrived, of which the infantry personnel of +ten have been used as replacements, leaving thirty divisions now in +France organized into three armies of three corps each. + +The losses of the Americans up to Nov. 18 are: Killed and wounded, +36,145; died of disease, 14,811; deaths unclassified, 2,204; wounded, +179,625; prisoners, 2,163; missing, 1,160. We have captured about 44,000 +prisoners and 1,400 guns, howitzers, and trench mortars. + +COMMENDATION + +The duties of the General Staff, as well as those of the army and corps +staffs, have been very ably performed. Especially is this true when we +consider the new and difficult problems with which they have been +confronted. This body of officers, both as individuals and as an +organization, has, I believe, no superiors in professional ability, in +efficiency, or in loyalty. + +Nothing that we have in France better reflects the efficiency and +devotion to duty of Americans in general than the Service of Supply, +whose personnel is thoroughly imbued with a patriotic desire to do its +full duty. They have at all times fully appreciated their responsibility +to the rest of the army, and the results produced have been most +gratifying. + +Our Medical Corps is especially entitled to praise for the general +effectiveness of its work, both in hospital and at the front. Embracing +men of high professional attainments, and splendid women devoted to +their calling and untiring in their efforts, this department has made a +new record for medical and sanitary proficiency. + +The Quartermaster Department has had difficult and various tasks, but it +has more than met all demands that have been made upon it. Its +management and its personnel have been exceptionally efficient and +deserve every possible commendation. + +As to the more technical services, the able personnel of the Ordnance +Department in France has splendidly fulfilled its functions, both in +procurement and in forwarding the immense quantities of ordnance +required. The officers and men and the young women of the Signal Corps +have performed their duties with a large conception of the problem, and +with a devoted and patriotic spirit to which the perfection of our +communications daily testifies. While the Engineer Corps has been +referred to in another part of this report, it should be further stated +that the work has required large vision and high professional skill, and +great credit is due their personnel for the high proficiency that they +have constantly maintained. + +Our aviators have no equals in daring or in fighting ability, and have +left a record of courageous deeds that will ever remain a brilliant page +in the annals of our army. While the Tank Corps has had limited +opportunities, its personnel has responded gallantly on every possible +occasion, and has shown courage of the highest order. + +The Adjutant General's Department has been directed with a systematic +thoroughness and excellence that surpassed any previous work of its +kind. The Inspector General's Department has risen to the highest +standards, and throughout has ably assisted commanders in the +enforcement of discipline. The able personnel of the Judge Advocate +General's Department has solved with judgment and wisdom the multitude +of difficult legal problems, many of them involving questions of great +international importance. + +It would be impossible in this brief preliminary report to do justice to +the personnel of all the different branches of this organization, which +I shall cover in detail in a later report. + +The navy in European waters has at all times most cordially aided the +army, and it is most gratifying to report that there has never before +been such perfect co-operation between these two branches of the +service. + +As to the Americans in Europe not in the military service, it is the +greatest pleasure to say that, both in official and in private life, +they are intensely patriotic and loyal, and have been invariably +sympathetic and helpful to the army. + +Finally, I pay the supreme tribute to our officers and soldiers of the +line. When I think of their heroism, their patience under hardships, +their unflinching spirit of offensive action, I am filled with emotion +which I am unable to express. Their deeds are immortal, and they have +earned the eternal gratitude of our country. + +I am, Mr. Secretary, very respectfully, + +JOHN J. PERSHING, + +_General, Commander in Chief, +American Expeditionary Forces._ + +To the Secretary of War. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Army at the Front, by Heywood Broun + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT *** + +***** This file should be named 36514-8.txt or 36514-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/5/1/36514/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Our Army at the Front + +Author: Heywood Broun + +Release Date: June 25, 2011 [EBook #36514] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<hr class="full" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 353px;"> +<a href="images/cover-lg.jpg"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="353" height="550" alt="image of the book's cover" title="image of the book's cover" /></a> +</div> + +<p> + +<br /> +</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<a name="front" id="front"></a> +<a href="images/front.jpg"> +<img src="images/front_sml.jpg" width="600" height="379" alt="From a painting by F. C. Yohn. + +The battle of Seicheprey. + +"All through the night the artillerymen sent their shells, encasing +themselves in gas masks." (Page 225)" title="The battle of Seicheprey." /></a> +<p class="captionl">From a painting by F. C. Yohn.</p> +<p class="captionc">The battle of Seicheprey.<br /> +"All through the night the artillerymen sent their shells, encasing +themselves in gas masks." (<a href="#page_225">Page 225</a>)</p> +</div> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="cb"><big><i>AMERICA IN THE WAR</i></big></p> + +<p class="cb">————</p> + +<h1>OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT</h1> + +<p class="cb">BY<br /> +HEYWOOD BROUN<br /> +<small>FORMERLY CORRESPONDENT FOR THE "NEW YORK TRIBUNE" WITH THE<br /> +AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE</small></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="cb">ILLUSTRATED</p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="cb">NEW YORK<br /> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br /> +1922</p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="c"><small>C<small>OPYRIGHT</small>, 1918, <small>BY</small><br /> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br /> +——<br /> +Printed in the United States of America</small></p> + +<h3><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h3> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary=""> + +<tr><td align="right"><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">THE LANDING OF PERSHING</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_001">1</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">"Vive PAIR-SHANG!"</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_011">11</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">THE FIRST DIVISION LANDS</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_029">29</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">THE FOURTH OF JULY</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_044">44</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">WHAT THEY LIVED IN</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_053">53</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">GETTING THEIR STRIDE</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_066">66</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">SPEEDING UP</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_081">81</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">BACK WITH THE BIG GUNS</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_096">96</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">THE EYES OF THE ARMY</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_107">107</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">THE SCHOOLS FOR OFFICERS</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_117">117</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">SOME DISTINGUISHED VISITORS</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_124">124</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">THE MEN WHO DID EVERYTHING</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_134">134</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">BEHIND THE LINES</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_145">145</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">FRANCE AND THE MEDICOES</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_158">158</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">IN CHARGE OF MORALE</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_168">168</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">INTO THE TRENCHES</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_177">177</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">OUR OWN SECTOR</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_189">189</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">A CIVILIAN VISITOR</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_200">200</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">A FAMOUS GESTURE</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_212">212</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">THE FIRST TWO BATTLES</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_224">224</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">TEUFEL-HUNDEN</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_237">237</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">XXII.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">THE ARMY of MANŒUVRE</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_248">248</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">XXIII.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">ST. MIHIEL</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_266">266</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">XXIV.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">MEUSE-ARGONNE BEGINS</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_279">279</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">XXV.</a></td><td> <span class="smcap">CEASE FIRING</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_291">291</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"> </td><td><a href="#GENERAL_PERSHINGS_REPORT"><span class="smcap">GENERAL PERSHING'S REPORT</span></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_301">301</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<h3>ILLUSTRATIONS</h3> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr valign="bottom"><td>The battle of Seicheprey</td><td align="right"><i><a href="#front">Frontispiece</a></i></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="right"><small><small>FACING PAGE</small></small></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td>General Pershing in Paris, July, 1917</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_016">16</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td>Buglers of the Alpine Chasseurs, assisted by their military +band, entertaining American soldiers of the First Division</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_064">64</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td>U. S. locomotive-assembling yards in France</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_154">154</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td>Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly, formerly the American Ambulance Hospital</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_166">166</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td>Secretary Baker riding on flat car during his tour of inspection +of the American Expeditionary Forces</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_202">202</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td>U. S. Marines in readiness to march to the front</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_244">244</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td>The capture of Sergy</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_262">262</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="page_001" id="page_001"></a></p> + +<h1>OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT</h1> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I<br /><br /> +THE LANDING OF PERSHING</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">A</span> SHIP warped into an English port. Along her decks were lines of +soldiers, of high and low degree, all in khaki. From the shore end of +her gang-plank other lines of soldiers spread out like fan-sticks, some +in khaki, some in the two blues of land and sea fighters. Decorating the +fan-sticks were the scarlet and gold of staff-officers, the blue and +gold of naval officers, the yellow and gold of land officers, and the +black of a few distinguished civilians.</p> + +<p>At the end of one shore-line of khaki one rigid private stood out from +the rest, holding for dear life to a massive white goat. The goat was +the most celebrated mascot in the British Army, and this was an affair +of priceless consequence, but that was no sign the goat<a name="page_002" id="page_002"></a> intended to +behave himself, and the private was responsible.</p> + +<p>Weaving through this picture of military precision, three little groups +of men waited restlessly to get aboard the ship. One was the lord mayor +of the port city, his gilt chains of office blazing in the forenoon +brightness, with his staff; another was the half-dozen or so of +distinguished statesmen, diplomats, and military heroes bringing formal +welcome to England; the third was the war correspondents and reporters +from the London newspapers.</p> + +<p>The waiting was too keen and anxious for talk. Excitement raced from man +to man.</p> + +<p>For the ship was the <i>Baltic</i>. The time was the morning of June 8, 1917. +The event was the landing of John J. Pershing, commander of America's +Expeditionary Force. And the soldiers with him were the herald of +America's coming—the holding of her drive with an outpost.</p> + +<p>When the grandchildren of those soldiers learn that date in their +history lessons it is safe to assume that all its historical +significance will be fairly worked out and articulate.</p> + +<p>It is equally safe to say that in the moment<a name="page_003" id="page_003"></a> of its happening few if +any of its participants, even the most consequential and far-seeing, had +a personal sense of making history. Of all the pies that one may not +both eat and have, the foremost is that very taking part in a great +occasion. All the fun of it is being got by the man who stays at home +and reads the newspapers, undistracted by the press of practical matters +in hand.</p> + +<p>True, for the landing of General Pershing there was the color of +soldiery, the blare of brass bands, the ring of great names among the +welcomers. There was, of course, the overtone picture of a great +chieftain, marching in advance of a great army, come to foreign lands to +add their might to what, with their coming, was then a world in arms. +The future might see, blended with the gray hulk of the <i>Baltic</i>, the +shadowy shape of the <i>Mayflower</i> coming back, still carrying men bound +to the service of world freedom.</p> + +<p>But what they saw that morning was, after all, a very modern landing, +from a very modern ship, with sailors hastily tying down a gang-plank, +and doing it very well because they had done it just that way so many +times before.<a name="page_004" id="page_004"></a></p> + +<p>The Royal Welsh Fusiliers were down to give a military welcome, with +their mascot and their crack band. The lord mayor, Lieutenant-General +Pitcairn Campbell, Admiral Stileman, and other men from both arms of +England's service were there, not to feel of their feelings, but to make +the landing as agreeable and convenient as possible, and to convey to +General Pershing, with Anglo-Saxon mannerliness and reticence, their +great pleasure at having him come.</p> + +<p>As soon as there was access to the ship General Campbell and Admiral +Stileman went aboard and introduced themselves to General Pershing. They +met, also, a few of the American staff-officers, and returned salutes +from the privates who made up the Pershing entourage of 168 men.</p> + +<p>There were congratulations on the ship's safe arrival, which reminded +General Pershing and some of his officers that they wanted, before +leaving the ship, to pay their respects to the skipper who had carried +them through the danger zone without so much as a sniff at a submarine.</p> + +<p>This done, the little company of officers<a name="page_005" id="page_005"></a> walked down the gang-plank, +talking cheerily of their satisfaction at meeting, of their hard work on +the ship, of the weather, and what-not, all the while the soldiers on +the decks behind them waved hands and handkerchiefs in a general +overflow of well-being, and finally—set foot in England!</p> + +<p>One may not go too far in describing the contents of a general's mind +without some help from him, but it's a fair guess that if General +Pershing is as kin to his kind as he seems to be, the very precise +moment of this setting foot in England escaped his notice altogether, +and was left free for the historian to embroider how he pleased. For +General Pershing was in the act of being led to the salute of a guard of +honor by General Campbell. And almost immediately after that precise +moment the Welsh Fusiliers' band began the "Star-Spangled Banner," and +again it's a good bet that General Pershing and his staff thought not a +thing about England and a lot about home.</p> + +<p>But so the historic moment came, and so it went. And presently the +American vanguard was finding its places in the special train to +London.<a name="page_006" id="page_006"></a></p> + +<p>Perhaps England knew that a great hour was in the making, for her +rolling green hills gave back the warmth of a splendid sun, and her +hedgerows and wild blooms braved forth in crystal air. Those of the +newcomers who saw England first that afternoon thanked their stars +fervently that England and democracy were on the same side.</p> + +<p>In mid-afternoon the train reached London, and here the Americans were +greeted, not alone by soldiers and England, but by the English. The +secret of their coming, carefully kept, had given the port civilians no +chance. But they knew it in London and the station was crowded to its +doors.</p> + +<p>General Pershing stepped from the train as soon as it stopped. +Ambassador Walter Hines Page came over to him, both hands outstretched, +and asked leave to introduce another general who had taken an +Expeditionary Force to France—General Sir John French. Other +introductions followed—to Lord Derby, General Lord Brooke, and Sir +Francis Lloyd. And there was a hearty handshake from a fighter who +needed no introduction—Rear-Admiral William E. Sims.<a name="page_007" id="page_007"></a></p> + +<p>Inside and outside the station the civilians cheered. None of them +needed to have General Pershing pointed out to them. He was +unmistakable. No man ever looked more the ordained leader of fighting +men. He was tall, broad, and deep-chested, splendidly set up; and to the +care with which Providence had fashioned him he had added soldierly care +of his own.</p> + +<p>He might have been patterned upon the Freudian dream of Julius Cæsar, if +Julius was in truth the unsoldierly looking person they made him out to +be, whose majesty lay wholly in his own mind's eye.</p> + +<p>The gallant look of General Pershing fanned the London friendliness to +contagious flames of enthusiasm. He and his officers were cheered to +their hotel, the soldiers were cheered to their barracks in the Tower of +London.</p> + +<p>At the hotel they found three floors turned over to them, arranged for +good, hard work, with plenty of desk-room, and boy and girl scouts for +running errands. Squarely in the entrance was a money-changer's desk, +with a patient man in charge who could, and did,<a name="page_008" id="page_008"></a> name the number of +cents to the shilling once every minute for four days. A little English +lady who visited America complained bitterly, just after arrival, "Why +didn't they make their dollar just four shillings?" thereby summing up +the only really valid source of acrimony between England and America. +The money-changer made the international amity complete.</p> + +<p>Once installed, General Pershing and his staff fell to and worked, +continuing the organization that had been roughly blocked out on the +<i>Baltic</i>, and building up the liaison between English and American army +procedure, begun by the help of British and Canadian officers on board, +by frequent conferences with England's State, War, and Navy Departments.</p> + +<p>The day after the arrival General Pershing went to "breakfast at +Windsor," the first meeting between America's fighter and England's +King. Here, at last, the momentousness of the matter found voice.</p> + +<p>King George, having done with the introductory greeting, said earnestly: +"I cannot tell you how much your coming means to me. It has been the +great dream of my life that my<a name="page_009" id="page_009"></a> country and yours would join in some +great enterprise ... and here you are...."</p> + +<p>After this visit, prolonged by an inspection of the historic treasures +of Windsor Castle, General Pershing made the rule of unbroken work for +himself and his officers till his task in London was finished and he +should leave for France to join his First Division.</p> + +<p>He made what he expected to be a single exception to this rule. He went +to a dinner-party, at which he met Lloyd-George, Arthur Balfour, just +back from his American mission, and half a dozen others of commensurate +distinction. He found that his exception was no exception at all. The +English do not merely have the reputation of doing their real work at +their dinner-parties—they deserve that reputation. Staff-officers, +telling all about it later on, said that it could hardly have been +distinguished from a cabinet meeting, or a report from the Secretary of +State for War. So were the final plans made and the business of the +nations settled.</p> + +<p>Concerning all these meetings and all the national feeling that was +behind them, General<a name="page_010" id="page_010"></a> Pershing and his officers were of one voice—that +England's welcome had been precisely of the sort that pleased them most. +It was reticent, charming, too genuine for much open expression, too +chivalrous at heart to be obtrusive.</p> + +<p>What with spending most of each twenty-four hours at work, the American +vanguard finished up its affairs in four days. And early on the morning +of June 13, long before the break of day, General Pershing and his +officers and men boarded their Channel boat, the <i>Invicta</i>, and set sail +for France.<a name="page_011" id="page_011"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II<br /><br /> +"VIVE PAIR-SHANG!"</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE +<i>Invicta</i> came into Boulogne harbor in the early morning, to find +that her attempts at a secret crossing had amounted to nothing at all. +Everybody within sight and ear-shot was out to show how pleased he was, +riotously and openly, indifferent alike to the hopes of spy or censor.</p> + +<p>The fishing-boats, the merchant coastwise fleet, the Channel ships and +hordes of little privately owned sloops and yawls and motor-boats all +plied chipperly around with "bannières étoilées" fore and aft. The sun +was very bright and the water was very blue, and between them was that +exhilarating air which always rises over the coasts of France, whenever +and wherever you land on them, which not all the smoke and grime of the +world's biggest war could deaden or destroy.</p> + +<p>The <i>Invicta's</i> own flags were run up at the<a name="page_012" id="page_012"></a> harbor mouth. Again the +lines of khaki-colored soldiers formed behind the deck-rails, and again +the chieftain from overseas stood at the prow of his ship and waited the +coming of a historic moment.</p> + +<p>When the <i>Invicta</i> was made fast and her gang-plank went over, there was +a half-circle of space cleared in the quay in front of her by a +detachment of grizzled French infantrymen, their horizon-blue uniforms +filmed over with the yellow dust of a long march.</p> + +<p>Behind the infantrymen the good citizens of Boulogne were yelling their +throats dry. When General Pershing stopped for an instant's survey at +the head of the gang-plank, with his staff-officers close behind him, +the roar of welcome swelled to thunder and resounded out to sea. When he +marched down and stepped to the quay, there was a sudden, arresting +silence. Every soldier was at salute, and every civilian, too. In that +tense instant a new world was beginning, and though it was as formless +as all beginnings, the unerringly dramatic and sensitive French paid the +tribute of silence to its birth. The future was to say that in that +in<a name="page_013" id="page_013"></a>stant the world allied on new bases, that men now fought together not +because their lands lay neighboring, or were jointly menaced by some +central foe, but because they would follow their own ideal to wherever +it was in danger. An American general had brought his fighters three +thousand miles because a principle of world order and world right needed +the added strength of his arms. And never before had American soldiers +come in their uniforms to do battle on the continent of Europe.</p> + +<p>The moment's silence ended as startlingly as it began. Bands and +cheerers set in again on one beat. The officers who had come to make a +formal welcome fell back and let the unprepared public uproar have way.</p> + +<p>General Pershing and his officers walked through aisles strenuously +forced by the infantrymen, to where carriages waited to carry them +through the Boulogne streets.</p> + +<p>It must have seemed to the little American contingent as if every +Frenchman in France had come up to the coast for the celebration.</p> + +<p>From the carriages the crowds stretched solid in every direction. The +streets were blanketed<a name="page_014" id="page_014"></a> under uncountable flags. Every window held its +capacity of laughing and cheering Frenchwomen.</p> + +<p>Children ran along the streets, shrilling "Vive l'Amérique!" and +laughing hilariously when their flowers were caught by the grateful but +embarrassed American officers.</p> + +<p>When the special train to Paris had started the officers mopped their +faces and settled back for a modest time. But they reckoned without +their French. Not a town along the way missed its chance to greet the +Americans. The stations were packed, the cheers were incessant, the +roses poured in deluges into the train-windows.</p> + +<p>But at the Gare du Nord, in Paris, the official French greeting was too +magnificent to be pushed aside further by mere populace.</p> + +<p>There were cordons of soldiers drawn up in the station, stiff at +attention, making aisles by which the French officials could get to the +Americans. There were officers in brilliant uniform, covered with medals +for heroic service. There were massed bands, led by the Garde +Republicaine. "Papa Joffre" was there, with<a name="page_015" id="page_015"></a> his co-missioner, Viviani; +Painleve, then Minister of War, and presently to have a while as +Premier; General Foch, Marne hero, now generalissimo, and Ambassador +William G. Sharp.</p> + +<p>These, with General Pershing, Major Robert Bacon, a member of Pershing's +staff and lately ambassador to France, and two or three other +staff-officers, found open motor-cars waiting to drive them to the Hotel +Crillon, on the Place de la Concorde, the temporary American +headquarters.</p> + +<p>Dense crowds of soldiers patrolled the streets leading down to the Grand +Boulevards, through which the distinguished little procession was to +take its way, and other soldiers lined up at attention in the +boulevards.</p> + +<p>Paris turned loose, with her heart in her mouth and her enthusiasm at +red heat, is not easily forgotten. On this June day her raptures were +immemorial. They were of a sort to call out the old-timers for standards +of comparison.</p> + +<p>Every sentence now spoken in France begins either "Avant la guerre" or +"Depuis la guerre."<a name="page_016" id="page_016"></a> Nobody can ignore the fact that with August, 1914, +the whole of life changed. To the old-timers who wanted to tell you what +Paris was like the afternoon Pershing arrived, there were only two +occasions possible, both "Depuis la guerre."</p> + +<p>The first great day was that following the order for general +mobilization, when exaltation, defiance, threat, and frenzy packed the +national spirit to suffocation, and when the streets flowed with +unending streams of grim but undaunted people. Tragic days and relief +days followed. But the next great time, when tragedy did not outweigh +every other feeling, was that 14th of July, 1916, when the military +parades were begun again, for the first time since the war, and in the +line of march were detachments from the armies of all the Allies.</p> + +<p>The third great French war festival was for Pershing. The crowds were +literally everywhere. The streets through which the motors passed were +tightly blocked except for the little road cleared by the soldiers. The +streets giving off these were jammed solid. American flags were in every +window, on every lamp-post,<a name="page_017" id="page_017"></a> on every taxicab, and in every wildly +waving hand.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 381px;"> +<a href="images/illpg_016.jpg"> +<img src="images/illpg_016_sml.jpg" width="381" height="600" alt="Copyright by the Committee on Public Information. + +General Pershing in Paris, July, 1917." title="General Pershing in Paris, July, 1917" /></a> +<p class="captionl">Copyright by the Committee on Public Information.</p> +<p class="captionc">General Pershing in Paris, July, 1917.</p> +</div> + +<p>Although the soldiers could force a way open before the motor-cars, no +human agency could keep the way free behind them. The Parisians wanted +not merely to see Pershing—they wanted to march with him. So they fell +in, tramping the boulevards close behind the cars, cheering and singing +to their marching step.</p> + +<p>Only when General Pershing disappeared under the arched doorway of the +Hotel Crillon, and let it be known that he had other gear to tend, did +the city in procession break apart and go about its several private +celebrations.</p> + +<p>But all that afternoon and all that night, wherever men and women +collected, or children were underfoot, it was "Vive l'Amérique" and +"Vive le Generale Pair-shang" that echoed when the glasses rose.</p> + +<p>When General Pershing, after the tremendous experience of his European +landing, asked for the quiet and shelter of his own quarters at the +Crillon, his intention was that his retirement should be complete. He +said flatly that a man who had just witnessed such a tribute to his<a name="page_018" id="page_018"></a> +country as Paris had made that afternoon was no better than he should be +if he did not feel the need of solitude.</p> + +<p>But the inevitable aftermath of the great event the world over is the +talking with the newspapers. And sure enough, no sooner was General +Pershing safe in his retreat than the Paris reporters were knocking at +the door. The American correspondents who had travelled over from London +on the <i>Invicta</i> had had emphatic instructions to stay away, story or no +story. But one distinguished Frenchman broke the rules, and to François +de Jessen, of <i>Le Temps</i>, General Pershing did finally give a statement. +How reluctantly one may see from the statement's contents.</p> + +<p>"I came to Europe to organize the participation of our army in this +immense conflict of free nations against the enemies of liberty, and not +to deliver fine speeches at banquets, or have them published in the +newspapers," said General Pershing. "Besides, that is not my business, +and, you know, we Americans, soldiers and civilians, like not only to +appear, but to be, businesslike. However, since you offer me an<a name="page_019" id="page_019"></a> +opportunity to speak to France, I am glad to make you a short and simple +confession.</p> + +<p>"As a man and as a soldier I am profoundly happy over, indeed proud of, +the high mission with which I am charged. But all this is purely +personal, and might appear out of proportion with the solemnity of the +hour and the gravity of events now occurring. If I have thought it +proper to indulge in this confidence, it is because I wish to express my +admiration of the French soldier, and at the same time to express my +pride in being at the side of the French and allied armies.</p> + +<p>"It is much more important, I think, to announce that we are the +precursors of an army that is firmly resolved to do its part on the +Continent for the cause the American nation has adopted as its own. We +come conscious of the historic duty to be performed when our flag shows +itself upon the battle-fields of the world. It is not my role to promise +or to prophesy. Let it suffice to tell you that we know what we are +doing, and what we want."</p> + +<p>Two rememberable experiences waited the next day for General Pershing. +The first was<a name="page_020" id="page_020"></a> his visit to des Invalides, the tomb of Napoleon; the +second, his appearance in the French Chamber of Deputies. If he had +known what it was to be the hero of all Paris at once, he was to learn +how special groups regarded him, and what the French highest-in-command +thought fitting for America's leader.</p> + +<p>At all of General Pershing's appearances in Paris in these first days a +detachment of soldiers had to be constantly before him, widening a way +for him through the crowds that waited his coming. On the morning of his +visit to the tomb of Napoleon the broad Champs de Mars, in front of des +Invalides, was impassable except by the soldiers' flying wedge. Shouts +in French rang out steadily as he made his way toward des Invalides' +entrances, and suddenly a man cried, in accented English: "Behind him +there are ten million more."</p> + +<p>But once inside des Invalides General Pershing was alone with General +Niox, who was in charge of the famous treasure building, and General +Joffre. Between Pershing and Joffre there had begun one of those intense +friendships that form too impetuously for ordinary explanation.<a name="page_021" id="page_021"></a> It was +full-grown at the end of their first meeting, a matter of seconds. And +though at this time their friendly intercourse was halted sometimes by +the fact that neither spoke the other's language, they were continually +together.</p> + +<p>So it was General Joffre who walked beside him when General Pershing +followed General Niox down to the entrance of the crypt, and stood +before the door. All the world may go to this door, if its behavior is +good, but only royal applicants may go beyond it.</p> + +<p>General Pershing was to go inside. General Niox handed him the great +key, then turned away with Joffre, while Pershing, after a moment's +hesitation, fitted the key and crossed the threshold. When he came out +again he was taken to see the Napoleonic relics, which lay in rows in +their glass cases. Two of them, the great sword and the Grand Cross +cordon of the Legion of Honor, had never been touched since the time of +Louis Philippe. As Pershing and Joffre bent over them General Niox came +to a momentous decision. He opened the cases and handed the two to +General Pershing. France could do no more.<a name="page_022" id="page_022"></a></p> + +<p>Pershing held them for a moment and nobody spoke. Then he handed back +the cordon, kissed the sword-hilt and presented it, and in profound +silence the three men left the treasure hall.</p> + +<p>Between this visit and that to the Chamber of Deputies there were many +official calls, including one to President Poincaré at the Elysée +Palace, which ended in a formal luncheon to Pershing by President and +Madame Poincaré, with most of the important men of France as fellow +guests.</p> + +<p>General Pershing was recognized as he entered the gallery of the Chamber +of Deputies, and all other business except that of doing him honor was +promptly put by. Full-throated cheering began and would not die down. +Finally Premier Ribot commenced to speak, and the deputies stopped to +listen.</p> + +<p>"The people of France fully understand the deep significance of the +arrival of General Pershing in France," he said. "It is one of the +greatest events in history that the people of the United States should +come here to struggle, not in the spirit of ambition or conquest, but<a name="page_023" id="page_023"></a> +for the noble ideals of justice and liberty. The arrival of General +Pershing is a new message from President Wilson which, if that is +possible, surpasses in nobility all those preceding it."</p> + +<p>And Viviani said, a few minutes later: "President Wilson holds in his +hand all the historic grandeur of America, which he now puts forth in +this fraternal union extended to us by the Great Republic."</p> + +<p>These two speeches opened a flood-gate. Long after the cheering deputies +had said their good-bys to General Pershing, the French writers, made +articulate by the example of Ribot and Viviani, were busily preparing +appreciations and commentaries of the Pershing arrival. The most +picturesque of these was Maurice de Waleffe's, in <i>Le Journal:</i> "'There +are no longer any Pyrenees,' said Louis XIV, when he married a Spanish +princess. 'There is no longer an ocean,' General Pershing might say, +with greater justice, as he is about to mingle with ours the democratic +blood of his soldiers. The fusion of Europe and America is an enormous +fact to note."</p> + +<p>A more powerful speech was that of Clemenceau,<a name="page_024" id="page_024"></a> now Premier of France, +but then an earnest private citizen, writing for his paper. "Paris has +given its finest welcome to General Pershing," he wrote. "We are +justified. We are justified in hoping that the acclamation of our fellow +citizens, with whom are mingled crowds of soldiers home on leave, have +shown him clearly, right at the start, in what spirit we are waging the +bloodiest of wars; with what invincible determination, never to falter +in any fibre of our nerves or muscles. Unless I misjudge America, +General Pershing, fully conscious of the importance of his mission, has +received from the cordial and joyous enthusiasm of the Parisians that +kind of fraternal encouragement which is never superfluous, even when +one needs it not.</p> + +<p>"Let him have no doubt that he, too, has brought encouragement to us, +the whole of France, that followed with its eyes the whole of his +passage along the boulevards; to all our hearts that salute his coming +with joy at the supreme grandeur of America's might enrolled under the +standard of right.</p> + +<p>"This idea M. Viviani, just back from America,<a name="page_025" id="page_025"></a> splendidly developed in +his eloquent speech to the Chamber of Deputies in the presence of +General Pershing.</p> + +<p>"General Pershing himself, less dramatic, has given us, in three phrases +devoid of artificiality, an impression of exceptionally virile force. It +was no rhetoric but the pure simplicity of the soldier who is here to +act, and who fears to promise more than he can perform. No bad sign, +this, for those of us who have grown weary of pompous words, when we +must pay so dearly for each failure of performance.</p> + +<p>"Not long ago the Germans laughed at the 'contemptible English Army,' +and we hear now that they regard the American Army as 'too ridiculous +for words.' Well, the British have taught even Hindenburg himself what +virile force can do toward filling gaps in organization. Now the arrival +of Pershing brings Hindenburg news that the Americans are setting to +work in their turn—those Americans whose performance in the War of +Secession showed them capable of such 'improvisation of war' as the +world had never seen—and I think the Kaiser must be beginning to wonder +whether he has not trusted<a name="page_026" id="page_026"></a> rather blindly in his 'German tribal God.' +He has loosed the lion from its cage, and now he finds that the lion has +teeth and claws to rend him.</p> + +<p>"The Kaiser had given us but a few weeks in which to realize that the +success of his submarine campaign would impose the silence of terror on +the human conscience throughout the world. Well, painful as he must find +it, Pershing's arrival, with its consequent military action, cannot fail +to prove to him that, after all, the moral forces he ignored must always +be taken into account in forecasting human probabilities. Those learned +Boches have yet to understand that in the course of his intellectual +evolution, man has achieved the setting of moral right above brute +force; that might is taking its stand beside right, to accomplish the +greatest revolution in the history of mankind. That is the lesson which +Pershing's coming has taught us, and that is why we rejoice."</p> + +<p>But even while the commentators were at their task General Pershing had +left off celebrating and got to work. The First Division was on the +seas.<a name="page_027" id="page_027"></a></p> + +<p>A few very important persons in France and America knew where they were +to land, and when, but nobody in the world knew just what was to be done +for and with them once they landed, for the plans did not even exist. It +was the business of the general and his staff to create them. And they +say that the amount of work done in those first days in France was +incredible even to them when they looked back on it.</p> + +<p>As a first step American headquarters were installed in 31 Rue +Constantine, a broad, shaded street near the Hôtel des Invalides, +overlooking the Champs de Mars. The house had belonged once to a +prodigiously popular Paris actress, and it was correspondingly +magnificent.</p> + +<p>But the magnificence, except that which was inalienably in space and +structure, was banished by the busy Americans. In the hallway they +stretched a plank railing, behind which American private soldiers asked +and answered questions. Under the once sumptuous stairway there were +stacks of army cots. The walls were bulletined and covered with +directions carefully done in two languages. The chief of<a name="page_028" id="page_028"></a> the +Intelligence Section had the ex-dining-room, and the adjutant-general +had the ballroom on the second floor. Even so, it was not long before +this spaciousness was insufficient, and the headquarters brimmed over +into No. 27 as well.</p> + +<p>It was in these two houses that the whole army organization was plotted +out, and General Pershing made good his prediction that the Americans +would not merely seem, but would be, businesslike.</p> + +<p>After ten days or so of beaver-like absorption in their jobs the +American headquarters announced to the war correspondents that they must +take a certain train at a certain hour, under the guidance of Major +Frederick Palmer, press officer and censor, to a certain port in France. +There, at a certain moment, they would see what they would see.<a name="page_029" id="page_029"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III<br /><br /> +THE FIRST DIVISION LANDS</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HEY saw the gray troop-ships steaming majestically into the middle +distance from the gray of the open sea, with the little convoy fleet +alongside. It was a gray morning, and at first the ships were hardly +more than nebulous patches of a deeper tone than sea and sky. As they +neared the port, and took on outline, the watchers increased, and took +on internationalism.</p> + +<p>The Americans, who had come to see this consequential landing, some in +uniform and some civilians, had arrived in the very early morning, +before the inhabitants of the little seaport town were up and about, let +alone aware of what an event was that day to put them into the history +books.</p> + +<p>But it never takes a French civilian long to discover that something is +afoot—what with three years of big happenings to sharpen his wits and +keep him on the lookout.<a name="page_030" id="page_030"></a></p> + +<p>At the front of the quay were Americans two deep, straining to make out +the incoming ships, on tiptoe to count their number, breathless to shout +a welcome to the first "Old Glory" to be let loose to the harbor winds. +Forming rapidly behind the Americans were French men, French women, and +French children, indifferent to affairs, kitchens, or schools, +chattering that "Mais surement, c' sont les Américains—regardez, +regardez!..."</p> + +<p>Ignominiously in the rear, but watching too, were the German prisoners +who worked, in theory at least, at transferring rails from inconvenient +places to convenient ones for the loading of coaster steamers. They said +little enough, having learned that a respectful hearing was not to be +their lot for a while. But they moved fewer rails than ever, and nobody +bothered to speed them up.</p> + +<p>The great ships came in slowly. Before long, the watchers could see +lines of dull yellow banding the gray hulks, and then the yellow lines +took on form and separateness, and were visible one soldier at a time.</p> + +<p>Last, one ship steamed apart from the others<a name="page_031" id="page_031"></a> and made direct for the +quay, and the solemn business of landing American troops on French soil +was about to begin.</p> + +<p>There was to be a certain ceremony for the landing, but, like all the +ceremonies conceded to these great occasions by the American Army, it +was to be of extreme simplicity. When they were near enough to the quay +to be heard, the transport band played "The Star-Spangled Banner," while +all the soldiers stood at salute, and then they played the +"Marseillaise," while everybody on ship and shore stood at salute. With +that, they called it a morning, as far as celebration was concerned, and +to the accompaniment of a great deal of talk and a volley of +light-hearted questions, they began to disembark.</p> + +<p>The first question, called from some distance away, was: "What place is +this?" The next was, "Do they let the enlisted men drink in the saloons +over here?" and there was a miscellany about apple pie and doughnuts, +cigarettes, etc. And very briefly after the first soldiers were ashore +nothing could be heard but "Don't they speak any English at all?"<a name="page_032" id="page_032"></a></p> + +<p>The outstanding impression of that morning may be what it will to the +French civilians, to the American newspaper correspondents, and to the +officers both ashore and on board. To the privates of the First Division +it will always be the incomprehensible nonsense that goes by the name of +the French language, spoken with perfect assurance by people old enough +to know better, who refuse to make one syllable of intelligible sound in +answer to even the simplest requests.</p> + +<p>The privates were prepared to hear the French speak their own language +at mention of Alsace-Lorraine and war aims, or to propound their private +philosophies that way. They granted the right of the French to talk how +they pleased of their emotional pleasure at seeing the troops, or of any +other subject above the timber-line.</p> + +<p>What staggered them was the insane top-loftiness of using French to ask +for ham and eggs, and beer, or the way to camp. For nothing, not volumes +of warning before they left home, nor interminable hours of +French-grammar instruction on board the troop-ships, had really got it +deep inside the American private's head<a name="page_033" id="page_033"></a> that French was not an +accomplishment to be used as evidence of cosmopolitan culture, but a +mere prosy necessity, without which daily existence was a nightmare and +a frustration.</p> + +<p>The French, on their side, were helpless enough, but not so bewildered. +They had lived too long, in peace as well as war, across a narrow +channel from that stanch English-speaking race who brought both their +tea and their language with them to France and everywhere else, to be +dumfounded that strangers should balk at their foreign tongue.</p> + +<p>The inevitable result was that here, in their first contact with the +French, as later, throughout the fighting areas, the American soldiers +learned to understand French-English long before they could speak a +decent word of French.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for the First Division, it had had some able bilingual +forerunners at the seaport town where they landed. The camps had been +built by the French, a few miles back from the town, but a few of the +housekeeping necessities had been installed by General Pershing's +staff-officers, and signs in good, plain English showed the proper +roads. And as the single<a name="page_034" id="page_034"></a> files of soldiers began to descend the +gang-plank of the first transport, and to form for marching to camp, +their own officers were having some compact instruction from the +staff-officers on how to get to camp and what to do when they got there.</p> + +<p>There was no waste motion about getting the troops under way. The first +companies were tramp-tramping up the streets before the last companies +were overside, and the first transport was free to go back and give +place to the next one before the mayor had got his red sash and gilt +chains in place and arrived to do them suitable honor.</p> + +<p>So, while the shore watchers fell back into safe observation-posts, the +soldiers clattered down through the quay-sheds to the little street, +formed and swung away, and one ship after another disgorged its +passengers, and presently the sheds were overrun with the blue-clad +sailors from the convoys.</p> + +<p>All that day, the soldiers marched through the town. Their camps lay at +the end of a long white shore road, and jobs were not wanting when they +got there. Their pace was easy,<a name="page_035" id="page_035"></a> because of these things, and they +probably would not have put out any French eye with their flawless +marching, even under less indulgent circumstances. For this First +Division was recruited in a hurry, and most of their real training lay +ahead of them.</p> + +<p>Where they were impressive was in their composite build. There were +little fellows among them, but they straggled at the back. The major +part of the soldiers were tall, thin, rangy-looking, with a march that +was more lope than anything else and a look of heaving their packs along +without much effort. They fell about midway between the thin, breedy +look of the first English troops in France and the stocky, thick-necked +sort that came later.</p> + +<p>The marines were the pick of the lot, for size and behavior too. The +sense of being something special was with the marines from the first. +They marched that way. And, set apart by their olive drab as well as by +their size and comportment, they gave that First Division's first march +in France a quality of real distinction. And when the army got to its +first French camps, the welcome sight its eyes first fell<a name="page_036" id="page_036"></a> upon was that +of already arrived marines carrying water down the hill.</p> + +<p>The camps were long wooden buildings, rather above the average, as +became the status of the visitors, built almost at the top of a hill, +looking down over green fields and round trees to the three or four +villages within range of vision, and beyond them to the sea.</p> + +<p>Some supplies were there already, but the soldiers had had to bring most +of their first supper, and the camp-cooks had their own troubles getting +things just so.</p> + +<p>Major-General Sibert, field commander of the First Division, had +quarters at camp, so that excuses were not in order. Even for that first +supper, the marines and all others they could commandeer to help them +were rushing about preparing things to the very top of their bent. +Nobody had town-leave for the first day or two, till things were in +apple-pie order, and the camp was in line to shelter and feed its +soldiers for as long as it should be necessary to stay there.</p> + +<p>If camp life was busy these days, the town life was no less so. The +chief hotel, wherein<a name="page_037" id="page_037"></a> much red plush met the eye from the very entrance, +was swarming with officers of both nations and all degrees of rank. +General Pershing was there, with his aides and most of his staff. +Admirals were there, changing uniforms from blue to white and back again +as the erratic French weather dictated.</p> + +<p>There were half a dozen high officers from the French Army, making both +formal and informal welcomes, and there were more busy majors and +captains and more interpreters than you could count in half a day's +time.</p> + +<p>The little Frenchwoman who sat behind the desk was amiable to the best +of her very considerable ability, but the questions she had to answer, +whether she understood them or not, would have addled an older head than +hers. She could run her hotel with the best of them, but when perfectly +sane-looking young officers asked her where to buy five thousand cups +and saucers, and paper napkins by the ton, she said in so many words +that an American invasion was worse than bedlam.</p> + +<p>The hotel's second floor was the favored place for conferences. There a +fair welter of<a name="page_038" id="page_038"></a> red plush was drawn up around a big table in the +hallway, and livid red wall-paper added its warmth to a scene which +against a plank wall would not have lacked color.</p> + +<p>At this table General Pershing could have been found much of the time. +The whole practical liaison of French and American Armies was contrived +here, though the first rule for this consolidation laid down by a +grizzled French general with but one arm left, was that "there was no +longer anything that was French, or anything that was American, but +merely all we had that was 'ours,'" so that the task was one of detail +only.</p> + +<p>Though the daytimes were packed with work, most of the officers called +it a day at sunset. Then the little hotel took on its most engaging +color. The little French piano tinkled out in the warm air with an +accompaniment of many voices. Once a very blue young second lieutenant +chose to express his mood by repetitions without number of the +melancholy "Warum?"—probably the first German music that had been heard +from that piano for many a moon. Possibly those of the French who knew +what the tune<a name="page_039" id="page_039"></a> was recognized also that America had turned a point in +more ways than one in coming to France, not least among them being +making good American soldiers out of erstwhile good Germans. Nobody +seemed much astonished or put out when within the day a goodly number of +American soldiers were speaking to German prisoners in their own +language, though talking to the German prisoners, aside from the fact +that it was not encouraged by the French, turned out to be indifferent +fun, since the American soldiers had had their fill of German propaganda +before they left home, and none of the prisoners was overmodest as to +what Germany was or would do.</p> + +<p>The cafés out-of-doors were overflowing with Americans, too. It was +plenty of fun to hear the sailors scolding the French waitresses for +calling lemons "limons," and trying to overhaul the French pronunciation +of "bière" to something approaching a compromise.</p> + +<p>An officer came along and broke up a crap-game. The soldiers forgave +him, but the civilians did not. It was their first go at the game, and +they wanted a lot of teaching.<a name="page_040" id="page_040"></a></p> + +<p>The lone bookstore of the town made the only known effort to get the +Americans what they asked for, instead of trying to prevail on them to +adopt something French. They sent, perhaps to Paris, to get English +books, and they piled their windows high with Macaulay's "History of +England" and Bacon's "Essays."</p> + +<p>The paper-buying habit is ingrown in the American male. He has three +newspapers under his arm before any afternoon is what it should be. And +so the soldiers bought the French papers, two and three at a time, and +carried them around.</p> + +<p>Any time of day or night, a look out into the town's main street +descried a company or two of soldiers, on their way from camp for +town-leave, or on their way back. They marched continually. The +motor-cycle with the side-seat, which was later to be the distinguishing +mark of the American Army in Paris, made its appearance in the seaport +within a day or two of the first transport's landing, and eased the +burdens of the French motor-lorries with which the American supplies had +been taken to camp,<a name="page_041" id="page_041"></a> owing to a delay of the First Division's own +lorries, on a slow ship.</p> + +<p>And most successful sensation of all, the army mule. The French knew him +slightly, because their own army used him on occasion. But no Frenchman +could speak to a mule in his own language as these big mule-tenders did.</p> + +<p>It was exalting to watch the army on the march, to see the marines and +the profusion of slim sailors. But the real crowd always gathered around +the big negro stevedores in long navy-blue coats, scarlet-lined, with +brass buttons all the way up the front, over and down the back—likely a +thrifty hand-me-down from pre-khaki days—who marched with perfect +knowledge of their magnificence.</p> + +<p>The stevedores, for their part, were as amazed as the French, though on +a different score. They accepted with due resignation the fact that the +French spoke French. It was when they first saw a Senegalese in French +uniform, triple-black with tropic suns, but to them a mere one of +themselves, and when they hailed him gladly in their English tongue, to +ask which road to take, that his indecipherable<a name="page_042" id="page_042"></a> French answer broke +them, heart and spirit alike.</p> + +<p>"Dat one blame stuck-up nigger," said the spokesman, as they trudged +their way onward, none the wiser if the Senegalese, in his turn, had +been rebuking them in French for showing off their English.</p> + +<p>So, in its several aspects, the First Division made its impact upon +France, jostled itself a little and the French more, and finally settled +down to its short wait at the coast before going inland, "within sound +of the guns," to get its training.</p> + +<p>And because the camps were to be used many times again by other +divisions to come on the "bridge of ships," the first had to put in some +extra licks to make their camp conveniences permanent.</p> + +<p>They played a few baseball-games, and they were encouraged to do a lot +of swimming, in the off afternoon hours. After a bit town-leave was +heavily curtailed, but there was a dispensation now and then for a +"movie." In the main they kept their noses to the grindstone.</p> + +<p>After a little while the men who were to<a name="page_043" id="page_043"></a> march in Paris on the Fourth +of July were selected, and, preceded by a few sailors with fewer duties +and longer indulgences, they entrained on the late afternoon of July 2. +There was no measuring the disappointment of the ones who were left +behind, for the prediction that there would be doings in Paris on the +first French Fourth of July was to be fulfilled to the letter.</p> + +<p>But the housekeepers of the army could not be spared for celebrations. +As soon as the marines could be despatched from the seaport they were +sent direct across France to the points behind the lines where their +training-camps were in waiting, and there, within a few weeks, the First +Division reassembled and fell to work.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, of the doings in Paris——<a name="page_044" id="page_044"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV<br /><br /> +THE FOURTH OF JULY</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE +first they knew of it in Paris—barring vague promises of "something +to remember" on the American fête that had appeared in modest items in +the newspapers—was when a motor-bus, jammed to the guards with American +soldiers, suddenly rolled into the Avenue de l'Opéra from the Tuileries +Gardens, and paraded up that august thoroughfare to the tune of +incredible yelling from everybody on board. It was the afternoon of July +3.</p> + +<p>A few picked Americans had known about it. A sufficient number of +American and French officers and the newspaper correspondents had been +told to appear at Austerlitz Station in the early morning of the 3d, and +there they had seen the soldiers not merely arrive but tackle their +first continental breakfast.</p> + +<p>Neither was a sensation to be sneezed at. The soldiers were of the very +finest, and in<a name="page_045" id="page_045"></a> spite of their overnight journey they were all looking +fit. They were anxious to fall right out of the train into the middle of +Paris. To most of them it was a city of gallant and delightful scandal, +filled even in war-time with that twinkle of gayety plus wickedness that +is so intriguing when told about in Oscaloosa, behind the hand or the +door. They said outright that they expected to see the post-cards all +come to life when they set eyes first on Paris streets.</p> + +<p>But even if Paris had had these fascinations in store, they were not for +the soldiers that morning. Instead military precision, discipline, an +orderly march to near-by barracks, and—a French breakfast: coffee and +war-bread. Not even the French had a kind word for the war-bread, and no +American ever spoke well of the coffee. But there it +was—chronologically in order, and haply the worst of a Paris visit all +over at once.</p> + +<p>And most of the soldiers stayed right in barracks till it was time for +the great processional the next day. It was a picked bunch that had the +motor ride and informed Paris that they<a name="page_046" id="page_046"></a> had come for a party. And if +they didn't see the ladies with the unbehaving eyes, they did see the +Louvre and the Tuileries, the Opéra, the boulevards, and the Madeleine. +And Paris saw the soldiers.</p> + +<p>There was no end of cheering and handclapping. The American flags that +had been flying for Pershing were brought out again, and venders +appeared on the streets with all manner of emblems to sell. It was one +of those cheerful afternoons when good feeling expresses itself gently, +reserving its hurrahs for the coming event.</p> + +<p>The soldiers were kept on the cars, but now and then a good Parisian +threw them a package of cigarettes or a flower. All told, they touched +off the fuse timed to explode on the morrow, and, having done that, went +back to barracks.</p> + +<p>The first "Fourth" in Paris was a thoroughly whole-souled celebration. +The French began it, civilians and soldiers, by taking a band around to +serenade General Pershing the first thing in the morning. His house was +on the left bank of the Seine, not far from American headquarters in the +Rue Constantine, an historic old<a name="page_047" id="page_047"></a> place with little stone balconies +outside the upper windows.</p> + +<p>On one of these General Pershing appeared, with the first notes of the +band. He was cheered and cheered again. A little boy who had somehow +climbed to the top of a gas street-lamp squealed boastfully to Pershing: +"See, I am an American, too, for I have a sky-scraper!" (J'ai un +gratte-ciel!) And with a wave of his hand General Pershing acknowledged +his compatriot.</p> + +<p>It was in this crowd around Pershing's house that a riot started, +because a man who was being unpleasantly jostled said: "Oh, do leave me +in peace." Those nearest him good-naturedly tried to give him +elbow-room, but those a little distance away caught merely the "peace" +of his ejaculation and, with sudden loud cries of "kill the pacifist," +made for the unfortunate, and pommelled him roundly before the matter +could be explained.</p> + +<p>After the serenade and General Pershing's little speech of thanks the +band, with most of the crowd following, marched over to des Invalides, +the appointed place for the formal ceremony.<a name="page_048" id="page_048"></a></p> + +<p>Around the ancient hotel, overflowing into the broad boulevards that +radiate from it, and packing to suffocation the Champs de Mars in front +of it, there were just as many Frenchmen as could stand shoulder to +shoulder and chin to back. Inside, where there were speeches and +exchanges of national emblems, the crowd was equally dense, in spite of +the fact that only the very important or the very cunning had cards of +admission.</p> + +<p>The real Fourth celebration was in the streets. The waiting crowds +yelled thunderously when the first band appeared, heralding the parade. +Then came the Territorials, the escort troops, in their familiar +horizon-blue. Then more bands, then officers, mounted and in motor-cars, +and, finally, the Americans, manifestly having the proudest moment of +their lives.</p> + +<p>They were to march from des Invalides to Picpus Cemetery, the little +private cemetery outside of Paris, where the Marquis de Lafayette is +buried.</p> + +<p>They crossed Solferino bridge, and made their way through a terrific +crowd in the broad Place de la Concorde. The Paris newspapers, boast<a name="page_049" id="page_049"></a>ing +of their conservatism, said there were easily one million Parisians that +day within sight of des Invalides when the American soldiers left the +building and started on their march.</p> + +<p>To hear the soldiers tell it, there were easily one million Parisians, +all under the age of ten, immediately under their feet before they had +marched a mile.</p> + +<p>From a balcony of the Hotel Crillon, on the north side of the Place de +la Concorde, the marching Americans were wholly lost to view from the +waist down. Nobody could ever complain of the French birth-rate after +seeing that parade. Nobody ever saw that many children before in any one +assemblage in France. It was prodigious.</p> + +<p>And the French youngsters had their own notions of how they were to take +part in that French Fourth of July. The main notion was to walk between +the soldiers' legs. They were massed thick beside the soldiers, thick +between them, impeding their knee action, terrorizing their steps. At a +little distance, they looked like batter in a waffle-pan. But they did +what they could to make the American<a name="page_050" id="page_050"></a> soldiers feel among friends that +day, and nobody could say they failed.</p> + +<p>The parade turned along the picturesque old Rue de Rivoli on leaving the +Place de la Concorde, and filed along the river, almost the length of +the city. They had not gone far before the Frenchwomen had thrown them +enough roses to decorate bayonets and hats and a few lapels. They made a +brave sight, brave to nobility. And though they were harassed by the +eager children, abashed by the women, and touched to genuine emotion by +the whole city, they wouldn't have grudged five years of their lives for +the privilege of being there.</p> + +<p>At Picpus, the scene made up in intensiveness what it lacked in breadth, +for the cemetery is far too small to permit of a crowd of size. A home +for aged gentlewomen overlooks one wall ... its windows were filled, and +their occupants proved that Frenchwomen are never too old or too gentle +to throw roses. A military hospital overlooks another side, and +balconies and windows were crowded with "blessés." The few officers and +civilians who had access to the cemetery-grounds made their +com<a name="page_051" id="page_051"></a>memoration brief and simple. It was there that Colonel Stanton made +the little speech which buzzed around the Allied world within the day: +"Lafayette, nous voilà!"—"Lafayette, we're here!" Its felicity of +phrase moved the French scribes to columns of congratulation. Its +compactness won the Americans. Everybody said it was the best war speech +made in France, and it was.</p> + +<p>After Picpus, the officers came back to the city for work, and the +soldiers went to barracks. The sailors were allowed to saunter about the +city, in vain search for the post-card ladies and the flying champagne +corks. The soldiers were on a sterner régime.</p> + +<p>Early on the morning of the 5th, they were eastward bound, to join the +rest of the First Division for training, and Paris saw the last of the +American soldiers.</p> + +<p>A few had leave, within the next few months, from engineering corps and +base hospitals. But the infantrymen and the marines were over learning +lessons in the war of trench and bayonet, and by Christmas even the +scattering leaves from behind the lines were discontinued,<a name="page_052" id="page_052"></a> and +Americans on holiday bent were sent to Aix-les-Bains. Even officers had +little or no Paris leave, and those who had been quartered in Paris, in +the Rue Constantine and the Rue Sainte-Anne, were collected at the new +American headquarters, southeast of Paris. The American uniform all but +vanished off the Paris streets. The French national holiday, ten days +after the American, had no American contingent.</p> + +<p>So Paris and the American Army had a quick acquaintance, a brilliant one +and a brief one. It was mainly between the beginning and the end of that +Fourth of July. It will quite probably not be renewed till the end of +the war. Lucky the onlooker who sees the reunion. For then it may be +wagered that there will be gayety enough to answer the needs of even the +most post-card-haunted soldier.</p> + +<p>But to get on to the training-camps——<a name="page_053" id="page_053"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V<br /><br /> +WHAT THEY LIVED IN</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE American training-camp area spread over many miles and through many +villages. It had boundaries only in theory, because all its sides were +ready to swing farther north, east, south, and west at a day's notice, +whenever the Expeditionary Force should become army enough to require +it.</p> + +<p>But its focus was in the Vosges, in the six or seven villages set apart +from the beginning for the Americans, and as such, overhauled by those +first marines and quartermaster's assistants who left the coast in early +July and moved campward.</p> + +<p>This overhauling brought the end of the Franco-American honeymoon. +Later, amity was to be re-established, but when the first marine ordered +the first manure-pile out of the first front yard, a breach began which +it took long months to heal.<a name="page_054" id="page_054"></a></p> + +<p>There were few barracks in the Vosges. The soldiers were to be billeted +with the peasants. And the marines said the peasants had to clean up and +air, and the peasants said the marines were insane.</p> + +<p>Those first days at training-camp, before the body of the troops +arrived, were circus enough for anybody.</p> + +<p>Six villages were to be got ready, the officers to have the pick of +places, and the privates to have next best. And the choice of +assignments for officers was still so far from ideal as to make the +house-cleaning a thorough job all around.</p> + +<p>The marines had a village to themselves, the farthest from the +inspection-grounds. The correspondents had a village to themselves, too, +though it wasn't because there was any excess of regard for the +importance of the correspondents among the men who laid out the grounds. +They were put where they could do the least harm, and where their +confusing appearance, in Sam Brown belts and other officer-like +insignia, would not exact too many wasted salutes.</p> + +<p>General Headquarters was still in Paris at<a name="page_055" id="page_055"></a> this time, but General +Sibert had Field Headquarters at camp, and though his assignment was +relatively stylish, it could not have been said to offend him with its +luxury.</p> + +<p>He lived and worked in a little frame building in the main street of the +central village, which had probably once been a hotel.</p> + +<p>It was to be recognized by the four soldiers always at attention outside +it, whenever motors or pedestrians passed that way. Two of the soldiers +were American and two were French.</p> + +<p>Although all the American training-camp area became America as to +jurisdiction, as soon as the troops moved there, the French soldiers +were always present around headquarters, partly to help and partly to +register politeness.</p> + +<p>Inside Field Headquarters, the little bare wooden rooms were stripped of +their few battered vases and old chromos, and plain wooden tables and +chairs were set about. The marines opened the windows, and scrubbed up +the floors, and hung out the sign of "Business as usual," and General +Sibert moved in.</p> + +<p>The rest was not so easy. The various kitchens came in first for +attention. For many<a name="page_056" id="page_056"></a> days French and American motor-lorries had been +trundling across France, storing the warehouses with heaping piles of +food-supplies. The procession practically never stopped. Trains brought +what could be put aboard them, but it was to motors that most of the +real work fell. So the thin, long line of loaded cars stretched +endlessly from coast to camp, and finally everything was attended to but +where to put the food and where to cook it.</p> + +<p>The houses with the good back sheds were picked for kitchens, and the +big army soup-kettles were bricked into place, and what passed for ovens +were provided for the bakers.</p> + +<p>For bathing facilities, there were neat paths marked to the river. That +is, the French called it a river. Every American who rides through +France for the first time has the same experience: he looks out of his +train-window and remarks to his companion, who knows France well: "Isn't +that a pretty little creek? Are there many springs about here?" And the +companion replies scornfully: "That isn't a creek—that's the Marne +River," or "That's the Aisne," or "That's the Meuse." The<a name="page_057" id="page_057"></a> American +always wonders what the French would call the Hudson.</p> + +<p>It was one of these storied streams that ran through the American +training-camp, in which the Americans did their bathing. Whenever a +soldier wanted to get his head wet he waded across.</p> + +<p>Later, when the camps were filled, these river-banks were to offer a +remarkable sight to the French peasants, who thought all Americans were +bathing-mad anyway. Hundreds of soldiers, in the assorted postures of +men scrubbing backs and knees and elbows, disported with soap and +wash-cloth along the banks. Hundreds of others, swimming their suds off, +flashed here an arm and there a leg in the stream itself. It did not +take much distance to make them look like figures on a frieze, a new +Olympic group. Modesty knew them not, but there were not supposed to be +women about, and the peasants had a nice Japanese point of view in the +matter. At any rate, there was the training-camp bathtub, and they used +it at least once a day, to the unending stupefaction of the French.<a name="page_058" id="page_058"></a></p> + +<p>Where they slept was another matter, suggesting neither Corot nor +Phidias.</p> + +<p>The privates had houses first, then barns. The barns were freed of the +live stock, which was turned into meadows to graze, and the floors were +dug down to clean earth, and vast quantities of formaldehyde were +sprayed around. Then the cots were carried up to the second floors of +the barns and put along in tidy rows. At the foot of each soldier's bed +was whatever manner of small wooden box he could corral from the +quartermaster, and there he kept all he owned. His pack unfolded its +contents into the box, and his comfort-kit perched on the top. And there +he kept the little mess of treasures he bought from the gypsy wagons +that rode all day around the outskirts of the camp.</p> + +<p>Windows were knocked out, just under the eaves, for the fresh air that +seemed, so inexplicably to the French, so essential to the Americans.</p> + +<p>Even with the First Division, acknowledged to be about the smallest +expeditionary force known to the Great War, the soldiers averaged a +little over two thousand to the village, and<a name="page_059" id="page_059"></a> since not one of the +villages had more than four or five hundred population in peace-times, +the troubles of the man who arranged the billets were far from light.</p> + +<p>Fortunately, the First Division did not ask for luxuries. Even the +officers spent more time in simplifying their quarters than in trimming +them up. The colonel of one regiment—one of those who became +major-generals soon after the arrival in France—had his quarters in an +aristocratic old house, set back in a long yard, where plum-trees +dropped their red fruit in the vivid green grass and roses overgrew +their confines—it was the sort of house before which the pre-war motor +tourists used to stop and breathe long "ohs" of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>The entrance was by a low, arched doorway. The hall was built of +beautifully grained woods, old and mellow of tone. The stairway was +broad and easy to climb. The colonel had the second floor front, just +level with the tree-tops.</p> + +<p>In the room there were rich woods and tapestried walls, and at the back +was a four-poster mahogany bed with heavy satin hangings, brocaded with +fleur-de-lis. The Pompadour would<a name="page_060" id="page_060"></a> have been entirely happy there. But +the American colonel had done things to it—things that would have +popped the eyes out of the Pompadour's head. He pinned up the +four-poster hangings with a safety-pin, that being the only way he could +convey to his amiable little French servant-girl that he didn't want +that bed turned down for him of nights. And he had taken all the satin +hangings down from the windows. Under these windows he had drawn up a +little board table and an army cot. Beside the table was his little army +trunk. The space he used did not measure more than ten feet in any +direction, and his luxuries waited unmolested for some more sybaritic +soul than he.</p> + +<p>A major in that same village who had had a cavalry command before the +cavalry, as he put it, became "mere messengers," picked his quarters out +himself, on the strength of all he had heard about "Sunny France." His +house was nothing much, but behind it was a garden—a long garden, +filled with vegetables, decorated with roses, shaded by fruit-trees. At +the far end of the garden was a summer-house, in a circle of trees. Here +the major took his first<a name="page_061" id="page_061"></a> guests and showed how he intended to do his +work in the open air, while the famous French sunshine flooded his +garden and warmed his little refuge.</p> + +<p>The one thing it will never be safe to say to any veteran of the First +Division is "Sunny France." The summer of 1917, after a blazing start in +June, settled down to drizzle and mist, cold and fog, rain that soaked +to the marrow.</p> + +<p>The major with the garden sloshed around the whole summer, visiting men +who had settled indoors and had fireplaces. By the time the warmth had +come back to his summer-house it was time for him to go up to the +battle-line, and the man who writes a history of the billets in France +will get a lot of help from him.</p> + +<p>Some of the makeshifts of this first invasion were excusable and +inevitable. Some were not. After the first two or three weeks of +settling in, General Pershing made a tour of inspection, and some of the +things he said about what he saw didn't make good listening. But after +that visit all possible defects were overcome, and the men slept well, +ate well, were as well clothed as possible, and were admirably +sanitated.<a name="page_062" id="page_062"></a></p> + +<p>The drinking-water was a matter for the greatest strictness. The French +never drink water on any provocation, so that water provisions began +from the ground up.</p> + +<p>It was drawn into great skins and hung on tripods in the shaded parts of +the billets, and it was then treated with a germicide, tasteless +fortunately, carried in little glass capsules. This was a legacy from +experiences in Panama.</p> + +<p>Each man had his own tin cup, and when he got thirsty he went down and +turned the faucet in the hanging skin tank. If he drank any other water +he repented in the guard-house.</p> + +<p>So, though the billets were rude and sometimes uncomfortable, the +soldiers did stay in them and out of the hospitals.</p> + +<p>And there were compensations.</p> + +<p>Half of these were in play-times, and half in work-times. The training, +slow at first, speeded up afterward and, with the help of the "Blue +Devils" who trained with the Americans, took on all the exhilaration of +war with none of its dangers. But how they trained doesn't belong in a +chapter on billets. How they played is more suitable.<a name="page_063" id="page_063"></a></p> + +<p>Three-fourths of their playing they did with the French children. The +insurmountable French language, which kept doughboys and poilus at arm's +length in spite of their best intentions, broke down with the +youngsters.</p> + +<p>It was one of the finest sights around the camp to see the big soldiers +collecting around the mess-tent after supper, in the daylight-saving +long twilight, to hear the band and play in pantomime with the hundreds +of children who tagged constantly after them.</p> + +<p>The band concerts were a regular evening affair, though musically they +didn't come to much. Those were the days before anybody had thought to +supply the army bands with new music, so "She's My Daisy" and "The +Washington Post" made a daily appearance.</p> + +<p>But the concerts did not want for attendance. The soldiers stood around +by the hundreds, and listened and looked off over the hills to where the +guns were rumbling, whenever the children were not exacting too much +attention.</p> + +<p>This child-soldier combination had just two words. The child said +"Hello," which was all<a name="page_064" id="page_064"></a> his English, and the party lasted till the +soldier, billet-bound, said "Fee-neesh," which was all his French. But +nobody could deny that both of them had a good time.</p> + +<p>Letter-writing was another favorite sport with the First Division, to +the great dole of the censors. Of course the men were homesick. That was +one reason. The other was that they had left home as heroes, and they +didn't intend to let the glory lapse merely because they had come across +to France and been slapped into school. The censors were astounded by +what they read ... gory battles of the day before, terrific air-raids, +bombardments of camp, etc. Some of the men told how they had slaughtered +Germans with their bare hands. Most of the letters were adjudged +harmless, and of little aid or comfort to the enemy, so they were passed +through. But some of the families of the First Division must have +thought that the War Department was holding out an awful lot on the +American public.</p> + +<p>Mid-July saw the camp in fair working order. The First Division had word +that it was presently to be joined by the New England Division<a name="page_065" id="page_065"></a> and +the Rainbow Division, both National Guardsmen, and representative of +every State.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<a href="images/illpg_064.jpg"> +<img src="images/illpg_064_sml.jpg" width="600" height="359" alt="Copyright by the Committee on Public Information. + +Buglers of the Alpine Chasseurs, assisted by their military band, +entertaining American soldiers of the First Division." title="Buglers of the Alpine Chasseurs, assisted by their military band," /></a> +<p class="captionl">Copyright by the Committee on Public Information.</p> +<p class="captionc">Buglers of the Alpine Chasseurs, assisted by their military band, +entertaining American soldiers of the First Division.</p> +</div> + +<p>American participation began to take shape as a real factor, a stern and +sombre business, and all the lighter, easier sides of the expedition +began to fall back, and work and grimness came on together.</p> + +<p>The French Alpine Chasseurs—whom the Americans promptly called +"chasers"—had a party with the Americans on July 14, when the whole day +was given over to a picnic, with boxing, wrestling, track sports, and a +lot of food. That was the last party in the training-camp till +Christmas.</p> + +<p>The work that began then had no let-up till the first three battalions +went into the trenches late in October. The steadily increasing number +of men widened the area of the training-camp, but they made no +difference in the contents of the working-day, nor in the system by +which it proceeded.</p> + +<p>Within the three weeks after the First Division had landed, the work of +army-building began.<a name="page_066" id="page_066"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI<br /><br /> +GETTING THEIR STRIDE</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HAT part of France which became America in July, 1917, was of about the +shape of a long-handled tennis-racket. The broad oval was lying just +behind the fighting-lines. The handle reached back to the sea. Then, to +the ruin of the simile, the artillery-schools, the aviation-fields, and +the base hospitals made excrescences on the handle, so that an apter +symbol would be a large and unshapely string of beads.</p> + +<p>But France lends itself to pretty exact plotting out. There are no lakes +or mountains to dodge, nor particularly big cities to edge over to. In +the main, the organizing staffs of the two nations could draw lines from +the coast to the battle-fields, and say: "Between these two shall +America have her habitation and her name."</p> + +<p>The infantry trained in the Vosges. The artillery-ranges were next +behind, and then the<a name="page_067" id="page_067"></a> aviation-grounds. The hospitals were placed +everywhere along the lines, from field-bases to those far in the rear. +And because neither French train service nor Franco-American motor +service could bear the giant burden of man-and-supply transportation, +the first job to which the engineer and labor units were assigned was +laying road-beds across France for a four-track railroad within the +American lines.</p> + +<p>In those days America did not look forward to the emergency which was to +brigade her troops with French or British, under Allied Generalissimo +Foch. Her plans were to put in a force which should be, as the English +say of their flats, "self-contained." If this arrangement had a fault, +it was that it was too leisurely. It was certainly not lacking on the +side of magnificence, either in concept or carrying-out.</p> + +<p>The scheme of bringing not only army but base of supplies, both +proportionate to a nation of a hundred million people, was necessarily +begun from the ground up. The American Army built railroads and +warehouses as a matter of course. It laid out training-camps for the +various arms of the service on an unheard-of<a name="page_068" id="page_068"></a> scale. As it happens, the +original American plan was changed by the force of circumstances. Much +of the American man-power eventually was brigaded with the British and +French and went through the British and French soldier-making mills. But +the territory marked America still remains America and the excellent +showing made by the War Department in shipping men during the spring and +early summer of 1918 furnished a supply of soldiers sufficient to make +allotments to the Allies directly and at the same time preserve a +considerable force as a distinctly American Army. It is possible that +the fastest method of preparation possible might have been to brigade +with the Allies from the beginning. But it would have been difficult to +induce America to accept such a plan if it had not been for the +emergency created by the great German drive of the spring of 1918.</p> + +<p>American engineers were both building railroads and running them from +July on. The hospital units were installed even earlier. The first work +of an army comes behind the lines and a large proportion of the early +arrivals of the A. E. F. were non-fighting units. At that<a name="page_069" id="page_069"></a> there was no +satisfying the early demands for labor. As late as mid-August General +Pershing was still doing the military equivalent of tearing his hair for +more labor units and stevedores. A small number of negroes employed as +civilian stevedores came with the First Division, but they could not +begin to fill the needs. Later all the stevedores sent were regularly +enlisted members of the army. While the great undertaking was still on +paper and the tips of tongues, the infantry was beginning its hard +lessons in the Vosges. The First Division was made up of something less +than 50 per cent of experienced soldiers, although it was a regular army +division. The leaven of learning was too scant. The rookies were all +potentiality. The training was done with French soldiers and for the +first little while under French officers. A division of Chasseurs +Alpines was withdrawn from the line to act as instructors for the +Americans, and for two months the armies worked side by side. "You will +have the honor," so the French order read, "of spending your permission +in training the American troops." This might not seem like<a name="page_070" id="page_070"></a> the +pleasantest of all possible vacations for men from the line, but the +chasseurs seemed to take to it readily enough. These Chasseurs +Alpines—the Blue Devils—were the finest troops the French had. And if +they were to give their American guests some sound instruction later on, +they were to give them the surprise of their lives first.</p> + +<p>The French officer is the most dazzling sight alive, but the French +soldier is not. Five feet of height is regarded as an abundance. He got +his name of "poilu" not so much from his beard as from his perpetual +little black mustache.</p> + +<p>The doughboys called him "Froggy" with ever so definite a sense of +condescension.</p> + +<p>"Yes, they look like nothing—but you try following them for half a +day," said an American officer of the "poilus."</p> + +<p>They have a short, choppy stride, far different to the gangling gait of +the American soldier. The observer who looks them over and decides they +would be piffling on the march, forgets to see that they have the width +of an opera-singer under the arms, and that they no more get<a name="page_071" id="page_071"></a> winded on +their terrific sprints than Caruso does on his high C's.</p> + +<p>And after they had done some stunts with lifting guns by the bayonet +tip, and had heaved bombs by the afternoon, the doughboys called in +their old opinions and got some new ones.</p> + +<p>All sorts of things were helping along the international liking and +respect. The prowess of the French soldiers was one of the most +important. But the soldiers' interpretation of Pershing's first general +order to the troops was another. This order ran:</p> + +<p>"For the first time in history an American Army finds itself in European +territory. The good name of the United States of America and the +maintenance of cordial relations require the perfect deportment of each +member of this command. It is of the gravest importance that the +soldiers of the American Army shall at all times treat the French +people, and especially the women, with the greatest courtesy and +consideration. The valiant deeds of the French Army and the Allies, by +which together they have successfully maintained the common cause for +three years, and the sacrifices of the civil<a name="page_072" id="page_072"></a> population of France in +support of their armies command our profound respect. This can best be +expressed on the part of our forces by uniform courtesies to all the +French people, and by the faithful observance of their laws and customs. +The intense cultivation of the soil in France, under conditions caused +by the war, makes it necessary that extreme care should be taken to do +no damage to private property. The entire French manhood capable of +bearing arms is in the field fighting the enemy, and it should, +therefore, be a point of honor to each member of the American Army to +avoid doing the least damage to any property in France."</p> + +<p>Veteran soldiers take a general order as a general order, following it +literally. Recruits on a mission such as the First Division's took that +first general order as a sort of intimation, on which they were to build +their own conceptions of gallantry and good-will. Not only did they +avoid doing damage to French property, they minded the babies, drew the +well-water, carried faggots, peeled potatoes—did anything and +everything they found a Frenchwoman doing, if they had some off time.<a name="page_073" id="page_073"></a></p> + +<p>They fed the children from their own mess, kept them behind the lines at +grenade practice, mended their toys and made them new ones.</p> + +<p>These things cemented the international friendliness that the statesmen +of the two countries had made so much talk of. And by the time the war +training was to begin, doughboys and Blue Devils tramped over the long +white roads together with nothing more unfriendly left between them than +rivalry.</p> + +<p>The first thing they were set to do was trench-digging. The Vosges boast +splendid meadows. The Americans were told to dig themselves in. The +method of training with the French was to mark a line where the trench +should be, put the French at one end and the Americans at the other. +Then they were to dig toward each other as if the devil was after them, +and compare progress when they met.</p> + +<p>Trench-digging is every army's prize abomination. A good hate for the +trenches was the first step of the Americans toward becoming +professional. It was said of the Canadians early in the war that though +they would die in the last ditch they wouldn't dig it.<a name="page_074" id="page_074"></a></p> + +<p>No army but the German ever attempted to make its trenches neat and +cosey homes, but even the hasty gully required by the French seemed an +obnoxious burden to the doughboy. The first marines who dug a trench +with the Blue Devils found that their picks struck a stone at every +other blow, and that by the time they had dug deep enough to conceal +their length they were almost too exhausted to climb out again.</p> + +<p>The ten days given over to trench-digging was not so much because the +technic was intricate or the method difficult to learn. They were to +break the spirit of the soldiers and hammer down their conviction that +they would rather be shot in the open than dig a trench to hide in. They +were also to keep the aching backs and weary shoulders from getting +overstiff. Toward the end of July the first batch of infantrymen were +called off their trenches and were started at bomb practice. At first +they used dummy bombs. The little line of Blue Devils who were to start +the party picked up their bombs, swung their arms slowly overhead, held +them straight from wrist<a name="page_075" id="page_075"></a> to shoulder, and let their bombs sail easily +up on a long, gentle arc, which presently landed them in the practice +trenches.</p> + +<p>"One-two-three-four," they counted, and away went the bombs. The +doughboys laughed. It seemed to them a throw fit only for a woman or a +substitute third baseman in the Texas League. When their turn came, the +doughboys showed the Blue Devils the right way to throw a bomb. They +lined them out with a ton of energy behind each throw, and the bombs +went shooting straight through the air, level above the trench-lines, +and a distance possibly twice as far as that attained by the Frenchmen. +They stood back waiting for the applause that did not come.</p> + +<p>"The objects are two in bomb-throwing, and you did not make either," +said the French instructor. "You must land your bomb in the +trenches—they do no more harm than wind when they fly straight—and you +must save your arm so that you can throw all afternoon."</p> + +<p>So the baseball throw was frowned out, and the half-womanish, +half-cricket throw was brought in.<a name="page_076" id="page_076"></a></p> + +<p>After the doughboys had mastered their method they were put to getting +somewhere with it. They were given trenches first at ten metres' +distance, and then at twenty. Then there were competitions, and war +training borrowed some of the fun of a track meet. The French had odds +on. No army has ever equalled them for accuracy of bomb-throwing, and +the doughboys, once pried loose from their baseball advantage, were not +in a position to push the French for their laurels. The American Army's +respect for the French began to have growing-pains. But what with +driving hard work, the doughboys learned finally to land a dummy bomb so +that it didn't disgrace them.</p> + +<p>With early August came the live grenades, and the first serious defect +in the American's natural aptitude for war-making was turned up. This +defect had the pleasant quality of being sentimentally correct, even if +sharply reprehensible from the French point of view. It was, in brief, +that the soldiers had no sense of danger, and resisted all efforts to +implant one, partly from sheer lack of imagination in training, and +partly from a scorn of taking to cover.<a name="page_077" id="page_077"></a></p> + +<p>The live bombs were hurled from deep trenches, aimed not at a point, but +at a distance—any distance, so it was safe. But once the bombs were +thrown, every other doughboy would straighten up in his trench to see +what he had hit. Faces were nipped time and again by the fragments of +flying steel, and the French heaped admonitions on admonitions, but it +was long before the American soldiers would take their war-game +seriously.</p> + +<p>Later, in the mass attacks on "enemy trenches," when they were ordered +to duck on the grass to avoid the bullets, the doughboys ducked as they +were told, then popped up at once on one elbow to see what they could +see. The Blue Devils training with them lay like prone statues. The +doughboys looked at them in astonishment, and said, openly and +frequently: "But there ain't any bullets."</p> + +<p>It was finally from the British, who came later as instructors, that the +doughboys accepted it as gospel that they must be pragmatic about the +dangers, and "act as if...." Then some of the wiseacres at the camp +pronounced the conviction that the Americans thought the<a name="page_078" id="page_078"></a> French were +melodramatic, and by no means to be copied, until they found their +British first cousins, surely above reproach for needless emotionalism, +were doing the same strange things.</p> + +<p>The state of mind into which Allied instructors sought to drive or coax +the Americans was pinned into a sharp phrase by a Far Western enlisted +man before he left his own country. A melancholy relative had said, as +he departed: "Are you ready to give your life to your country?" To which +the soldier answered: "You bet your neck I'm not—I'm going to make some +German give his life for his."</p> + +<p>This was representative enough of the sentiments of the doughboys, but +the instructors ran afoul of their deepest convictions when they +insisted that this was an art to be learned, not a mere preference to be +favored.</p> + +<p>After the live bombs came the first lessons in machine-gun fire, using +the French machine-gun and automatic rifle. The soldiers were taught to +take both weapons apart and put them together again, and then they were +ordered to fire them.<a name="page_079" id="page_079"></a></p> + +<p>The first trooper to tackle an automatic rifle aimed the little monster +from the trenches, and opened fire, but he found to his discomfiture +that he had sprayed the hilltops instead of the range, and one of the +officers of the Blue Devils told him he would better be careful or he +would be transferred to the anti-aircraft service.</p> + +<p>The veterans of the army, however, had little trouble with the automatic +rifle or the machine-guns, even at first. The target was 200 metres +away, at the foot of a hill, and the first of the sergeants to tackle it +made 30 hits out of a possible 34.</p> + +<p>The average for the army fell short of this, but the men were kept at it +till they were thoroughly proficient.</p> + +<p>One characteristic of all the training of the early days at camp was +that both officers and men were being prepared to train later troops in +their turn, so that many lectures in war theory and science, and many +demonstrations of both, were included there. This accounted for much of +the additional time required to train the First Division.</p> + +<p>But while their own training was unusually<a name="page_080" id="page_080"></a> long drawn out, they were +being schooled in the most intensive methods in use in either French or +British Army. It was an unending matter for disgust to the doughboy that +it took him so long to learn to hurry.<a name="page_081" id="page_081"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII<br /><br /> +SPEEDING UP</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">W</span>HILE +the soldiers were still, figuratively speaking, in their own +trenches and learning the several arts of getting out, the officers of +the infantry camp were having some special instructions in instructing.</p> + +<p>Young captains and lieutenants were placed in command of companies of +the Blue Devils, and told to put them through their paces—in French.</p> + +<p>It was, of course, a point of honor with the officers not to fall back +into English, even in an emergency. One particularly nervous young man, +who had ordered his French platoon to march to a cliff some distance +away, forgot the word for "Halt" or "Turn around" as the disciplined +Blue Devils, eyes straight ahead, marched firmly down upon their doom. +At the very edge, while the American clinched his sticky palms and +wondered what miracle would<a name="page_082" id="page_082"></a> save him, a helpful French officer called +"Halte," and the American suddenly remembered that the word was the same +in both languages—an experience revoltingly frequent with Americans in +distress with their French.</p> + +<p>But disasters such as this were not numerous. The officers worked +excellently, at French as well as soldiering, and little precious time +was needed for them.</p> + +<p>Three battalions were at work at this first training—two American and +one French. As these learned their lessons, they were put forward to the +next ones, and new troops began at the beginning. This plan was +thoroughly organized at the very beginning, so that the later enormous +influx of troops did not disrupt it, and as the first Americans came +nearer to the perfection they were after, they were put back to leaven +the raw troops as the French Blue Devils had done for the first of them.</p> + +<p>The plan further meant that after the first few weeks, what with +beginners in the First Division and newly arriving troops, the Vosges +fields offered instruction at almost anything along the programme on any +given day.<a name="page_083" id="page_083"></a></p> + +<p>Over the whole camp, the aim of the French officers was to reproduce +actual battle conditions as absolutely as possible, and to eliminate, +within reason, any advantage that surprise might give to the Germans.</p> + +<p>By the end of the first week in August, the best scholars among the +trench-diggers and bombers were being shown how to clean out trenches +with live grenades, and the machine-gunners and marksmen were getting +good enough to be willing to bet their own money on their performances.</p> + +<p>Then came the battalion problems, the proper use of grenades by men +advancing in formations against a mythical enemy in intrenched +positions.</p> + +<p>From the beginning, the American Army refused to accept the theory that +the war would never again get into the open. They trained in open +warfare, and with a far greater zest—partly, of course, because it was +the thing they knew already, though they found they had some things to +unlearn.</p> + +<p>Then the war brought about a reorganization of American army units, and +it was necessary<a name="page_084" id="page_084"></a> for the officers to familiarize themselves with new +conditions. The reorganization was ordered early in August, and put into +effect shortly afterward. The request from General Pershing that the +administrative units of the infantry be altered to conform with European +systems had in its favor the fact that it economized higher officers and +regimental staffs, for at the same time that divisions were made +smaller, regiments were made larger.</p> + +<p>The new arrangement of the infantry called for a company of 250 enlisted +men and 6 commissioned officers, instead of 100 men and 3 officers. Each +company was then divided into 4 platoons, with a lieutenant in command. +Each regiment was made up of 3 battalions of 4 companies each, +supplemented by regimental headquarters and the supply and machine-gun +organizations.</p> + +<p>This made it possible to have 1 colonel and 3 battalion commanders +officer 3,600 men, as against 2,000 of the old order.</p> + +<p>This army in the making was not called on to show itself in the mass +till August 16, just a month after its hard work had begun. Then<a name="page_085" id="page_085"></a> +Major-General Sibert, field-commander of the First Division and +best-loved man in France, held a review of all the troops. The +manœuvres were held in a great open plain. The marching was done to +spirited bands, who had to offset a driving rain-storm to keep the men +perked up. The physical exercise of the first month showed in the +carriage of the men, infinitely improved, and they marched admirably, in +spite of the fact that their first training had been a specialization in +technical trench warfare. General Sibert made them a short address of +undiluted praise, and they went back to work again.</p> + +<p>A few days later the army had its first intelligence drill, with the +result that some erstwhile soldiers were told off to cook and tend +mules.</p> + +<p>The test consisted in delivering oral messages. One message was: "Major +Blank sends his compliments to Captain Nameless, and orders him to move +L Company one-half mile to the east, and support K Company in the +attack." The officer who gave the message then moved up the hill and +prepared to receive it.</p> + +<p>The third man up came in panting excitement,<a name="page_086" id="page_086"></a> full of earnest desire to +do well. "Captain, the major says that you're to move your men a mile to +the east," he said, "and attack K Company." He peeled the potatoes for +supper.</p> + +<p>The gas tests came late in August. The officers, believing that fear of +gas could not be excessive, had done some tall talking before the masks +were given out, and in the first test, when the men were to enter a +gas-filled chamber with their masks on, they had all been assured that +one whiff would be fatal. The gas in the chamber was of the +tear-compelling kind, only temporarily harmful, even on exposure to it. +But that was a secret.</p> + +<p>The men were drilled in putting their masks on, till the worst of them +could do it in from three to five seconds. Both the French and the +British masks were used, the one much lighter but comparatively riskier +than the other. Officers required the men to have their masks constantly +within reach, and gas alarms used to be called at meal-times, or +whenever it seemed thoroughly inconvenient to have them. The soldiers +were required to drop everything<a name="page_087" id="page_087"></a> and don the cumbersome contrivances, +no matter how well they knew that there wasn't any gas. There is no +question that this thoroughness saved many lives when the men went into +the trenches.</p> + +<p>When they masked and went into the gas-chamber the care they took with +straps and buckles could not have been bettered. One or two of the men +fainted from heat and nervousness, but nobody caught the temporary +blindness that would have been their lot if the gas had not been held +off. And after the first few entrants had returned none the worse, the +rest made a lark of it, and the whole experience stamped on their minds +the uselessness of gas as a weapon if you're handy with the mask.</p> + +<p>The first insistence on rifle use and marksmanship, which General +Pershing was to stress later with all the eloquence he had, was heard in +late August. The French said frankly they had neglected the power of the +rifle, and the Americans were put to work to avoid the same mistake. In +target-shooting with rifles the Americans got their first taste of +supremacy. They ceased being novitiates for as long as they<a name="page_088" id="page_088"></a> held their +rifles, and became respected and admired experts. The first English +Army, "the Old Contemptibles," had all been expert rifle-shots, and, +after a period when rifle fire was almost entirely absent from the +battle-fields, tacticians began to recall this fact, and the cost it had +entailed upon the Germans.</p> + +<p>So the doughboys added rifle fire to their other jobs.</p> + +<p>About this time the day of the doughboy was a pattern of compactness, +though he called it a harsher name.</p> + +<p>It began in the training area at five o'clock in the morning. One +regiment had a story that some of the farm lads used to beat the buglers +up every day and wander about disconsolate, wondering why the morning +was being wasted. This was probably fictional. As a rule, five o'clock +came all too early. There was little opportunity to roll over and have +another wink, for roll-call came at five-thirty, and this was followed +by brief setting-up exercises, designed to give the men an ambition for +breakfast. At this meal French customs were not popular. The poilu, who +begins his day with black coffee<a name="page_089" id="page_089"></a> and a little bread, was always amazed +to see the American soldier engaged with griddle-cakes and corned-beef +hash, and such other substantial things as he could get at daybreak. +Just after breakfast sick-call was sounded. It was up to the ailing man +to report at that time as a sufferer or forever after hold his peace. +While the sick were engaged in reporting themselves the healthy men +tidied up. Work proper began at seven.</p> + +<p>As a rule, bombing, machine-gun, and automatic-rifle fire practice came +in the mornings. Time was called at eleven and the soldiers marched back +to billets for the midday meal. Later, when the work piled up even more, +the meals were prepared on the training-grounds. Rifle and bayonet +practice came in the afternoon. Four o'clock marked the end of the +working-day for all except captains and lieutenants, who never found any +free time in waking hours. In fact, most of the excited +youngsters—almost all under thirty—let their problems perturb their +dreams. The doughboys amused themselves with swims, walks, concerts, +supper, and French children till nine<a name="page_090" id="page_090"></a> o'clock, when they were always +amiable toward going to bed.</p> + +<p>With September came the British to supplement the French and, after a +little, to go far toward replacing them. For the Blue Devils had still +work to do on the Germans, and their "vacation" could not last too long.</p> + +<p>A fine and spectacular sham battle put a climax to the stay of the +French, when, after artillery preparation, the Blue Devils took the +newly made American trenches, advancing under heavy barrage. The three +objectives were named Mackensen, Von Kluck, and Ludendorff. The +artillery turned everything it had into the slow-moving screen, under +which the "chasers" crept toward the foe. All the watching doughboys had +been instructed to put on their shrapnel helmets. At the pitch of the +battle some officers found their men using their helmets as good front +seats for the show, but fortunately there were no casualties. Words do +not kill.</p> + +<p>The departure of the Blue Devils was attended by a good deal of +home-made ceremony and a universal deep regret. A genuine liking<a name="page_091" id="page_091"></a> had +sprung up between the Americans and their French preceptors, and when +they marched away from camp the soldiers flung over them what detachable +trophies they had, the strains of all their bands, the unified good +wishes of the whole First Division, and unnumbered promises to be a +credit to their teachers when they got into the line.</p> + +<p>It was the bayonet which proved the first connecting-link between the +Americans and the British. American observers had decided after a few +weeks that the bayonet was a peculiarly British weapon, and in +consequence it was decided that for this phase of the training, the army +should rely on the British rather than the French.</p> + +<p>The British General Staff obligingly supplied the chief bayonet +instructor of their army with a number of assisting sergeants, and the +squad was sent down to camp.</p> + +<p>The British brought two important things, in addition to expert +bayoneting. They were, first, a familiar bluntness of criticism, which +the Americans had rather missed with the polite French, and a +competitive spirit, stirred up<a name="page_092" id="page_092"></a> wherever possible between rival units of +the A. E. F.</p> + +<p>Their willingness to "act" their practice was another factor, though in +that they did not excel the French except in that they could impart it +to the Americans.</p> + +<p>The British theory of bayonet work proved to be almost wholly offensive. +They went at their instruction of it with undimmed fire. At the end of +the first week, they gave a demonstration to some visiting officers. +Three short trenches had been constructed in a little dip of land, and +the spectators stood on the hill above them. On the opposite slope tin +cans shone brightly, hoisted on sticks.</p> + +<p>"Ready, gentlemen," said the drill-sergeant. "Prepare for trench bayonet +practice by half sections. You're to take these three lines of trenches, +lay out every Boche in the lot, and then get to cover and fire six +rounds at them 'ere tin hats. Don't waste a shot, gentlemen, every +bullet a Boche. Now, then, ready—over the top, and give 'em 'ell, right +in the stomach."</p> + +<p>Over the top they went and did as they were told. But the excitement was +not great enough<a name="page_093" id="page_093"></a> to please the drill-sergeant. He turned to the second +section, and put them through at a rounder pace. Then he took over some +young officers, who were being instructed to train later troops, at +cleaning out trenches. Sacks representing Germans were placed in a +communicating trench.</p> + +<p>"Now, remember, gentlemen," said the sergeant, "there's a Fritz in each +one of these 'ere cubby-'oles, and 'e's no dub, is Fritz. 'E's got ears +all down 'is back. Make your feet pneumatic. For 'eaven's sake, don't +sneeze, or 'is nibs will sling you a bomb like winkin', and there'll be +a narsty mess. Ready, Number One! 'Ead down, bayonet up ... it's no use +stickin' out your neck to get a sight of Fritzie in 'is 'ole. Why, if +old Fritz was there, 'e'd just down your point, and then where'd you be? +Why, just a blinkin' casualty, and don't you forget it. Ready again, +bayonet up. Now you see 'em. Quick, down with your point and at 'im. +Tickle 'is gizzard. Not so bad, but I bet you waked 'is nibs in the next +'ole. Keep in mind you're fightin' for your life...."</p> + +<p>By the time the officers were into the trench, the excitement was +terrific.<a name="page_094" id="page_094"></a></p> + +<p>It was such measures as these that made the bayonet work go like +lightning, and cut down the time required at it by more than one-half.</p> + +<p>The organized recreation and the competitions, two sturdy British +expedients for morale, always came just after these grimmest of all of +war's practices. The more foolish the game, the more rapturously the +British joined in it. Red Rover and prisoner's base were two prime +favorites. A British major said the British Army had discovered that +when the men came out of the trenches, fagged and horror-struck, the +surest way to bring them back was to set them hard at playing some game +remembered from their childhood.</p> + +<p>The British had even harder work, at first, to make the men fall in with +the games than they had with war practice. But the friendly spirit +existing basically between English and Americans, however spatty their +exterior relationships may sometimes be, finally got everybody in +together. The Americans found that a British instructor would as lief +call them "rotten" if he thought they deserved it, but that<a name="page_095" id="page_095"></a> he did it +so simply and inoffensively that it was, on the whole, very welcome.</p> + +<p>So the Americans learned all they could from French and British, and +began the scheme of turning back on themselves, and doing their own +instructing.</p> + +<p>The infantry camp was destined to have some offshoots, as the number of +men grew larger, and the specialists required intensive work. Officers' +schools sprang up all over France, and all the supplemental forces, +which had infantry training at first, scattered off to their special +training, notably the men trained to throw gas and liquid fire.</p> + +<p>But, for the most part, the camp in the Vosges remained the big central +mill it was designed to be, and in late October, when three battalions +put on their finishing touches in the very battle-line, the cycle was +complete. Before the time when General Pershing offered the +Expeditionary Force to Generalissimo Foch, to put where he chose, the +giant treadway from sea to camp and from camp to battle was grinding in +monster rhythms. It never thereafter feared any influx of its raw +material.<a name="page_096" id="page_096"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII<br /><br /> +BACK WITH THE BIG GUNS</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE +American Expeditionary Force which went into the great +training-schools of France and England was like nothing so much as a +child who, having long been tutored in a programme of his own make, an +abundance of what he liked and nothing of what he didn't, should be +thrust into some grade of a public school. He would be ridiculously +advanced in mathematics and a dunce at grammar, or historian to his +finger-tips and ignorant that two and two make four. He would amaze his +fellow pupils in each respect equally.</p> + +<p>And that was the lot of the Expeditionary Force. The French found them +backward in trench work and bombing, and naturally enough expected that +backwardness to follow through. They conceded the natural quickness of +the pupils, but saw a long road ahead before they could become an army. +Then the Americans tackled artillery, hardest and deepest of the<a name="page_097" id="page_097"></a> war +problems, and suddenly blossomed out as experts.</p> + +<p>Of course, the analogy is not to be leaned on too heavily. The Americans +were not, on the instant, the arch-exponents of artillery in all Europe. +But it is true that in comparison to the size of their army, and to the +extent to which they had prepared nationally for war, their artillery +was stronger than that of any other country on the Allied side at the +beginning of the war, notwithstanding that it was the point where they +might legitimately have been expected to be the weakest.</p> + +<p>Hilaire Belloc called the American artillery preparation one of the most +dramatic and welcome surprises of the war.</p> + +<p>It must be understood that all this applies only to men and not in the +least to guns. For big guns, the American reliance was wholly upon +France and England, upon the invitation of those two countries when +America entered the war.</p> + +<p>And the readiness of America's men was not due to a large preparation in +artillery as such. The blessing arose from the fact that the coast<a name="page_098" id="page_098"></a> +defense could be diverted, within the first year of war, to the handling +of the big guns for land armies, and thus strengthen the artillery arm +sent to France for final training.</p> + +<p>Artillery was every country's problem, even in peace-times. It was the +service which required the greatest wealth and the most profound +training. There was no such thing as a citizenry trained to artillery. +Mathematics was its stronghold, and no smattering could be made to do. +Even more than mathematics was the facility of handling the big guns +when mathematics went askew from special conditions.</p> + +<p>These things the coast defense had, if not in final perfection, at least +in creditable degree. And the diversion of it to the artillery in France +stiffened the backbone of the Expeditionary Force to the pride of the +force and the glad amazement of its preceptors.</p> + +<p>One other thing the coast defense had done: it had pre-empted the +greater part of America's attention in times of peace and +unpreparedness, so that big-gun problems had received a disproportionate +amount of study. The Ameri<a name="page_099" id="page_099"></a>can technical journals on artillery were +always of the finest. The war services were honeycombed with men who +were big-gun experts.</p> + +<p>So when the first artillery training-school opened in France, in +mid-August of 1917, the problems to be faced were all of a more or less +external character.</p> + +<p>The first of these, of course, was airplane work. The second was in +mastering gun differences between American and French types, and in +learning about the enormous numbers of new weapons which had sprung from +battle almost day by day.</p> + +<p>The camp, when the Americans moved in, had much to recommend it to its +new inhabitants. There need be no attempt to conceal the fact that first +satisfaction came with the barracks, second with the weather, and only +third with the guns and planes.</p> + +<p>Some of the artillerymen had come from the infantry camps, and some +direct from the coast. Those from the Vosges camp were boisterous in +their praise of their quarters. They had brick barracks, with floors, +and where they were billeted with the French they found excel<a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a>lent +quarters in the old, low-lying stone and brick houses. The weather would +not have been admired by any outsider. But to the men from the Vosges it +owed a reputation, because they extolled it both day and night. The +artillery camp was in open country, to permit of the long ranges, and if +it sunned little enough, neither did it rain.</p> + +<p>The guns and airplanes supplied by the French were simple at first, +becoming, as to guns at least, steadily more numerous and complicated as +the training went on.</p> + +<p>The men began on the seventy-fives, approximately the American +three-inch gun, and on the howitzers of twice that size.</p> + +<p>The airplane service was the only part of the work wholly new to the +men, and, naturally enough, it was the most attractive.</p> + +<p>Although the officers and instructors warned that air observation and +range-finding was by far the most dangerous of all artillery service, +seventy-five per cent of the young officers who were eligible for the +work volunteered for it. This required a two-thirds weeding out, and +insured the very pick of men for the air crews.<a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a></p> + +<p>The air service with artillery was made over almost entirely by the +French between the time of the war's beginning and America's entrance. +All the old visual aids were abolished, such as smoke-pointers and +rockets, and the telephone and wireless were installed in their stead. +The observation-balloons had the telephone service, and the planes had +wireless.</p> + +<p>By these means the guns were first fired and then reported on. The +general system of range-finding was: "First fire long, then fire short, +then split the bracket." This was the joint job of planes and +gunners—one not to be despised as a feat.</p> + +<p>In fact, artillery is, of all services, the one most dependent on +co-operation. It is always a joint job, but the joining must be done +among many factors.</p> + +<p>Its effectiveness depends first upon the precision of the mathematical +calculation which goes before the pull of the lanyard. This calculation +is complicated by the variety of types of guns and shells, and, in the +case of howitzers, by the variable behavior of charges of different size +and power. But these are things that can<a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a> be learned with patience, and +require knowledge rather than inspiration.</p> + +<p>It is when the air service enters that inspiration enters with it. +Observation must be accurate, in spite of weather, visibility, enemy +camouflage, and everything else. More than that, the observer in the +plane must keep himself safe—often a matter of sheer genius.</p> + +<p>The map-maker must do his part, so that targets not so elusive as +field-guns and motor-emplacements can be found without much help from +the air.</p> + +<p>Finally, the artillery depends, even more than any other branch of the +service, on the rapidity with which its wants can be filled from the +rear. The mobility of the big pieces, and their constant connections +with ammunition-stores, are matters depending directly on the training +of the artillerymen.</p> + +<p>These, then, were the things in which the Americans were either tested +or trained. Their mathematics were A1, as has been noted, and their +familiarity with existing models of big guns sufficient to enable them +to pick up the new types without long effort.<a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a></p> + +<p>They had a few weeks of heavy going with pad and pencil, then they were +led to the giant stores of French ammunition—more than any of them had +ever seen before—and told to open fire. One dramatic touch exacted by +the French instructors was that the guns should be pointed toward +Germany, no matter how impotent their distance made them.</p> + +<p>Long lanes, up to 12,000 metres, were told off for the ranges. The +training was intensive, because at that time there was a half-plan to +put the artillery first into the battle-line. In any case it is easier +to make time on secondary problems than on primary.</p> + +<p>Throughout September, while the artillerymen grew in numbers as well as +proficiency, the mastering of gun types was perfected, and the theory of +aim was worked out on paper.</p> + +<p>Late in the month the French added more guns, chief among them being a +monster mounted on railway-trucks whose projectile weighed 1,800 pounds. +The artillerymen named her "Mosquito," "because she had a sting," +although she had served for 300 charges at Verdun. It was not long +before every type of gun in<a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a> the French Army, and many from the British, +were lined up in the artillery camp, being expertly pulled apart and +reassembled.</p> + +<p>By the time the artillery went into battle with the infantry, failing in +their intention to go first alone, but nevertheless first in actual +fighting, they were able to give a fine account of themselves. By the +time they had got back to camp and were training new troops from their +own experience, they were the centre of an extraordinary organization.</p> + +<p>The rolling of men from camp to battle and back again, training, +retraining, and fighting in the circle, with an increasing number of men +able to remain in the line, and a constantly increasing number of new +men permitted to come in at the beginning, ground out an admirable +system before the old year was out.</p> + +<p>The fact that the artillery-school could not take its material raw did +not make the hitches it otherwise would, chiefly, of course, because of +the coast defense, and somewhat because American college men were found +to have a fine substratum of technical knowledge which artillery could +turn to account.<a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a></p> + +<p>After all the routine was fairly learned, and there had been a helpful +interim in the line, the artillery practised on some specialties, partly +of their own contribution, and partly those suggested by the other +armies.</p> + +<p>One of these, the most picturesque, was the shattering of the +"pill-boxes," German inventions for staying in No Man's Land without +being hit.</p> + +<p>A "pill-box" is a tiny concrete fortress, set up in front of the +trenches, usually in groups of fifteen to twenty. They have slot-like +apertures, through which Germans do their sniping. They are supposed to +be immune from anything except direct hit by a huge shell. But the +American artillery camp worked out a way of getting them—with luck. +Each aperture, through which the German inmates sighted and shot, was +put under fire from automatic rifles, coming from several directions at +once, so that it was indiscreet for the Boche to stay near his windows, +on any slant he could devise. Under cover of this rifle barrage, bombers +crept forward, and at a signal the rifle fire stopped, and the bombers +threw their destruction in.<a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a></p> + +<p>All these accomplishments, which did not take overlong to learn, +enhanced the natural value of the American artilleryman. He became, in a +short time, the pride of the army and a warmly welcomed mainstay to the +Allies.</p> + +<p>Major-General Peyton C. March, who took the artillery to France and +commanded them in their days of organization, before he was called back +to be Chief of Staff at Washington, was always credited, by his men, +with being three-fourths of the reason why they made such a showing. +General March always credited the matter to his men. At any rate, +between them they put their country's best foot foremost for the first +year of America in France, and they served as optimism centres even when +distress over other delays threatened the stoutest hearts.<a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX<br /><br /> +THE EYES OF THE ARMY</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">A</span>MERICA'S beginnings in the air service were pretty closely kin to her +other beginnings—she furnished the men and took over the apparatus. And +although by September 1, 1917, she had large numbers of aviators in the +making in France, they were flying—or aspiring to—in French schools, +under American supervision, with French machines and French instructors.</p> + +<p>There existed, in prospect, and already in detailed design, several +enormous flying-fields, to be built and equipped by America, as well as +half a dozen big repair-shops, and one gigantic combination repair-shop, +assembling-shop, and manufacturing plant.</p> + +<p>But in the autumn, when there were aviators waiting in France to go up +that very day, there was no waiting on fields trimmed by America.</p> + +<p>When the main school, under American supervision,<a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a> had filled to +overflowing, the remaining probationers were scattered among the French +schools under French supervision. Meanwhile, the engineers and +stevedores shared the work of constructing "the largest aviation-field +in the world" in central France.</p> + +<p>It was once true of complete armies that they could be trained to +warfare in their own home fields, and then sent to whatever part of the +world happened to be in dispute, and they required no more additional +furbishing up than a short rest from the journey. That is no longer true +of anything about an army except the air service, and it isn't literally +true of them. But they approach it.</p> + +<p>So it was practicable to give the American aviators nine-tenths of their +training at home, and leave the merest frills to a few spare days in +France. This, of course, takes no account of the first weeks at the +battle-front, which are only nominally training, since in the course of +them a flier may well have to battle for his life, and often does catch +a German, if he chances on one as untutored as himself.</p> + +<p>The French estimate of the necessary time to<a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> make an aviator is about +four months before he goes up on the line, and about four months in +patrol, on the line, before he is a thoroughly capable handler of a +battle-plane. They cap that by saying that an aviator is born, not made, +anyway, and that "all generalizations about them are untrue, including +this one."</p> + +<p>The air policy of France, however, was in a state of great fluidity at +this time. They were not prepared to lay down the law, because they were +in the very act of giving up their own romantic, adventurous system of +single-man combat, and were borrowing the German system of squadron +formation. They were reluctant enough to accept it, let alone +acknowledge their debt to the Germans. But the old knight-errantry of +the air could not hold up against the new mass attacks. And the French +are nothing if not practical.</p> + +<p>Even their early war aviators had prudence dinned into them—that +prudence which does not mean a niggardliness of fighting spirit, but +rather an abstaining from foolhardiness.</p> + +<p>Each aviator was warned that if he lost his life before he had to, he +was not only squander<a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a>ing his own greatest treasure, but he was leaving +one man less for France.</p> + +<p>This was the philosophy of the training-school. If the French were +impatient with a flier who lost his life to the Germans through excess +of friskiness, they were doubly so at the flier who endangered his life +at school through heedlessness.</p> + +<p>"If you pull the wrong lever," they said, "you will kill a man and wreck +a machine. Your country cannot afford to pay, either, for your fool +mistakes."</p> + +<p>But there their dogma ended. Once the flier had learned to handle his +machine, his further behavior was in the hands of American officers +solely, and these, he found, were stored with several very definite +ideas.</p> + +<p>The first of these—the most marked distinction between the French +system and the American—was that all American aviators should know the +theories of flying and most of its mathematics.</p> + +<p>Concerning these things the French cared not a hang.</p> + +<p>Neither did the American aviators. But<a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a> they toed the mark just the +same, and many a youngster gnawed his pencil indoors and cursed the fate +that had placed him with a country so finicky about air-currents on +paper and so indifferent to the joys of learning by ear.</p> + +<p>The Americans accepted from the beginning the edict on squadron flying. +It was as much a part of their training as field-manœuvres for the +infantry. And because they had no golden days of derring-do to look back +upon, they did less grumbling. Besides, there was always the chance of +getting lost, and patrols offered some good opportunities to the +venturesome.</p> + +<p>The air service had at this time an extra distinction. They were the +only arm of America's service that had really impressed the Germans. The +German experts, as they spoke through their newspapers, were +contemptuous of the army and all its works. They maintained that it +would be impossible for American transports to bring more than half a +million men to France, if they tried forever, because the submarines +would add to the inherent difficulties, and make "American +participation" of less actual menace than that of Roumania.<a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a></p> + +<p>The Frankfurter Zeitung said: "There is no doubt that the Entente lay +great stress on American assistance on this point (air warfare). Nor do +we doubt that the technical resources of the enemy will achieve +brilliant work in this branch. But all this has its limits ... in this +field, superiority in numbers is by no means decisive. Quality and the +men are what decide."</p> + +<p>Major Hoffe, of the German General Staff, wrote in the Weser Zeitung: +"The only American help seriously to be reckoned with is aerial aid."</p> + +<p>There was a quantity of such talk. Incidentally, the same experts who +limited America's troops to half a million in France at the most +indulgent estimate, said, over and over, that a million were to be +feared, just the number announced to be in France by President Wilson +one year from the time of the first debarkation.</p> + +<p>The aviators worked hard enough to deserve the German honor. In the +French school supervised by the Americans the schedule would have +furnished Dickens some fine material for pathos.<a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a></p> + +<p>The day began at 4 A. M., with a little coffee for an eye-opener. The +working-day began in the fields at 5 sharp. If the weather permitted +there were flights till 11, when the pupil knocked off for a midday +meal. He was told to sleep then till 4 in the afternoon, when flying +recommenced, and continued till 8.30. The rest of his time was all his +own. He spent it getting to bed.</p> + +<p>There was an average of four months under this régime. The flier began +on the ground, and for weeks he was permitted no more than a dummy +machine, which wobbled along the ground like a broken-winged duck, and +this he used to learn levers and mechanics—those things he had toiled +over on paper before he was even allowed on the field.</p> + +<p>After a while he was permitted in the air with an instructor, and +finally alone. There were creditably few disasters. For months there was +never a casualty. But if a man had an accident it was a perfectly +open-and-shut affair. Either he ruined himself or he escaped. It was +part of the French system with men who escaped to send them right back +into the air,<a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a> as soon as they could breathe, so that the accident would +not impair their flying-nerves.</p> + +<p>After the three or four months of foundation work, if the term is not +too inept for flying, the aviator had his final examination, a +triangular flight of about ninety miles, with three landings. The +landings are the great trick of flying. Like the old Irish story, it +isn't the falling that hurts you, it's the sudden stop.</p> + +<p>If the pupil made his landings with accuracy he was passed on to the big +school at Pau, where acrobatics are taught. The flight acrobat was the +ace, the armies found. And no man went to battle till he could do +spiral, serpentine, and hairpin turns, could manage a tail spin, and "go +into a vrille"—a corkscrew fall which permitted the flier to make great +haste from where he was, and yet not lose control of his machine, at the +same time that he made a tricky target for a Boche machine-gun.</p> + +<p>While all this training was going on the ranks of American aviators were +filling in at the top. The celebrated Lafayette Escadrille, the American +aviators who joined the French Army at the beginning of the war, was +taken into the<a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a> American Army in the late summer. Then all the Americans +who were in the French aviation service who had arrived by way of the +Foreign Legion were called home.</p> + +<p>These were put at instructing for a time, then their several members +became the veteran core of later American squadrons. This air unit was +finally placed at 12 fliers and 250 men, and before Christmas there was +a goodly number of them, a number not to be told till the care-free and +uncensored days after the war.</p> + +<p>By the beginning of the new year American aviation-fields were taking +shape. The engineers had laid a spur of railroad to link the largest of +them with the main arteries of communication, and the labor units had +built the same sort of small wooden city that sprang up all over America +as cantonments.</p> + +<p>There were roomy barracks, a big hall where chapel services alternated +with itinerant entertainers, a little newspaper building, plenty of +office-barracks with typewriters galore and the little models on which +aviators learn their preliminary lessons.</p> + +<p>There is one training-field six miles long and<a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> a mile and a half wide, +where all kinds of instruction is going on, even to acrobatics.</p> + +<p>And there are several large training-schools just behind the +fighting-lines, which have plenty of visiting Germans to practise on.</p> + +<p>The enormity of the American air programme made it a little unwieldy at +first, and it got a late start. But on the anniversary of its beginning +it had unmeasured praise from official France, and even before that the +French newspapers had loudly sung its praises.</p> + +<p>The American aviator as an individual was a success from the beginning. +He has unsurpassed natural equipment for an ace, and his training has +been unprecedentedly thorough. And he has dedicated his spirit through +and through. He has set out to make the Germans see how wise they were +to be afraid.<a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X<br /><br /> +THE SCHOOLS FOR OFFICERS</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE +first economy effected after the broad sweep of training was in +swing was to segregate the officers for special training, and these +officers' schools fell into two types.</p> + +<p>First, there was the camp for the young commissioned officers from +Plattsburg, and similar camps in America, to give them virtually the +same training as the soldiers had, but at a sharper pace, inclusive also +of more theory, and to increase their executive ability in action; +second, there was the school established by General Pershing, late in +the year, through which non-commissioned officers could train to take +commissions.</p> + +<p>Of the first type, there were many, of the second, only one.</p> + +<p>The camp for the Plattsburg graduates which turned its men first into +the fighting was one having about 300 men, situated in the south of<a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a> +France, where the weather could do its minimum of impeding.</p> + +<p>These youngsters arrived in September, and they were fighting by +Thanksgiving. The next batch took appreciably less time to train, partly +because the organization had been tried out and perfected on the first +contingent, and partly because they were destined for a longer stay in +the line before they were hauled back for training others. This process +was duplicated in scores of schools throughout France, so that the +Expeditionary Force, what with its reorganization to require fewer +officers, and its complementary schools, never lacked for able +leadership.</p> + +<p>The first school was under command of Major-General Robert Bullard, a +veteran infantry officer with long experience in the Philippines to draw +on, and a conviction that the proper time for men to stop work was when +they dropped of exhaustion.</p> + +<p>His officers began their course with a battalion of French troops to aid +them, and they were put into company formation, of about 75 men to the +company, just as the humble doughboy was.<a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a></p> + +<p>They were all infantry officers, who were to take command as first and +second lieutenants, but they specialized in whatever they chose. They +were distinguished by their hat-bands: white for bayonet experts, blue +for the liquid-fire throwers, yellow for the machine-gunners, red for +the rifle-grenadiers, orange for the hand-grenadiers, and green for the +riflemen. These indicated roughly the various things they were taught +there, in addition to trench-digging and the so-called battalion +problems, recognizable to the civilian as team-work.</p> + +<p>Their work was not of the fireside or the library. It was the joint +opinion of General Pershing, General Sibert, and General Bullard that +the way to learn to dig a trench was to dig it, and that nothing could +so assist an officer in directing men at work as having first done the +very same job himself.</p> + +<p>They had a permanent barracks which had once housed young French +officers, in pre-war days, and they had a generous Saturday-to-Monday +town leave.</p> + +<p>These two benefactions, plus their tidal waves of enthusiasm, carried +them through the her<a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a>culean programme devised by General Bullard and the +assisting French officers and troops.</p> + +<p>They began, of course, with trench-digging, and followed with live +grenades, machine-guns, automatic rifles, service-shells, bayonet work, +infantry formation for attack, and gas tests. Then they were initiated +into light and fire signals, star-shells, gas-bombing, and liquid fire.</p> + +<p>Last, they came in on the rise of the wave of rifle popularity, and +trained at it even more intensively than the first of the doughboys. +"The rifle is the American weapon," was General Pershing's constant +reiteration, "and it has other uses than as a stick for a bayonet."</p> + +<p>But efficacious as schools of this type were, there was a need they did +not meet, a need first practical, then sentimental, and equally valuable +on both counts.</p> + +<p>This was the training for the man from the ranks. The War College in +America, acting in one of its rare snatches of spare time, had ordered a +school for officers in America to which any enlisted man was eligible.</p> + +<p>General Pershing overhauled this arrangement in one particular: he +framed his school in<a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a> France so that nothing lower than a corporal could +enter it. This was on the theory that a man in the ranks who had ability +showed it soon enough, and was rewarded by a non-com. rank. That was the +time when the way ahead should rightfully be opened to him.</p> + +<p>This school commenced its courses just before Christmas, with everything +connected with it thoroughly worked out first.</p> + +<p>The commissions it was entitled to bestow went up to the rank of major. +Scholars entered it by recommendation of their superior officers, which +were forwarded by the commanders of divisions or other separate units, +and by the chiefs of departmental staffs, to the commander-in-chief. +Before these recommendations could be made, the record of the applicant +must be scanned closely, and his efficiency rated—if he were a +linesman, by fighting quality, and if in training still or behind the +lines, by efficiency in all other duties.</p> + +<p>Then he entered and fared as it might happen. If he succeeded, his place +was waiting for him at his graduation, as second lieutenant in a +replacement division.<a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a></p> + +<p>Enormous numbers of these replacement divisions had to be held behind +the lines. From them, all vacancies occurring in the combat units in the +lines were filled. And rank, within them, proceeded in the same manner +as in any other division. Their chief difference was that there was no +limit set upon the number of second lieutenants they could include, so +that promotions waited mainly for action to earn them.</p> + +<p>Within the combat units, the vacancies were to be filled two-thirds by +men in line of promotion within the unit itself, and one-third from the +replacement divisions.</p> + +<p>The replacement division's higher officers were those recovered from +wounds, who had lost their place in line, and those who had not yet had +any assignments. To keep up a sufficient number of replacement +divisions, the arriving depot battalions were held to belong with them.</p> + +<p>This school was located near the fighting-line, and its instructors were +preponderantly American.</p> + +<p>It put the "stars of the general into the private'<a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a>s knapsack," and +began the great mill of officer-making that the experiences of other +armies had shown to be so tragically necessary. Needless to say, it was +packed to overflowing from its first day.<a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI<br /><br /> +SOME DISTINGUISHED VISITORS</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">S</span>O +satisfactory to itself was the progress of the American Expeditionary +Force in becoming an army that by the end of its first month of training +it was ready for important visitors. True, the first to come was one who +would be certain to understand the force's initial difficulties, and who +would also be able to help as well as inspect. He was General Petain, +Commander-in-Chief of the French Army, and he came for inspection of +both French and American troops on August 19, three days after General +Sibert had had a family field-day to take account of his troops.</p> + +<p>General Petain came down with General Pershing, and the first inspection +was of billets. Then the two generals reviewed the Alpine Chasseurs, and +General Petain awarded some medals which had been due since the month +before, when the Blue Devils were in the line.</p> + +<p>After General Petain's visit with the Ameri<a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a>can troops, he recommended +their training and their physique equally, and said: "I think the +American Army will be an admirable fighting force within a short time."</p> + +<p>This was also General Pershing's day for learning—his first session +with one of his most difficult tasks. He had to follow the example of +General Petain, and kiss the children, and accept the bouquets thrust +upon both generals by all the little girls of the near-by Vosges towns.</p> + +<p>General Pershing did better with the kissing as his day wore on, though +its foreignness to his experience was plain to the end. But with the +bouquets he was an outright failure. Graciously as he might accept them, +the holding of them was much as a doughboy might hold his first armful +of live grenades.</p> + +<p>The camp's next distinguished visitor was Georges Clemenceau, the +veteran French statesman who was soon to be Premier of France. +Clemenceau saw American troops that day for the second time, the first +having been when, as a young French senator, he watched General Grant's +soldiers march into Richmond.<a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a></p> + +<p>He recalled to the sons and grandsons of those dusty warriors how +inspired a sight it had been, and he added that he hoped to see the +present generation march into Berlin.</p> + +<p>When Clemenceau talked to the doughboys, however, he had more than old +memories with which to stir them. He has a graceful, complete command of +the English language, in which he made the two or three addresses +interspersed in the full programme of his stay.</p> + +<p>In one speech M. Clemenceau said: "I feel highly honored at the +privilege of addressing you. I know America well, having lived in your +country, which I have always admired, and I am deeply impressed by the +presence of an American army on French soil, in defense of liberty, +right, and civilization, against the barbarians. My mind compares this +event to the Pilgrim Fathers, who landed on Plymouth Rock, seeking +liberty and finding it. Now their children's children are returning to +fight for the liberty of France and the world.</p> + +<p>"You men have come to France with disinterested motives. You came not +because you were compelled to come, but because you wished<a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a> to come. +Your country always had love and friendship for France. Now you are at +home here, and every French house is open to you. You are not like the +people of other nations, because your motives are devoid of personal +interest, and because you are filled with ideals. You have heard of the +hardships before you, but the record of your countrymen proves that you +will acquit yourselves nobly, earning the gratitude of France and the +world."</p> + +<p>At the end of this speech General Sibert said to the men who had heard +it: "You will henceforth be known as the Clemenceau Battalion." That was +the first unit of the American Army to have any designation other than +its number.</p> + +<p>Another civilian visitor was next, though he was civilian only in the +sense that he had neither task nor uniform of the army. He was Raymond +Poincaré, President of the French Republic, the leader of the French +"bitter-enders," and sometimes called the stoutest-hearted soldier +France has ever had.</p> + +<p>President Poincaré made a thorough inspection. He, too, began with the +billets, but he was not content to see them from the outside.<a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> In fact, +the first that one new major-general saw of him was the half from the +waist down, the other half being obscured by the floor of the barn attic +he was peering into.</p> + +<p>President Poincaré made cheering speeches to the men, for the force of +which they were obliged to rely upon his gestures and his intonations, +since he spoke no English. But his sense was not wholly lost to the +doughboys. At the peak of one of the President's most soaring flights +those who understood French interrupted to applaud him.</p> + +<p>"What did he say?" asked a doughboy.</p> + +<p>"He said to give 'em hell," said another.</p> + +<p>Fourth, and last, of the great Frenchmen, and greatest, from the soldier +point of view, was Marshal Joffre, Marne hero, who came and spent a +night and a day at camp.</p> + +<p>It was mid-October when he came, and weeks of driving rain had preceded +him. In spite of their gloom over the weather, the doughboys were +eagerly anticipating the visit of Joffre, and they were wondering if the +man of many battles would think them worth standing in the rain to +watch.<a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a></p> + +<p>A detachment of French buglers—buglers whom the Americans could never +sufficiently admire or imitate, because they could twirl the bugles +between beats and take up their blasts with neither pitch nor time +lost—waited outside the quarters where the marshal was to spend the +night. Half an hour before his motor came up the sun broke through the +drizzle.</p> + +<p>"He brings it with him," said a doughboy.</p> + +<p>Marshal Joffre was accompanied by General Pershing, the Pershing +personal staff and Joffre's aide, Lieutenant-Colonel Jean Fabry, who was +with the French Mission in America. There were ovations in all the +French villages through which they passed, and there were uproarious +cheers when the party reached the American officers who were to be +addressed by Marshal Joffre. In his short speech he said that America +had come to help deliver humanity from the yoke of German insolence, and +added: "Let us be united. Victory surely will be ours."</p> + +<p>Later, after picked men had shown Joffre what they could do with +grenades and bayonets, the marshal made a short speech to them, telling +them of how his visit to America had<a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a> cheered and strengthened him, and +how even greater was the stimulation he had had from seeing the +Americans train in France.</p> + +<p>In a statement to the Associated Press he said: "I have been highly +gratified by what I have seen to-day. I am confident that when the time +comes for American troops to go into the trenches and meet the enemy +they will give the same excellent account of themselves in action as +they did to-day in practice."</p> + +<p>Northcliffe came in December, with Colonel House and members of the +House Mission. He wrote a long impression of his visit for the English +at home, in which he said that the finest sight he saw was the American +rifle practice, in which the United States troops did exceptionally +well. Then he praised them for their mastery of the British type of +trench mortar, for their accuracy with grenades and, most significant of +all, for their able handling of themselves after the bombs were thrown, +so that they should have a maximum of safety in battle. The doughboys +had finally learned their hardest lesson.</p> + +<p>Sir Walter Roper Lawrence, who was coming<a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a> to America on a special war +mission, went to camp in early December to see how the doughboys fared, +so that he might report on them at home.</p> + +<p>He had just inquired of General Sir Julian Byng, who had accidentally +had the assistance of some American engineers at Cambrai, what they +should be valued at, and Sir Julian had answered: "Very earnest, very +modest, and very helpful."</p> + +<p>"I must say that is my opinion, too," said Sir Walter, when he came to +camp. "They are fine fellows to look at—as good-looking soldiers as any +man might wish to see. They have a wonderfully springy step, much more +springy than one sees in other soldiers. They are clean, well set up, +and they are always cheerful. They are splendidly fed and well +quartered, and they are desperately keen to learn, and as desperately +keen to get into the thick of things. If they seem to have any worries +it is that they are not getting in as quickly as they would like to.</p> + +<p>"The American troops have everywhere made a decidedly favorable +impression. I am ex<a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a>tremely proud of my British citizenship, I have been +all my life, but if I were an American I would be insufferably proud of +my citizenship. In all history there is nothing that approaches her +transporting such an enormous army so great a distance oversea to fight +for an ideal."</p> + +<p>After the new year W. A. Appleton, secretary of the General Federation +of Trades Unions in England, made a visit to France, and described the +American camps for his own public through the Federation organ.</p> + +<p>"I see everywhere," he wrote, "samples of the American armies that we +are expecting will enable the Allies to clear France of the Germans. +Most of the men are fine specimens of humanity, and those with whom I +spoke showed no signs of braggadocio, too frequently attributed to +America. They were quiet, well-spoken fellows, fully alive to the +seriousness of the task they have undertaken, and they apparently have +but one regret—that they had not come into the war soon enough. It was +pleasant to talk to these men and to derive encouragement from their +quiet, unobtrusive strength."<a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a></p> + +<p>These were the things which were playing upon public opinion in France +and England, reinforcing the good-will with which the first American +soldiers were welcomed there.</p> + +<p>When United States soldiers paraded again in the streets of London, late +in the spring of 1918, and when they marched down the new Avenue du +Président Wilson in Paris, on July 4, 1918, the greetings to them had +lost in hysteria and grown in depth, till the magnitude of the +demonstrations and the quality of them drew amazement from the oldest of +the old stagers.<a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII<br /><br /> +THE MEN WHO DID EVERYTHING</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">I</span>F +the American Expeditionary Force had landed in the middle of the +Sahara Desert instead of France, it would not have been under greater +necessity to do things for itself, and immediately. For even where the +gallant French were entirely willing to pull their belts in one more +notch and make provision for the newcomers, the moral obligation not to +permit their further sacrifice was enormous. And although, as it +happened, there were many things, at first, in which the A. E. F. was +obliged to ask French aid, this number was speedily cut down and finally +obliterated.</p> + +<p>The men on whom fell the largest burden of making American troops +self-sufficing in the first half-year of war, were the nine regiments of +engineers recruited in nine chief cities of America before General +Pershing sailed. They were officered to a certain extent by Regular Army +engineers, but more by railroad officials<a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a> who were recruited at the +same time from all the large railroads of America.</p> + +<p>And they operated what roads they found, and built more, till finally, +after a year, during which they had assistance from the army engineers +and a fair number of labor and special units, they had created in France +a railroad equal to any one of the middle-sized roads of long standing +in this country, with road-beds, rolling-stock, and equipment equal to +the best, and railway terminals which, in the case of one of their +number, rivalled the port of Hamburg.</p> + +<p>These were the men who were first to arrive in Europe after General +Pershing, who beat them over by only a few days. They were not fighting +units, so that they did not dim the glory of the Regulars, though they +had the honor to carry the American army uniform first through the +streets of London.</p> + +<p>They were the first of the army in the battle-line, too, though again +their civilian pursuit, though failing to serve to protect them against +German attack, deprived them of the flag-flying and jubilation that +attended the infantrymen and artillerymen in late October.<a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a></p> + +<p>But though their public honor was so limited, their private honor with +the Expeditionary Force was without stint. It was "the engineers here" +and "the engineers there" till it must have seemed to them that they +were carrying the burden of the entire world.</p> + +<p>On May 6, 1917, the War Department issued this statement: "The War +Department has sent out orders for the raising, as rapidly as possible, +of nine additional regiments of engineers which are destined to proceed +to France at the earliest possible moment, for work on the lines of +communication.... All details regarding the force will be given out as +fast as compatible with the best public interests."</p> + +<p>The recruiting-points were New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, +Pittsburgh, Detroit, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. It was +the job of each city to provide a regiment. And it became the job of the +great railway brotherhoods to see that neither the kind nor the number +of men accepted would cripple the railways at home.</p> + +<p>The War Department asked for 12,000 men, and had offers of about four +times that many.<a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a> The result was, of course, that the 9 regiments were +men of magnificent physique and sterling equipment. One regiment boasted +125 members who measured more than 6 feet.</p> + +<p>Their first official task was to help to repair and man the French +railways leading up to the lines, carrying food for men and guns.</p> + +<p>Their next was to build and man the railways which were to connect the +American seaport with the training-camps, and last, with the +fighting-line itself.</p> + +<p>The promise of immediate action in France was fulfilled to the letter. +Two months from the day the recruiting began, the "Lucky 13th," the +regiment recruited in Chicago, landed in a far-away French town, whose +inhabitants leaned out of their windows in the late, still night, to +throw them roses and whispers of good cheer—anything louder than +whispers being under a ban because of the nearness to the front—and the +day following, with French crews at their elbows, they were running +French trains up and down the last line of communications.</p> + +<p>These were men who had years of railroading behind them. Many of them +were officered by<a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a> the same men who had been their directors in civil +life. It was no uncommon thing to hear a private address his captain by +his first name. One day a private said to his captain. "Bill, you got +all the wrong dope on this," to which the captain replied severely: "I +told you before about this discipline—if you want to quarrel with my +orders, you call me mister."</p> + +<p>But military discipline was never a real love with the engineers. +"What's military discipline to us? We got Rock Island discipline," said +a brawny first lieutenant, when, because he was a fellow passenger on a +train with a correspondent, he felt free to speak his mind.</p> + +<p>"I won't say it's not all right in its way, but it's not a patch on what +we have in a big yard. A man obeys in his sleep, for he knows if he +don't somebody's life may have to pay for it—not his own, either, which +would make it worse. That's Rock Island. But it don't involve any +salutin', or 'if-you-pleasin'.' If my fellows say 'Tom' I don't pay any +attention, unless there's some officer around."</p> + +<p>This attitude toward discipline characterizes all the special units to a +certain degree, though<a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a> the engineers somewhat more than the rest, for +the reason that they had to offer not a mere negation of discipline but +a substitute of their own.</p> + +<p>But, whatever their sentiments toward their incidental job as soldiers, +there was no mistaking their zest for their regular job of railroading.</p> + +<p>They found the railways of France in amazingly fine condition, in spite +of the fact that they had, many of them, been built purely for war uses, +and under the pressure inevitable in such work. Those behind the British +lines were equally fine.</p> + +<p>As soon as the American engineers appeared in the communication-trains, +their troubles with the Germans began. On the second run of the "Lucky +13th" men, a German airplane swept down and flew directly over the +engine for twenty minutes, taking strict account.</p> + +<p>Then they began to bomb the trains, and many a time the crews had to get +out and sit under the trains till the raid was over.</p> + +<p>The engineers kept their non-combatant character till after the December +British thrust at Cambrai, when half a hundred of them, work<a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a>ing with +their picks and shovels behind the lines, suddenly found themselves face +to face with German counter-attacking troops, and had to fight or run. +The engineers snatched up rifles and such weapons as they could from +fallen soldiers, and with these and their shovels helped the British to +hold their line.</p> + +<p>The incident was one of the most brilliant of the year, partly because +it was dramatically unexpected, partly because it permitted the +Americans to prove their readiness to fight, in whatever circumstances. +The spectacle of fifty peaceful engineers suddenly turned warriors of +pick and shovel was used by the journals of many countries to +demonstrate what manner of men the Americans were.</p> + +<p>But the work for British and French, on their strategic railways, was +not to continue for long. The great American colony was already on +blue-print, and the despatches from Washington were estimating that many +millions would have to be spent for the work.</p> + +<p>The annual report of Major-General William Black, chief of engineers, +which was made public in December, stated that almost a billion<a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a> would +be needed for engineering work in France in 1919, if the work then in +progress were to be concluded satisfactorily.</p> + +<p>General Black's report showed that equipment for 70 divisions, or +approximately 1,000,000 men, had been purchased within 350 hours after +Congress declared war, including nearly 9,000,000 articles, among them 4 +miles of pontoon bridges.</p> + +<p>Every unit sent to France took its full equipment along, and the cost of +the "railroad engineers" alone was more than $12,000,000.</p> + +<p>Not long after the men were running the French and British trains, they +were building their lines in Flanders, in the interims of building the +American lines from sea to camp.</p> + +<p>The building was through, and over, such mud as passes description. The +engineers tell a story of having passed a hat on a road, and on picking +it up, found that there was a soldier under it. They dug him out. "But I +was on horseback," the soldier protested.</p> + +<p>The tracks were rather floated than built. Where the shell fire was +heavy, the men could only work a few hours each day, under barrage<a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a> of +artillery or darkness, and they were soon making speed records.</p> + +<p>"The fight against the morass is as stern and difficult as the fight +against the Boche," said an engineer, speaking of the Flanders tracks. +One party of men, in an exposed position, laid 180 feet of track in a +record time, and left the other half of the job till the following day. +When they came back, they found that their work had been riddled with +shell-holes, whereat they fell to and finished the other half and +repaired the first half in the same time as had starred them on the +first day's job.</p> + +<p>It was not long till they had a European reputation.</p> + +<p>The tracks they were to lay for America, though they were far enough +from the Flanders mud, had a sort of their own to offer. The terminal +was built by tremendous preliminaries with the suction-dredge. The long +lines of communication between camp and sea were varyingly difficult, +some of them offering nothing to speak of, some of them abominable. The +little spur railways leading to the hospitals, warehouses, and +subsidiary training-camps<a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a> which lay afield from the main line were more +quickly done.</p> + +<p>In addition to all these things, the engineers were the handy men of +France. They picked up some of the versatility of the Regular Army +engineers, whose accomplishments are never numbered, and they built +hospitals and barracks, too, in spare time, and they laid waterways, and +helped out in General Pershing's scheme to put the inland waterways of +France to work. The canal system was finally used to carry all sorts of +stores into the interior of France, and before the engineers were +finished the army was getting its goods by rail, by motor, and by boat, +though it was not till late in the year that the transportation +machinery could avoid great jams at the port.</p> + +<p>The engineers were, from first to last, the most picturesque Americans +in France. They came from the great yards and terminals of East and +West, they brought their behavior, their peculiar flavor of speech, and +their efficiency with them, and they refused to lose any of them, no +matter what the outside pressure.</p> + +<p>"It's a great life," said one of them from the<a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a> Far West, "and I may say +it's a blamed sight harder than shooing hoboes off the cars back home. +But there's times when I could do with a sight of the missus and the +kids and the Ford. If it takes us long to lick 'em, it won't be my +fault."<a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII<br /><br /> +BEHIND THE LINES</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE +difficulty of describing the American organization behind the lines +in France lies in the fact that the story is nowhere near finished. The +end of the first year saw huge things done, but huger ones still in the +doing, and the complete and the incomplete so blended that there was +almost no point at which a finger could be laid and one might say: "They +have done this."</p> + +<p>But at the end of the first year all the foundations were down and the +corner-stones named, and though much necessary secrecy still envelops +the actual facts, something at least can be told.</p> + +<p>America could no more move direct from home to the line in the matter of +her supplies than she could in that of her men. And it was at her +intermediate stopping-point, in both cases, that her troubles lay. It +was, as Belloc put it, the<a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a> problem of the hour-glass. Plenty of room at +both ends and plenty of material were invalidated by the little strait +between.</p> + +<p>It was not a month from the time of the first landing of troops, in +June, 1917, before the wharfs of the ports chiefly used by incoming +American supplies were stacked high with unmoved cases.</p> + +<p>The transportation men worked with might and main, but the Shipping +Board at home, under the goad of restless and anxious people, was +sending and sending the equipment to follow the men. And once landed, +the supplies found neither roof to cover them nor means to carry them +on.</p> + +<p>This was the point at which General Pershing began to lament to +Washington over his scarcity of stevedores, and labor units, and soon +thereafter was the point at which he got them.</p> + +<p>On September 14, 1917, W. W. Atterbury, vice-president of the +Pennsylvania Railroad, was appointed director-general of transportation +of the United States Expeditionary Force in France, and was given the +rank of brigadier-general. General Atterbury was already in<a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a> France, and +had been offering such expert advice and assistance to General Pershing +as his civilian capacity would permit. With his appointment came the +announcement of others, giving him the assistance of many well-known +American railroad men.</p> + +<p>When the First Division reached France it was discovered that it +required four tons of tonnage to provide for each man. That meant 80,000 +tons for each division, which, in the figures of the railroad man, meant +eighty trains of 1,000 tons capacity for every division.</p> + +<p>For the first 200,000 men in France, who formed the basis for the first +railroad reckoning, 800 trains were necessary.</p> + +<p>Obviously, these trains could not be taken from the already burdened +French. Obviously, they could not tax further the trackage in France, +though the trains and engines shipped had essential measurements to +conform to the French road-beds, so that interchange was easy. Still +more obviously, the trains could not be made in this country and rolled +onto the decks of ships for transportation.</p> + +<p>So that before the first soldier packed his<a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a> first kit on his way to +camp the A. E. F. required railway-tracks, enormous reception-wharfs, +assembling-plants and factories, and arsenals and warehouses beyond +number.</p> + +<p>The only things which America could buy in France were those which could +be grown there, by women and old men and children, and those which were +already made. The only continuing surplus product of France was big +guns, which resulted from their terrific specialization in +munition-plants during the war's first three years.</p> + +<p>To find out what could legitimately be bought in France, and to buy it, +paying no more for it than could be avoided by wise purchasing, General +Pershing created a General Purchasing Board in Paris late in August. +This board had a general purchasing agent at its head, who was the +representative of the commander-in-chief, and he acted in concert with +similar boards of the other Allied armies. His further job was to +co-ordinate all the efforts of subordinate purchasing agents throughout +the army. The chief of each supply department and of the Red Cross and +the Y. M. C. A.<a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a> named purchasing agents to act under this board.</p> + +<p>It was not long till this board was supervising the spending of many +millions of dollars a month, which gives a fair estimate of what the +total expenditure, both at home and abroad, had to be.</p> + +<p>As a case in point, a single branch of this board bought in France, the +first fortnight of November, 26,000 tons of tools and equipment, 4,000 +tons of railway-ties, and 160 tons of cars. The cost was something over +$3,000,000. These purchases alone saved the total cargo space of 20 +vessels of 1,600 tons each.</p> + +<p>The General Purchasing Board adopted the price-fixing policy created at +Washington, in which it was aided by the shrewdest business heads among +the British and French authorities.</p> + +<p>This board also had power to commandeer ships, when they had to—notably +in the case of bringing shipments of coal from England, where it was +fairly plentiful, to France, where there was almost none.</p> + +<p>A second scheme for co-ordination put into<a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a> effect by General Pershing +was a board at which heads of all army departments could meet and act +direct, without the necessity of going through the commander-in-chief. +When the quartermaster's department made its budgets, the co-ordination +department went over them and revised the estimates downward, or drafted +work or supplies from some other department with a surplus, or +redistributed within the quartermaster's stores, perhaps even granted +the first requests. But there was a vast saving throughout the army +zone.</p> + +<p>The problem of America's "behind the lines," including as it did the +creating of every phase of transportation, from trackage to terminals, +and then providing the things to transport, not only for an army growing +into the millions, but for much of civilian France, was one which, all +wise observers said, was the greatest of the war. Just how staggering +were these difficulties must not be told till later, but surmises are +free. And the praise for overcoming them which poured from British and +French onlookers had the value and authority of coming from men who had +themselves been through<a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a> like crises, and who knew every obstacle in the +way of the Americans.</p> + +<p>But if the preparatory stages must be abridged in the telling, there is +no ban on a little expansiveness as to what was finally done.</p> + +<p>Within a year American engineers and laborers and civilians working +behind the lines had made of the waste lands around an old French port a +line of modern docks where sixteen heavy cargo-vessels could rest at the +same time, being unloaded from both sides at once at high speed, by the +help of lighters. These docks were made by a big American pile-driver, +which in less than a year had driven 30,000 piles into the marshy ooze, +and made a foundation for enormous docks.</p> + +<p>Just behind the docks is a plexus of railway-lines which, what with +incoming and outgoing tracks and switches and side-lines, contains 200 +miles of trackage in the terminal alone.</p> + +<p>It is for the present no German's business how many hundred miles of +double and triple track lead back to the fighting-line, and it is the +censor's rule that one must tell nothing a<a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a> German shouldn't know. But +there is plenty of track, figures or no figures.</p> + +<p>Equal preparation has been made for such supplies as must remain +temporarily at the docks.</p> + +<p>There are 150 warehouses, most of them completed, each 400 by 50 feet, +and each with steel walls and top and concrete floors. When the +warehouses are finished they will be able to hold supplies for an army +of a million men for thirty days. They are supplemented by a giant +refrigerating-plant, with an enormous capacity, which is served by an +ice-making factory with an output of 500 tons daily, the whole ice +department being operated by a special "ice unit" of the army, +officially called Ice Plant Company 301. The ice department also has its +own refrigerator-cars for delivering its wares frozen to any part of +France.</p> + +<p>To provide for gun appetites as abundantly as for human, an arsenal was +begun at the same point, which, when completed, will have cost a hundred +million dollars. This arsenal and ordnance-depot is being built by an +American firm, at the request of the French Mission in<a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a> America, who +vetoed the American project to give the work to French contractors, +because of the man-shortage in France.</p> + +<p>It has been built under the direct supervision of the War Department, +and was specifically planned so that it might in time, or case of need, +become one of the main munition-distribution centres for all the Allies. +Small arms and ammunition are stored and dispensed there, while big guns +go direct from French factories.</p> + +<p>Regiments of mechanical and technical experts were constantly being +recruited in America for this work, and they were sent by the thousands +every month of the first year. Maintenance of the ordnance-base alone +requires 450 officers and 16,000 men.</p> + +<p>Included in the arsenal and ordnance-depot are a gun-repair shop, +equipped to reline more than 800 guns a month, a carriage-repair plant +of large capacity, a motor-vehicle repair-shop, able to overhaul more +than 1,200 cars a month, a small-arms repair-shop, ready to deal with +58,000 small arms and machine-guns a month, a shop for the repair of +horse and infantry equipment,<a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a> and a reloading-plant, capable of +reloading 100,000 artillery-cartridges each day.</p> + +<p>The assembling-shops in connection with the railroad were built on a +commensurate scale. Even in an incomplete state one shop was able to +turn out twenty-odd freight-cars a day, of three different designs, and +at a neighboring point a plant for assembling the all-steel cars was +making one full train a day. The locomotives were assembled in still a +third place. This will have turned out 1,100 locomotives, built and +shipped flat from America, at the end of its present contract. Already a +third of this work has been done.</p> + +<p>And there were, of course, the necessary number of roundhouses, and the +like, to complete the organization of the self-sufficient railroad.</p> + +<p>Not far away was a tremendous assembling and repair plant for airplanes, +the operators of which had all been trained in the French factories, so +that they knew the planes to the last inner bolthead.</p> + +<p>The last assembly-plant was far from least in picturesqueness. It was +for the construction, from numbered pieces shipped from Switzerland,<a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a> +of 3,500 wooden barracks, each about 100 feet long by 20 wide, and of +double thickness for protection against French weather.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<a href="images/illpg_154.jpg"> +<img src="images/illpg_154_sml.jpg" width="600" height="369" alt="Copyright by the Committee on Public Information. + +U. S. locomotive-assembling yards in France." title="U. S. locomotive-assembling yards in France." /></a> +<p class="captionl">Copyright by the Committee on Public Information.</p> +<p class="captionc">U. S. locomotive-assembling yards in France.</p> +</div> + +<p>The most amusing of the incidental depots was called the Reclamation +Depot, at which the numerous articles collected on the battle-field by +special salvage units were overhauled and refurbished, or altered to +other uses. Nothing was too trifling to be accepted. The "old-clo' man" +of No Man's Land was responsible for an amazing amount of good material, +made at the Reclamation Depot from old belts, coat sleeves, and the +like. Many a good German helmet went back to the "square-heads" as +American bullets.</p> + +<p>In the same American district there was a great artillery camp, with +remount stables, containing thousands of horses and mules. Under French +tutelage, the American veterinarians had learned to extract the bray +from the army mule, reducing his far-carrying silvery cry to a mere +wheeze, with which he could do no indiscreet informing of his presence +near the battle-lines. So the mule-hospital was one of the busiest spots +in the port.<a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a></p> + +<p>A short distance from the port, the engineers built a 20,000-bed +hospital, the largest in existence, comprising hundreds of little +one-story structures, set in squares over huge grounds, so that every +room faced the out-of-doors.</p> + +<p>Between the port and the hospital, and beyond the port along the coast, +were the rest-camps, the receiving-camps, and a huge separate camp for +the negro stevedores. Near enough to be convenient, but not for +sociability, were the camps for the German prisoners, who put in plenty +of hard licks in the great port-building.</p> + +<p>Midway between all this activity at the coast and the training and +fighting activity at the fighting-line there was what figured on the +army charts as "Intermediate Section," whose commanders were responsible +for the daily averaging of supply and demand.</p> + +<p>In the intermediate section, linked by rail, were the supplementary +training-camps, schools, base hospitals, rest-areas, engineering and +repair shops, tank-assembling plants, ordnance-dumps and repair-shops, +the chief storage for "spare parts," all machinery used in the army, +cold-storage plants, oil and petrol depots,<a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a> the army bakeries, the +camouflage centre, and the forestry departments, busy with fuel for the +army and timber for the engineers.</p> + +<p>The achievement of the first year was literally worthy of the unstinted +praise it received. And perhaps its finest attribute was that most of it +was permanent, and will remain, while France remains, as America's +supreme gift toward her post-war recovery.<a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV<br /><br /> +FRANCE AND THE MEDICOES</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE +history of the A. E. F. will be in most respects the history of +resources cunningly turned to new ends, of force redirected, with some +of its erstwhile uses retained, and of a colossal adventure in making +things do. Where the artillery was weak, the A. E. F. eked out with the +coast-artillery. Where the engineer corps was insufficient, the +railroads were called on for special units, frankly unmilitary. A whole +citizenry was abruptly turned to infantry. But one branch of the +service, though scarcely worthy of much responsibility when the war +began, was, nevertheless, the one most thoroughly prepared. The prize +service was the Medical Corps, and it was in this state of astonishing +preparedness because immediately before it became the Medical Corps, it +had been the Red Cross, and the Red Cross knows no peace-times.</p> + +<p>The question of what is Medical Corps and<a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a> what is Red Cross has always +been a facer for the superficial historian.</p> + +<p>Broadly speaking, the base hospitals of the army are organizations +recruited and equipped in America by the Red Cross, and transported to +France, where they become units of the army, under army discipline and +direction, and supplied by the Medical Corps stores except in cases +where these are inadvertently lacking, or unprovided for by the +strictness of military supervision. In any case, where sufficient +supplies are not forthcoming from the Medical Corps, they are given by +the Red Cross.</p> + +<p>This is the Red Cross on its military side. In its civilian work, which +is extensive, and in its recreational work it carries on under its own +name and by its own authority. Where it divides territory with the Y. M. +C. A., the division is that the Y. M. C. A. takes the well soldier and +the Red Cross the sick one, whenever either has time on his hands.</p> + +<p>But the Medical Corps plus the Red Cross created between them a branch +of the American Army in France which, from the moment of landing, was +the boast of the nation.<a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a></p> + +<p>For a year before America entered the war Colonel Jefferson Kean, +director-general of the military department of the American Red Cross, +had been organizing against the coming of American participation. Within +thirty days after America's war declaration Colonel Kean announced that +he had six base hospitals in readiness to go to the front, and within +another thirty days these six units were on their way, equipped and +ready to step into the French hospitals, schools, and what-not, waiting +to receive them, and to do business as usual the following morning.</p> + +<p>The six were organized at leading hospitals and medical schools: the +Presbyterian Hospital of New York, with Doctor George E. Brewer in +command; the Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland, with Doctor George W. Crile; +the Medical School of Harvard University, with Doctor Harvey Cushing; +the Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, with Doctor Richard Harte; the +Medical School of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, with +Doctor Frederick Besley, and Washington University Hospital, Saint +Louis, with Doctor Frederick T. Murphy.<a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a></p> + +<p>A little while later the Postgraduate unit went from New York, the +Roosevelt Hospital unit from there, and the Johns Hopkins unit from +Baltimore. Many others followed in due time.</p> + +<p>These hospital units, recruited and organized under the Red Cross, took +their full complement of surgeons, physicians, and nurses. All these +became members of the army as soon as they landed in France, and they +were supplemented, either there or before they crossed, with members of +Medical Corps, enlisted just after America entered the war.</p> + +<p>The military rank of the physicians and surgeons conformed in a general +way to the unofficial rank of the same men when they had worked together +in the hospitals from which they came. There were, of course, some +exceptions to this rule, but not enough to make it no rule at all.</p> + +<p>It was true of the medicoes, as it was of the engineers, that they took +military discipline none too seriously, because they brought a +discipline of their own. Wherever, in civilian pursuits, the lives of +others hang on prompt<a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a> obedience, there is a strictness which no +military strictness can outdo. This was true of the personnel of any +hospital in America, before there was thought of war. It was equally +true, of course, after the units were established behind the +fighting-lines. But there was a certain lack of prompt salute and a +certain freedom with first names which not the stoutest management from +the military arm of the service could obliterate from the base +hospitals. The Medical Corps enlisted men were naturally not sinners in +this respect. The routine work of the base hospitals all fell to them. +It was usually a sergeant of the army—though he was never a +veteran—who attended the reception-rooms, kept account of symptoms, +clothes, and first and second names, and did the work of orderly in the +hospital. It was the privates who kept the mess and washed the dishes +and changed the sheets.</p> + +<p>The nurses went under military discipline and into military +segregation—sometimes a little nettlesome, when the hospitals were far +from companionship of any outside sort.</p> + +<p>The sites selected for the hospitals were either<a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a> French hospitals which +were given over, or schools or big public buildings remade into +hospitals by the engineers. Each site was arranged so that it could be +enlarged at will. And the railways which connected the outlying +hospitals with the rest of the American communications were laid so that +other hospitals could be easily placed along their line. There was a +splendid elasticity in the Medical Corps plan.</p> + +<p>One base hospital was much like another, except for size. Those near the +line differed somewhat from those farther back, but their scheme was +uniform. At any rate, the history of their doings was similar enough to +have one history do for them all. Take, for example, one of the New York +units which landed in August and was placed nearer the coast than the +fighting. It was put in trim by the engineers, then sanitated by the +humbler members of the Medical Corps. The great wards were laid out, the +kitchens were built, windows were pried open—always the first American +job in France, to the great disgust and alarm of the French—and baths +were put in.<a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a></p> + +<p>The chief surgeon had specialized in noses and throats at home. When the +hospital was ready, naturally the soldiers were not in need of it—being +still in training in the Vosges—so the services of the hospital were +opened to the civilian population of France.</p> + +<p>By November there was not an adenoid in all those parts. The death-rate +almost vanished. Into this rural France, where there had been no +hospital and only a nursing home kept by some Sisters of Mercy who saw +their first surgical operation within the base hospital, there came this +skilful organization, handled by men whose incomes at home had been +measured in five figures, and all the healing they had was free.</p> + +<p>Multiply this by twenty, and then by thirty, before the pressing need +for care for soldiers directed the Medical Corps back to first channels, +and there will be some gauge of what this service did for France.</p> + +<p>And the gratitude of France was more than commensurate. Praise of the +American Medical Service flowed unceasingly from officials and +civilians, statesmen and journalists. There<a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a> were constant demands made +upon the French Government that it should pattern its own medical forces +exactly upon the American, making it the branch of the medical +specialist and not of the politician or the military man.</p> + +<p>The individual officers of the Medical Corps had much to learn, however, +from the French and the British. Though they knew hygiene, prophylaxis, +antisepsis, and surgery as few groups of men have ever known it, they +became scholars of the humblest in the surgery of the battle-field. +Every officer of the Medical Corps was kept on a round of visits behind +French and British fronts during the fairly peaceful interim between +their landing and the American occupation of a front-line sector.</p> + +<p>The Red Cross was the great auxiliary of the Medical Corps. It kept up +its recruiting in America, both for nurses and physicians, and for +supplies.</p> + +<p>And in supplies it played its greatest part. The Red Cross maintained +enormous warehouses, separate entirely from army control, which +contained provisions to meet every possible shortage. It was known by +the Red<a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a> Cross that never in the history of the world had there been a +medical corps of any army that had not finally broken down. No matter +how painstaking the provision, the need was always tragically greater.</p> + +<p>And so surgical dressings, sets of surgical instruments, medicines, +antiseptics, and anæsthetics piled up in the great A. R. C. +store-houses.</p> + +<p>Then there were the things for which the Medical Corps frankly made no +provision, which could have no place in a strictly military programme, +such as food delicacies of great cost, special articles of clothing, and +amusements. Every hospital convalescent ward had its phonograph, its +checker-boards, its chess-sets, and its dominoes. That was the Red +Cross.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<a href="images/illpg_164.jpg"> +<img src="images/illpg_164_sml.jpg" width="600" height="367" alt="Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly, formerly +the American Ambulance Hospital" title="Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly" /></a> +<span class="captionc">Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly, formerly +the American Ambulance Hospital</span> +</div> + +<p>The Red Cross had three hospitals of its own in Paris. The first of +these was at Neuilly, the hospital which had been the American Ambulance +Hospital from the beginning of the war, given over on the third +anniversary of its inauguration. Here French and American soldiers, +American civilians who worked with the<a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a> army, and Red Cross officers +and men were cared for. The second had been Doctor Blake's Hospital, and +when it became a Red Cross hospital, it was made to include the gigantic +laboratory where investigations were made, and where the American Red +Cross had the honor to ferret out the cause of trench-fever. This fever +had been one of the baffling tragedies of the war, because in the press +of caring for their wounded, other hospitals had been unable to give it +sufficient research.</p> + +<p>The third was the Reid Hospital, equipped and supplied by Mrs. Whitelaw +Reid.</p> + +<p>In the long period when all this hospital organization was at the +command of civilian France, inestimably fine work was done. It was a +sort of poetic tuition fee for the instruction in war surgery which was +meanwhile going on from veteran French surgeons to the American +newcomers. At the end of the first year, the Medical Corps was itself +ready for any stress, and it had mightily relieved the stress it had +already found.<a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV<br /><br /> +IN CHARGE OF MORALE</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">I</span>F +the army as a whole was a story of old skill in new uses, certainly +the most extraordinary single upheaval was that of the Y. M. C. A. +Though it had grown into many paths of civil life, in peace-times, that +could not have been foreshadowed by its founders, probably the wildest +speculation of its future never included the purveying of vaudeville and +cigarettes to soldiers in France.</p> + +<p>Yet just that was what the Y. M. C. A. was doing, within less than a +year from the American Army's arrival in France, and its only +lamentation was that it had nowhere near enough cigarettes and +vaudeville to purvey.</p> + +<p>It accepted the offer of the United States Government to watch over the +morale of the soldiers abroad, partly because it was so excellently +organized that it could handle a task of such vast scope, and partly +because both French and British Armies had got such fine<a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a> results from +similar organizations that the American Y. M. C. A. felt itself to be +historically elected.</p> + +<p>The Y. M. C. A. had cut its wisdom-teeth long before it became a part of +the army. Its directors had accepted the fact that a young man is apt to +be more interested in his biceps than in his soul, and that if he can +have athletics aplenty, and entertainment that really entertains, he'd +as lief be out of mischief as in it.</p> + +<p>But even this was not quite broad enough for the needs of the army away +from home. And one of the first things the Y. M. C. A. did in France, +and the stoutest pillar of its great success, was to abandon the +slightest aversion to bad language, or to the irreligion that brims out +of a cold, wet, and tired soldier in defiant spurts, and to cultivate, +in their stead, a sympathetic feeling for the want of smokes and a good +show.</p> + +<p>The secretaries sent abroad to build the first huts and watch over the +first soldiers were men selected for their skill in getting results +against considerable obstacles. Those who followed, as the organization +grew, were specialists of every sort. There were nationally famous<a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a> +sportsmen, to keep the baseball games up to scratch, and to see that +gymnastics out-of-doors were helped out by the rules. There were men who +could handle crowds, keep an evening's entertainment going, play good +ragtime, make good coffee, and produce cigarettes and matches out of +thin air.</p> + +<p>And, most important of all, they were men who could eradicate the +doughboy's suspicion that the Y. M. C. A. was a doleful, overly +prayerful, and effeminate institution.</p> + +<p>The Y. M. C. A. was dealing with the doughboy when he was on his own +time. If he didn't want to go to the "Y" hut, nobody could make him. +Certain things that were bad for him were barred to him by army +regulation. But there was a margin left over. If the doughboy was doing +nothing else, he might be sitting alone somewhere, feeling of his +feelings, and finding them very sad. The army did not cover this, but +the Y. M. C. A. took the ground that being melancholy was about as bad +as being drunk.</p> + +<p>But, naturally, the Red Triangle man had to use his tact. If he didn't +have any, he was sent home. His job was to persuade the doughboy,<a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a> not +to instruct him. And before long, the rule of the Y. M. C. A. was flatly +put: "Never mind your own theories—do what the soldiers want."</p> + +<p>That is why the "Y" huts—the combination shop, theatre, chapel, and +reading-room, coffee-stall and soda fountain, baseball-locker and +cigarette store, post-office and library which are run by the Y. M. C. +A. from coast to battle-line—are packed by soldiers every hour of the +day and evening.</p> + +<p>The "Y" huts began with the army. Before the second day of the First +Division's landing, there was a circus banner across the foot of the +main street stating: "This is the way to the Y. M. C. A. Get your money +changed, and write home." By following the pointing red finger painted +on the banner, one found a wooden shack, with a few chairs, a lot of +writing-paper and French money, a secretary and a heap of good-will.</p> + +<p>As the army moved battleward, these huts appeared just ahead of the +soldiers, with increased stores at each new place. American cigarettes +were on the counters. A few books arrived.<a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a></p> + +<p>The Y. M. C. A. proved its persuasiveness by its huts. A member of the +quartermasters' corps said, one day, in a fit of exasperation over a +waiting job: "How do these 'Y' fellows do it—I can't turn without +falling over a shack, built for them by the soldiers in their off time. +Do I get any work out of these soldiers when they're off? I do not. +They're too busy building 'Y' huts."</p> + +<p>The first entertainment in the "Y" huts was when the company bands moved +into them because the weather was too bad to play out-of-doors. The +concerts were a great success. By and by, men who knew something +interesting were asked to make short lectures to the soldiers. It was an +easy step to asking some clever professional entertainer to come down +and give a one-man show. Then Elsie Janis, who was in Europe, made a +flying tour of the "Y" huts, and a little while after, E. H. Sothern and +Winthrop Ames went over to see how much organized entertainment could be +sent from America.</p> + +<p>The result of their visit was The Over-There Theatre League, to which +virtually every actor and actress in America volunteered to belong.<a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a> By +the end of the first year, about 300 entertainers were either in France +or on their way there or back.</p> + +<p>Three months was the average time the performers were asked to give, and +they circled so steadily that there were always about 200 of them at +work on the "Y" circuit.</p> + +<p>The work of the Y. M. C. A. did not stop with affording entertainment to +the soldiers in the camps. They rented a big hotel in Paris and another +in London, and they established many canteens in these two cities, so +that their patrols—secretaries whose job was to rescue stray, lonely +soldiers in the streets—would always have a near and comfortable place +to offer to the wanderers.</p> + +<p>Then they preceded the army to Aix-les-Bains and Chambery, the two +resorts in the Savoy Alps where American soldiers were sent for their +eight-day leaves, and arranged for cheap hotel accommodations, guides, +theatres, etc., and they took over the Casino entirely for the soldiers.</p> + +<p>Their field canteens were just back of the fighting-line, and late at +night it was the duty<a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a> of the secretaries to store their pockets with +cigarettes and chocolate and with letters from home, and shoulder the +big tins of hot coffee made in the canteens and go into the front-line +trenches to serve the men there. In fact, the "Y" men did everything +with the army except go over the top.</p> + +<p>The largest part of work of this type fell to the Y. M. C. A. because +they had the most flexible organization ready at the beginning of +American participation. But they had substantial help, which as time +went on grew more and more in volume, from several other associations. +The Knights of Columbus and the Salvation Army both did magnificent +service, in canteens and trenches. And of course the Red Cross took over +the sick soldier and entertained and supplied him, as a part of their +co-army work.</p> + +<p>There was one branch of the Red Cross which perhaps did more than any +other one thing to keep up the hearts and spirits of the soldiers—it +was called the Department of Home Communications, and it was directed by +Henry Allen, a Wichita, Kansas, newspaper man.<a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a></p> + +<p>Mr. Allen believed that a soldier's letters did more for him than any +other one thing, and that, failing letters, he must at least have +reliable news of his home folks from time to time. Further, that every +soldier was easier in his mind if he knew that his home folks would have +news of him, fully and authentically, no matter what happened to him.</p> + +<p>So Mr. Allen posted his representatives in every hospital, in every +trench sector, and through them kept track of every soldier. If a man +was taken prisoner Mr. Allen knew it. If he was wounded Mr. Allen knew +just where and how. The man's family was told of it immediately. +Presently, where this was possible, Mr. Allen's representative was +writing letters from the wounded men to their relatives, and was +receiving all Mr. Allen's news of these relatives for the men in the +hospital.</p> + +<p>In addition to things of this kind, done by Red Triangle men, Red Cross +men, and the Salvation Army and the Knights of Columbus, all these +organizations worked together to effect distributions of comfort kits +and sweaters, gift cigarettes and chocolate, and all the dozen and<a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a> one +things that made the soldiers find life a little more agreeable.</p> + +<p>There was more than co-operation from the army itself. There was the +deepest gratitude, openly expressed, from every member of the army, +whether general or private, because it was a recognized fact that, +though an army cannot do these things itself, it owes them more than it +can ever repay.<a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI<br /><br /> +INTO THE TRENCHES</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">A</span>FTER +months of training behind the lines the doughboys began to long +for commencement. It came late in October. The point selected for the +trench test of the Americans was in a quiet sector. The position lay +about twelve miles due east from Nancy and five miles north of +Lunéville. It extended roughly from Parroy to Saint-Die. Even after the +entry of the Americans the sector remained under French command. In +fact, the four battalions of our troops which made up the first American +contingent on the fighting-line were backed up by French reserves. No +better training sector could have been selected, for this was a quiet +front. American officers who acted as observers along this line for +several days before the doughboys went in found that shelling was +restricted and raids few. Many villages close behind the lines on either +side were respected because of a tacit agreement between the contend<a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a>ing +armies. French and Germans sent war-weary troops to the Lunéville sector +to rest up. It also served to break in new troops without subjecting +them to an oversevere ordeal, so that they might learn the tricks of +modern warfare gradually.</p> + +<p>Of course, even quiet sectors may become suddenly active, and care was +taken to screen the movements of the soldiers carefully. It proved +impossible, however, to keep the move a complete mystery, for when +camion after camion of tin-hatted Americans moved away from the training +area the villagers could not fail to suspect that something was about to +happen. Perhaps these suspicions grew stronger when each group of +fighting men sang loudly and cheerfully that they were "going to hang +the Kaiser to a sour apple-tree."</p> + +<p>The weather was distinctly favorable for the movement of troops. One of +the blackest nights of the month awaited the Americans at the front. +Rain fell, but not hard enough to impede transportation. Still, such +weather was something of a moral handicap. Many of the newcomers would +have been glad to take a lit<a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a>tle shelling if they could have had a bit +of a moon or a few stars to light their way to the trenches. Instead +they groped their way along roads which were soft enough to deaden every +sound. A wind moaned lightly overhead and the strict command of silence +made it impossible to seek the proper antidote of song. One or two men +struck up "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are Marching," as they headed +for the front, but they were quickly silenced.</p> + +<p>The march began about nine o'clock, after the soldiers had eaten +heartily in a little village close to the lines. At the very edge of +this village stood a cheerful inn and a moving-picture theatre. The +doughboys looked a little longingly at both houses of diversion before +they swung round the bend and followed the black road which led to the +trench-line. The people of the village did not seem to be much excited +by the fact that history was being made before their eyes. They had seen +so many troops go by up that road that they could achieve no more than a +friendly interest. They did not crowd close about the marchers as the +people had done in Paris.<a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a></p> + +<p>Seemingly the Germans had not been able to ascertain the time set for +the coming of the Americans. The roads were not shelled at all. In fact, +the German batteries were even more indolent than usual at this point. +The relief was effected without incident, although a few stories drifted +back about enthusiastic poilus who had greeted their new comrades with +kisses.</p> + +<p>The artillery beat the infantry into action. They had to have a start in +order to get their guns into place, and some fifteen hours before the +doughboys went into the trenches America had fired the first shot of the +war against Germany. Alexander Arch, a sergeant from South Bend, +Indiana, was the man who pulled the lanyard. The shot was a shrapnel +shell and was directed at a German working-party who were presuming on +the immunity offered by a misty dawn. They scattered at the first shot, +but it was impossible to tell whether it caused any casualties. When the +working-party took cover there were no targets which demanded immediate +attention, and the various members of the gun crew were allowed the +privilege of<a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a> firing the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, +eighth, and ninth shots of the war. After that, shooting at the Germans +ceased to become a historical occasion, but was a mere incident in the +routine of duty, and was treated as such.</p> + +<p>The only unusual incident which seriously threatened the peace of mind +of the infantrymen in their first night in the trenches was the flash of +a green rocket which occurred some fifteen or twenty minutes after they +arrived. They had been taught that a green rocket would be the alarm for +a gas attack, but this particular signal came from the German trenches +and had no message for the Americans. The Germans may have suspected the +presence of new troops, for the men were just a bit jumpy, as all +newcomers to the trenches are, and a few took pot-shots at objects out +in No Man's Land which proved to be only stakes in the barbed wire or +tufts of waving grass.</p> + +<p>Although the Germans made the first successful raid, the Americans took +the first prisoner. He was captured only a few nights after the coming +of the doughboys. A patrol picked him up close to the American wire. He +was a<a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a> mail-carrier, and in cutting across lots to reach some of his +comrades he lost his way and wandered over to the American lines. +Although he was surprised, he was not willing to surrender, but made an +attempt to escape after he had been ordered to halt. One of the +doughboys fired at him as he ran and he was carried into the American +trenches badly wounded. He died the next day.</p> + +<p>Beginning on the night of November 2 and extending over into the early +morning of November 3, the Germans made a successful raid against the +American lines immediately after a relief. After a severe preliminary +bombardment a large party of raiders came across. The bombardment had +cut the telephone wires of the little group of Americans which met the +attack and they were completely isolated. They fought bravely but +greenly. Three Americans were killed, five were wounded, and twelve were +captured. The Germans retired quickly with their prisoners.</p> + +<p>American morale was not injured by this first jab of the Germans. On the +other hand, it made the doughboys mad, and, better than<a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a> that, made them +careful. A German attempt to repeat the raid a few nights later was +repulsed. The three men who were killed in this first clash were buried +close to the lines, while minute-guns fired shells over the graveyard +toward the Germans. General Bordeaux, who commanded the French division +at this point, saluted before each of the three graves, and then turned +to the officers and men drawn up before him and said:</p> + +<p>"In the name of the division, in the name of the French Army, and in the +name of France, I bid farewell to Private Enright, Private Gresham, and +Private Hay of the American Army.</p> + +<p>"Of their own free will they had left a prosperous and happy country to +come over here. They knew war was continuing in Europe; they knew that +the forces fighting for honor, love of justice and civilization were +still checked by the long-prepared forces serving the powers of brutal +domination, oppression, and barbarity. They knew that efforts were still +necessary. They wished to give us their generous hearts, and they have +not forgotten old historical memories while others forget more recent +ones.<a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a> They ignored nothing of the circumstances and nothing had been +concealed from them—neither the length and hardships of war, nor the +violence of battle, nor the dreadfulness of new weapons, nor the perfidy +of the foe.</p> + +<p>"Nothing stopped them. They accepted the hard and strenuous life; they +crossed the ocean at great peril; they took their places on the front by +our side, and they have fallen facing the foe in a hard and desperate +hand-to-hand fight. Honor to them. Their families, friends, and fellow +citizens will be proud when they learn of their deaths.</p> + +<p>"Men! These graves, the first to be dug in our national soil and but a +short distance from the enemy, are as a mark of the mighty land we and +our allies firmly cling to in the common task, confirming the will of +the people and the army of the United States to fight with us to a +finish, ready to sacrifice so long as is necessary until victory for the +most noble of causes, that of the liberty of nations, the weak as well +as the mighty. Thus the deaths of these humble soldiers appear to us +with extraordinary grandeur.<a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a></p> + +<p>"We will, therefore, ask that the mortal remains of these young men be +left here, be left with us forever. We inscribe on the tombs: 'Here lie +the first soldiers of the Republic of the United States to fall on the +soil of France for liberty and justice.' The passer-by will stop and +uncover his head. Travellers and men of heart will go out of their way +to come here to pay their respective tributes.</p> + +<p>"Private Enright! Private Gresham! Private Hay! In the name of France I +thank you. God receive your souls. Farewell!"</p> + +<p>After the Germans had identified Americans on the Lunéville front it was +supposed that they might maintain an aggressive policy and make the +front an active one. The Germans were too crafty for that. They realized +that the Americans were in the line for training, and so they gave them +few opportunities to learn anything in the school of experience. In +spite of the lack of co-operation by the Germans, the doughboys gained +valuable knowledge during their stay in the trenches. There were several +spirited patrol encounters and much sniping. American aviators got a +taste of warfare by<a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a> going on some of the bombing expeditions of the +French. They went as passengers, but one American at least was able to +pay for his passage by crawling out from his seat and releasing a bomb +which had become jammed. When every battalion had been in the trenches +the American division was withdrawn, and for a short time in the winter +of 1917 there was no American infantry at the front.</p> + +<p>Curiously enough, the honor of participation in a major engagement +hopped over the infantry and came first to the engineers. It came quite +by accident. The 11th Engineers had been detailed for work behind the +British front. Early on the morning of November 30 four officers and 280 +men went to Gouzeaucourt, a village fully three miles back of the line. +But this was the particular day the Germans had chosen for a surprise +attack. The engineers had hardly begun work before the Germans laid a +barrage upon the village, and almost before the Americans realized what +was happening German infantry entered the outskirts of the place while +low-flying German planes peppered our men with machine-gun fire. The +engineers<a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a> were unarmed, but they picked up what weapons they could find +and used shovels and fists as well as they retired before the German +attack. According to the stories of the men, one soldier knocked two +Germans down with a pickaxe before they could make a successful bayonet +thrust. He was eventually wounded but did not fall into the hands of the +enemy. Seventeen of the engineers were captured, but the rest managed to +fight their way out or take shelter in shell-holes, where they lay until +a slight advance by the British rescued them.</p> + +<p>Having had a taste of fighting, the engineers were by no means disposed +to have done with it. The entire regiment, including the survivors of +Gouzeaucourt, were ordered first to dig trenches and then to occupy +them. This time they were armed with rifles as well as +intrenching-tools. They held the line until reinforcements arrived.</p> + +<p>The conduct of the engineers was made the subject of a communication +from Field-Marshal Haig to General Pershing. "I desire to express to you +my thanks and those of the British engaged for the prompt and valuable +assistance<a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a> rendered," wrote the British commander, "and I trust that +you will be good enough to convey to these gallant men how much we all +appreciate their prompt and soldierly readiness to assist in what was +for a time a difficult situation."<a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII<br /><br /> +OUR OWN SECTOR</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE +Lunéville sector was merely a sort of postgraduate school of +warfare, but shortly after the beginning of 1918 the American Army took +over a part of the line for its very own. This sector was gradually +enlarged. By the middle of April the Americans were holding more than +twenty miles. The sector lay due north of Toul and extended very roughly +from Saint-Mihiel to Pont-à-Mousson. Later other sections of front were +given over to the Americans at various points on the Allied line. +Perhaps there was not quite the same thrill in the march to the Toul +sector as in the earlier movement to the trenches of the Lunéville line. +After all, even the limited service which the men had received gave them +something of the spirit of veterans. Then, too, the movement was less of +an adventure. Motor-trucks were few and most of the men marched all the +way over roads that were icy. The troops stood up<a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a> splendidly under the +marching test and under the rigorous conditions of housing which were +necessary on the march. They had learned to take the weather of France +in the same easy, inconsequential way they took the language.</p> + +<p>For a second time the German spy system fell a good deal short of its +reputed omniscience. Seemingly, the enemy was not forewarned of the +coming of the Americans. Despite the fact that the troops were tired +from their long march, the relief was carried out without a hitch. Toul +had been regarded as a comparatively quiet sector, and, while it never +did blaze up into major actions during the early months of 1918, it was +hardly a rest-camp. It was, as the phrase goes, "locally active." Few +parts of the front were enlivened with as many raids and minor thrusts, +and No Man's Land was the scene of constant patrol encounters, which +lost nothing in spirit, even if they bulked small in size and +importance.</p> + +<p>It is probable that the Germans had no ambitious offensive plans in +regard to the Toul sector. They tried, however, to keep the Americans at +that point so busy and so harassed<a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a> that it would be impossible for +Pershing to send men to help stem the drives against the French and the +English. The failure of this plan will be shown in the later chapters.</p> + +<p>Before going on to take up in some detail the life of the men in the +Toul sector, it is necessary to record a casualty suffered by +Major-General Leonard Wood. While inspecting the French lines General +Wood was wounded in the arm when a French gun exploded. Five French +soldiers were killed and Lieutenant-Colonel Charles E. Kilbourne and +Major Kenyon A. Joyce, who accompanied General Wood, were slightly +wounded. Wood returned to America shortly after the accident, and did +not have the privilege of coming back to France with the division he had +trained. But for all that he had a unique distinction. Leonard Wood was +the first American major-general to earn the right to a wounded stripe.</p> + +<p>The German artillery was active along the Toul front and the percentage +of losses, while small, was higher than it had been in the Lunéville +trenches. Of course, the American artillery was not inactive. It had a +deal of practice dur<a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a>ing the early days of February. The Germans +attempted to ambush a patrol on the 19th and failed, and on the next +night a sizable raid broke down under a barrage which was promptly +furnished by the American batteries in response to signals from the +trench which the Germans were attempting to isolate.</p> + +<p>The first job for America did not come on the Toul sector, but near the +Chemin-des-Dames. American artillery had already shown proficiency in +this sector by laying down a barrage for the French, who took a small +height near Tahure. Hilaire Belloc referred to this action as "small in +extent but of high historical importance." The importance consisted in +the fact that for the first time American artillerymen had an +opportunity of rolling a barrage ahead of an attacking force. They +showed their ability to solve the rather difficult timing problems +involved. Certain historical importance, then, must be given to the +action of February 23, when an American raiding-party in conjunction +with the French penetrated a few hundred yards into the German lines and +captured two German officers, twenty men, and a <a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a>machine-gun. This +little action should not be forgotten, because it was practically the +first success of the Americans. It gave some indication of the efficient +help which Pershing's men were to give later on in Foch's great +counter-attack which drove the Germans across the Marne.</p> + +<p>It is interesting to know that every man in the American battalion +stationed on the Chemin-des-Dames volunteered for the raid. Of this +number only twenty-six were picked. There were approximately three times +as many French in the party, and it must be remembered that the affair +was strictly a French "show." The raid was carefully planned and +rehearsals were held back of the line, over country similar to that +which the Americans would cross in the raid. At 5.30 in the morning the +barrage began and it continued for an hour with guns of many calibres +having their say. The attack was timed almost identically with the +relief in the German trenches and the Boches were caught unawares. The +fact that a shell made a direct hit on a big dugout did not tend to +improve German morale. The little party of Americans had already cut +2,999 miles and some yards<a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a> from the distance which separated their +country from the war, and they were anxious to cover the remaining +distance. Their French companions set them the example of not running +into their own barrage. Poilus and doughboys jumped into the enemy +trench together. There was a little sharp hand-to-hand fighting, but not +a great deal, as the German officers ordered their men to give ground. +The group of prisoners were captured almost in a body. Further +researches along communicating trenches and into dugouts failed to yield +any more.</p> + +<p>Attackers and prisoners started back for their own lines on schedule +time. The German artillery tried to cut them off. One shell wounded five +of the Germans and six Frenchmen, but the American contingent was +fortunate enough to escape without a single casualty. The French +expressed themselves as well pleased with the conduct of their pupils. +They said that the Americans had approached the barrage too closely once +or twice, but this was not remarkable, as it was the first time American +infantry had advanced behind a screen of shell fire. Their inexperience +also excused their tendency<a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a> to go a little too far after the German +trench-line had been reached.</p> + +<p>On February 26 the Americans on the Toul front had their first +experience with a serious gas attack. Of course, gas-shells had been +thrown at them before, but this was the first time they had been +subjected to a steady bombardment. Some of the men were not sufficiently +cautious. A few were slow in getting their masks on and others took +theirs off too soon. The result was that five men were killed and fifty +or sixty injured by the gas. Two days later the Americans on the +Chemin-des-Dames were heavily attacked, but the Germans were driven off.</p> + +<p>March found the Toul sector receiving more attention than usual from the +Germans. The Germans made a strong thrust on the morning of March 1. The +raid was a failure, as three German prisoners remained in American hands +and many Germans were killed. Gas did not prove as effective as on the +last occasion. The doughboys were quick to put on their masks and as +soon as the bombardment ended they waited for the attacking-party and +swept them<a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a> with machine-guns. About 240 Germans participated in the +attack. Some succeeded in entering the American first-line trench, but +they were expelled after a little sharp fighting. An American captain +who tried to cut off the German retreat by waylaying the raiders as they +started back for their own lines was killed. On the same day a raid +against the Chemin-des-Dames position failed. The Germans left four +prisoners.</p> + +<p>Two days after the attempted Toul raid Premier Clemenceau visited the +American sector and awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm to two +lieutenants, two sergeants, and two privates. The premier, who knows +American inhibitions just as well as he knows the language, departed a +little from established customs in awarding the medals. Nobody was +kissed. Instead Clemenceau patted the doughboys on the shoulder and +said: "That's the way to do it." One soldier was late in arriving, and +he seemed to be much afraid that this might cost him his cross, but the +premier handed it to him with a smile. "You were on time the other +morning," he said. "That's enough." In an<a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a> official note Clemenceau +described the action of the Americans as follows: "It was a very fine +success, reflecting great honor on the tenacity of the American infantry +and the accuracy of the artillery fire."</p> + +<p>The Americans made a number of raids during March, but the Germans were +holding their front lines loosely, and usually abandoned them when +attacked, which made it difficult to get prisoners. An incident which +stands out occurred on March 7, when a lone sentry succeeded in +repulsing a German patrol practically unaided. He was fortunate enough +to kill the only officer with his first shot. This took the heart out of +the Germans. The lone American was shooting so fast that they did not +realize he was a solitary defender, and they fled. On March 14 American +troops made their first territorial gain, but it can hardly be classed +as an offensive. Some enemy trenches northeast of Badonviller, in the +Lunéville sector, were abandoned by the Germans because they had been +pretty thoroughly smashed up by American artillery fire. These trenches +were consolidated with the American position.<a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a></p> + +<p>April saw the first full-scale engagement in which American troops took +part at Seicheprey, but earlier in the month there was some spirited +fighting by Americans. Poilus and doughboys repelled an attack in the +Apremont Forest on April 12. The American elements of the defending +force took twenty-two prisoners. The German attack was renewed the next +day, but the Franco-American forces dislodged the Germans by a vigorous +counter-attack, after they had gained a foothold in the first-line +trenches. The biggest attack yet attempted on the Toul front occurred on +April 14. Picked troops from four German companies, numbering some 400 +men, were sent forward to attack after an unusually heavy bombardment. +The Germans were known to have had 64 men killed, and 11 were taken +prisoner.</p> + +<p>Numerous stories, more or less authentic, were circulated after this +engagement. One which is well vouched for concerns a young Italian who +met eight Germans in a communicating trench and killed one and captured +three. The remaining four found safety in flight. The youngster turned +his prisoners over to a sergeant<a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a> and asked for a match. "I'll give you +a match if you'll bring me another German," said the non-commissioned +officer. The little Italian was a literal man and he wanted the match +very much. He went back over the parapet, and in five minutes he +returned escorting quite a large German, who was crying: "Kamerad."</p> + +<p>While American soldiers on the front were gaining experience, which +stood them in good stead at Seicheprey and later at Cantigny, great +progress was made in the organization of the American forces. Late in +the spring the first field-army was formed. This army was composed of +two army corps each made up of one Regular Army division, one National +Army division, and one division of National Guard. Major-General Hunter +Liggett became the first field-army commander of the overseas forces, +and it was his men who covered themselves with so much distinction in +the great counter-blows of July.<a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII<br /><br /> +A CIVILIAN VISITOR</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">D</span>ESTINY always plays the flying wedge. There is always the significant +little happening, half noticed or miscalculated, which trails great +happenings after it. On March 19, 1918, a derby hat appeared in the +front-line trenches held by the American Army in France. This promptly +was accorded the honor by the army and the Allied representatives of +being the first derby hat that had ever been seen in a trench. The hat +had the honor to be on the head of the first American Secretary of War +who had ever been in Europe in his term of office. And this first +American Secretary of War away from home was presently to have the honor +of helping to create the first generalissimo who had ever commanded an +army of twenty-six allies.</p> + +<p>All of which is to say that Newton D. Baker, on a tour of inspection of +the A. E. F., whose<a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a> visit was to have such terrific fruition, +repudiated the war counsels which would have kept him out of the +trenches on this gusty March day, and went down to see for himself and +all the Americans at home how the doughboy was faring, and what could be +done for him.</p> + +<p>And as he peered over the parapet into No Man's Land, Secretary Baker +said: "I am standing on the frontier of freedom." The phrase grew its +wings in the saying, and by nightfall it had found the farthest +doughboy.</p> + +<p>The Paris newspapers announced, on the morning of March 12, that +Secretary Baker was in France. The troops had it by noon. And questions +flew in swarms. It was discovered that he would review the brigade of +veterans who had returned from service at the front on March 20, and +that meanwhile he would investigate the lines of communication.</p> + +<p>After a few days in Paris, during which Secretary Baker delivered all +the persuasions he had brought from President Wilson on behalf of a +unified command of the Allied armies, and had, it was rumored, turned +the scale in favor of a generalissimo, the distinguished civilian<a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a> went +to the coast to see the port city which was the pride of the army and +the marvel of France.</p> + +<p>The secretary rode to the coast on a French train, but, once there, he +was transferred to an American train, which had to make up in +sentimental importance the large lack it had of elegance.</p> + +<p>A flat car was rapidly rigged up with plank benches. This had the merit +of affording plenty of view, and, after all, that was what the secretary +had come for.</p> + +<p>After rolling over the main arteries of the 200 miles of terminal +trackage, Secretary Baker inspected the warehouses, assembling-plants, +camps, etc., and walked three mortal miles of dock front which his +countrymen had evolved from an oozing marsh. He paid his highest +compliments to the engineers and the laborers, and amazed the officers +by the acuteness of his questions. If his visit did nothing else, it +convinced the men on the job that the man back home knew what the +obstacles were.</p> + +<p>Secretary Baker's next visit was to the biggest of the aviation-fields, +where again his technical understanding, as it came out in his +questions,<a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a> astounded and cheered the men who were doing the building.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<a href="images/illpg_202.jpg"> +<img src="images/illpg_202_sml.jpg" width="600" height="377" alt="Copyright by the Committee on Public Information. + +Secretary Baker riding on flat car during his tour of inspection of the +American Expeditionary Forces." title="Secretary Baker riding on flat car during his tour of inspection of the +American Expeditionary Forces." /></a> +<p class="captionl">Copyright by the Committee on Public Information.</p> +<p class="captionc">Secretary Baker riding on flat car during his tour of inspection of the +American Expeditionary Forces.</p> +</div> + +<p>Secretary Baker carried his office with him, a delightful discovery to +the men in the aviation-fields, who had some problems sorely pressing +for decision, and who found, when they told them to Mr. Baker, that he +had no aversion to taking action on the spot. For example, at aviation +headquarters, Mr. Baker asked if the fliers who came first from America +were the first to have their commissions after the final flights in +France. He learned that because of some delay in giving final +instruction, through no fault of the aviators, these first commissions +had not been given. Mr. Baker instituted a full inquiry at once, and at +the end of it directed that the commissions, when finally awarded, +should bear a date one day in advance of all others, so that the +priority rightfully earned should not be lost.</p> + +<p>After hours in the field, during which hundreds of machines with +American pilots flew in squadron formation, and many experts did +spectacular single flights, Mr. Baker made a short speech to the fliers. +A French officer,<a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a> who had been instructing at the field, said to Mr. +Baker: "With all these machines in the air, you see no more than a tenth +of what America has in this one school. You will soon have no more need +of French instruction. We have shown everything we know, and your young +men have taken to the art with astonishing facility, as well as +audacity, nerve, and resource. The danger and difficulties fascinate and +inspire them. I think it must be what you call the 'sporting spirit.'"</p> + +<p>As he was leaving the aviation-field Secretary Baker said: "The spirit +of every man in this camp seems in keeping with the mission which +brought him to France. The camps, appointments, and organization are +admirable. It is gratifying to learn from their French instructors that +our young aviators are proving themselves daring, cool, and skilful."</p> + +<p>On the night of March 18 Secretary Baker began his preparations for a +visit to the trenches. With a general commanding a division and one +other officer he motored to the farthest point, where he dined and +stayed the night in a French château. At dawn the next morning the +party<a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a> made ready to go on. But the Boches appeared to have a hunch. +They shelled the road on which Secretary Baker had planned to travel +with such ferocity that the officers in command refused to take the risk +of permitting Mr. Baker to go over it. The American general and all the +French officers then begged Mr. Baker to give up the trip to the +trenches. They wasted a lot of persuasion. Mr. Baker just went by +another road. A colonel of about Mr. Baker's build had loaned him a +trench overcoat, and some rubber boots, and the secretary had a tin +helmet and a gas-mask, but he would wear the tin helmet only for a +moment, and the mask not at all.</p> + +<p>The officers in charge of the party found presently, to their acute +horror, that even the trenches were not enough for Mr. Baker. Nothing +would do him but a listening-post. And when he had finally got back +safe, and had come back to the communication-trenches from the front, +everybody breathed a sigh of relief. The relief was premature, for the +liveliest danger of all was on the return motor trip, when an immense +shell buried itself in a crater not<a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a> fifty yards from the secretary. +Fortunately, the débris flew all in the opposite direction, and nobody +was hurt.</p> + +<p>The First Division heard an address the following day from Secretary +Baker. "It would seem more fit," he said, "and I should much prefer it, +if, instead of addressing you, I should listen to your experiences. Your +division has the distinction of being the first to arrive in France. May +every man in your ranks aim to make the First Division the first in +accomplishment. With you came a body of the marines, those +well-disciplined, ship-shape soldiers of the navy.</p> + +<p>"Yours was the first experience in being billeted, and in all the +initial details of adjusting yourselves to new and strange conditions. +In this, as in developing a system of training, you were the pioneers, +blazing the way, while succeeding contingents could profit by your +mistakes.</p> + +<p>"Day after day and week after week you had to continue the hard drudgery +of instruction which is necessary to proficiency in modern war. You had +to restrain your impatience to<a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a> go into the trenches under General +Pershing's wise demand for that thoroughness, the value of which you now +appreciate as a result of actual service in the trenches.</p> + +<p>"If sometimes the discipline seemed wearing, you now know you would have +paid for its absence with your lives.</p> + +<p>"If I had any advice to give, it is to strike hard and shoot straight, +and I would warn you at the same time against any carelessness, any +surrendering to curiosity, which would make you a mark needlessly. The +better you are trained the more valuable is your life to your country, +as a fighter who seeks to make the soldier of the enemy, rather than +yourself, pay the supreme price of war.</p> + +<p>"On every hand I am told that you are prepared to fight 'to the end,' +and I see this spirit in your faces. Depend upon us at home to stand by +you in a spirit worthy of you."</p> + +<p>Next Secretary Baker spoke, though informally, to the Forty-second +Division, far better known as the Rainbow Division. There he explained +some of the reasons for military secrecy.<a name="page_208" id="page_208"></a></p> + +<p>"While it was in training at home I saw a good deal of the Rainbow +Division," he said "Then, one day, it was gone to France, where it +disappeared behind the curtain of military secrecy which must be drawn +unless we choose to sacrifice the lives of our men for the sake of +publicity. The enemy's elaborate intelligence system seeks at any cost +to learn the strength, the preparedness, and the character of our +troops. Our own intelligence service assures us that the knowledge of +our army in France which some assume to exist does not, in fact, exist.</p> + +<p>"If we were to announce the identity of each unit that comes to France, +then we would fully inform the enemy of the number and nature of our +forces. Published details about any division are most useful to expert +military intelligence officers in determining the state of the +division's preparedness, and the probable assignment of the division to +any section.</p> + +<p>"But now it is safe to mention certain divisions which were first to +arrive in France and have already been in the line. This includes the +Rainbow Division, famous because it is representative of all parts of +the United States.<a name="page_209" id="page_209"></a> This division should find in its character an +inspiration to <i>esprit de corps</i> and general excellence. It should be +conscious of its mission as a symbol of national unity.</p> + +<p>"The men of Ohio I know as Ohioans, and I am proud that they have been +worthy of Ohio. A citizen of another State will find himself equally at +home in some other group, and the gauge of this State's pride will be +the discipline of that group of soldiers, its conduct as men, its +courage, and its skill in the trenches. You may learn more than war in +France. You may learn lessons from France, whose unity and courage have +been a bulwark against that sinister force whose character you are +learning in the trenches. The Frenchman is, first of all, a Frenchman, +which stimulates, rather than weakens, his pride in Brittany as a +Breton, in Lorraine as a Lorrainer, and his loyalty and affection for +his own town, or village, or home. In truth he fights for his family and +his home when he fights for France and civilization. Thus, you will +fight best and serve best by being first an American, with no diminution +of your loyalty to your State and your community.<a name="page_210" id="page_210"></a></p> + +<p>"With us at home the development of a new national unity seems a vague +process compared to the concrete process you are undergoing. You are +uniting North, East, South, and West in action. We aim to support you +with all our resources, to make sure that you do not fight in vain."</p> + +<p>The brigade of the veterans was reviewed on the last day of the camp +inspection.</p> + +<p>Secretary Baker went by motor, with officers and aides, as far as the +foot of the hill from which he was to review the troops deploying in the +Marne valley. Twenty days of rain had made the hilltop inaccessible by +motor. As Secretary Baker started up one slope, General Pershing and his +aides ascended another, and the two men met at the top.</p> + +<p>The brigade swept by at company front, with full marching equipment. +They were the first brigade to be reviewed after it had been in action, +and they held to their flawless formation, chins up and chests out, in +spite of clogging mud that was almost too much for the mules.</p> + +<p>The review ended in compliments all around.<a name="page_211" id="page_211"></a> Secretary Baker's +enthusiasm was conveyed even to the lesser officers. General Pershing +said: "These men have been there and know what it is. You can tell that +by the way they throw out their chests as they swing by."</p> + +<p>America at last had her veterans. They were to dignify the coming gift +of them to heroic size.<a name="page_212" id="page_212"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX<br /><br /> +A FAMOUS GESTURE</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">W</span>HEN +America had put the power of all her eloquence into the growing +demand among the Allies for a unified command, and when, as a result of +this pressure, General Foch, chief of staff of the French Army and hero +of the battle of the Marne, had been made generalissimo, General +Pershing put into words in what the French called a "superb gesture" the +final sacrifice his country was prepared to make.</p> + +<p>The first of the great German drives of 1918 had halted, but the battle +was nowhere near its end. General Foch was sparing every possible energy +on the battle-front and heaping up every atom of force for his reserve.</p> + +<p>And on the morning of March 28 General Pershing went to headquarters and +offered the American Army in full to General Foch, to put where he +pleased, without any regard whatever for America's earlier wish to fight +with her army intact.<a name="page_213" id="page_213"></a></p> + +<p>It was the final sacrifice to the idealistic point of view. It had +indisputably the heroic quality. And as such it was rewarded in the +countries of the Allies with appreciation beyond measure.</p> + +<p>"I have come," said General Pershing to General Foch that morning, "to +say to you that the American people would hold it a great honor for our +troops if they were engaged in the present battle. I ask it of you in my +name and in that of the American people.</p> + +<p>"There is at this moment no other question than that of fighting. +Infantry, artillery, aviation—all that we have are yours, to dispose of +them as you will. Others are coming, which are as numerous as will be +necessary. I have come to say to you that the American people would be +proud to be engaged in the greatest battle in history."</p> + +<p>This offer was placed immediately by General Foch before the French +war-council at the front, a council including Premier Clemenceau, +Commander-in-Chief Pétain, and Louis Loucheur, Minister of Munitions, +and was immediately accepted. American Army orders went<a name="page_214" id="page_214"></a> forth in French +from that day. And on those orders the army was presently scattered +through the vast reserve army, from Flanders with the British to Verdun +with the Italians and the French. They were not to go into actual +battle, except near their own sectors, till the third monster drive, in +July, for General Foch makes a religion of the reserve army and Fabian +tactics. But they spread through the battle-line from Switzerland to the +sea, as General Pershing had suggested, and "all we have" was at work.</p> + +<p>Paris acclaimed the move royally. <i>La Liberté</i> wrote: "General Pershing +yesterday took, in the name of his country, action which was grand in +its simplicity and of moving beauty. In a few words, without adornment, +but in which vibrated an accent of chivalrous passion, General Pershing +made to France the offer of an entire people. 'Take all,' he said; 'all +is yours.' The honor Pershing claims is shared by us, and it is with the +sentiment of real pride that our soldiers will greet into their ranks +those of the New World who come to them as brothers."<a name="page_215" id="page_215"></a></p> + +<p>Secretary Baker, from American General Headquarters, gave out a +statement. "I am delighted at General Pershing's prompt and effective +action," he said, "in placing all the American troops and facilities at +the disposal of the Allies in the present situation.</p> + +<p>"It will be met with hearty approval in the United States, where the +people desire their expeditionary force to be of the utmost service in +the common cause. I have visited all the American troops in France, some +of them recently, and had an opportunity to observe the enthusiasm with +which officers and men received the announcement that they would be used +in the present conflict. One regiment to which the announcement was made +spontaneously broke into cheers."</p> + +<p>The British Government issued an official statement on the night of +April 1: "As a result of communications which have passed between the +Prime Minister and President Wilson; of deliberations between Secretary +Baker, who visited London a few days ago, and the Prime Minister, Mr. +Balfour, and Lord Derby, and consultations in France in which General +Persh<a name="page_216" id="page_216"></a>ing and General Bliss participated, important decisions have been +come to by which large forces of trained men in the American Army can be +brought to the assistance of the Allies in the present struggle.</p> + +<p>"The government of our great Western ally is not only sending large +numbers of American battalions to Europe during the coming critical +months, but has agreed to such of its regiments as cannot be used in +divisions of their own being brigaded with French and British units so +long as the necessity lasts.</p> + +<p>"By this means troops which are not sufficiently trained to fight as +divisions and army corps will form part of seasoned divisions, until +such time as they have completed their training and General Pershing +wishes to withdraw them in order to build up the American Army.</p> + +<p>"Throughout these discussions President Wilson has shown the greatest +anxiety to do everything possible to assist the Allies, and has left +nothing undone which could contribute thereto.</p> + +<p>"This decision, however of vital importance it will be to the +maintenance of the Allied strength in the next few months, will in no<a name="page_217" id="page_217"></a> +way diminish the need for those further measures for raising fresh +troops at home to which reference has already been made.</p> + +<p>"It is announced at once, because the Prime Minister feels that the +singleness of purpose with which the United States have made this +immediate and, indeed, indispensable contribution toward the triumph of +the Allied cause should be clearly recognized by the British people."</p> + +<p>Lord Reading, the British Ambassador at Washington, conveyed to +President Wilson a message of thanks from the British Government, for +"the instant and comprehensive measures" which the President took in +response to the request that American troops be used to reinforce the +Allied armies in France. The Embassy then gave out a statement that "the +knowledge that, owing to the President's prompt co-operation, the Allies +will receive the strong reinforcement necessary during the next few +months is most welcome to the British Government and people."</p> + +<p>The London papers reflected this sentiment in even stronger terms. Said +the <i>Westminster Gazette</i>: "It seals the unity of the Allied forces<a name="page_218" id="page_218"></a> in +France, and so far from weakening the determination to provide all +possible reinforcements from this country, it will, we are confident, +give it fresh energy. All the big loans America has made to Great +Britain and France, her heavy contributions of food, her princely gifts +through the Red Cross, and the high, stimulating utterances of President +Wilson, have done much to strengthen the Allied morale and lend material +assistance to the war against autocracy, but none of these counts so +heavily with the masses, because there are few families here or in +France who have not a personal and intimate interest in the soldiers +battling on the plains of Picardy."</p> + +<p>The <i>Evening Star</i> wrote: "In a true spirit of soldierly comradeship +they will march to the sound of guns, and will merge their national +pride in a common stock of courage for the common good. It is a +chivalrous decision, and President Wilson, Mr. Baker, and General Bliss +have done a very great thing in a very great way. The British and French +people are moved by this splendid proof of America's fellowship in the +fight for world freedom."<a name="page_219" id="page_219"></a></p> + +<p>If this gift was so significant in spirit, it was also bravely helpful +in round numbers. At the end of March, 1918, General Pershing had +366,142 soldiers in his command in France, and of these, after nine +months of training and adjustment, he could put about 100,000 in the +line.</p> + +<p>And within three months after this time he had more than 1,000,000 +soldiers in France, the Navy Department having accomplished the +astounding feat of transporting 637,929 in April, May, and June. The +month that the reinforcement of the French and British Armies was +planned and accepted the transport figures jumped from forty-eight +thousand odd to eighty-three thousand odd. The month of its first +practical operation the figures jumped again to one hundred and +seventeen thousand odd, and in the month of June, the month of the +anniversary of the first debarkation, there was a transportation of +276,372 men.</p> + +<p>The last few days of March, 1918, saw the first large troop movements +from the American zone—that is, saw them strictly in the mind's eye. +Actually, the rain came down in such<a name="page_220" id="page_220"></a> drenching downpours that the +French villagers whom the motor-trucks passed did not so much see as +hear the doughboys. Throughout the whole zone the activity was +prodigious. Along the muddy roads two great processions of motor-trucks +crossed each other day and night, the one taking the soldiers to one +front, the other to another. Sometimes the camions slithered in the mud +till they came to a stop in the gutter. Then the boisterous, jubilant +soldiers would tumble out and set their shoulders under wheels and +mud-guards, and hoist the car into the road again. The singing was +incessant. The mood of the songs swung from "The Battle Hymn of the +Republic" to "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town To-night."</p> + +<p>The exuberance of the soldiers knew no bounds. They were about to answer +"present" to the roll-call of the big guns, the call they had been +hearing for so many months, that had seemed to them so persistently and +personally compelling. They were going to become a part of that living +wall which for three years and a half had held the enemy out of Paris.</p> + +<p>Those who were going to the British front<a name="page_221" id="page_221"></a> were particularly exultant +because they expected to find open fighting there, the kind they called +"our specialty."</p> + +<p>To all the units going into the French and British Armies a general +order was read, jacking up discipline to the topmost notch.</p> + +<p>"The character of the service this command is now about to undertake," +read the order, "demands the enforcement of stricter discipline and the +maintenance of higher standards of efficiency than any heretofore +required.</p> + +<p>"In future the troops of this command will be held at all times to the +strictest observance of that rigid discipline in camp and on the march +which is essential to their maximum efficiency on the day of battle."</p> + +<p>The first of the fighting troops arrived on the British front on the +morning of April 10, after an all-night march. They were grimed and +mud-spattered, hungry, and tired, and cold. But the cheering that rose +from the Tommies when they recognized the American uniforms at the head +of the column would have revived more exhausted men than they.</p> + +<p>The first comers were infantry, a battalion of<a name="page_222" id="page_222"></a> them. Others came up +during the day, with artillerymen and machine-gunners. The celebration +of their coming lasted far into the next night, and the commanders of +the British front exchanged telegrams of congratulation with the +commanders of the French front that they were to be so welcomely +refreshed.</p> + +<p>But Generalissimo Foch, with his stanch determination not to be done out +of his reserve, held the Americans back, and they were destined to +remain behind the main battle-line for three and a half months longer.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the American strength was piling steadily up in the reserve, +and in mid-May a large contingent of the National Army, said to be the +first of them to land in Europe, reached the Flanders front and began to +train at once behind the British lines, without preliminary work in +American camps in France.</p> + +<p>These men had what was probably the most exhilarating welcome of the +war. The Tommies, many of them wounded and sick, poured out into the +roadways as the new American Army arrived, and threw their caps into the +air and split their throats with cheers. The<a name="page_223" id="page_223"></a> British had been +terrifically hard pressed in the German offensive. They had given ground +only after incredible fighting. They were, in the phrase of General +Haig, at last "with their backs to the wall." They held their line +magnificently, but they could not have been less than filled with +thanksgiving that they were now to have the help of the least war-worn +of all their allies.<a name="page_224" id="page_224"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX<br /><br /> +THE FIRST TWO BATTLES</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">W</span>HILE +Generalissimo Foch was strengthening his long line, with American +troops as flying buttresses, those sectors delegated to the Americans in +their own right saw two battles, within a few weeks of each other, which +attained to the dignity of names. The battle of Seicheprey, the first +big American defensive action, and the battle of Cantigny, the first big +offensive, the one in the Toul sector, the other in Picardy, were the +occasions of the American baptism of fire. The one was so valiant, the +other so brilliant, and both were so reassuring to the high commands of +the Allies, that they would deserve a special emphasis even if they had +not the distinction of being America's first battles.</p> + +<p>On the night of April 20-21 the German bombardment of Seicheprey, a +village east of the Renners wood, and just northwest of Toul, grew to +monstrous proportions. Frenchmen<a name="page_225" id="page_225"></a> who had seen the great Verdun +offensive, in which the German Crown Prince had made a new record for +artillery preparation, said that the heavy firing on the American sector +eclipsed any of the action at Verdun.</p> + +<p>The firing covered a front of a mile and a quarter. The bombardment was +of high explosive shells and gas, apparently an effort to disable the +return fire from American artillery. But all through the night the +artillerymen sent their shells, encasing themselves in gas-masks.</p> + +<p>Toward dawn the attack began. A full regiment of German soldiers, +preceded by 1,200 shock troops, advanced under a barrage. Halfway across +No Man's Land the American artillery laid down a counter-barrage, and +many of the Germans dropped under it, but still the great waves of them +came on, focussing on the village of Seicheprey.</p> + +<p>The impact of their terrific numbers was too powerful to be withstood at +once. The American troops fell back from some of their first-line +trenches, which the first bombardment had caused them to hold loosely, +and part of the forces fell back even from the village. The<a name="page_226" id="page_226"></a> Germans +marched into the village, evidently believing it to have been totally +abandoned, carrying their flame-throwers and grenades, but making no use +of them. Suddenly they discovered that certain American troops had been +left to defend the village, while the main force reformed at the rear, +and hand-to-hand fighting in the street became necessary. An American +commander sent word back that the troops were giving ground by inches, +and that they could hold for a few hours.</p> + +<p>Seicheprey, the first big American battle, had every element of the +World War in little. Before the loss of the village, which occurred +about noon, the troops defending it had fought from ambush and in the +open, had fought with gas and liquid fire, with grenades, rifles, and +machine-guns. In the inferno the new troops were giving proof of valor +that was to come out later and be scattered broadcast, as a measure of +what America would bring.</p> + +<p>In and out of the streets of Seicheprey, in its little public square, +from the yards of its houses, hundreds of American soldiers were +fighting for their lives. France lay behind them, trusting to<a name="page_227" id="page_227"></a> be saved. +Other Americans were behind them, racing into formation with French +troops for the counter-attack. The defenders of Seicheprey, "giving by +inches," had a battle-cry of their own, brief and racy, of the +football-fields: "Hold 'em."</p> + +<p>After a while the Germans took Seicheprey. The hideously pressed, +slow-giving outpost moved back. Before the day had finished the +shell-stripped streets of Seicheprey, sheltering the invaders, weltered +again under the first American shells of the counter-attack. By +nightfall the troops were creeping forward under the counter-barrage. +The army, reformed, refreshed, and replenished, was on its way to take +its own back again. The counter-battle lacked the monstrous gruelling of +the first attack. It took less time. The superiority of numbers had +shifted to the other side, and the white heat of determination did its +share.</p> + +<p>The Germans held Seicheprey about four hours.</p> + +<p>The main positions of the army, which were threatened, were untouched +because of the stoutness of the resistance at the village, and<a name="page_228" id="page_228"></a> most of +the first-line positions were retaken with the rush of the +counter-attack.</p> + +<p>The German prisoners who were captured had many days' rations in their +kits and extra loads of trench-tools on their backs. They had intended +to hold the American trenches for several days, facing them the other +way, before they commenced the new attack, which, in the plan of the +German high command, was to break apart the French and American lines +where they joined, above Toul. Once this wedge was into the Allied +vitals the rest was to be easy.</p> + +<p>Though Seicheprey did not count as a big battle in point of numbers +engaged or numbers lost, it loomed large enough in the importance it had +strategically. The German high command obviously expected little or +nothing from the "green American troops." The shock troops had been +rehearsed for weeks to take the American lines and hold them till the +Allied line should be broken apart. In fact, it was nobly planned. The +only compliment the Americans could squeeze out of it was that the +Germans were sent over in many places eight to their<a name="page_229" id="page_229"></a> one. But the +capture of Seicheprey lasted just four hours, and the disruption of the +Franco-American line remained a mere brain-child of the Wilhelmstrasse.</p> + +<p>The French soldiers who joined the counter-attack told thrilling stories +of the Americans. They told that in one place north of Seicheprey, an +American detachment was separated into small groups, and was cut off +from the company to which it belonged through the entire fight. Behind +the Americans and on their left flank were German units, but they could +have retired on the right. They decided to stay and fight, so there they +stayed, notwithstanding incessant enemy bombardment.</p> + +<p>In the town of Seicheprey a squad of Americans found a few cases of +hand-grenades. With these they put up a tremendous fight through the +whole day, holding to a strip at the northern end of the village. They +refused to surrender when they were ordered to, and at the end of the +fighting only nine of the original twenty-three were left. By the grace +of these nine men Seicheprey was never wholly German, even for the four +hours.<a name="page_230" id="page_230"></a></p> + +<p>One New England boy passed through the enemy barrage seven times to +carry ammunition to his comrades. A courier who was twice blown off the +road by shell explosions carried his message through and dropped as he +reported. A lieutenant with only six men patrolled six hundred yards of +the front throughout the day, holding communications open between the +battalions to the right and left of him. A sanitary-squad runner +captured by the Germans, escaped them and made his way into Seicheprey, +tending the wounded there till help came. A machine-gunner found himself +alone with his gun, and on being asked by a superior officer if he could +hold the line there, replied that he could if he were not killed. He +did. A regimental chaplain went to the assistance of a battery which was +hard pressed, and carried ammunition for them for hours, then took his +turn at the gun.</p> + +<p>These make no roster of the heroes of Seicheprey. There were hundreds of +them. But the censor's passionate aversion to details of all battles has +scotched the narrative of heroes for the present.<a name="page_231" id="page_231"></a></p> + +<p>Cantigny will warm the cockles of the American heart as long as it +beats. There was a battle that for spirit, flare, brilliancy, came up to +the rosiest dream that ever was dreamed, in Washington, or London, or +Paris.</p> + +<p>Cantigny, like Seicheprey, was not an engagement of great numbers. It +was a little town that was hard to capture. It commanded a fine view of +the American lines for miles back, and it had been able to withstand +some violent attempts earlier, so it was particularly desirable. And it +was in a salient, so that it formed an angle in the line. Its taking +straightened the line, heartily disgruntled the Boches, who lost 200 +prisoners and many hundred wounded and dead in defending it, and it gave +the American troops their first taste of the offensive. But more than +all that, it gave these same troops a record of absolutely flawless +workmanship which, if not large, was at least complete.</p> + +<p>The capture of Cantigny and 200 yards beyond it, which included the +German second line, took just three-quarters of an hour.</p> + +<p>In the niggardly terms of the communique: "This morning in Picardy our +troops attacked<a name="page_232" id="page_232"></a> on a front of one and a fourth miles, advanced our +lines, and captured the village of Cantigny. We took 200 prisoners and +inflicted on the enemy severe losses in killed and wounded. Our +casualties were relatively small. Hostile counter-attacks broke down +under our fire."</p> + +<p>It was on the morning of May 28. At a quarter to six a bombardment +began. At a quarter to seven the troops went over the top. The barrage +went first, a dense gray veil. Then came twelve French tanks. Just +behind the tanks stalked the doughboys.</p> + +<p>The soldiers moved like clockwork. There were no unruly fringes to be +nipped by the barrage. There was no break in the methodical stride. They +went forward first a hundred yards in two minutes. Then the barrage +slowed to a hundred yards in four minutes. In a little while the troops +had arrived at the edge of the village; then the close-quarter fighting +began.</p> + +<p>At 7.30 a white rocket rose from the centre of Cantigny, dim against the +smoky sky, to tell the men behind that "the objective is reached and +prisoners are coming."</p> + +<p>The Americans found the enemy in confusion<a name="page_233" id="page_233"></a> and unreadiness, and the +initial resistance from machine-guns at the town's edge was easily +overcome. Where the burden of hard fighting came was in routing the +Germans out from the caves and tunnels and cellars of the town into +which they had retired.</p> + +<p>There was a long tunnel in the town, which, after furious fighting, was +surrounded and isolated. The flame-throwers were placed at both ends of +the tunnel, and that episode was ended. Some of the caves were large +enough to hold a battalion. These were handled by the mopping-up troops, +who threw hand-grenades.</p> + +<p>The prisoners began to file back almost immediately. One grinning +Pittsburgher, wounded in the arm, marched in the rear of a prison squad. +"That's handin' it to them Huns, blankety-blank 'em," he said +cheerfully.</p> + +<p>The village caught fire from the bombardment and the firing of the +tunnel, and for hours after its capture the soldiers had to fight +flames.</p> + +<p>The first of the American "shock troops" went from the village on to the +German second-line trenches, and under a hail of bullets from<a name="page_234" id="page_234"></a> German +machine-guns dug themselves in and faced the trenches the other way.</p> + +<p>All that day they held their prize unmolested. They had all the high +ground beyond Cantigny, and an approach was, to put it mildly, +precarious. But by five of the afternoon the German counter-attacks had +begun. One wave after another stormed half-way up the hill, then tumbled +down again, broken under the American artillery. Four counter-attacks +were made against Cantigny, but all of them failed. The new positions +were consolidated, under heavy fire and gas attack, and there they +stayed.</p> + +<p>This gallant battle called forth intemperate commendation from the +headquarters of the Allies. The French despatch to Washington told +officially of the high opinion the French held of it, and there were +many congratulatory telegrams from London. The press of London and Paris +glowed with praises. The London <i>Evening News</i> wrote:</p> + +<p>"Bravo, the young Americans! Nothing in to-day's battle narrative from +the front is more exhilarating than the account of their fight at +Cantigny. It was clean-cut from beginning to<a name="page_235" id="page_235"></a> end, like one of their +countrymen's short stories, and the short story of Cantigny is going to +expand into a full-length novel, which will write the doom of the Kaiser +and Kaiserism. We expected it. We have seen those young Americans in +London, and merely to glance at them was to know that they are +conquerors and brothers in that great Anglo-Saxon-Latin compact which +will bring down the Prussian idol.... They do not swagger, and they have +no war illusions. They have done their first job with swift precision, +characteristic of the United States, and Cantigny will one day be +repeated a thousand-fold."</p> + +<p><i>The Times</i> wrote:</p> + +<p>"Our allies know the significance of that as well as we do. So, too, do +the German generals and the German statesmen. It means that the last +great factor between autocracy and freedom is coming into effective play +on the battle-field.... There could be no reflection more heartening for +the Allies or more dismaying to their adversaries."</p> + +<p>"Their adversaries," meanwhile, were doing what they could to keep their +dismay to themselves.<a name="page_236" id="page_236"></a> In the German announcement of the loss of +Cantigny there was mention only of "the enemy." The German people were +not to know for a while that the "ridiculous little American Army" had +got to work.<a name="page_237" id="page_237"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI<br /><br /> +TEUFEL-HUNDEN</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">N</span>O +branch of service in the American Army was so quick to achieve group +consciousness as the marines. To be sure, these soldiers of the sea had +a considerable tradition behind them before they came to France. The +world is never so peaceful that there is nothing for the marines to do. +Always there is some spot for them to land and put a situation into +hand. It is no fault of the marines that most of these brushes have been +little affairs, and they have found, as Mr. Kipling says, that "the +things that you learn from the yellow and brown will 'elp you a heap +with the white."</p> + +<p>The Navy Department has always been careful to preserve the tradition of +the marines. The organization has never lacked for intelligent +publicity. "First to fight" was a slogan which brought many a recruit +into the corps. Even the dreary work of policing, which falls largely<a name="page_238" id="page_238"></a> +to the marines, has been dramatized to a certain extent by that fine +swaggering couplet of their song:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"If the army or the navy ever gaze on heaven's scenes,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">They will find the streets are guarded by United States marines."</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>The belief that the marines would make a distinctive mark in the great +World War was practically unanimous. Army officers couldn't deny it, war +correspondents hastened to proclaim it, and the Germans admitted it by +bestowing the name "Teufel-hunden" (devil-dogs) on the marines +immediately after their first engagement. The marines themselves were +second to no one in the consciousness of their own prowess.</p> + +<p>"I understand," said a little marine just two days off the transport, +"that this Kaiser isn't afraid of the American Army so much, but that he +is afraid of the marines."</p> + +<p>The boy didn't say whether one of his officers had told him that, but +his belief was passionate and complete. However, the marines did not +allow their high confidence to interfere in any<a name="page_239" id="page_239"></a> way with their +preparations. They showed the same anxiety to make good on the +training-fields that they later displayed on the line. Their camp in the +American area was just a bit farther from the centre of things than that +of any other organization. Whenever there was a review or a special show +of any sort for a distinguished visitor, the marines had to march twelve +miles to attend. And after that it was twelve miles home again. But they +thrived on hard work. They shot, bayoneted, and bombed just a little +better than any other organization in the first division. Sometimes +individual marines would complain a little about the fact that they were +worked harder than any men in the division, but they always took care to +add that they had finished the construction of their practice-trench +system days before any of the others. When they mentioned the fact that +they had achieved this result by working in day and night shifts it was +never possible to tell whether they were airing a grievance or making a +boast. It is probable that they were something of the mind of Job, whose +boils were both a tribulation and a triumph.<a name="page_240" id="page_240"></a></p> + +<p>There was no doubt as to the opinion of the marines when it seemed for a +time as if they might not get into the fighting. They did not go into +the trenches with the first division, but were broken up and sent to +various points for police duty. Of course they were bitterly +disappointed, but they merely policed a little harder, and it was a +severe winter for soldiers who went about with their overcoats +unbuttoned, or committed other breaches of military regulations.</p> + +<p>Since the marines did hard work well, they were rewarded by more hard +work, and this was labor more to their taste. The reward came suddenly. +On May 30 a unit of marines was in a training-camp so far back of the +lines that it was impossible to hear the sound of the guns even when the +Germans turned everything loose for a big offensive. On that same day +the Germans reached the Marne east of Château-Thierry and began an +advance along the north bank toward the city. That night the marines +were ordered to the front.</p> + +<p>They rode almost a hundred kilometres to get into the fight. It was late +afternoon when<a name="page_241" id="page_241"></a> they reached a hill overlooking Château-Thierry. French +guns all about them were being fired up to their very limit or a little +beyond. The Germans were coming on. These marines had never been in a +battle before, with the exception of a few who had chased little brown +rebels in various brief encounters on small islands. They had never been +under shell fire. And this their first engagement was one of the biggest +in the greatest war in history. From the hill they could see houses fold +up and fields pucker under the pounding of big guns. The marines were +told that as soon as darkness came they would march into the town and +hold the bridges against the German Army, which was coming on. Somebody +asked a French officer some days later how these green troops had taken +their experience as they waited the word to go forward. "They were +concombres," said the Frenchman. Our word is cucumbers.</p> + +<p>Finally, the order came for the advance. It was a dark night, but the +marines could see their way forward well enough. The German bombardment +had set fire to the railroad-station. The Americans kept in the shadows +as<a name="page_242" id="page_242"></a> much as they could, but they danced around so much that it was +difficult. They placed their machine-guns here and there behind walls +and new barricades, so that they could enfilade the approaches to the +bridges and the streets on the opposite side of the river. One +lieutenant with twelve men and two guns took up a position across the +river. It was up to him to stand off the first rush.</p> + +<p>The shelling from the enemy guns was intensified during the night, but +the infantry had not yet reached the town. It was five o'clock of a +bright morning when the little advance post of the Americans saw the +Germans coming across the open field toward the river. They were +marching along carelessly in two columns and there were twelve men in +every line. One of the machine-guns swung her nose around a little and +the fight was on. At last the American was definitely in one of the +major engagements of the war. American machine-gunners were doing their +bit to block the advance on Paris. All day long the marines held the +Germans back with their machine-guns. And that night they beat back a +German mass attack<a name="page_243" id="page_243"></a> when the Boches came on and on in waves, with men +locked arm in arm. They could hear them, for they sang as they rushed +forward, and the machine-gunners pumped their bullets into the spots +where the notes were loudest.</p> + +<p>The next day the Americans were forced to give some ground when the +order came to retire, but they had been through, perhaps, the most +intensive two days of training which ever fell to the lot of green +troops.</p> + +<p>The marines did not have to wait long for retaliation. Other units of +marines from other camps had been hurrying up to the front, and on June +6 an offensive was launched on a front of two and a half miles. The +first day's gain was two and three-sixteenth miles and 100 prisoners +were captured. This attack yielded all the important high ground +northwest of Château-Thierry. The marines did not rest with this gain. +They struck again at five o'clock in the afternoon, and by June 7 the +attack had grown to much greater proportions. Four villages, Vinly, +Veuilly-la-Poterie, Torcy, and Bouresches, fell into the hands of the +French and Americans. The thrust was pressed<a name="page_244" id="page_244"></a> to a maximum depth of two +miles on a ten-mile front. More than 300 prisoners were captured by the +Americans. The attack was carried out under American command, +Major-General James G. Harbord being in charge of the operation.</p> + +<p>As in the Cantigny offensive, the Americans worked with great speed, and +showed that they could make the rifle an effective weapon even under the +changed conditions of modern warfare. But though they were swift they +were not silent. They went over the top shouting like Indians, and they +kept up the noise as they went forward. The second attack was carried +out by the same men who had advanced in the morning. The early showing +had been so promising that it was decided to go on, particularly as the +Germans seemed to be somewhat shaken by the violence of the assault. In +this new sweep the marines took ground on either side of Belleau Wood. +They also captured the ravine south of Torcy. The Germans were not able +to organize an effective counter-attack immediately, for they had been +too much surprised by the thrust. Also the<a name="page_245" id="page_245"></a> effective work of the +American artillery made it difficult for the Germans to bring up fresh +troops.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<a href="images/illpg_244.jpg"> +<img src="images/illpg_244_sml.jpg" width="600" height="351" alt="Copyright by the Committee on Public Information. + +U. S. Marines in readiness to march to the front." title="U. S. Marines in readiness to march to the front." /></a> +<p class="captionl">Copyright by the Committee on Public Information.</p> +<p class="captionc">U. S. Marines in readiness to march to the front.</p> +</div> + +<p>In the rough country over which the battle was fought there was +opportunity for the fight to disintegrate into the little eddies where +individual initiative counts for so much. In a fight near Le Thiolet, +Captain James O. Green, Jr., found himself cut off by the Germans. He +was accompanied by five privates. Back at regimental headquarters Green +had already been reported as killed or captured. He proved the need of +clerical revision, for he and his men fought their way back to the +American lines. At one point ten Germans tried to intercept him, but the +six Americans succeeded in killing or wounding every member of the enemy +party. A single marine who was taking back a prisoner ran into two +German officers and ten men. He fell upon them with rifle and bayonet +and disposed of both officers and several of the men. Then he made his +escape. Somebody told the marine when he got back to the American lines +that he certainly had been "in luck."</p> + +<p>"Hell! no," said the fighting man; "they took my prisoner away from +me."<a name="page_246" id="page_246"></a></p> + +<p>Still another marine was captured while dazed by a blow on the head. He +recovered in time to deal his captor a tremendous punch on the jaw, and +made his way back to the American lines. The favorite slogan of the +Americans was: "Each man get a German; don't let a German get you."</p> + +<p>Early on June 8 the Germans launched a counter-attack against the +American position between Bouresches and Le Thiolet. This attack broke +down. The trenches which the Americans held were new and shallow, but +the troops were well supplied with machine-guns, and the German infantry +never got closer than within a couple of hundred yards of the position. +The marines were not yet content with their success. They took the +initiative again on June 10 and smashed into the German lines for about +two-thirds of a mile on a 600-yard front. In this attack two minenwerfer +were captured. The object of the attack was to clean out Belleau Wood. +The Germans retained only the northern fringe.</p> + +<p>By this time the offensive had ceased to be wholly a marine affair. The +9th and 23d<a name="page_247" id="page_247"></a> Regiments of infantry, comprising what is known as the +Syracuse Brigade, took up their positions on the right of the soldiers +of the sea. During the next few days the Germans made several violent +counter-attacks, but without success, and on June 26 the Americans +pushed their gains still further by a successful assault south of Torcy, +in which more than 250 Germans were captured. This victory gave +Pershing's men absolute command of the Bois de Belleau, which was the +strategic point for which the Germans had fought so hard.</p> + +<p>It was after the Château-Thierry offensive that for the first time the +American Army won a place in the German official communique. Before that +they had been simply "the enemy," and once, upon the occasion of a +successful German raid, North American troops. But now Berlin unbent a +little and used the term "an American regiment." Germany was prepared to +admit that America was in the war. It is just possible that some of +their men who broke before the rush of the marines returned to give +headquarters the information.<a name="page_248" id="page_248"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII<br /><br /> +THE ARMY OF MANŒUVRE</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">W</span>HILE +the American Army was showing its quality in the minor battles of +Seicheprey, Cantigny, Château-Thierry, and Vaux, and its quantity was +showing itself in leaps of hundreds of thousands of men a month, a +destiny was shaping for it, equally in circumstances and in the mind of +Generalissimo Foch, which was to be even greater than that it had +sacrificed in late March, when it submerged its identity and said: "Put +us where you will."</p> + +<p>For when, on July 18, the fifth German offensive suddenly shivered into +momentary equilibrium and then rolled back, with Foch and the Allies +pounding behind it, and when this counter-attack developed into a +continuing offensive which was to straighten the Marne salient and throw +back the Germans from before Amiens and do the future only knows what +else besides, the Allied world said, in one<a name="page_249" id="page_249"></a> voice: "Foch has found his +army of manœuvre, and it's the Americans."</p> + +<p>This "army of manœuvre" has always been the king-pin of French +strategy. While the Germans were trying two systems—first, the broad +front attack which trusted to overbear by sheer weight anything which +opposed it, and, second, the so-called Hutier system of draining the +line of all its best fighters, and organizing shock troops immeasurably +above the average for offensive, while the line was held by the rag-tag +and bobtail—the French stuck to their traditional system. This was to +hold the lines with the lightest possible number of men, of the highest +possible caliber, and to thrust with a mobile force, foot-loose and +ready to be swung wherever a spot seemed likely to give way.</p> + +<p>It was with the "army of manœuvre," thrown up from Paris in frantic +haste by Galliéni, in taxicabs and trucks, that General Foch made the +miraculous plunge through the Saxon army at Fère-en-Tardenois, in +September, 1914, which saved the first battle of the Marne.</p> + +<p><a name="page_250" id="page_250"></a>When General Foch became generalissimo, in late March, just after the +first German offensive on March 21 had thrown the British back, and when +the French were retreating at Montdidier, the expectation universally +was that the Allies would begin an offensive, within the shortest +possible time. Foch had been quoted all over the world as saying that +"defensive fighting was no defense." Yet April, May, and June passed, +and part of July, and except for scattering attacks along the Marne +salient, and patient rear-guard action when the retreats were necessary, +the Allies made no move.</p> + +<p>The Austrian debacle came and went. Foch had Italy off his mind, and the +Italians were more than taking care of themselves. Still he did not +strike. And finally it became clear that he was showing this long +patience because he wanted what every Frenchman wants first in every +battle, and what he did not surely have until July—his army of +manœuvre.</p> + +<p>The fitness of the American Army for this brilliant use was dual: first, +that its source was virtually inexhaustible; second, that it was better +at offensive than defensive fighting.<a name="page_251" id="page_251"></a></p> + +<p>The American Army had a quality, and the defect of that quality: it +wanted to get to Berlin regardless of tactics. And while General Foch +was trusting to time to prove to them that, pleasant or unpleasant, the +tactics had to be observed, he turned their spectacular fire and +exuberance to direct account.</p> + +<p>Of course, the American troops in France then ready to fight could not +alone make up the Allied army of manœuvre. They were the core of it, +however, and their growing numbers guaranteed it almost indefinitely, so +that the attack of which it was to be the backbone could safely be +begun. Some of the troops originally intended for welding with the +British and French Armies were kept in the line without change.</p> + +<p>But in the main the statement was true: the American Army was to rove +behind the Allied lines till Foch discovered or divined a German +weakness to strike into.</p> + +<p>In the second battle of the Marne, begun that July 18, when the Allies +took the offensive again for the first time in more than a year, the +crown prince and his army of approxi<a name="page_252" id="page_252"></a>mately half a million were tucked +down in the Marne salient, driving for Paris. The German line came down +from Soissons to Château-Thierry, ran east from Château-Thierry along +the Marne River, then turned up again to Rheims. In a space about thirty +miles square the crown prince had imprudently poured all his troops, +which, for the fifth offensive, begun July 15, included about a third of +the man-power of the western front.</p> + +<p>The Allied troops lying around the three sides of this salient were +French and American on the western side, Americans across the bottom, +east from Château-Thierry, and French, British, and Italian from the +Marne up to Rheims. While the French and British were squeezing in the +two sides at the top, it was the American job to keep the Germans from +bursting out from the bottom, and, if possible, to break through or roll +them back.</p> + +<p>The Americans began the attack east of Château-Thierry, where the +Germans had crossed the Marne and lay a few miles to the south of it. +There had been lesser actions here for several days, in the process of +stopping the<a name="page_253" id="page_253"></a> enemy offensive, and by the morning of the 18th the +Americans dominated the positions around the Marne. The first day of the +counter-offensive had magnificent results. The Germans were forced back +on a 28-mile front, for a depth varying from 3 to 6 miles, and the +Americans captured 4,000 prisoners and 50 guns. Twenty French towns were +delivered, and the Germans began what appeared to be a precipitate +retreat. Foch's attack was mainly on the flank of the crown prince's +army, which had been left exposed in the rush toward Epernay and +Châlons, far south of the Marne.</p> + +<p>The infantry attack was made with little or no artillery preparation. +The German general, Von Boehm, was plainly caught napping.</p> + +<p>The communiqués of both sides were for once in agreement. The French +said: "After having broken the German offensive on the Champagne and +Rheims mountain fronts on the 15th, 16th, and 17th, the French troops, +in conjunction with the American forces, attacked the German positions +on the 18th, between the Aisne and the Marne on a front of forty-five +kilometres [about twenty-eight miles]. We<a name="page_254" id="page_254"></a> have made an important +advance into the enemy lines, and have reached the plateau dominating +Soissons ... more than twenty villages have been retaken by the +admirable dash of the Franco-American troops.... South of the Ourcq our +troops have gone beyond the general line of Marizy, Ste.-Genevieve, +Hautvesnes, and Belleau."</p> + +<p>The German communiqué said: "Between the Aisne and the Marne, the French +attacked with strong forces and tanks, and captured some ground." Later +in the same communiqué the conclusion was drawn: "The battle was decided +in our favor."</p> + +<p>On the second day, while the march under Soissons continued, and there +were scattering gains on the Marne side, the number of Allied prisoners +grew to 17,000, and the number of guns captured to 360. Nobody could +tell, at this point, whether the crown prince's army was retreating +voluntarily or involuntarily. In many places the Germans were taken by +American soldiers from the peaceful pursuit of cutting wheat behind the +lines. Some high officers were nabbed from their beds. On the other<a name="page_255" id="page_255"></a> +hand, the fact that the German rear-guard actions were chiefly with +machine-guns seemed to indicate that they were moving their heavy pieces +back in fair orderliness.</p> + +<p>On the third day the Germans were thrown back over the Marne, and the +crown prince, having sent an unavailing plea to Prince Rupprecht for new +troops, suddenly showed fight with the crack Prussian guards.</p> + +<p>These guards had their worst failure of the war when they met the +Americans. It is difficult to prevent the statement from sounding +offensively boastful. It is, none the less, true. The Germans, having +decided that their retreat was wearing the look of utter rout, and that +they must resist fiercely enough to stop it, risked a British +break-through to the north by throwing in Ludendorf's prize soldiers +above the Marne. And although the American total of prisoners around +Soissons had risen to nearly 6,000, and though they did force back the +Prussian guard, they did not make prisoners from their number. One +American after another told, afterward, with a sort of reluctant +admiration, that the Prussian guard had died<a name="page_256" id="page_256"></a> where it stood. This +fighting near the Ourcq, and fatally near the vitals of the encircled +crown prince, was the most desperate of the second Marne battle.</p> + +<p>On July 21 Château-Thierry was given up by the Germans, and the pursuing +Allies, French and American, drove the enemy beyond the highroad to +Soissons, and threatened the only highway of retreat, as well as the +German stores. The supply-centre within the salient was +Fère-en-Tardenois, and it was being raked by Allied guns from both sides +of the salient.</p> + +<p>The character of the fighting changed again, so that again it was +impossible to make sure if Von Boehm intended to stand somewhere north +of the Marne and put up a fight, or if he intended to make all speed +back to a straight line between Soissons and Rheims. The resistance was +by machine-gun, so that Americans, having their first big experience +with the enemy, insisted that he had nothing but machine-guns to trust +to. It is, of course, possible that the crown prince and Von Boehm knew +no more than anybody else whether they were<a name="page_257" id="page_257"></a> going to clear out, men and +supplies, or whether they would stop again and fight face foremost.</p> + +<p>On July 22 the German command answered the question at least partially. +On a line well above the Marne, they brought the big guns into play, and +poured in shock troops. Airplanes from the Allied lines discovered, +however, that the Germans were burning towns and store-houses for many +miles behind the line.</p> + +<p>The pressure on the Germans was being brought from the south, where the +Americans were six or seven miles above Château-Thierry, and from the +west and north, where the Franco-American troops were flaying the +exposed side.</p> + +<p>The stiffened resistance and the German artillery slowed, but could not +stop, the Allied advance. The eastern side of the salient, from the +Marne to Rheims, bore some desperate blows, but did not give way. As the +pincers closed in, at the top of the salient, the German command +appeared to go back to its original plan of attacking Rheims from the +south.</p> + +<p>This was the side on which British and Italian troops were co-operating +with the French, and the German command got for its pains in<a name="page_258" id="page_258"></a> that +direction a counter-attack which narrowed the distance from battle-line +to battle-line across the top of the salient. The French menaced +Fère-en-Tardenois, the German base of supplies.</p> + +<p>Allied aviators bombed these stores, the long-range guns pounded at +them, and what with these and the conflagrations started defensively by +the Germans the Marne salient was a caldron which turned the skies +blood-red.</p> + +<p>On July 24 the ground gained all along the line averaged two miles. The +British southwest of Rheims made a damaging curve inward, and the shove +around the other two sides was fairly even.</p> + +<p>On July 25, one week from the beginning of the offensive, the Americans +and French from the Soissons side and the British and French from the +Rheims side had squeezed in the neck of the trap till it measured only +twenty-one miles. The French arrived within three miles of +Fère-en-Tardenois, and although the German resistance increased again, +the evacuation of Fère and the removal of stores to Fismes, far up on +the straight line, were foreshadowed.<a name="page_259" id="page_259"></a></p> + +<p>The road leading between the two supply-bases was shelled incessantly, +and the difficulties of resistance within the fast-narrowing salient +became almost superhuman. But the rear-guard of the Germans "died to a +man," to quote the observers, and the rear action held the Allied gains +to a few miles daily.</p> + +<p>A definite retreat began on the morning of July 27, with what the airmen +reported as an obvious determination to make a stand on the Ourcq. The +forest of Fère was taken, and many villages, but the fighting was +insignificant because, in the language of the communiqués, "our forces +lost contact with the enemy." Possibly this is what the famous phrase of +the Ludendorf communiqué, "The enemy evaded us," had in mind.</p> + +<p>There was a certain psychological stupidity in this German decision to +make a stand on the Ourcq. It was on the Ourcq that Joffre and Foch made +the fatal stroke of the first Marne battle, and the very name of the +river inspired France.</p> + +<p>While this retreat was in progress, the swiftest of the battle, the +German communiqué read:<a name="page_260" id="page_260"></a> "Between the Ourcq and the Marne, the enemy's +resistance has broken down. Our troops, with those of our allies, are in +pursuit."</p> + +<p>On the 29th the Germans crossed the Ourcq, with the Americans behind +them. The "pursuit" continued. The American troops, with French to the +right and left of them, forced the enemy to within a mile of the Vesle, +where his halt had no hope of being more than temporary. The brilliant +charge across the Ourcq was done by New Yorkers—the "fighting 69th," +which refuses to be known by its new name of "165th." Edwin L. James, +writing of this charge for the New York <i>Times</i>, said: "There is doubt +if any chapter of our fighting reached the thrills of our charge across +the Ourcq yesterday. Americans of indomitable spirit met a veritable +hell of machine-guns, shells, gas, and bombs in a strong position, and +broke through with such violence that they made a salient jutting into +the enemy line beyond what the schedule called for."</p> + +<p>This American charge cured the Germans of any intention to stay on the +Ourcq. The resistance, after that first attack, was sporadic and +ineffectual. Village after village was reclaimed.<a name="page_261" id="page_261"></a></p> + +<p>It became plain that the whole Marne salient was to be obliterated, and +that the Germans could not stop till they reached the thirty-six-mile +stretch directly from Soissons to Rheims, at which they had strong +intrenchments.</p> + +<p>One terrific stand was made by the Germans at Sergy, just above the +Ourcq. It changed hands nine times during twenty-four hours, with +Americans fighting hand to hand with the Prussian guards. Sergy was +taken in the first rush over the Ourcq, but a counter-attack by the +Prussian Fourth Guard Division, under artillery barrage, gave them the +city. Once these guards were in the city, the artillery barrage could no +longer play over it, and to the stupefaction of the Germans, the +Americans rushed in and fought hand to hand till they cleared the town, +while the German guns were powerless. Time and again this process was +repeated, till at last the Germans gave it up and joined the general +retreat. This counter-attack is believed, however, to have enabled the +crown prince to reclaim great stores of supplies in a woods north of the +village.</p> + +<p>At the end of these two weeks of infantry<a name="page_262" id="page_262"></a> fighting the artillery took +up the task, and the infantry rested for a day, though on August 2 they +made a two-mile gain.</p> + +<p>The total of German prisoners for that fortnight was 33,400.</p> + +<p>The hideous fighting above the Ourcq between the Americans and the +picked German divisions continued for days, with each day marking a +small advance for the Americans. On August 2 the French regained +Soissons.</p> + +<p>On August 3 the Allies advanced six miles, retook fifty villages, and +reached the south bank of the Vesle. American forces entered Fismes. The +salient was annihilated.</p> + +<p>On August 4 Fismes fell, and the great supply and ammunition depot +became Allied property. The enemy was forced to cross the Vesle, and +victory on victory was reported along the line which so lately had +dipped into the nerve-centres of France.</p> + +<p>The second battle of the Marne had been won.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<a href="images/illpg_262.jpg"> +<img src="images/illpg_262_sml.jpg" width="600" height="417" alt="The capture of Sergy. + +"The Americans rushed in and fought hand to hand till they cleared the town."" title="The capture of Sergy." /></a> +<p class="captionc">The capture of Sergy.<br /> +"The Americans rushed in and fought hand to hand till they cleared the town."</p> +</div> + +<p>The part of it achieved by America could not fail to stir her heart to +pride and to exaltation. Though numerically the troops were few +enough,<a name="page_263" id="page_263"></a> not more than 270,000, they traversed the longest distance of +the salient, from Vaux, at its lowest tip, to Fismes, on the straight +line. Their fighting called forth comment from French officers who had +been through the four years of the war, which could not be called less +than rapturous. "They are glorious, the Americans," rang through France. +Clemenceau, speaking of Foch at the end of the battle to which the +Americans had contributed so much, said: "He looks twenty years +younger." He had both found and proved his "army of manœuvre."</p> + +<p>The story of this first battle's heroes must wait, though it will be +long enough when it comes, and can include something more heartening +than that "a boy from New England did thus and so," and "the army is +thrilled by the heroic feat of—— of Michigan."</p> + +<p>Probably the first death in France in which the whole nation grieved was +that of young Quentin Roosevelt, aviation lieutenant, son of the +ex-President, who fell in an air fight in the preliminary to the battle +on July 17. He was last seen in a fight with two enemy planes. His +machine fell within the German lines.<a name="page_264" id="page_264"></a> Weeks later the onward Allied +army found his grave, marked, in English, "Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, +buried by the Germans," and an official despatch from Germany stated +that he had been buried with full military honors.</p> + +<p>Colonel Roosevelt made a brief statement: "Quentin's mother and I are +very glad that he got to the front, and had a chance to render some +service to his country and to show the stuff there was in him before his +fate befell him." The news of his death arrived just a few weeks after +the news that he had downed his first German plane. The simple sincerity +of this statement, and its courage, gave an example to the mothers and +fathers of fighters which no one feared they would fail to come up to. +And when the casualty lists from the second Marne battle came in, every +bereavement was stanched by the fact that "they had shown the stuff +there was in them."</p> + +<p>Certainly not least in importance was the fact that they had shown it to +the Germans. An official German Army report was captured, July 7, on an +officer taken in the Marne region. After giving a prodigious amount of<a name="page_265" id="page_265"></a> +detail concerning the American Army, its composition, destination, and +so on, it appended the following opinion:</p> + +<p>"The 2d American Division may be classified as a very good division, +perhaps even as assault troops. The various attacks of both regiments on +Belleau Wood were carried out with dash and recklessness. The moral +effect of our firearms did not materially check the advance of the +infantry. The nerves of the Americans are still unshaken.... Only a few +of the troops are of pure American origin; the majority is of German, +Dutch, and Italian parentage, but these semi-Americans, almost all of +whom were born in America and never have been in Europe, fully feel +themselves to be true-born sons of their country."<a name="page_266" id="page_266"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII<br /><br /> +ST. MIHIEL</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">H</span>ISTORIANS and military experts are fond of taking one particular battle +or campaign, and saying: "This was decisive." It enables one to simplify +history, to be sure, but often any such process is more simple than +truthful. After all, every battle is to some degree decisive, and the +great actions of the war are so closely connected with smaller ones that +it is difficult to separate them. It is the fashion now to speak of the +second battle of the Marne as the deciding factor in the war. Indeed, +there is one school of strategists which goes back to the first Marne, +and speaks as if nothing which happened after that really mattered.</p> + +<p>In this spirit, it is true, that the great tide in the allied fortunes +which began at Château-Thierry and swept higher and higher until the +Germans had been smashed in the second battle of the Marne, did put a +new complexion<a name="page_267" id="page_267"></a> on the war. The battle definitely robbed the German +offensive of its threat. Paris was saved, in all human probability, from +ever coming into danger again during the course of the war. +Nevertheless, it is far-fetched to take the attitude that the war had +already been won early in August. It was evident by this time that the +German Army had suffered a great defeat. Perhaps a great disaster would +be better. And yet other armies have suffered great disasters and grown +again to power and success. The plight of the Germans was certainly +little worse than that of the Italians after the German offensive, and +yet everybody knows that the Italian Army came back from that defeat to +final victory.</p> + +<p>Morale is subject to miracles, and soldiers can be born again. There +might have been combinations of circumstances which would have permitted +the German Army to recover from its fearful defeat and find again its +old arrogance and confidence. Only it had no rest. It is fitting, then, +that the men of all the armies who completed the downfall of the Germans +in the marvellous campaigns at the close of the<a name="page_268" id="page_268"></a> year 1918 should have +due credit. Their work was also decisive. No one can tell what would +have happened to the German Army if it had not been subjected to the +steady pounding of the allied armies.</p> + +<p>No attempt will be made here to estimate the relative importance of the +work done by the various allied armies in the closing campaigns of the +war. This is an interesting, although somewhat ungrateful, task for +military experts. In this account we are dealing simply with the +fortunes of the American Army. It might not be amiss to suggest that the +final victories of the war were won by team-play, and that in such +combinations of effort the praise should go to all, just as the labor +does.</p> + +<p>There need be no controversy, however, about the battle of St. Mihiel. +This was an American action. It was under the command of General +Pershing himself, and his forces were made up almost entirely of +Americans. The French acted in an advisory capacity, and we were +dependent, in part, upon them for certain material. General Pershing in +his official report says: "The French were generous<a name="page_269" id="page_269"></a> in giving us +assistance in corps and army artillery, with its personnel." We were +also under obligation to the French for tanks, but here they were not +able to assist us so liberally, because they had barely enough tanks for +their own use. One of the surprising features of the St. Mihiel victory +is that it was achieved with comparatively slight tank preparation.</p> + +<p>St. Mihiel represented the biggest staff problem attempted by the +American Army up to that time. It was, of course, a battle which dwarfed +any previous action in the military history of America. Compared to the +battle of St. Mihiel, the whole Spanish-American War was a mere patrol +encounter, and Gettysburg itself a minor engagement. With the force at +his command, and the weapons, General Pershing could have annihilated +the army of either Grant or Lee in half an hour. Some idea of the +magnitude of the battle may be gathered from the report of General +Pershing: that he had under his command approximately 600,000 troops, or +four times the peace standing of the entire American military +establishment before the war.</p> + +<p>It is difficult enough to move an army of<a name="page_270" id="page_270"></a> that size, with its supplies +and its guns, under any conditions, but the plan for the St. Mihiel +offensive called for a surprise attack, and it was necessary to make all +the troop movements at night. In spite of the vaunted efficiency of the +German intelligence, there seems to be evidence that their high command +had little inkling of the magnitude of the blow impending or the date on +which it would fall. The St. Mihiel salient had been so long a fixture +in the geography of the battle-lines that no change was expected.</p> + +<p>In preparation for the offensive the First Army was organized on August +10, under the personal command of General Pershing. Following this move +the Americans took over part of the line. This became a permanent +American sector. Pershing took command of the sector on August 30. At +that time the sector under his command began at Port sur Seille, and +extended through a point opposite St. Mihiel, then twisting north to a +point opposite Verdun. The preparations for the offensive included, in +addition to guns, men, and tanks, the greatest concentration which the +American<a name="page_271" id="page_271"></a> Army had ever known in transport, ambulances, and aircraft. +Most of the planes in action were of French make, and some were flown by +the French, but there were a few of our manufacture, for on August 7 an +American squadron, completely equipped by American production, made its +appearance at the front.</p> + +<p>The preparations for the offensive were minute as well as extensive. It +is, perhaps, worth noting as a sample of the thoroughness with which the +American Army went about the job that no less than 100,000 maps were +issued which showed the character of the terrain around St. Mihiel, with +all the natural and artificial defenses carefully noted, and some +estimate of the strength in which the enemy was likely to be found at +each point. The army had 6,000 telephone instruments, and at least 5,000 +miles of wire, so there was no difficulty in keeping in touch with what +the men were doing at every point. The attack began at 1 A.M. on +September 12. The American artillery had been crowded into the sector to +such an extent that the German artillery was completely dominated. The +bombardment lasted<a name="page_272" id="page_272"></a> for four hours, and then the troops went forward, +preceded by a few tanks, but there were points where infantry went +forward without the aid of these auxiliaries. It was misty when the +seven divisions in the front line sprang out of their trenches, and this +helped to keep losses down. Indeed, throughout the battle the resistance +proved much less determined than had been anticipated.</p> + +<p>Although the bombardment had been short, most of the wire had been cut. +There remained a few jobs, however, for the wire-cutters, and for other +soldiers armed with torpedoes. With one method or the other our men +smashed what was left of the wire guarding the enemy first-line +trenches. And then the waves came on and over. There was little +resistance in the first line, for the Germans in these positions were +pretty well demoralized by the terrific artillery pounding which they +had received and the sight of thousands upon thousands of Americans +rushing upon them from out of the fog. For the most part they +surrendered without resistance. As the advance progressed resistance +became stiffer at some points, but the<a name="page_273" id="page_273"></a> attackers kept pretty generally +up to schedule, or ahead of it. Thiaucourt was taken by the First Corps. +The Fourth Corps fought its way through Nonsard. The Second Colonial +Corps was not asked to make a very great advance, but it had the most +difficult terrain over which to work. It had won all its objects early +in the day. A difficult task was also set for the Fifth Corps, which +took three ridges and then immediately had to repulse a counter-attack. +St. Mihiel fell early in the day. And in an incredibly short period a +salient which had been in the enemy hands for almost four years was +pinched out of existence.</p> + +<p>Everybody was delighted to find that in one respect the American +preparations had been too extensive. No less than thirty-five +hospital-trains had been assembled back of the attacking forces, and +there were beds for 16,000 men in the advanced areas, with 55,000 a +little farther back. As a matter of fact, less than one-tenth of these +facilities proved necessary, for the American casualties were only +7,000, and many of these were slight. The German General Staff always +maintained that it had anticipated<a name="page_274" id="page_274"></a> the attack and that its men were +under orders to retire, as the salient was of no strategic importance. +The last assertion may be true, but there seems to be little to support +the rest, for the total of prisoners was 16,000, with 443 guns. The +quantity of material captured was enormous. In a single depot there were +found 4,000 shells for 77's and 350,000 rounds of rifle cartridges. +Among the other assorted booty were 200 machine-guns, 42 trench-mortars, +30 box-cars, 4 locomotives, 30,000 hand-grenades, 13 trucks, and 40 +wagons. The number of German helmets which fell to the doughboys was +naturally countless.</p> + +<p>The attack was so completely successful and ran so closely to schedule +that there were few surprises. A little group of newspaper men, however, +were frank to admit that they had encountered one. Following closely +upon the heels of the attacking troops, they came to a village which was +being heavily shelled by the Germans. Accordingly, the newspaper men +took refuge in a dugout until such time as the opportunity for +observation should be more favorable. Coming from the other direction, +a<a name="page_275" id="page_275"></a> group of German prisoners entered the same village. They had +surrendered to one of the waves of onrushing Americans, but everybody +was too busy to conduct them personally to the rear. They had merely +been instructed to keep marching until they encountered some American +officers or doughboys who were not otherwise engaged, and then surrender +themselves. When the shells fell fast about them the Germans darted for +the dugout in which the newspaper men had previously taken refuge. The +correspondents were astounded and disturbed when sixteen field-gray +soldiers came tumbling in upon them. They could only imagine that at +some point the Germans had struck back and that the counter-attack had +broken through. And the correspondents admit that without a moment's +hesitation they gave one look at the Germans and then raised their +weaponless hands and cried "Kamerad." The perplexing feature of the +situation was that the Germans did exactly the same thing, and a +complete deadlock ensued until a squad of doughboys happened along that +way and took the Germans in charge.<a name="page_276" id="page_276"></a></p> + +<p>Both sides in the battle were willing to admit that their foemen had +fought with courage. While it is true that the first waves of the +American Army had an easy time, there was stiff but ineffectual +resistance by German machine-gunners later in the day. Many of these men +served their guns without offering surrender, and had to be bombed or +bayoneted. In a document by a German intelligence officer, which fell +into American hands much later in the war, a very frank tribute was paid +to the extraordinary courage of the Americans. The German officer said +that they seemed to be absolutely without fear on the offensive, and +must be reckoned with as shock troops, although they sometimes fought +greenly. He reported, however, that American leadership was less +impressive, and stated that the American Army might have gone much +farther if it had been more quick to take advantage of its early +success. But this would seem to be a mere effort to whistle up courage +in the German General Staff, for a consideration of the territory which +fell into American hands as a result of the attack shows some measure of +its success. This comprised 152 square miles<a name="page_277" id="page_277"></a> which was recovered from +the Germans. And in this liberated district were 72 villages.</p> + +<p>And yet the importance of the battle can hardly be measured in territory +regained, and much less in booty or in guns. "This signal success of the +American Army in its first offensive was of prime importance," wrote +General Pershing in his report to Secretary Baker. "The Allies found +that they had a formidable army to aid them, and the enemy learned +finally that he had one to reckon with." Moreover, the pinching out of +the St. Mihiel salient put the American Army in a position to threaten +Metz. This threat was one of the factors which caused the enemy to +realize a few months later that further resistance could not hope to +check the allied armies for any considerable time.</p> + +<p>The divisions employed at St. Mihiel comprised many of our best units. +Among the divisions engaged were the Eighty-second, the Ninetieth, the +Fifth, and the Second, which made up the First Corps, under +Major-General Hunter Liggett. In the Third Corps were the Eighty-ninth, +the Forty-second, and the First Divisions, under Major-General Joseph<a name="page_278" id="page_278"></a> +T. Dickman. The Fifth Corps, under Major-General George H. Cameron, had +the Twenty-sixth Division and a French division. In reserve were the +Seventy-eighth, Third, Thirty-fifth, and Ninety-first Divisions. The +Eighteenth and Thirty-third were also available.<a name="page_279" id="page_279"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV<br /><br /> +MEUSE-ARGONNE BEGINS</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">H</span>AVING +successfully accomplished one piece of work, the American Army +received as its reward another piece of work. The reward consisted in +the fact that the second task assigned to Pershing's men was, perhaps, +the hardest possible at any point in the line. Since 1915 the Argonne +Forest had been a rest area for the German Army. Everything had been +done to make the position impregnable, and so it was in theory. But the +Americans broke that theory and took the forest. So confident were the +Germans of their tenancy that they had built all sorts of palatial +underground dwellings. Barring light, there was no modern convenience +which these dugouts (although that is no fit name) did not possess. Some +had running water. All the most pretentious ones had feather-beds, and +the big underground rooms were gay with pictures and furniture stolen +from the French. The defenses of the positions<a name="page_280" id="page_280"></a> in the forest included +miles and miles of barbed wire, sometimes hidden in the underbrush, and +again carried around tree-trunks higher than a man could reach. There +were high concrete walls to stop the progress of tanks and deep-pit +traps into which they might fall. And machine guns were everywhere.</p> + +<p>The Meuse-Argonne campaign, which falls into three phases, reads far +differently than the taking of St. Mihiel. Except in its early stages +this was no grand running, flawless offensive without a hitch worth +mentioning. In the nature of things it could not be so. The Argonne was +less susceptible to the laws of military strategy. Warfare in these +woods became a struggle between small detached units. Much of the +fighting took place in the dark and practically all of it in the rain. +The American victory was a triumph of the bomb and the rifle, and +perhaps the wire-cutter should be added, over the machine-gun. In many +encounters the opposing units fired at each other from short ranges, and +directed their fire solely by the flashes of the other fellow's +machine-gun. War in the Argonne Forest was a cat-and-dog fight,<a name="page_281" id="page_281"></a> and +Germany was destined to play the cat's usual rôle, though she clawed her +hardest.</p> + +<p>And yet though many of the phases of the Meuse-Argonne were primitive +and elemental in their nature, sound strategy lay behind the campaign. +General Pershing in his vivid report explains not only the necessity for +the campaign but the objects which he sought and gained. St. Mihiel +shook the confidence of the Germans, but neither that success nor those +scored by other allied armies was sufficient to batter the Germans into +defeat.</p> + +<p>"The German Army," wrote General Pershing, "had as yet shown no +demoralization, and while the mass of its troops had suffered in morale, +its first-class divisions, and notably its machine-gun defense, were +exhibiting remarkable tactical efficiency as well as courage. The German +General Staff was fully aware of the consequences of a success on the +Meuse-Argonne line. Certain that he would do everything in his power to +oppose us, the action was planned with as much secrecy as possible, and +was undertaken with the determination to use all our divisions in +forcing decision. We expected to<a name="page_282" id="page_282"></a> draw the best German divisions to our +front and to consume them while the enemy was held under grave +apprehension lest our attack should break his line, which it was our +firm purpose to do."</p> + +<p>"Our right flank," wrote General Pershing in describing his position at +the beginning of the battle, "was protected by the Meuse, while our left +embraced the Argonne Forest, whose ravines, hills, and elaborate defense +screened by dense thickets, had been generally considered impregnable. +Our order of battle from right to left was: the Third Corps from the +Meuse to Malancourt, with the Thirty-third, Eightieth, and Fourth +Divisions in line, and the Third Division as corps reserve; the Fifth +Corps from Malancourt to Vauquois, with Seventy-ninth, Eighty-seventh, +and Ninety-first Divisions in line, and the Thirty-second in corps +reserve; and the First Corps, from Vauquois to Vienne Le Château, with +Thirty-fifth, Twenty-eighth, and Seventy-seventh Divisions in line, and +the Ninety-second in corps reserve. The army reserve consisted of the +First, Twenty-ninth, and Eighty-second Divisions."<a name="page_283" id="page_283"></a></p> + +<p>The American Army had no extended vacation after the victory at St. +Mihiel. That action had hardly been completed when some of the artillery +left its positions and departed for the Meuse-Argonne front. St. Mihiel +began on September 12. Just two weeks later the first attack in the +long-protracted Meuse-Argonne campaign began. The first portion of this +offensive was by far the easiest. It was difficult, to be sure, but the +terrific hardships were still to come. One factor which mitigated the +task of the troops engaged in the first attack was that again the +Germans seemed to have been taken by surprise. The Americans moved very +fast over difficult terrain. This was country which had already been +sorely disputed, and shell-holes were everywhere. In the places where +there were no shell-holes there was barbed wire.</p> + +<p>As the attack progressed the German resistance increased. Artillery was +moved forward and machine-guns seemed to spring up overnight in that +much ploughed and harrowed land. Yet after three days' fighting the +Americans had penetrated a distance of from three to<a name="page_284" id="page_284"></a> seven miles into +the enemy's positions, in spite of the large numbers of reserves which +were thrown in to check them. Even a German <i>communiqué</i> writer would +hardly have the face to maintain that the territory captured by the +Americans was of no strategic importance. Every mile that Pershing's men +went forward brought them that much nearer to Sedan, and on Sedan rested +the whole fate of the German lines in France. But Sedan was still many a +weary mile away. The territorial gains in the onward rush of the first +three days included the villages of Montfaucon, Exermont, Gercourt, +Cuisy, Septsarges, Malancourt, Ivoiry (known to the doughboys, of +course, as Solid Ivory), Epinonville, Charpentry, and Very. Ten thousand +prisoners were taken.</p> + +<p>In spite of this great success it was not possible for the Americans to +drive straight forward. The country over which the action was fought was +so bad that several days were needed to build new roads up to the +positions which had been won. Even with the best efforts in the world, +the moving of supplies was a prodigious job. The mud was almost as great +a<a name="page_285" id="page_285"></a> foe as the German guns. In the necessary lull the Germans, of course, +rushed new troops into the sector to combat the American advance. +Naturally, the lull was not complete. There was constant raiding by +Americans to identify units opposed to them, and here and there in small +local attacks strategic points were taken which would be of advantage in +the big push to come. From prisoners the Americans learned that among +the divisions opposite them were many of the crack units of the German +Army. America was also represented by its best organizations, but under +the constant losses incurred in attacks against strongly intrenched +positions units dwindled, and replacements were poured in. Under the +circumstances it was necessary to send many soldiers to the front who +had been in training but a short while. These were mixed in, however, +with veterans, and it should be said to the credit of these green men +that in practically every case they upheld the reputation of the units +to which they were sent. They were quick to feel themselves as sharers +in the reputation of their new-found organizations.<a name="page_286" id="page_286"></a></p> + +<p>There was no element of surprise to help the American Army when the +attack began again in full force on October 4. Where progress before had +been measured in miles, now it was counted in yards. Possibly it was +even a matter of feet at some points in the line. Yet always the +movement was forward. Weight of numbers and dogged courage proved that +machine-gun nests of the strongest sort were vulnerable. The Germans +counter-attacked constantly, but such tactics were actually welcomed by +the Americans as they brought the Germans into the open and gave our +riflemen and machine-gunners something at which to shoot. The +difficulties with which the Americans had to contend may be judged by +the fact that, according to an official report, the Germans had +machine-guns at intervals of every yard all along their line.</p> + +<p>The Argonne fighting produced many actions more important than the +rescue of the Lost Battalion, but hardly any as dramatic. The incident +could have happened only in the Argonne, where communication with +co-operating units was always difficult, and sometimes impossible.<a name="page_287" id="page_287"></a> +Major Whittlesey's battalion, in making an attack through the forest, +gained their objectives, only to find that they were out of touch with +the American and French units with which they were co-operating. It is +not true, as sometimes reported, that Whittlesey pushed ahead beyond the +objectives which had been set for him. Nevertheless, he was so far away +from help as to make his chances of rescue small. German machine-guns +were behind him. His men were raked by fire from all sides. Yet their +position was a strong one and they hung on. Soon their rations were +gone. For more than twenty-four hours even their position was unknown to +the American Army. Eventually they were located by aeroplanes and an +attempt was made to supply them with food and ammunition. Even yet +rescue seemed a long chance. The Germans thought the battalion was at +their mercy and sent a messenger asking Whittlesey to surrender. He +refused, and the "Go to Hell" which has been put into his mouth as a +fitting expression for the occasion will probably go down in American +history in spite of the fact that Whittlesey has done his<a name="page_288" id="page_288"></a> best to +convince people that he never said it. Several attacks were made in an +effort to rescue the Americans but without success until a force under +Lieutenant-Colonel Gene Houghton broke through and brought the exhausted +men back to safety.</p> + +<p>The last strongly fortified line of the Germans was the Kriemhilde, and +the second phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive had not been in progress +long before our men were astride the line at many points. But there was +still much desperate fighting to do before the Germans were completely +driven from their scientifically perfect positions. The honor of +actually breaching the line fell to the Fifth Corps, which entered the +line on October 14 and drove the Germans out after some fearful close +fighting. In the meantime the continual pressure of the American forces +was beginning to tell. Châtel-Chehery fell to the First Corps on October +7. On the 9th the Fifth Corps took Fleville, and the Third Corps, after +some desperate fighting, worked its way through Brieulles and Cunel. By +October 10 the Argonne Forest was practically clear of the enemy.<a name="page_289" id="page_289"></a></p> + +<p>One of the important factors in the Argonne campaign was aviation. +Aerial activity was great on both sides, since in no other campaign was +observation so difficult or so important. Both sides did a great deal of +day bombing, and during one such American foray the greatest battle of +the air took place. The American expedition consisted of thirty-four +machines. It was attacked by thirty-six Fokkers. Although the German +machines are faster, the American squadron managed to hold its +formation. Seven Fokker machines were brought down in the battle and +five American.</p> + +<p>All in all, the Meuse-Argonne campaign was one of the most remarkable in +the history of the war. Its second phase in particular is sure to be a +bone of contention for military experts. General Pershing himself +declared very frankly in his report to Secretary Baker that he had +purposely abandoned traditional military tactics in the campaign. "The +enemy," he wrote, "had taken every advantage of the terrain, which +especially favored the defense, by a prodigal use of machine-guns manned +by highly trained veterans, and by using his artillery at<a name="page_290" id="page_290"></a> short ranges. +In the face of such strong frontal positions we should have been unable +to accomplish any progress according to previously accepted standards, +but I had every confidence in our aggressive tactics and the courage of +our troops."</p> + +<p>Such strategists as oppose the theory of the Meuse-Argonne campaign will +undoubtedly assert that American losses were high. In rebuttal defenders +of the plan of the campaign will say that the losses were very light +considering the nature of the fighting, and that the campaign shortened +the duration of the war appreciably by putting the Germans into a +position where they were compelled either to surrender or be +overwhelmed. But whatever decision may be reached by the experts, there +is no necessity of calling for testimony as to the part the American +soldier played in this campaign. It seems fair to say that he has never +shown more dogged courage or resourcefulness than in the fighting in the +forest.<a name="page_291" id="page_291"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV<br /><br /> +CEASE FIRING</h3> + +<p class="nind"><span class="letra">B</span>EFORE taking up the final phases of the Meuse-Argonne campaign, and the +final phases of the war, it is fitting to follow the fortunes of some +divisions which saw action in other parts of the front. The Second +Corps, for example, remained with the British and saw desperately hard +service and won corresponding fame. This corps was composed of the +Twenty-seventh and Thirtieth Divisions, and in conjunction with the +Australian Corps it participated in the attack which broke the +Hindenburg line near St. Quentin. The Twenty-seventh Division had the +honor of being the first unit actually to breach the famous defensive +system of the Germans.</p> + +<p>The attack began on September 29 and continued through October 1. Both +divisions were compelled to advance over difficult terrain against +strongly fortified positions. They were raked from both sides by +machine-gun<a name="page_292" id="page_292"></a> fire as they cut their way through innumerable lines of +barbed wire. But in spite of the determined resistance of the Germans, +they broke the line. The divisions also saw hard service from October 6 +to October 19. In these operations the Second Corps was credited with +the capture of more than 6,000 prisoners, and advanced into enemy +territory for a distance of thirteen miles. Marshal Haig expressed his +admiration of the conduct and achievements of both the American +divisions which served with his forces.</p> + +<p>American divisions also played an important rôle in conjunction with the +French when they assisted in an attack against the Germans just outside +of Rheims. This operation continued from October 2 to October 9 and was +marked by severe and bitter fighting. The American forces engaged were +the Second and Thirty-sixth Divisions. Perhaps the most noteworthy +achievement in the campaign was the capture of Blanc Mont by the Second +Division. Blanc Mont is a wooded hill, and was very strongly held by the +Germans. The Americans were repulsed in their first assault, but came +back and<a name="page_293" id="page_293"></a> tried again. This time they swept the German defenders before +them. The assault by no means completed their labors, for after the +capture of the hill the division was called upon to repulse strong +counter-attacks in front of the village of St. Etienne. Not content with +driving the Germans back, the Second went on and took the town. The +Germans were forced to abandon positions they had held ever since the +autumn of 1914.</p> + +<p>By this time the Second Division had earned a rest, and it was relieved +by the Thirty-sixth. The relieving troops were inexperienced. They had +never been under fire, and the Germans subjected them to a severe +artillery strafing, but did not shake their confidence. The division +performed useful work in pursuing the Germans in their retirement behind +the Aisne.</p> + +<p>Other divisions saw service with the French in Belgium. After the ending +of the second phase of the Meuse-Argonne campaign, the Thirty-seventh +and Ninety-first Divisions were withdrawn and sent to join the French +near Ypres. They took part in a heavy attack on October 31. The +Thirty-seventh inflicted a<a name="page_294" id="page_294"></a> severe defeat upon opposing troops at the +Escaut River on November 3, and the Ninety-first won much praise from +the French for a flanking movement which resulted in the capture of the +Spitaals Bosschen Wood.</p> + +<p>Although the German Army had begun to disintegrate by November 1, the +Americans saw some hard fighting after that date. The task set for +Pershing's men was in theory almost as difficult as clearing the Argonne +Forest. The offensive was aimed at the Longuyon-Sedan-Mézierès railway, +which was one of the most important lines of communication of the German +Army. Germany was aware of the gravity of this threat and used her very +best troops in an effort to stop the Americans. For a time the Germans +fought steadily, but their morale was waning at the end. The Americans +found on several occasions that their second-day gains were greater than +those of the first day, which was formerly an unheard of thing on the +western front.</p> + +<p>In the final days of the war the Americans had to go their fastest in an +effort to reach Sedan before the armistice went into effect.<a name="page_295" id="page_295"></a> During one +phase of the battle doughboys mounted on auto-trucks went forward in a +vain effort to establish contact with the enemy. The roads were so bad, +however, that the Americans were unable to catch up with the fleeing +Germans.</p> + +<p>The third phase of the Meuse-Argonne campaign found the Americans +absolutely confident of success. They knew their superiority over the +Germans, and the American Army was constantly growing stronger while the +Germans grew weaker. Pershing was able to send well-rested divisions +into the battle. The final advance began on November 1. American +artillery was stronger than ever in numbers and much more experienced. +Never before had our army seen such a barrage, and the German infantry +broke before the advance of the doughboys. The German heart to fight had +begun to develop murmurs, although there were some units among the enemy +forces which fought with great gallantry until the very end. +Aincreville, Doulcon, and Andevanne fell in the first day of the attack. +Landres et St. Georges was next to go, as the Fifth Corps, in an +im<a name="page_296" id="page_296"></a>petuous attack, swept up to Bayonville. On November 2, which was the +second day of the attack, the First Corps was called in to give added +pressure. By this time the German resistance was pretty well broken. It +was now that the motor-truck offensive began. Behind the trucks the +field-guns rattled along as the artillerymen spurred on their horses in +a vain effort to catch up with something at which they could shoot. At +the end of the third day of the attack the American Army had penetrated +the German line to a depth of twelve miles. A slight pause was then +necessary in order that the big guns might come up, but on November 5 +the Third Corps crossed the Meuse. They met a sporadic resistance from +German machine-gunners but swept them up with small losses. By the 7th +of November the chief objective of the offensive thrust was obtained. On +that day American troops, among them the Rainbow Division, reached +Sedan. Pershing's army had cut the enemy's line of communication. +Nothing but surrender or complete defeat was left to him.</p> + +<p>In estimating the extent of the American victory it is interesting to +note that General Persh<a name="page_297" id="page_297"></a>ing reported that forty enemy divisions +participated in the Meuse-Argonne battle. Our army took 26,059 prisoners +and captured 468 guns. Colonel Frederick Palmer estimates that 650,000 +American soldiers were engaged in the battle. This is a greater number +than were engaged at St. Mihiel, and it was, of course, a new mark in +the records of the American Army. Colonel Palmer has stated his opinion +that Meuse-Argonne was one of the four decisive battles of the war. The +other three which he names are the first battle of the Marne, the first +battle of Ypres, and Verdun.</p> + +<p>Curiously enough, Château-Thierry looms larger in the mind of the +average American than Meuse-Argonne, although the number of Americans +engaged in the former battle was not half as great as those who battered +their way through the forest. Of course the importance of a battle is +not to be judged solely by the number of men engaged, but there seems to +be no good reason for assigning a strategic importance to +Château-Thierry which is denied to Meuse-Argonne. Most of the military +critics are of the opinion that the wide-spread belief that the +Americans saved Paris at the battle of Château-Thierry is<a name="page_298" id="page_298"></a> not literally +true. The American victory was a factor, to be sure. It was even an +important factor. Perhaps, from the point of view of morale, it was +vital, but judged by strict military standards there is no support for +the frequent assertion that only a few marines stood between Paris and +the triumphant entry of the German Army. Meuse-Argonne, on the other +hand, was not only a campaign solely under American control but a +large-scale battle which probably shortened the war by many months. This +victory was America's chief contribution in the field to the cause of +the Allies. It is on Meuse-Argonne that our military prestige will rest. +The divisions engaged were the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, +Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, Thirty-second, Thirty-third, +Thirty-fifth, Thirty-seventh, Forty-second, Seventy-seventh, +Seventy-eighth, Seventy-ninth, Eightieth, Eighty-second, Eighty-ninth, +Ninetieth, and Ninety-first. The First, Fifth, Twenty-sixth, +Forty-second, Seventy-seventh, Eightieth, Eighty-ninth, and Ninetieth +were particularly honored by being put in the line twice during the +campaign.</p> + +<p>Though the armistice was now close at hand<a name="page_299" id="page_299"></a> the war had not ended. The +policy of allied leadership was to fight until the last minute lest +there should be some hitch. The American plans called for an advance +toward Longwy by the First Army in co-operation with the Second Army, +which was to threaten the Briey iron-fields. If the war had kept up, +this would have been followed by an offensive in the direction of +Château-Salins, with the ultimate object of cutting off Metz. The attack +of the Second Army was actually in progress when the time came set in +the armistice for the cessation of hostilities. At eleven o'clock the +hostilities ceased suddenly, although just before that the Second Army +was advancing against heavy and determined machine-gun fire, with both +sides apparently unwilling to believe that the war was almost over. At +other points in the line where no offensive was set for the last day, +the artillerymen had the final word to say. Most of the American guns +fired at the foe just before eleven o'clock, and in many batteries the +gunners joined hands to pull the lanyards so that all might have a share +in the final defiance to Germany.</p> + +<p>When the war ended, the American position<a name="page_300" id="page_300"></a> ran from Port-sur-Seille +across the Moselle to Vandieres, through the Wœvre to Bezonvaux, +thence to the Meuse at Mouzay, and ending at Sedan. There were abroad or +in transit 2,053,347 American soldiers, less the losses, and of these +there were 1,338,169 combatant troops in France. The American Army +captured about 44,000 prisoners and 1,400 guns. The figures on our +losses are not yet entirely checked up at the time of this writing, but +they were approximately 300,000 in killed, died of disease, wounded, and +missing.</p> + +<p>When he wrote his report to Secretary Baker, General Pershing reserved +his final paragraph for a tribute to his men, and in it he said:</p> + +<p>"Finally, I pay the supreme tribute to our officers and soldiers of the +line. When I think of their heroism, their patience under hardships, +their unflinching spirit of offensive action, I am filled with emotion +which I am unable to express. Their deeds are immortal, and they have +earned the eternal gratitude of our country."</p> + +<p><a name="page_302" id="page_302"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_303" id="page_303"></a><a name="page_301" id="page_301"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="GENERAL_PERSHINGS_REPORT" id="GENERAL_PERSHINGS_REPORT"></a>GENERAL PERSHING'S REPORT</h3> + +<p class="hang">B<small>ATTLES</small> F<small>OUGHT BY</small> A<small>MERICAN</small> A<small>RMIES IN</small> +<small>FRANCE FROM</small> T<small>HEIR</small> +O<small>RGANIZATION TO +THE</small> F<small>ALL OF</small> S<small>EDAN</small></p> + +<p class="hang"><small>[CABLED BY GENERAL PERSHING TO MR. BAKER, SECRETARY OF WAR, AND MADE +PUBLIC WITH HIS ANNUAL REPORT, DEC. 5, 1918]</small></p> + +<p class="r">November 20, 1918.</p> + +<p><i>My dear Mr. Secretary:</i> In response to your request, I have the honor +to submit this brief summary of the organization and operation of the +American Expeditionary Force from May 26, 1917, until the signing of the +armistice Nov. 11, 1918. Pursuant to your instructions, immediately upon +receiving my orders I selected a small staff and proceeded to Europe in +order to become familiar with conditions at the earliest possible +moment.</p> + +<p>The warmth of our reception in England and France was only equalled by +the readiness of the Commanders in Chief of the veteran armies of the +Allies, and their staffs, to place their experience at our disposal. In +consultation with them the most effective means of co-operation of +effort was considered. With the French and British Armies at their +maximum strength, and when all efforts to dispossess the enemy from his +firmly intrenched positions in Belgium and France had failed, it was +necessary to plan for an American force adequate to turn the scale in +favor of the Allies. Taking account of the strength of<a name="page_304" id="page_304"></a> the Central +Powers at that time, the immensity of the problem which confronted us +could hardly be overestimated. The first requisite being an organization +that could give intelligent direction to effort, the formation of a +General Staff occupied my early attention.</p> + +<p>A well-organized General Staff, through which the Commander exercises +his functions, is essential to a successful modern army. However capable +our division, our battalion, and our companies as such, success would be +impossible without thoroughly co-ordinated endeavor. A General Staff +broadly organized and trained for war had not hitherto existed in our +army. Under the Commander in Chief, this staff must carry out the policy +and direct the details of administration, supply, preparation, and +operations of the army as a whole, with all special branches and bureaus +subject to its control. As models to aid us we had the veteran French +General Staff and the experience of the British, who had similarly +formed an organization to meet the demands of a great army. By selecting +from each the features best adapted to our basic organization, and +fortified by our own early experience in the war, the development of our +great General Staff system was completed.</p> + +<p>The General Staff is naturally divided into five groups, each with its +chief, who is an assistant to the Chief of the General Staff. G. 1 is in +charge of organization and equipment of troops, replacements, tonnage, +priority of overseas shipment, the auxiliary welfare association, and +cognate subjects; G. 2 has censorship, enemy intelligence, gathering and +disseminating information, preparation of maps, and all similar +subjects; G. 3 is charged with all strategic studies and plans, movement +of troops, and the supervision of combat operations; G. 4 co-ordinates +im<a name="page_305" id="page_305"></a>portant questions of supply, construction, transport arrangements for +combat, and of the operations of the service of supply, and of +hospitalization and the evacuation of the sick and wounded; G. 5 +supervises the various schools and has general direction and +co-ordination of education and training.</p> + +<p>The first Chief of Staff was Colonel (now Major Gen.) James G. Harbord, +who was succeeded in March, 1918, by Major Gen. James W. McAndrew. To +these officers, to the Deputy Chief of Staff, and to the Assistant +Chiefs of Staff, who, as heads of sections, aided them, great credit is +due for the results obtained, not only in perfecting the General Staff +organization, but in applying correct principles to the multiplicity of +problems that have arisen.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Organization and Training</span></p> + +<p>After a thorough consideration of allied organizations, it was decided +that our combat division should consist of four regiments of infantry of +3,000 men, with three battalions to a regiment and four companies of 250 +men each to a battalion, and of an artillery brigade of three regiments, +a machine-gun battalion, an engineer regiment, a trench-mortar battery, +a signal battalion, wagon trains, and the headquarters staffs and +military police. These, with medical and other units, made a total of +over 28,000 men, or practically double the size of a French or German +division. Each corps would normally consist of six divisions—four +combat and one depot and one replacement division—and also two +regiments of cavalry, and each army of from three to five corps. With +four divisions fully trained, a corps could take over an American sector +with two divisions in line and two in reserve, with the depot<a name="page_306" id="page_306"></a> and +replacement divisions prepared to fill the gaps in the ranks.</p> + +<p>Our purpose was to prepare an integral American force which should be +able to take the offensive in every respect. Accordingly, the +development of a self-reliant infantry by thorough drill in the use of +the rifle and in the tactics of open warfare was always uppermost. The +plan of training after arrival in France allowed a division one month +for acclimatization and instruction in small units from battalions down, +a second month in quiet trench sectors by battalion, and a third month +after it came out of the trenches when it should be trained as a +complete division in war of movement.</p> + +<p>Very early a system of schools was outlined and started which should +have the advantage of instruction by officers direct from the front. At +the great school centre at Langres, one of the first to be organized, +was the staff school, where the principles of general staff work, as +laid down in our own organization, were taught to carefully selected +officers. Men in the ranks who had shown qualities of leadership were +sent to the school of candidates for commissions. A school of the line +taught younger officers the principles of leadership, tactics, and the +use of the different weapons. In the artillery school, at Saumur, young +officers were taught the fundamental principles of modern artillery; +while at Issoudun an immense plant was built for training cadets in +aviation. These and other schools, with their well-considered +curriculums for training in every branch of our organization, were +co-ordinated in a manner best to develop an efficient army out of +willing and industrious young men, many of whom had not before known +even the rudiments of military technique. Both Marshal Haig and General +Pétain placed<a name="page_307" id="page_307"></a> officers and men at our disposal for instructional +purposes, and we are deeply indebted for the opportunities given to +profit by their veteran experience.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">American Zone</span></p> + +<p>The eventual place the American Army should take on the western front +was to a large extent influenced by the vital questions of communication +and supply. The northern ports of France were crowded by the British +Armies' shipping and supplies, while the southern ports, though +otherwise at our service, had not adequate port facilities for our +purposes, and these we should have to build. The already overtaxed +railway system behind the active front in Northern France would not be +available for us as lines of supply, and those leading from the southern +ports of Northeastern France would be unequal to our needs without much +new construction. Practically all warehouses, supply depots, and +regulating stations must be provided by fresh constructions. While +France offered us such material as she had to spare after a drain of +three years, enormous quantities of material had to be brought across +the Atlantic.</p> + +<p>With such a problem any temporization or lack of definiteness in making +plans might cause failure even with victory within our grasp. Moreover, +broad plans commensurate with our national purpose and resources would +bring conviction of our power to every soldier in the front line, to the +nations associated with us in the war, and to the enemy. The tonnage for +material for necessary construction for the supply of an army of three +and perhaps four million men would require a mammoth programme of +shipbuilding at home, and miles of dock construction<a name="page_308" id="page_308"></a> in France, with a +corresponding large project for additional railways and for storage +depots.</p> + +<p>All these considerations led to the inevitable conclusion that if we +were to handle and supply the great forces deemed essential to win the +war we must utilize the southern ports of France—Bordeaux, La Pallice, +St. Nazaire, and Brest—and the comparatively unused railway systems +leading therefrom to the northeast. Generally speaking, then, this would +contemplate the use of our forces against the enemy somewhere in that +direction, but the great depots of supply must be centrally located, +preferably in the area included by Tours, Bourges, and Châteauroux, so +that our armies could be supplied with equal facility wherever they +might be serving on the western front.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Growth of Supply Service</span></p> + +<p>To build up such a system there were talented men in the Regular Army, +but more experts were necessary than the army could furnish. Thanks to +the patriotic spirit of our people at home, there came from civil life +men trained for every sort of work involved in building and managing the +organization necessary to handle and transport such an army and keep it +supplied. With such assistance the construction and general development +of our plans have kept pace with the growth of the forces, and the +Service of Supply is now able to discharge from ships and move 45,000 +tons daily, besides transporting troops and material in the conduct of +active operations.</p> + +<p>As to organization, all the administrative and supply services, except +the Adjutant General's, Inspector General's, and Judge Advocate +General's Departments, which remain at general headquarters, have been +transferred to<a name="page_309" id="page_309"></a> the headquarters of the services of supplies at Tours +under a commanding General responsible to the Commander-in-Chief for +supply of the armies. The Chief Quartermaster, Chief Surgeon, Chief +Signal Officer, Chief of Ordnance, Chief of Air Service, Chief of +Chemical Warfare, the general purchasing agent in all that pertains to +questions of procurement and supply, the Provost Marshal General in the +maintenance of order in general, the Director General of Transportation +in all that affects such matters, and the Chief Engineer in all matters +of administration and supply, are subordinate to the Commanding General +of the Service of Supply, who, assisted by a staff especially organized +for the purpose, is charged with the administrative co-ordination of all +these services.</p> + +<p>The transportation department under the Service of Supply directs the +operation, maintenance, and construction of railways, the operation of +terminals, the unloading of ships, and transportation of material to +warehouses or to the front. Its functions make necessary the most +intimate relationship between our organization and that of the French, +with the practical result that our transportation department has been +able to improve materially the operations of railways generally. +Constantly laboring under a shortage of rolling stock, the +transportation department has nevertheless been able by efficient +management to meet every emergency.</p> + +<p>The Engineer Corps is charged with all construction, including light +railways and roads. It has planned and constructed the many projects +required, the most important of which are the new wharves at Bordeaux +and Nantes, and the immense storage depots at La Pallice, Mointoir, and +Glèvres, besides innumerable hospitals and barracks in various ports of +France. These projects have<a name="page_310" id="page_310"></a> all been carried on by phases keeping pace +with our needs. The Forestry Service under the Engineer Corps has cut +the greater part of the timber and railway ties required.</p> + +<p>To meet the shortage of supplies from America, due to lack of shipping, +the representatives of the different supply departments were constantly +in search of available material and supplies in Europe. In order to +co-ordinate these purchases and to prevent competition between our +departments, a general purchasing agency was created early in our +experience to co-ordinate our purchases and, if possible, induce our +allies to apply the principle among the allied armies. While there was +no authority for the general use of appropriations, this was met by +grouping the purchasing representatives of the different departments +under one control, charged with the duty of consolidating requisitions +and purchases. Our efforts to extend the principle have been signally +successful, and all purchases for the allied armies are now on an +equitable and co-operative basis. Indeed, it may be said that the work +of this bureau has been thoroughly efficient and businesslike.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Artillery, Airplanes, Tanks</span></p> + +<p>Our entry into the war found us with few of the auxiliaries necessary +for its conduct in the modern sense. Among our most important +deficiencies in material were artillery, aviation, and tanks. In order +to meet our requirements as rapidly as possible, we accepted the offer +of the French Government to provide us with the necessary artillery +equipment of seventy-fives, one fifty-five millimeter howitzers, and one +fifty-five G. P. F. guns from their own factories for thirty divisions. +The wisdom of<a name="page_311" id="page_311"></a> this course is fully demonstrated by the fact that, +although we soon began the manufacture of these classes of guns at home, +there were no guns of the calibres mentioned manufactured in America on +our front at the date the armistice was signed. The only guns of these +types produced at home thus far received in France are 109 seventy-five +millimeter guns.</p> + +<p>In aviation we were in the same situation, and here again the French +Government came to our aid until our own aviation programme should be +under way. We obtained from the French the necessary planes for training +our personnel, and they have provided us with a total of 2,676 pursuit, +observation, and bombing planes. The first airplanes received from home +arrived in May, and altogether we have received 1,379. The first +American squadron completely equipped by American production, including +airplanes, crossed the German lines on Aug. 7, 1918. As to tanks, we +were also compelled to rely upon the French. Here, however, we were less +fortunate, for the reason that the French production could barely meet +the requirements of their own armies.</p> + +<p>It should be fully realized that the French Government has always taken +a most liberal attitude, and has been most anxious to give us every +possible assistance in meeting our deficiencies in these as well as in +other respects. Our dependence upon France for artillery, aviation, and +tanks was, of course, due to the fact that our industries had not been +exclusively devoted to military production. All credit is due our own +manufacturers for their efforts to meet our requirements, as at the time +the armistice was signed we were able to look forward to the early +supply of practically all our necessities from our own factories.<a name="page_312" id="page_312"></a></p> + +<p>The welfare of the troops touches my responsibility as Commander in +Chief to the mothers and fathers and kindred of the men who came to +France in the impressionable period of youth. They could not have the +privilege accorded European soldiers during their periods of leave of +visiting their families and renewing their home ties. Fully realizing +that the standard of conduct that should be established for them must +have a permanent influence in their lives and on the character of their +future citizenship, the Red Cross, the Young Men's Christian +Association, Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army, and the Jewish +Welfare Board, as auxiliaries in this work, were encouraged in every +possible way. The fact that our soldiers, in a land of different customs +and language, have borne themselves in a manner in keeping with the +cause for which they fought, is due not only to the efforts in their +behalf, but much more to their high ideals, their discipline, and their +innate sense of self-respect. It should be recorded, however, that the +members of these welfare societies have been untiring in their desire to +be of real service to our officers and men. The patriotic devotion of +these representative men and women has given a new significance to the +Golden Rule, and we owe to them a debt of gratitude that can never be +repaid.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Combat Operations</span></p> + +<p>During our period of training in the trenches some of our divisions had +engaged the enemy in local combats, the most important of which was +Seicheprey by the 26th on April 20, in the Toul sector, but none had +participated in action as a unit. The 1st Division, which had passed +through the preliminary stages of training, had gone to the trenches for +its first period of instruction at the end<a name="page_313" id="page_313"></a> of October, and by March 21, +when the German offensive in Picardy began, we had four divisions with +experience in the trenches, all of which were equal to any demands of +battle action. The crisis which this offensive developed was such that +our occupation of an American sector must be postponed.</p> + +<p>On March 28 I placed at the disposal of Marshal Foch, who had been +agreed upon as Commander in Chief of the Allied Armies, all of our +forces, to be used as he might decide. At his request the 1st Division +was transferred from the Toul sector to a position in reserve at +Chaumont en Vexin. As German superiority in numbers required prompt +action, an agreement was reached at the Abbeville conference of the +allied Premiers and commanders and myself on May 2 by which British +shipping was to transport ten American divisions to the British Army +area, where they were to be trained and equipped, and additional British +shipping was to be provided for as many divisions as possible for use +elsewhere.</p> + +<p>On April 26 the 1st Division had gone into the line in the Montdidier +salient on the Picardy battle-front. Tactics had been suddenly +revolutionized to those of open warfare, and our men, confident of the +results of their training, were eager for the test. On the morning of +May 28 this division attacked the commanding German position in its +front, taking with splendid dash the town of Cantigny and all other +objectives, which were organized and held steadfastly against vicious +counter-attacks and galling artillery fire. Although local, this +brilliant action had an electrical effect, as it demonstrated our +fighting qualities under extreme battle conditions, and also that the +enemy's troops were not altogether invincible.<a name="page_314" id="page_314"></a></p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Holding the Marne</span></p> + +<p>The Germans' Aisne offensive, which began on May 27, had advanced +rapidly toward the River Marne and Paris, and the Allies faced a crisis +equally as grave as that of the Picardy offensive in March. Again every +available man was placed at Marshal Foch's disposal, and the 3d +Division, which had just come from its preliminary training in the +trenches, was hurried to the Marne. Its motorized machine-gun battalion +preceded the other units and successfully held the bridgehead at the +Marne, opposite Château-Thierry. The 2d Division, in reserve near +Montdidier, was sent by motor trucks and other available transport to +check the progress of the enemy toward Paris. The division attacked and +retook the town and railroad station at Bouresches and sturdily held its +ground against the enemy's best guard divisions. In the battle of +Belleau Wood, which followed, our men proved their superiority and +gained a strong tactical position, with far greater loss to the enemy +than to ourselves. On July 1, before the 2d was relieved, it captured +the village of Vaux with most splendid precision.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile our 2d Corps, under Major Gen. George W. Read, had been +organized for the command of our divisions with the British, which were +held back in training areas or assigned to second-line defenses. Five of +the ten divisions were withdrawn from the British area in June, three to +relieve divisions in Lorraine, and in the Vosges and two to the Paris +area to join the group of American divisions which stood between the +city and any further advance of the enemy in that direction.</p> + +<p>The great June-July troop movement from the States<a name="page_315" id="page_315"></a> was well under way, +and, although these troops were to be given some preliminary training +before being put into action, their very presence warranted the use of +all the older divisions in the confidence that we did not lack reserves. +Elements of the 42d Division were in the line east of Rheims against the +German offensive of July 15, and held their ground unflinchingly. On the +right flank of this offensive four companies of the 28th Division were +in position in face of the advancing waves of the German infantry. The +3d Division was holding the bank of the Marne from the bend east of the +mouth of the Surmelin to the west of Mézy, opposite Château-Thierry, +where a large force of German infantry sought to force a passage under +support of powerful artillery concentrations and under cover of smoke +screens. A single regiment of the 3d wrote one of the most brilliant +pages in our military annals on this occasion. It prevented the crossing +at certain points on its front while, on either flank, the Germans, who +had gained a footing, pressed forward. Our men, firing in three +directions, met the German attacks with counter-attacks at critical +points and succeeded in throwing two German divisions into complete +confusion, capturing 600 prisoners.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Offensive of July</span> 18</p> + +<p>The great force of the German Château-Thierry offensive established the +deep Marne salient, but the enemy was taking chances, and the +vulnerability of this pocket to attack might be turned to his +disadvantage. Seizing this opportunity to support my conviction, every +division with any sort of training was made available for use in a +counter-offensive. The place of honor in the thrust toward Soissons on +July 18 was given to our 1st and 2d<a name="page_316" id="page_316"></a> Divisions in company with chosen +French divisions. Without the usual brief warning of a preliminary +bombardment, the massed French and American artillery, firing by the +map, laid down its rolling barrage at dawn while the infantry began its +charge. The tactical handling of our troops under these trying +conditions was excellent throughout the action. The enemy brought up +large numbers of reserves and made a stubborn defense both with machine +guns and artillery, but through five days' fighting the 1st Division +continued to advance until it had gained the heights above Soissons and +captured the village of Berzy-le-Sec. The 2d Division took Beau Repaire +Farm and Vierzy in a very rapid advance and reached a position in front +of Tigny at the end of its second day. These two divisions captured +7,000 prisoners and over 100 pieces of artillery.</p> + +<p>The 26th Division, which, with a French division, was under command of +our 1st Corps, acted as a pivot of the movement toward Soissons. On the +18th it took the village of Torcy, while the 3d Division was crossing +the Marne in pursuit of the retiring enemy. The 26th attacked again on +the 21st, and the enemy withdrew past the Château-Thierry-Soissons road. +The 3d Division, continuing its progress, took the heights of Mont St. +Père and the villages of Chartèves and Jaulgonne in the face of both +machine-gun and artillery fire.</p> + +<p>On the 24th, after the Germans had fallen back from Trugny and Epieds, +our 42d Division, which had been brought over from the Champagne, +relieved the 26th, and, fighting its way through the Forêt de Fère, +overwhelmed the nest of machine guns in its path. By the 27th it had +reached the Ourcq, whence the 3d and 4th Divisions were already +advancing, while the French divi<a name="page_317" id="page_317"></a>sions with which we were co-operating +were moving forward at other points.</p> + +<p>The 3d Division had made its advance into Ronchères Wood on the 29th and +was relieved for rest by a brigade of the 32d. The 42d and 32d undertook +the task of conquering the heights beyond Cierges, the 42d capturing +Sergy and the 32d capturing Hill 230, both American divisions joining in +the pursuit of the enemy to the Vesle, and thus the operation of +reducing the salient was finished. Meanwhile the 42d was relieved by the +4th at Chéry-Chartreuve, and the 32d by the 28th, while the 77th +Division took up a position on the Vesle. The operations of these +divisions on the Vesle were under the 3d Corps, Major Gen. Robert L. +Bullard commanding.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Battle of St. Mihiel</span></p> + +<p>With the reduction of the Marne salient, we could look forward to the +concentration of our divisions in our own zone. In view of the +forthcoming operation against the St. Mihiel salient, which had long +been planned as our first offensive action on a large scale, the First +Army was organized on Aug. 10 under my personal command. While American +units had held different divisional and corps sectors along the western +front, there had not been up to this time, for obvious reasons, a +distinct American sector; but, in view of the important parts the +American forces were now to play, it was necessary to take over a +permanent portion of the line. Accordingly, on Aug. 30, the line +beginning at Port sur Seille, east of the Moselle and extending to the +west through St. Mihiel, thence north to a point opposite Verdun, was +placed under my command. The American sector was afterward extended +across the Meuse to the western edge of the Argonne<a name="page_318" id="page_318"></a> Forest, and +included the 2d Colonial French, which held the point of the salient, +and the 17th French Corps, which occupied the heights above Verdun.</p> + +<p>The preparation for a complicated operation against the formidable +defenses in front of us included the assembling of divisions and of +corps and army artillery, transport, aircraft, tanks, ambulances, the +location of hospitals, and the molding together of all the elements of a +great modern army with its own railheads, supplied directly by our own +Service of Supply. The concentration for this operation, which was to be +a surprise, involved the movement, mostly at night, of approximately +600,000 troops, and required for its success the most careful attention +to every detail.</p> + +<p>The French were generous in giving us assistance in corps and army +artillery, with its personnel, and we were confident from the start of +our superiority over the enemy in guns of all calibres. Our heavy guns +were able to reach Metz and to interfere seriously with German rail +movements. The French Independent Air Force was placed under my command, +which, together with the British bombing squadrons and our air forces, +gave us the largest assembly of aviators that had ever been engaged in +one operation on the western front.</p> + +<p>From Les Eparges around the nose of the salient at St. Mihiel to the +Moselle River the line was, roughly, forty miles long and situated on +commanding ground greatly strengthened by artificial defenses. Our 1st +Corps (82d, 90th, 5th, and 2d Divisions), under command of Major Gen. +Hunter Liggett, resting its right on Pont-à-Mousson, with its left +joining our 3d Corps (the 89th, 42d, and 1st Divisions), under Major +Gen. Joseph T. Dickman, in line to Xivray, was to swing toward +Vigneulles on the<a name="page_319" id="page_319"></a> pivot of the Moselle River for the initial assault. +From Xivray to Mouilly the 2d Colonial French Corps was in line in the +centre, and our 5th Corps, under command of Major Gen. George H. +Cameron, with our 26th Division and a French division at the western +base of the salient, was to attack three difficult hills—Les Eparges, +Combres, and Amaranthe. Our 1st Corps had in reserve the 78th Division, +our 4th Corps the 3d Division, and our First Army the 35th and 91st +Divisions, with the 80th and 33d available. It should be understood that +our corps organizations are very elastic, and that we have at no time +had permanent assignments of divisions to corps.</p> + +<p>After four hours' artillery preparation, the seven American divisions in +the front line advanced at 5 A. M. on Sept. 12, assisted by a limited +number of tanks, manned partly by Americans and partly by French. These +divisions, accompanied by groups of wire cutters and others armed with +bangalore torpedoes, went through the successive bands of barbed wire +that protected the enemy's front-line and support trenches in +irresistible waves on schedule time, breaking down all defense of an +enemy demoralized by the great volume of our artillery fire and our +sudden approach out of the fog.</p> + +<p>Our 1st Corps advanced to Thiaucourt, while our 4th Corps curved back to +the southwest through Nonsard. The 2d Colonial French Corps made the +slight advance required of it on very difficult ground, and the 5th +Corps took its three ridges and repulsed a counterattack. A rapid march +brought reserve regiments of a division of the 5th Corps into Vigneulles +and beyond Fresnes-en-Woevre. At the cost of only 7,000 casualties, +mostly light, we had taken 16,000 prisoners and 443 guns, a great +quantity of material, released the inhabitants of many<a name="page_320" id="page_320"></a> villages from +enemy domination, and established our lines in a position to threaten +Metz. This signal success of the American First Army in its first +offensive was of prime importance. The Allies found they had a +formidable army to aid them, and the enemy learned finally that he had +one to reckon with.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Meuse-Argonne Offensive</span>, <span class="smcap">First Phase</span></p> + +<p>On the day after we had taken the St. Mihiel salient much of our corps +and army artillery which had operated at St. Mihiel, and our divisions +in reserve at other points, were already on the move toward the area +back of the line between the Meuse River and the western edge of the +Forest of Argonne. With the exception of St. Mihiel the old German front +line from Switzerland to the east of Rheims was still intact. In the +general attack all along the line the operations assigned the American +Army as the hinge of this allied offensive were directed toward the +important railroad communications of the German armies through Mézières +and Sedan. The enemy must hold fast to this part of his lines, or the +withdrawal of his forces, with four years' accumulation of plants and +material, would be dangerously imperiled.</p> + +<p>The German Army had as yet shown no demoralization, and, while the mass +of its troops had suffered in morale, its first-class divisions, and +notably its machine-gun defense, were exhibiting remarkable tactical +efficiency as well as courage. The German General Staff was fully aware +of the consequences of a success on the Meuse-Argonne line. Certain that +he would do everything in his power to oppose us, the action was planned +with as much secrecy as possible and was undertaken with the +determination to use all our divisions in forcing decision.<a name="page_321" id="page_321"></a> We expected +to draw the best German divisions to our front and to consume them while +the enemy was held under grave apprehension lest our attack should break +his line, which it was our firm purpose to do.</p> + +<p>Our right flank was protected by the Meuse, while our left embraced the +Argonne Forest, whose ravines, hills, and elaborate defense, screened by +dense thickets, had been generally considered impregnable. Our order of +battle from right to left was the 3d Corps from the Meuse to Malancourt, +with the 33d, 80th, and 4th Divisions in line and the 3d Division as +corps reserve; the 5th Corps from Malancourt to Vauquois, with the 79th, +87th, and 91st Divisions in line and the 32d in corps reserve, and the +1st Corps from Vauquois to Vienne le Château, with the 35th, 28th, and +77th Divisions in line and the 92d in corps reserve. The army reserve +consisted of the 1st, 29th, and 82d Divisions.</p> + +<p>On the night of Sept. 25 our troops quietly took the place of the +French, who thinly held the line in this sector, which had long been +inactive. In the attack which began on the 26th we drove through the +barbed-wire entanglements and the sea of shell craters across No Man's +Land, mastering all the first-line defenses. Continuing on the 27th and +28th, against machine guns and artillery of an increasing number of +enemy reserve divisions, we penetrated to a depth of from three to seven +miles and took the village of Montfaucon and its commanding hill and +Exermont, Gercourt, Cuisy, Septsarges, Malancourt, Ivoiry, Epinonville, +Charpentry, Very, and other villages. East of the Meuse one of our +divisions, which was with the 2d Colonial French Corps, captured +Marcheville and Rieville, giving further protection to the flank of our +main body. We had taken 10,000 prisoners, we had gained<a name="page_322" id="page_322"></a> our point of +forcing the battle into the open, and were prepared for the enemy's +reaction, which was bound to come, as he had good roads and ample +railroad facilities for bringing up his artillery and reserves.</p> + +<p>In the chill rain of dark nights our engineers had to build new roads +across spongy, shell-torn areas, repair broken roads beyond No Man's +Land, and build bridges. Our gunners, with no thought of sleep, put +their shoulders to wheels and drag ropes to bring their guns through the +mire in support of the infantry, now under the increasing fire of the +enemy's artillery. Our attack had taken the enemy by surprise, but, +quickly recovering himself, he began to fire counter-attacks in strong +force, supported by heavy bombardments, with large quantities of gas. +From Sept. 28 until Oct. 4 we maintained the offensive against patches +of woods defended by snipers and continuous lines of machine guns, and +pushed forward our guns and transport, seizing strategical points in +preparation for further attacks.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Other Units with Allies</span></p> + +<p>Other divisions attached to the allied armies were doing their part. It +was the fortune of our 2d Corps, composed of the 27th and 30th +Divisions, which had remained with the British, to have a place of honor +in co-operation with the Australian Corps on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 in the +assault on the Hindenburg line where the St. Quentin Canal passes +through a tunnel under a ridge. The 30th Division speedily broke through +the main line of defense for all its objectives, while the 27th pushed +on impetuously through the main line until some of its elements reached +Gouy. In the midst of the maze of trenches and shell craters and under +crossfire from machine guns the other<a name="page_323" id="page_323"></a> elements fought desperately +against odds. In this and in later actions, from Oct. 6 to Oct. 19, our +2d Corps captured over 6,000 prisoners and advanced over thirteen miles. +The spirit and aggressiveness of these divisions have been highly +praised by the British Army commander under whom they served.</p> + +<p>On Oct. 2-9 our 2d and 36th Divisions were sent to assist the French in +an important attack against the old German positions before Rheims. The +2d conquered the complicated defense works on their front against a +persistent defense worthy of the grimmest period of trench warfare and +attacked the strongly held wooded hill of Blanc Mont, which they +captured in a second assault, sweeping over it with consummate dash and +skill. This division then repulsed strong counter-attacks before the +village and cemetery of Ste. Etienne and took the town, forcing the +Germans to fall back from before Rheims and yield positions they had +held since September, 1914. On Oct. 9 the 36th Division relieved the 2d, +and in its first experience under fire withstood very severe artillery +bombardment and rapidly took up the pursuit of the enemy, now retiring +behind the Aisne.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Meuse-Argonne Offensive</span>, <span class="smcap">Second Phase</span></p> + +<p>The allied progress elsewhere cheered the efforts of our men in this +crucial contest, as the German command threw in more and more +first-class troops to stop our advance. We made steady headway in the +almost impenetrable and strongly held Argonne Forest, for, despite this +reinforcement, it was our army that was doing the driving. Our aircraft +was increasing in skill and numbers and forcing the issue, and our +infantry and artillery were improving rapidly with each new experience. +The re<a name="page_324" id="page_324"></a>placements fresh from home were put into exhausted divisions with +little time for training, but they had the advantage of serving beside +men who knew their business and who had almost become veterans +overnight. The enemy had taken every advantage of the terrain, which +especially favored the defense, by a prodigal use of machine guns manned +by highly trained veterans and by using his artillery at short ranges. +In the face of such strong frontal positions we should have been unable +to accomplish any progress according to previously accepted standards, +but I had every confidence in our aggressive tactics and the courage of +our troops.</p> + +<p>On Oct. 4 the attack was renewed all along our front. The 3d Corps, +tilting to the left, followed the Brieulles-Cunel road; our 5th Corps +took Gesnes, while the 1st Corps advanced for over two miles along the +irregular valley of the Aire River and in the wooded hills of the +Argonne that bordered the river, used by the enemy with all his art and +weapons of defense. This sort of fighting continued against an enemy +striving to hold every foot of ground and whose very strong +counter-attacks challenged us at every point. On the 7th the 1st Corps +captured Chatal-Chênéry and continued along the river to Cornay. On the +east of Meuse sector one of the two divisions, co-operating with the +French, captured Consenvoye and the Haumont Woods. On the 9th the 5th +Corps, in its progress up the Aire, took Flêville, and the 3d Corps, +which had continuous fighting against odds, was working its way through +Brieulles and Cunel. On the 10th we had cleared the Argonne Forest of +the enemy.</p> + +<p>It was now necessary to constitute a second army, and on Oct. 9 the +immediate command of the First Army was turned over to Lieut. Gen. +Hunter Liggett. The<a name="page_325" id="page_325"></a> command of the Second Army, whose divisions +occupied a sector in the Woevre, was given to Lieut. Gen. Robert L. +Bullard, who had been commander of the 1st Division and then of the 3d +Corps. Major Gen. Dickman was transferred to the command of the 1st +Corps, while the 5th Corps was placed under Major Gen. Charles P. +Summerall, who had recently commanded the 1st Division. Major Gen. John +L. Hines, who had gone rapidly up from regimental to division commander, +was assigned to the 3d Corps. These four officers had been in France +from the early days of the expedition and had learned their lessons in +the school of practical warfare.</p> + +<p>Our constant pressure against the enemy brought day by day more +prisoners, mostly survivors from machine-gun nests captured in fighting +at close quarters. On Oct. 18 there was very fierce fighting in the +Caures Woods east of the Meuse and in the Ormont Woods. On the 14th the +1st Corps took St. Juvin, and the 5th Corps, in hand-to-hand encounters, +entered the formidable Kriemhilde line, where the enemy had hoped to +check us indefinitely. Later the 5th Corps penetrated further the +Kriemhilde line, and the 1st Corps took Champigneulles and the important +town of Grandpré. Our dogged offensive was wearing down the enemy, who +continued desperately to throw his best troops against us, thus +weakening his line in front of our allies and making their advance less +difficult.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Divisions in Belgium</span></p> + +<p>Meanwhile we were not only able to continue the battle, but our 37th and +91st Divisions were hastily withdrawn from our front and dispatched to +help the French Army in Belgium. Detraining in the neighborhood of<a name="page_326" id="page_326"></a> +Ypres, these divisions advanced by rapid stages to the fighting line and +were assigned to adjacent French corps. On Oct. 31, in continuation of +the Flanders offensive, they attacked and methodically broke down all +enemy resistance. On Nov. 3 the 37th had completed its mission in +dividing the enemy across the Escaut River and firmly established itself +along the east bank included in the division zone of action. By a clever +flanking movement troops of the 91st Division captured Spitaals +Bosschen, a difficult wood extending across the central part of the +division sector, reached the Escaut, and penetrated into the town of +Audenarde. These divisions received high commendation from their corps +commanders for their dash and energy.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Meuse-Argonne—Last Phase</span></p> + +<p>On the 23d the 3d and 5th Corps pushed northward to the level of +Banthéville. While we continued to press forward and throw back the +enemy's violent counter-attacks with great loss to him, a regrouping of +our forces was under way for the final assault. Evidences of loss of +morale by the enemy gave our men more confidence in attack and more +fortitude in enduring the fatigue of incessant effort and the hardships +of very inclement weather.</p> + +<p>With comparatively well-rested divisions, the final advance in the +Meuse-Argonne front was begun on Nov. 1. Our increased artillery force +acquitted itself magnificently in support of the advance, and the enemy +broke before the determined infantry, which, by its persistent fighting +of the past weeks and the dash of this attack, had overcome his will to +resist. The 3d Corps took Ancreville, Doulcon, and Andevanne, and the +5th Corps took Landres<a name="page_327" id="page_327"></a> et St. Georges and pressed through successive +lines of resistance to Bayonville and Chennery. On the 2d the 1st Corps +joined in the movement, which now became an impetuous onslaught that +could not be stayed.</p> + +<p>On the 3d advance troops surged forward in pursuit, some by motor +trucks, while the artillery pressed along the country roads close +behind. The 1st Corps reached Authe and Châtillon-sur-Bar, the 5th +Corps, Fosse and Nouart, and the 3d Corps, Halles, penetrating the +enemy's line to a depth of twelve miles. Our large-calibre guns had +advanced and were skillfully brought into position to fire upon the +important lines at Montmedy, Longuyon, and Conflans. Our 3d Corps +crossed the Meuse on the 5th, and the other corps, in the full +confidence that the day was theirs, eagerly cleared the way of machine +guns as they swept northward, maintaining complete co-ordination +throughout. On the 6th a division of the 1st Corps reached a point on +the Meuse opposite Sedan, twenty-five miles from our line of departure. +The strategical goal which was our highest hope was gained. We had cut +the enemy's main line of communications, and nothing but surrender or an +armistice could save his army from complete disaster.</p> + +<p>In all forty enemy divisions had been used against us in the +Meuse-Argonne battle. Between Sept. 26 and Nov. 6 we took 26,059 +prisoners and 468 guns on this front. Our divisions engaged were the +1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 32d, 33d, 35th, 37th, 42d, +77th, 78th, 79th, 80th, 82d, 89th, 90th, and 91st. Many of our divisions +remained in line for a length of time that required nerves of steel, +while others were sent in again after only a few days of rest. The 1st, +5th, 26th, 42d, 77th, 80th, 89th, and 90th were in the line twice. +Al<a name="page_328" id="page_328"></a>though some of the divisions were fighting their first battle, they +soon became equal to the best.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">East of the Meuse</span></p> + +<p>On the three days preceding Nov. 10, the 3d, the 2d Colonial, and the +17th French Corps fought a difficult struggle through the Meuse hills +south of Stenay and forced the enemy into the plain. Meanwhile, my plans +for further use of the American forces contemplated an advance between +the Meuse and the Moselle in the direction of Longwy by the First Army, +while, at the same time, the Second Army should assure the offensive +toward the rich coal fields of Briey. These operations were to be +followed by an offensive toward Château-Salins east of the Moselle, thus +isolating Metz. Accordingly, attacks on the American front had been +ordered, and that of the Second Army was in progress on the morning of +Nov. 11 when instructions were received that hostilities should cease at +11 o'clock A. M.</p> + +<p>At this moment the line of the American sector, from right to left, +began at Port-sur-Seille, thence across the Moselle to Vandières and +through the Woevre to Bezonvaux, in the foothills of the Meuse, thence +along to the foothills and through the northern edge of the Woevre +forests to the Meuse at Mouzay, thence along the Meuse connecting with +the French under Sedan.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Relations with the Allies</span></p> + +<p>Co-operation among the Allies has at all times been most cordial. A far +greater effort has been put forth by the allied armies and staffs to +assist us than could have been expected. The French Government and Army +have always stood ready to furnish us with supplies, equipment,<a name="page_329" id="page_329"></a> and +transportation, and to aid us in every way. In the towns and hamlets +wherever our troops have been stationed or billeted the French people +have everywhere received them more as relatives and intimate friends +than as soldiers of a foreign army. For these things words are quite +inadequate to express our gratitude. There can be no doubt that the +relations growing out of our associations here assure a permanent +friendship between the two peoples. Although we have not been so +intimately associated with the people of Great Britain, yet their troops +and ours when thrown together have always warmly fraternized. The +reception of those of our forces who have passed through England and of +those who have been stationed there has always been enthusiastic. +Altogether it has been deeply impressed upon us that the ties of +language and blood bring the British and ourselves together completely +and inseparably.</p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Strength</span></p> + +<p>There are in Europe altogether, including a regiment and some sanitary +units with the Italian Army and the organizations at Murmansk, also +including those en route from the States, approximately 2,053,347 men, +less our losses. Of this total there are in France 1,338,169 combatant +troops. Forty divisions have arrived, of which the infantry personnel of +ten have been used as replacements, leaving thirty divisions now in +France organized into three armies of three corps each.</p> + +<p>The losses of the Americans up to Nov. 18 are: Killed and wounded, +36,145; died of disease, 14,811; deaths unclassified, 2,204; wounded, +179,625; prisoners, 2,163; missing, 1,160. We have captured about 44,000 +prisoners and 1,400 guns, howitzers, and trench mortars.<a name="page_330" id="page_330"></a></p> + +<p class="ct"><span class="smcap">Commendation</span></p> + +<p>The duties of the General Staff, as well as those of the army and corps +staffs, have been very ably performed. Especially is this true when we +consider the new and difficult problems with which they have been +confronted. This body of officers, both as individuals and as an +organization, has, I believe, no superiors in professional ability, in +efficiency, or in loyalty.</p> + +<p>Nothing that we have in France better reflects the efficiency and +devotion to duty of Americans in general than the Service of Supply, +whose personnel is thoroughly imbued with a patriotic desire to do its +full duty. They have at all times fully appreciated their responsibility +to the rest of the army, and the results produced have been most +gratifying.</p> + +<p>Our Medical Corps is especially entitled to praise for the general +effectiveness of its work, both in hospital and at the front. Embracing +men of high professional attainments, and splendid women devoted to +their calling and untiring in their efforts, this department has made a +new record for medical and sanitary proficiency.</p> + +<p>The Quartermaster Department has had difficult and various tasks, but it +has more than met all demands that have been made upon it. Its +management and its personnel have been exceptionally efficient and +deserve every possible commendation.</p> + +<p>As to the more technical services, the able personnel of the Ordnance +Department in France has splendidly fulfilled its functions, both in +procurement and in forwarding the immense quantities of ordnance +required. The officers and men and the young women of the Signal Corps +have performed their duties with a large concep<a name="page_331" id="page_331"></a>tion of the problem, and +with a devoted and patriotic spirit to which the perfection of our +communications daily testifies. While the Engineer Corps has been +referred to in another part of this report, it should be further stated +that the work has required large vision and high professional skill, and +great credit is due their personnel for the high proficiency that they +have constantly maintained.</p> + +<p>Our aviators have no equals in daring or in fighting ability, and have +left a record of courageous deeds that will ever remain a brilliant page +in the annals of our army. While the Tank Corps has had limited +opportunities, its personnel has responded gallantly on every possible +occasion, and has shown courage of the highest order.</p> + +<p>The Adjutant General's Department has been directed with a systematic +thoroughness and excellence that surpassed any previous work of its +kind. The Inspector General's Department has risen to the highest +standards, and throughout has ably assisted commanders in the +enforcement of discipline. The able personnel of the Judge Advocate +General's Department has solved with judgment and wisdom the multitude +of difficult legal problems, many of them involving questions of great +international importance.</p> + +<p>It would be impossible in this brief preliminary report to do justice to +the personnel of all the different branches of this organization, which +I shall cover in detail in a later report.</p> + +<p>The navy in European waters has at all times most cordially aided the +army, and it is most gratifying to report that there has never before +been such perfect co-operation between these two branches of the +service.<a name="page_332" id="page_332"></a></p> + +<p>As to the Americans in Europe not in the military service, it is the +greatest pleasure to say that, both in official and in private life, +they are intensely patriotic and loyal, and have been invariably +sympathetic and helpful to the army.</p> + +<p>Finally, I pay the supreme tribute to our officers and soldiers of the +line. When I think of their heroism, their patience under hardships, +their unflinching spirit of offensive action, I am filled with emotion +which I am unable to express. Their deeds are immortal, and they have +earned the eternal gratitude of our country.</p> + +<p>I am, Mr. Secretary, very respectfully,</p> + +<p class="r">J<small>OHN</small> J. P<small>ERSHING</small>,<br /> +<i>General, Commander in Chief, <br /> +American Expeditionary Forces.</i></p> + +<p>To the Secretary of War.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 353px;"> +<img src="images/back.jpg" width="353" height="550" alt="image of the book's back" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Army at the Front, by Heywood Broun + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT *** + +***** This file should be named 36514-h.htm or 36514-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/5/1/36514/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Our Army at the Front + +Author: Heywood Broun + +Release Date: June 25, 2011 [EBook #36514] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: _From a painting by F. C. Yohn._ + +The battle of Seicheprey. + +"All through the night the artillerymen sent their shells, encasing +themselves in gas masks." (_Page_ 225)] + + + + +_AMERICA IN THE WAR_ + +OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT + +BY + +HEYWOOD BROUN + +FORMERLY CORRESPONDENT FOR THE "NEW YORK TRIBUNE" WITH THE +AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE + +ILLUSTRATED + +NEW YORK + +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +1922 + +COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +Printed in the United States of America + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + +I. THE LANDING OF PERSHING 1 + +II. "VIVE PAIR-SHANG!" 11 + +III. THE FIRST DIVISION LANDS 29 + +IV. THE FOURTH OF JULY 44 + +V. WHAT THEY LIVED IN 53 + +VI. GETTING THEIR STRIDE 66 + +VII. SPEEDING UP 81 + +VIII. BACK WITH THE BIG GUNS 96 + +IX. THE EYES OF THE ARMY 107 + +X. THE SCHOOLS FOR OFFICERS 117 + +XI. SOME DISTINGUISHED VISITORS 124 + +XII. THE MEN WHO DID EVERYTHING 134 + +XIII. BEHIND THE LINES 145 + +XIV. FRANCE AND THE MEDICOES 158 + +XV. IN CHARGE OF MORALE 168 + +XVI. INTO THE TRENCHES 177 + +XVII. OUR OWN SECTOR 189 + +XVIII. A CIVILIAN VISITOR 200 + +XIX. A FAMOUS GESTURE 212 + +XX. THE FIRST TWO BATTLES 224 + +XXI. TEUFEL-HUNDEN 237 + +XXII. THE ARMY OF MANOEUVRE 248 + +XXIII. ST. MIHIEL 266 + +XXIV. MEUSE-ARGONNE BEGINS 279 + +XXV. CEASE FIRING 291 + +GENERAL PERSHING'S REPORT 301 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +The battle of Seicheprey _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + +General Pershing in Paris, July, 1917 16 + +Buglers of the Alpine Chasseurs, assisted by their military +band, entertaining American soldiers of the First +Division 64 + +U. S. locomotive-assembling yards in France 154 + +Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly, formerly the American +Ambulance Hospital 166 + +Secretary Baker riding on flat car during his tour of inspection +of the American Expeditionary Forces 202 + +U. S. Marines in readiness to march to the front 244 + +The capture of Sergy 262 + + + + +OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT + +CHAPTER I + +THE LANDING OF PERSHING + + +A ship warped into an English port. Along her decks were lines of +soldiers, of high and low degree, all in khaki. From the shore end of +her gang-plank other lines of soldiers spread out like fan-sticks, some +in khaki, some in the two blues of land and sea fighters. Decorating the +fan-sticks were the scarlet and gold of staff-officers, the blue and +gold of naval officers, the yellow and gold of land officers, and the +black of a few distinguished civilians. + +At the end of one shore-line of khaki one rigid private stood out from +the rest, holding for dear life to a massive white goat. The goat was +the most celebrated mascot in the British Army, and this was an affair +of priceless consequence, but that was no sign the goat intended to +behave himself, and the private was responsible. + +Weaving through this picture of military precision, three little groups +of men waited restlessly to get aboard the ship. One was the lord mayor +of the port city, his gilt chains of office blazing in the forenoon +brightness, with his staff; another was the half-dozen or so of +distinguished statesmen, diplomats, and military heroes bringing formal +welcome to England; the third was the war correspondents and reporters +from the London newspapers. + +The waiting was too keen and anxious for talk. Excitement raced from man +to man. + +For the ship was the _Baltic_. The time was the morning of June 8, 1917. +The event was the landing of John J. Pershing, commander of America's +Expeditionary Force. And the soldiers with him were the herald of +America's coming--the holding of her drive with an outpost. + +When the grandchildren of those soldiers learn that date in their +history lessons it is safe to assume that all its historical +significance will be fairly worked out and articulate. + +It is equally safe to say that in the moment of its happening few if +any of its participants, even the most consequential and far-seeing, had +a personal sense of making history. Of all the pies that one may not +both eat and have, the foremost is that very taking part in a great +occasion. All the fun of it is being got by the man who stays at home +and reads the newspapers, undistracted by the press of practical matters +in hand. + +True, for the landing of General Pershing there was the color of +soldiery, the blare of brass bands, the ring of great names among the +welcomers. There was, of course, the overtone picture of a great +chieftain, marching in advance of a great army, come to foreign lands to +add their might to what, with their coming, was then a world in arms. +The future might see, blended with the gray hulk of the _Baltic_, the +shadowy shape of the _Mayflower_ coming back, still carrying men bound +to the service of world freedom. + +But what they saw that morning was, after all, a very modern landing, +from a very modern ship, with sailors hastily tying down a gang-plank, +and doing it very well because they had done it just that way so many +times before. + +The Royal Welsh Fusiliers were down to give a military welcome, with +their mascot and their crack band. The lord mayor, Lieutenant-General +Pitcairn Campbell, Admiral Stileman, and other men from both arms of +England's service were there, not to feel of their feelings, but to make +the landing as agreeable and convenient as possible, and to convey to +General Pershing, with Anglo-Saxon mannerliness and reticence, their +great pleasure at having him come. + +As soon as there was access to the ship General Campbell and Admiral +Stileman went aboard and introduced themselves to General Pershing. They +met, also, a few of the American staff-officers, and returned salutes +from the privates who made up the Pershing entourage of 168 men. + +There were congratulations on the ship's safe arrival, which reminded +General Pershing and some of his officers that they wanted, before +leaving the ship, to pay their respects to the skipper who had carried +them through the danger zone without so much as a sniff at a submarine. + +This done, the little company of officers walked down the gang-plank, +talking cheerily of their satisfaction at meeting, of their hard work on +the ship, of the weather, and what-not, all the while the soldiers on +the decks behind them waved hands and handkerchiefs in a general +overflow of well-being, and finally--set foot in England! + +One may not go too far in describing the contents of a general's mind +without some help from him, but it's a fair guess that if General +Pershing is as kin to his kind as he seems to be, the very precise +moment of this setting foot in England escaped his notice altogether, +and was left free for the historian to embroider how he pleased. For +General Pershing was in the act of being led to the salute of a guard of +honor by General Campbell. And almost immediately after that precise +moment the Welsh Fusiliers' band began the "Star-Spangled Banner," and +again it's a good bet that General Pershing and his staff thought not a +thing about England and a lot about home. + +But so the historic moment came, and so it went. And presently the +American vanguard was finding its places in the special train to +London. + +Perhaps England knew that a great hour was in the making, for her +rolling green hills gave back the warmth of a splendid sun, and her +hedgerows and wild blooms braved forth in crystal air. Those of the +newcomers who saw England first that afternoon thanked their stars +fervently that England and democracy were on the same side. + +In mid-afternoon the train reached London, and here the Americans were +greeted, not alone by soldiers and England, but by the English. The +secret of their coming, carefully kept, had given the port civilians no +chance. But they knew it in London and the station was crowded to its +doors. + +General Pershing stepped from the train as soon as it stopped. +Ambassador Walter Hines Page came over to him, both hands outstretched, +and asked leave to introduce another general who had taken an +Expeditionary Force to France--General Sir John French. Other +introductions followed--to Lord Derby, General Lord Brooke, and Sir +Francis Lloyd. And there was a hearty handshake from a fighter who +needed no introduction--Rear-Admiral William E. Sims. + +Inside and outside the station the civilians cheered. None of them +needed to have General Pershing pointed out to them. He was +unmistakable. No man ever looked more the ordained leader of fighting +men. He was tall, broad, and deep-chested, splendidly set up; and to the +care with which Providence had fashioned him he had added soldierly care +of his own. + +He might have been patterned upon the Freudian dream of Julius Caesar, if +Julius was in truth the unsoldierly looking person they made him out to +be, whose majesty lay wholly in his own mind's eye. + +The gallant look of General Pershing fanned the London friendliness to +contagious flames of enthusiasm. He and his officers were cheered to +their hotel, the soldiers were cheered to their barracks in the Tower of +London. + +At the hotel they found three floors turned over to them, arranged for +good, hard work, with plenty of desk-room, and boy and girl scouts for +running errands. Squarely in the entrance was a money-changer's desk, +with a patient man in charge who could, and did, name the number of +cents to the shilling once every minute for four days. A little English +lady who visited America complained bitterly, just after arrival, "Why +didn't they make their dollar just four shillings?" thereby summing up +the only really valid source of acrimony between England and America. +The money-changer made the international amity complete. + +Once installed, General Pershing and his staff fell to and worked, +continuing the organization that had been roughly blocked out on the +_Baltic_, and building up the liaison between English and American army +procedure, begun by the help of British and Canadian officers on board, +by frequent conferences with England's State, War, and Navy Departments. + +The day after the arrival General Pershing went to "breakfast at +Windsor," the first meeting between America's fighter and England's +King. Here, at last, the momentousness of the matter found voice. + +King George, having done with the introductory greeting, said earnestly: +"I cannot tell you how much your coming means to me. It has been the +great dream of my life that my country and yours would join in some +great enterprise ... and here you are...." + +After this visit, prolonged by an inspection of the historic treasures +of Windsor Castle, General Pershing made the rule of unbroken work for +himself and his officers till his task in London was finished and he +should leave for France to join his First Division. + +He made what he expected to be a single exception to this rule. He went +to a dinner-party, at which he met Lloyd-George, Arthur Balfour, just +back from his American mission, and half a dozen others of commensurate +distinction. He found that his exception was no exception at all. The +English do not merely have the reputation of doing their real work at +their dinner-parties--they deserve that reputation. Staff-officers, +telling all about it later on, said that it could hardly have been +distinguished from a cabinet meeting, or a report from the Secretary of +State for War. So were the final plans made and the business of the +nations settled. + +Concerning all these meetings and all the national feeling that was +behind them, General Pershing and his officers were of one voice--that +England's welcome had been precisely of the sort that pleased them most. +It was reticent, charming, too genuine for much open expression, too +chivalrous at heart to be obtrusive. + +What with spending most of each twenty-four hours at work, the American +vanguard finished up its affairs in four days. And early on the morning +of June 13, long before the break of day, General Pershing and his +officers and men boarded their Channel boat, the _Invicta_, and set sail +for France. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"VIVE PAIR-SHANG!" + + +THE _Invicta_ came into Boulogne harbor in the early morning, to find +that her attempts at a secret crossing had amounted to nothing at all. +Everybody within sight and ear-shot was out to show how pleased he was, +riotously and openly, indifferent alike to the hopes of spy or censor. + +The fishing-boats, the merchant coastwise fleet, the Channel ships and +hordes of little privately owned sloops and yawls and motor-boats all +plied chipperly around with "bannieres etoilees" fore and aft. The sun +was very bright and the water was very blue, and between them was that +exhilarating air which always rises over the coasts of France, whenever +and wherever you land on them, which not all the smoke and grime of the +world's biggest war could deaden or destroy. + +The _Invicta's_ own flags were run up at the harbor mouth. Again the +lines of khaki-colored soldiers formed behind the deck-rails, and again +the chieftain from overseas stood at the prow of his ship and waited the +coming of a historic moment. + +When the _Invicta_ was made fast and her gang-plank went over, there was +a half-circle of space cleared in the quay in front of her by a +detachment of grizzled French infantrymen, their horizon-blue uniforms +filmed over with the yellow dust of a long march. + +Behind the infantrymen the good citizens of Boulogne were yelling their +throats dry. When General Pershing stopped for an instant's survey at +the head of the gang-plank, with his staff-officers close behind him, +the roar of welcome swelled to thunder and resounded out to sea. When he +marched down and stepped to the quay, there was a sudden, arresting +silence. Every soldier was at salute, and every civilian, too. In that +tense instant a new world was beginning, and though it was as formless +as all beginnings, the unerringly dramatic and sensitive French paid the +tribute of silence to its birth. The future was to say that in that +instant the world allied on new bases, that men now fought together not +because their lands lay neighboring, or were jointly menaced by some +central foe, but because they would follow their own ideal to wherever +it was in danger. An American general had brought his fighters three +thousand miles because a principle of world order and world right needed +the added strength of his arms. And never before had American soldiers +come in their uniforms to do battle on the continent of Europe. + +The moment's silence ended as startlingly as it began. Bands and +cheerers set in again on one beat. The officers who had come to make a +formal welcome fell back and let the unprepared public uproar have way. + +General Pershing and his officers walked through aisles strenuously +forced by the infantrymen, to where carriages waited to carry them +through the Boulogne streets. + +It must have seemed to the little American contingent as if every +Frenchman in France had come up to the coast for the celebration. + +From the carriages the crowds stretched solid in every direction. The +streets were blanketed under uncountable flags. Every window held its +capacity of laughing and cheering Frenchwomen. + +Children ran along the streets, shrilling "Vive l'Amerique!" and +laughing hilariously when their flowers were caught by the grateful but +embarrassed American officers. + +When the special train to Paris had started the officers mopped their +faces and settled back for a modest time. But they reckoned without +their French. Not a town along the way missed its chance to greet the +Americans. The stations were packed, the cheers were incessant, the +roses poured in deluges into the train-windows. + +But at the Gare du Nord, in Paris, the official French greeting was too +magnificent to be pushed aside further by mere populace. + +There were cordons of soldiers drawn up in the station, stiff at +attention, making aisles by which the French officials could get to the +Americans. There were officers in brilliant uniform, covered with medals +for heroic service. There were massed bands, led by the Garde +Republicaine. "Papa Joffre" was there, with his co-missioner, Viviani; +Painleve, then Minister of War, and presently to have a while as +Premier; General Foch, Marne hero, now generalissimo, and Ambassador +William G. Sharp. + +These, with General Pershing, Major Robert Bacon, a member of Pershing's +staff and lately ambassador to France, and two or three other +staff-officers, found open motor-cars waiting to drive them to the Hotel +Crillon, on the Place de la Concorde, the temporary American +headquarters. + +Dense crowds of soldiers patrolled the streets leading down to the Grand +Boulevards, through which the distinguished little procession was to +take its way, and other soldiers lined up at attention in the +boulevards. + +Paris turned loose, with her heart in her mouth and her enthusiasm at +red heat, is not easily forgotten. On this June day her raptures were +immemorial. They were of a sort to call out the old-timers for standards +of comparison. + +Every sentence now spoken in France begins either "Avant la guerre" or +"Depuis la guerre." Nobody can ignore the fact that with August, 1914, +the whole of life changed. To the old-timers who wanted to tell you what +Paris was like the afternoon Pershing arrived, there were only two +occasions possible, both "Depuis la guerre." + +The first great day was that following the order for general +mobilization, when exaltation, defiance, threat, and frenzy packed the +national spirit to suffocation, and when the streets flowed with +unending streams of grim but undaunted people. Tragic days and relief +days followed. But the next great time, when tragedy did not outweigh +every other feeling, was that 14th of July, 1916, when the military +parades were begun again, for the first time since the war, and in the +line of march were detachments from the armies of all the Allies. + +The third great French war festival was for Pershing. The crowds were +literally everywhere. The streets through which the motors passed were +tightly blocked except for the little road cleared by the soldiers. The +streets giving off these were jammed solid. American flags were in every +window, on every lamp-post, on every taxicab, and in every wildly +waving hand. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information._ + +General Pershing in Paris, July, 1917.] + +Although the soldiers could force a way open before the motor-cars, no +human agency could keep the way free behind them. The Parisians wanted +not merely to see Pershing--they wanted to march with him. So they fell +in, tramping the boulevards close behind the cars, cheering and singing +to their marching step. + +Only when General Pershing disappeared under the arched doorway of the +Hotel Crillon, and let it be known that he had other gear to tend, did +the city in procession break apart and go about its several private +celebrations. + +But all that afternoon and all that night, wherever men and women +collected, or children were underfoot, it was "Vive l'Amerique" and +"Vive le Generale Pair-shang" that echoed when the glasses rose. + +When General Pershing, after the tremendous experience of his European +landing, asked for the quiet and shelter of his own quarters at the +Crillon, his intention was that his retirement should be complete. He +said flatly that a man who had just witnessed such a tribute to his +country as Paris had made that afternoon was no better than he should be +if he did not feel the need of solitude. + +But the inevitable aftermath of the great event the world over is the +talking with the newspapers. And sure enough, no sooner was General +Pershing safe in his retreat than the Paris reporters were knocking at +the door. The American correspondents who had travelled over from London +on the _Invicta_ had had emphatic instructions to stay away, story or no +story. But one distinguished Frenchman broke the rules, and to Francois +de Jessen, of _Le Temps_, General Pershing did finally give a statement. +How reluctantly one may see from the statement's contents. + +"I came to Europe to organize the participation of our army in this +immense conflict of free nations against the enemies of liberty, and not +to deliver fine speeches at banquets, or have them published in the +newspapers," said General Pershing. "Besides, that is not my business, +and, you know, we Americans, soldiers and civilians, like not only to +appear, but to be, businesslike. However, since you offer me an +opportunity to speak to France, I am glad to make you a short and simple +confession. + +"As a man and as a soldier I am profoundly happy over, indeed proud of, +the high mission with which I am charged. But all this is purely +personal, and might appear out of proportion with the solemnity of the +hour and the gravity of events now occurring. If I have thought it +proper to indulge in this confidence, it is because I wish to express my +admiration of the French soldier, and at the same time to express my +pride in being at the side of the French and allied armies. + +"It is much more important, I think, to announce that we are the +precursors of an army that is firmly resolved to do its part on the +Continent for the cause the American nation has adopted as its own. We +come conscious of the historic duty to be performed when our flag shows +itself upon the battle-fields of the world. It is not my role to promise +or to prophesy. Let it suffice to tell you that we know what we are +doing, and what we want." + +Two rememberable experiences waited the next day for General Pershing. +The first was his visit to des Invalides, the tomb of Napoleon; the +second, his appearance in the French Chamber of Deputies. If he had +known what it was to be the hero of all Paris at once, he was to learn +how special groups regarded him, and what the French highest-in-command +thought fitting for America's leader. + +At all of General Pershing's appearances in Paris in these first days a +detachment of soldiers had to be constantly before him, widening a way +for him through the crowds that waited his coming. On the morning of his +visit to the tomb of Napoleon the broad Champs de Mars, in front of des +Invalides, was impassable except by the soldiers' flying wedge. Shouts +in French rang out steadily as he made his way toward des Invalides' +entrances, and suddenly a man cried, in accented English: "Behind him +there are ten million more." + +But once inside des Invalides General Pershing was alone with General +Niox, who was in charge of the famous treasure building, and General +Joffre. Between Pershing and Joffre there had begun one of those intense +friendships that form too impetuously for ordinary explanation. It was +full-grown at the end of their first meeting, a matter of seconds. And +though at this time their friendly intercourse was halted sometimes by +the fact that neither spoke the other's language, they were continually +together. + +So it was General Joffre who walked beside him when General Pershing +followed General Niox down to the entrance of the crypt, and stood +before the door. All the world may go to this door, if its behavior is +good, but only royal applicants may go beyond it. + +General Pershing was to go inside. General Niox handed him the great +key, then turned away with Joffre, while Pershing, after a moment's +hesitation, fitted the key and crossed the threshold. When he came out +again he was taken to see the Napoleonic relics, which lay in rows in +their glass cases. Two of them, the great sword and the Grand Cross +cordon of the Legion of Honor, had never been touched since the time of +Louis Philippe. As Pershing and Joffre bent over them General Niox came +to a momentous decision. He opened the cases and handed the two to +General Pershing. France could do no more. + +Pershing held them for a moment and nobody spoke. Then he handed back +the cordon, kissed the sword-hilt and presented it, and in profound +silence the three men left the treasure hall. + +Between this visit and that to the Chamber of Deputies there were many +official calls, including one to President Poincare at the Elysee +Palace, which ended in a formal luncheon to Pershing by President and +Madame Poincare, with most of the important men of France as fellow +guests. + +General Pershing was recognized as he entered the gallery of the Chamber +of Deputies, and all other business except that of doing him honor was +promptly put by. Full-throated cheering began and would not die down. +Finally Premier Ribot commenced to speak, and the deputies stopped to +listen. + +"The people of France fully understand the deep significance of the +arrival of General Pershing in France," he said. "It is one of the +greatest events in history that the people of the United States should +come here to struggle, not in the spirit of ambition or conquest, but +for the noble ideals of justice and liberty. The arrival of General +Pershing is a new message from President Wilson which, if that is +possible, surpasses in nobility all those preceding it." + +And Viviani said, a few minutes later: "President Wilson holds in his +hand all the historic grandeur of America, which he now puts forth in +this fraternal union extended to us by the Great Republic." + +These two speeches opened a flood-gate. Long after the cheering deputies +had said their good-bys to General Pershing, the French writers, made +articulate by the example of Ribot and Viviani, were busily preparing +appreciations and commentaries of the Pershing arrival. The most +picturesque of these was Maurice de Waleffe's, in _Le Journal:_ "'There +are no longer any Pyrenees,' said Louis XIV, when he married a Spanish +princess. 'There is no longer an ocean,' General Pershing might say, +with greater justice, as he is about to mingle with ours the democratic +blood of his soldiers. The fusion of Europe and America is an enormous +fact to note." + +A more powerful speech was that of Clemenceau, now Premier of France, +but then an earnest private citizen, writing for his paper. "Paris has +given its finest welcome to General Pershing," he wrote. "We are +justified. We are justified in hoping that the acclamation of our fellow +citizens, with whom are mingled crowds of soldiers home on leave, have +shown him clearly, right at the start, in what spirit we are waging the +bloodiest of wars; with what invincible determination, never to falter +in any fibre of our nerves or muscles. Unless I misjudge America, +General Pershing, fully conscious of the importance of his mission, has +received from the cordial and joyous enthusiasm of the Parisians that +kind of fraternal encouragement which is never superfluous, even when +one needs it not. + +"Let him have no doubt that he, too, has brought encouragement to us, +the whole of France, that followed with its eyes the whole of his +passage along the boulevards; to all our hearts that salute his coming +with joy at the supreme grandeur of America's might enrolled under the +standard of right. + +"This idea M. Viviani, just back from America, splendidly developed in +his eloquent speech to the Chamber of Deputies in the presence of +General Pershing. + +"General Pershing himself, less dramatic, has given us, in three phrases +devoid of artificiality, an impression of exceptionally virile force. It +was no rhetoric but the pure simplicity of the soldier who is here to +act, and who fears to promise more than he can perform. No bad sign, +this, for those of us who have grown weary of pompous words, when we +must pay so dearly for each failure of performance. + +"Not long ago the Germans laughed at the 'contemptible English Army,' +and we hear now that they regard the American Army as 'too ridiculous +for words.' Well, the British have taught even Hindenburg himself what +virile force can do toward filling gaps in organization. Now the arrival +of Pershing brings Hindenburg news that the Americans are setting to +work in their turn--those Americans whose performance in the War of +Secession showed them capable of such 'improvisation of war' as the +world had never seen--and I think the Kaiser must be beginning to wonder +whether he has not trusted rather blindly in his 'German tribal God.' +He has loosed the lion from its cage, and now he finds that the lion has +teeth and claws to rend him. + +"The Kaiser had given us but a few weeks in which to realize that the +success of his submarine campaign would impose the silence of terror on +the human conscience throughout the world. Well, painful as he must find +it, Pershing's arrival, with its consequent military action, cannot fail +to prove to him that, after all, the moral forces he ignored must always +be taken into account in forecasting human probabilities. Those learned +Boches have yet to understand that in the course of his intellectual +evolution, man has achieved the setting of moral right above brute +force; that might is taking its stand beside right, to accomplish the +greatest revolution in the history of mankind. That is the lesson which +Pershing's coming has taught us, and that is why we rejoice." + +But even while the commentators were at their task General Pershing had +left off celebrating and got to work. The First Division was on the +seas. + +A few very important persons in France and America knew where they were +to land, and when, but nobody in the world knew just what was to be done +for and with them once they landed, for the plans did not even exist. It +was the business of the general and his staff to create them. And they +say that the amount of work done in those first days in France was +incredible even to them when they looked back on it. + +As a first step American headquarters were installed in 31 Rue +Constantine, a broad, shaded street near the Hotel des Invalides, +overlooking the Champs de Mars. The house had belonged once to a +prodigiously popular Paris actress, and it was correspondingly +magnificent. + +But the magnificence, except that which was inalienably in space and +structure, was banished by the busy Americans. In the hallway they +stretched a plank railing, behind which American private soldiers asked +and answered questions. Under the once sumptuous stairway there were +stacks of army cots. The walls were bulletined and covered with +directions carefully done in two languages. The chief of the +Intelligence Section had the ex-dining-room, and the adjutant-general +had the ballroom on the second floor. Even so, it was not long before +this spaciousness was insufficient, and the headquarters brimmed over +into No. 27 as well. + +It was in these two houses that the whole army organization was plotted +out, and General Pershing made good his prediction that the Americans +would not merely seem, but would be, businesslike. + +After ten days or so of beaver-like absorption in their jobs the +American headquarters announced to the war correspondents that they must +take a certain train at a certain hour, under the guidance of Major +Frederick Palmer, press officer and censor, to a certain port in France. +There, at a certain moment, they would see what they would see. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FIRST DIVISION LANDS + + +They saw the gray troop-ships steaming majestically into the middle +distance from the gray of the open sea, with the little convoy fleet +alongside. It was a gray morning, and at first the ships were hardly +more than nebulous patches of a deeper tone than sea and sky. As they +neared the port, and took on outline, the watchers increased, and took +on internationalism. + +The Americans, who had come to see this consequential landing, some in +uniform and some civilians, had arrived in the very early morning, +before the inhabitants of the little seaport town were up and about, let +alone aware of what an event was that day to put them into the history +books. + +But it never takes a French civilian long to discover that something is +afoot--what with three years of big happenings to sharpen his wits and +keep him on the lookout. + +At the front of the quay were Americans two deep, straining to make out +the incoming ships, on tiptoe to count their number, breathless to shout +a welcome to the first "Old Glory" to be let loose to the harbor winds. +Forming rapidly behind the Americans were French men, French women, and +French children, indifferent to affairs, kitchens, or schools, +chattering that "Mais surement, c' sont les Americains--regardez, +regardez!..." + +Ignominiously in the rear, but watching too, were the German prisoners +who worked, in theory at least, at transferring rails from inconvenient +places to convenient ones for the loading of coaster steamers. They said +little enough, having learned that a respectful hearing was not to be +their lot for a while. But they moved fewer rails than ever, and nobody +bothered to speed them up. + +The great ships came in slowly. Before long, the watchers could see +lines of dull yellow banding the gray hulks, and then the yellow lines +took on form and separateness, and were visible one soldier at a time. + +Last, one ship steamed apart from the others and made direct for the +quay, and the solemn business of landing American troops on French soil +was about to begin. + +There was to be a certain ceremony for the landing, but, like all the +ceremonies conceded to these great occasions by the American Army, it +was to be of extreme simplicity. When they were near enough to the quay +to be heard, the transport band played "The Star-Spangled Banner," while +all the soldiers stood at salute, and then they played the +"Marseillaise," while everybody on ship and shore stood at salute. With +that, they called it a morning, as far as celebration was concerned, and +to the accompaniment of a great deal of talk and a volley of +light-hearted questions, they began to disembark. + +The first question, called from some distance away, was: "What place is +this?" The next was, "Do they let the enlisted men drink in the saloons +over here?" and there was a miscellany about apple pie and doughnuts, +cigarettes, etc. And very briefly after the first soldiers were ashore +nothing could be heard but "Don't they speak any English at all?" + +The outstanding impression of that morning may be what it will to the +French civilians, to the American newspaper correspondents, and to the +officers both ashore and on board. To the privates of the First Division +it will always be the incomprehensible nonsense that goes by the name of +the French language, spoken with perfect assurance by people old enough +to know better, who refuse to make one syllable of intelligible sound in +answer to even the simplest requests. + +The privates were prepared to hear the French speak their own language +at mention of Alsace-Lorraine and war aims, or to propound their private +philosophies that way. They granted the right of the French to talk how +they pleased of their emotional pleasure at seeing the troops, or of any +other subject above the timber-line. + +What staggered them was the insane top-loftiness of using French to ask +for ham and eggs, and beer, or the way to camp. For nothing, not volumes +of warning before they left home, nor interminable hours of +French-grammar instruction on board the troop-ships, had really got it +deep inside the American private's head that French was not an +accomplishment to be used as evidence of cosmopolitan culture, but a +mere prosy necessity, without which daily existence was a nightmare and +a frustration. + +The French, on their side, were helpless enough, but not so bewildered. +They had lived too long, in peace as well as war, across a narrow +channel from that stanch English-speaking race who brought both their +tea and their language with them to France and everywhere else, to be +dumfounded that strangers should balk at their foreign tongue. + +The inevitable result was that here, in their first contact with the +French, as later, throughout the fighting areas, the American soldiers +learned to understand French-English long before they could speak a +decent word of French. + +Fortunately for the First Division, it had had some able bilingual +forerunners at the seaport town where they landed. The camps had been +built by the French, a few miles back from the town, but a few of the +housekeeping necessities had been installed by General Pershing's +staff-officers, and signs in good, plain English showed the proper +roads. And as the single files of soldiers began to descend the +gang-plank of the first transport, and to form for marching to camp, +their own officers were having some compact instruction from the +staff-officers on how to get to camp and what to do when they got there. + +There was no waste motion about getting the troops under way. The first +companies were tramp-tramping up the streets before the last companies +were overside, and the first transport was free to go back and give +place to the next one before the mayor had got his red sash and gilt +chains in place and arrived to do them suitable honor. + +So, while the shore watchers fell back into safe observation-posts, the +soldiers clattered down through the quay-sheds to the little street, +formed and swung away, and one ship after another disgorged its +passengers, and presently the sheds were overrun with the blue-clad +sailors from the convoys. + +All that day, the soldiers marched through the town. Their camps lay at +the end of a long white shore road, and jobs were not wanting when they +got there. Their pace was easy, because of these things, and they +probably would not have put out any French eye with their flawless +marching, even under less indulgent circumstances. For this First +Division was recruited in a hurry, and most of their real training lay +ahead of them. + +Where they were impressive was in their composite build. There were +little fellows among them, but they straggled at the back. The major +part of the soldiers were tall, thin, rangy-looking, with a march that +was more lope than anything else and a look of heaving their packs along +without much effort. They fell about midway between the thin, breedy +look of the first English troops in France and the stocky, thick-necked +sort that came later. + +The marines were the pick of the lot, for size and behavior too. The +sense of being something special was with the marines from the first. +They marched that way. And, set apart by their olive drab as well as by +their size and comportment, they gave that First Division's first march +in France a quality of real distinction. And when the army got to its +first French camps, the welcome sight its eyes first fell upon was that +of already arrived marines carrying water down the hill. + +The camps were long wooden buildings, rather above the average, as +became the status of the visitors, built almost at the top of a hill, +looking down over green fields and round trees to the three or four +villages within range of vision, and beyond them to the sea. + +Some supplies were there already, but the soldiers had had to bring most +of their first supper, and the camp-cooks had their own troubles getting +things just so. + +Major-General Sibert, field commander of the First Division, had +quarters at camp, so that excuses were not in order. Even for that first +supper, the marines and all others they could commandeer to help them +were rushing about preparing things to the very top of their bent. +Nobody had town-leave for the first day or two, till things were in +apple-pie order, and the camp was in line to shelter and feed its +soldiers for as long as it should be necessary to stay there. + +If camp life was busy these days, the town life was no less so. The +chief hotel, wherein much red plush met the eye from the very entrance, +was swarming with officers of both nations and all degrees of rank. +General Pershing was there, with his aides and most of his staff. +Admirals were there, changing uniforms from blue to white and back again +as the erratic French weather dictated. + +There were half a dozen high officers from the French Army, making both +formal and informal welcomes, and there were more busy majors and +captains and more interpreters than you could count in half a day's +time. + +The little Frenchwoman who sat behind the desk was amiable to the best +of her very considerable ability, but the questions she had to answer, +whether she understood them or not, would have addled an older head than +hers. She could run her hotel with the best of them, but when perfectly +sane-looking young officers asked her where to buy five thousand cups +and saucers, and paper napkins by the ton, she said in so many words +that an American invasion was worse than bedlam. + +The hotel's second floor was the favored place for conferences. There a +fair welter of red plush was drawn up around a big table in the +hallway, and livid red wall-paper added its warmth to a scene which +against a plank wall would not have lacked color. + +At this table General Pershing could have been found much of the time. +The whole practical liaison of French and American Armies was contrived +here, though the first rule for this consolidation laid down by a +grizzled French general with but one arm left, was that "there was no +longer anything that was French, or anything that was American, but +merely all we had that was 'ours,'" so that the task was one of detail +only. + +Though the daytimes were packed with work, most of the officers called +it a day at sunset. Then the little hotel took on its most engaging +color. The little French piano tinkled out in the warm air with an +accompaniment of many voices. Once a very blue young second lieutenant +chose to express his mood by repetitions without number of the +melancholy "Warum?"--probably the first German music that had been heard +from that piano for many a moon. Possibly those of the French who knew +what the tune was recognized also that America had turned a point in +more ways than one in coming to France, not least among them being +making good American soldiers out of erstwhile good Germans. Nobody +seemed much astonished or put out when within the day a goodly number of +American soldiers were speaking to German prisoners in their own +language, though talking to the German prisoners, aside from the fact +that it was not encouraged by the French, turned out to be indifferent +fun, since the American soldiers had had their fill of German propaganda +before they left home, and none of the prisoners was overmodest as to +what Germany was or would do. + +The cafes out-of-doors were overflowing with Americans, too. It was +plenty of fun to hear the sailors scolding the French waitresses for +calling lemons "limons," and trying to overhaul the French pronunciation +of "biere" to something approaching a compromise. + +An officer came along and broke up a crap-game. The soldiers forgave +him, but the civilians did not. It was their first go at the game, and +they wanted a lot of teaching. + +The lone bookstore of the town made the only known effort to get the +Americans what they asked for, instead of trying to prevail on them to +adopt something French. They sent, perhaps to Paris, to get English +books, and they piled their windows high with Macaulay's "History of +England" and Bacon's "Essays." + +The paper-buying habit is ingrown in the American male. He has three +newspapers under his arm before any afternoon is what it should be. And +so the soldiers bought the French papers, two and three at a time, and +carried them around. + +Any time of day or night, a look out into the town's main street +descried a company or two of soldiers, on their way from camp for +town-leave, or on their way back. They marched continually. The +motor-cycle with the side-seat, which was later to be the distinguishing +mark of the American Army in Paris, made its appearance in the seaport +within a day or two of the first transport's landing, and eased the +burdens of the French motor-lorries with which the American supplies had +been taken to camp, owing to a delay of the First Division's own +lorries, on a slow ship. + +And most successful sensation of all, the army mule. The French knew him +slightly, because their own army used him on occasion. But no Frenchman +could speak to a mule in his own language as these big mule-tenders did. + +It was exalting to watch the army on the march, to see the marines and +the profusion of slim sailors. But the real crowd always gathered around +the big negro stevedores in long navy-blue coats, scarlet-lined, with +brass buttons all the way up the front, over and down the back--likely a +thrifty hand-me-down from pre-khaki days--who marched with perfect +knowledge of their magnificence. + +The stevedores, for their part, were as amazed as the French, though on +a different score. They accepted with due resignation the fact that the +French spoke French. It was when they first saw a Senegalese in French +uniform, triple-black with tropic suns, but to them a mere one of +themselves, and when they hailed him gladly in their English tongue, to +ask which road to take, that his indecipherable French answer broke +them, heart and spirit alike. + +"Dat one blame stuck-up nigger," said the spokesman, as they trudged +their way onward, none the wiser if the Senegalese, in his turn, had +been rebuking them in French for showing off their English. + +So, in its several aspects, the First Division made its impact upon +France, jostled itself a little and the French more, and finally settled +down to its short wait at the coast before going inland, "within sound +of the guns," to get its training. + +And because the camps were to be used many times again by other +divisions to come on the "bridge of ships," the first had to put in some +extra licks to make their camp conveniences permanent. + +They played a few baseball-games, and they were encouraged to do a lot +of swimming, in the off afternoon hours. After a bit town-leave was +heavily curtailed, but there was a dispensation now and then for a +"movie." In the main they kept their noses to the grindstone. + +After a little while the men who were to march in Paris on the Fourth +of July were selected, and, preceded by a few sailors with fewer duties +and longer indulgences, they entrained on the late afternoon of July 2. +There was no measuring the disappointment of the ones who were left +behind, for the prediction that there would be doings in Paris on the +first French Fourth of July was to be fulfilled to the letter. + +But the housekeepers of the army could not be spared for celebrations. +As soon as the marines could be despatched from the seaport they were +sent direct across France to the points behind the lines where their +training-camps were in waiting, and there, within a few weeks, the First +Division reassembled and fell to work. + +Meanwhile, of the doings in Paris---- + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE FOURTH OF JULY + + +The first they knew of it in Paris--barring vague promises of "something +to remember" on the American fete that had appeared in modest items in +the newspapers--was when a motor-bus, jammed to the guards with American +soldiers, suddenly rolled into the Avenue de l'Opera from the Tuileries +Gardens, and paraded up that august thoroughfare to the tune of +incredible yelling from everybody on board. It was the afternoon of July +3. + +A few picked Americans had known about it. A sufficient number of +American and French officers and the newspaper correspondents had been +told to appear at Austerlitz Station in the early morning of the 3d, and +there they had seen the soldiers not merely arrive but tackle their +first continental breakfast. + +Neither was a sensation to be sneezed at. The soldiers were of the very +finest, and in spite of their overnight journey they were all looking +fit. They were anxious to fall right out of the train into the middle of +Paris. To most of them it was a city of gallant and delightful scandal, +filled even in war-time with that twinkle of gayety plus wickedness that +is so intriguing when told about in Oscaloosa, behind the hand or the +door. They said outright that they expected to see the post-cards all +come to life when they set eyes first on Paris streets. + +But even if Paris had had these fascinations in store, they were not for +the soldiers that morning. Instead military precision, discipline, an +orderly march to near-by barracks, and--a French breakfast: coffee and +war-bread. Not even the French had a kind word for the war-bread, and no +American ever spoke well of the coffee. But there it was--chronologically +in order, and haply the worst of a Paris visit all over at once. + +And most of the soldiers stayed right in barracks till it was time for +the great processional the next day. It was a picked bunch that had the +motor ride and informed Paris that they had come for a party. And if +they didn't see the ladies with the unbehaving eyes, they did see the +Louvre and the Tuileries, the Opera, the boulevards, and the Madeleine. +And Paris saw the soldiers. + +There was no end of cheering and handclapping. The American flags that +had been flying for Pershing were brought out again, and venders +appeared on the streets with all manner of emblems to sell. It was one +of those cheerful afternoons when good feeling expresses itself gently, +reserving its hurrahs for the coming event. + +The soldiers were kept on the cars, but now and then a good Parisian +threw them a package of cigarettes or a flower. All told, they touched +off the fuse timed to explode on the morrow, and, having done that, went +back to barracks. + +The first "Fourth" in Paris was a thoroughly whole-souled celebration. +The French began it, civilians and soldiers, by taking a band around to +serenade General Pershing the first thing in the morning. His house was +on the left bank of the Seine, not far from American headquarters in the +Rue Constantine, an historic old place with little stone balconies +outside the upper windows. + +On one of these General Pershing appeared, with the first notes of the +band. He was cheered and cheered again. A little boy who had somehow +climbed to the top of a gas street-lamp squealed boastfully to Pershing: +"See, I am an American, too, for I have a sky-scraper!" (J'ai un +gratte-ciel!) And with a wave of his hand General Pershing acknowledged +his compatriot. + +It was in this crowd around Pershing's house that a riot started, +because a man who was being unpleasantly jostled said: "Oh, do leave me +in peace." Those nearest him good-naturedly tried to give him +elbow-room, but those a little distance away caught merely the "peace" +of his ejaculation and, with sudden loud cries of "kill the pacifist," +made for the unfortunate, and pommelled him roundly before the matter +could be explained. + +After the serenade and General Pershing's little speech of thanks the +band, with most of the crowd following, marched over to des Invalides, +the appointed place for the formal ceremony. + +Around the ancient hotel, overflowing into the broad boulevards that +radiate from it, and packing to suffocation the Champs de Mars in front +of it, there were just as many Frenchmen as could stand shoulder to +shoulder and chin to back. Inside, where there were speeches and +exchanges of national emblems, the crowd was equally dense, in spite of +the fact that only the very important or the very cunning had cards of +admission. + +The real Fourth celebration was in the streets. The waiting crowds +yelled thunderously when the first band appeared, heralding the parade. +Then came the Territorials, the escort troops, in their familiar +horizon-blue. Then more bands, then officers, mounted and in motor-cars, +and, finally, the Americans, manifestly having the proudest moment of +their lives. + +They were to march from des Invalides to Picpus Cemetery, the little +private cemetery outside of Paris, where the Marquis de Lafayette is +buried. + +They crossed Solferino bridge, and made their way through a terrific +crowd in the broad Place de la Concorde. The Paris newspapers, boasting +of their conservatism, said there were easily one million Parisians that +day within sight of des Invalides when the American soldiers left the +building and started on their march. + +To hear the soldiers tell it, there were easily one million Parisians, +all under the age of ten, immediately under their feet before they had +marched a mile. + +From a balcony of the Hotel Crillon, on the north side of the Place de +la Concorde, the marching Americans were wholly lost to view from the +waist down. Nobody could ever complain of the French birth-rate after +seeing that parade. Nobody ever saw that many children before in any one +assemblage in France. It was prodigious. + +And the French youngsters had their own notions of how they were to take +part in that French Fourth of July. The main notion was to walk between +the soldiers' legs. They were massed thick beside the soldiers, thick +between them, impeding their knee action, terrorizing their steps. At a +little distance, they looked like batter in a waffle-pan. But they did +what they could to make the American soldiers feel among friends that +day, and nobody could say they failed. + +The parade turned along the picturesque old Rue de Rivoli on leaving the +Place de la Concorde, and filed along the river, almost the length of +the city. They had not gone far before the Frenchwomen had thrown them +enough roses to decorate bayonets and hats and a few lapels. They made a +brave sight, brave to nobility. And though they were harassed by the +eager children, abashed by the women, and touched to genuine emotion by +the whole city, they wouldn't have grudged five years of their lives for +the privilege of being there. + +At Picpus, the scene made up in intensiveness what it lacked in breadth, +for the cemetery is far too small to permit of a crowd of size. A home +for aged gentlewomen overlooks one wall ... its windows were filled, and +their occupants proved that Frenchwomen are never too old or too gentle +to throw roses. A military hospital overlooks another side, and +balconies and windows were crowded with "blesses." The few officers and +civilians who had access to the cemetery-grounds made their +commemoration brief and simple. It was there that Colonel Stanton made +the little speech which buzzed around the Allied world within the day: +"Lafayette, nous voila!"--"Lafayette, we're here!" Its felicity of +phrase moved the French scribes to columns of congratulation. Its +compactness won the Americans. Everybody said it was the best war speech +made in France, and it was. + +After Picpus, the officers came back to the city for work, and the +soldiers went to barracks. The sailors were allowed to saunter about the +city, in vain search for the post-card ladies and the flying champagne +corks. The soldiers were on a sterner regime. + +Early on the morning of the 5th, they were eastward bound, to join the +rest of the First Division for training, and Paris saw the last of the +American soldiers. + +A few had leave, within the next few months, from engineering corps and +base hospitals. But the infantrymen and the marines were over learning +lessons in the war of trench and bayonet, and by Christmas even the +scattering leaves from behind the lines were discontinued, and +Americans on holiday bent were sent to Aix-les-Bains. Even officers had +little or no Paris leave, and those who had been quartered in Paris, in +the Rue Constantine and the Rue Sainte-Anne, were collected at the new +American headquarters, southeast of Paris. The American uniform all but +vanished off the Paris streets. The French national holiday, ten days +after the American, had no American contingent. + +So Paris and the American Army had a quick acquaintance, a brilliant one +and a brief one. It was mainly between the beginning and the end of that +Fourth of July. It will quite probably not be renewed till the end of +the war. Lucky the onlooker who sees the reunion. For then it may be +wagered that there will be gayety enough to answer the needs of even the +most post-card-haunted soldier. + +But to get on to the training-camps---- + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WHAT THEY LIVED IN + + +The American training-camp area spread over many miles and through many +villages. It had boundaries only in theory, because all its sides were +ready to swing farther north, east, south, and west at a day's notice, +whenever the Expeditionary Force should become army enough to require +it. + +But its focus was in the Vosges, in the six or seven villages set apart +from the beginning for the Americans, and as such, overhauled by those +first marines and quartermaster's assistants who left the coast in early +July and moved campward. + +This overhauling brought the end of the Franco-American honeymoon. +Later, amity was to be re-established, but when the first marine ordered +the first manure-pile out of the first front yard, a breach began which +it took long months to heal. + +There were few barracks in the Vosges. The soldiers were to be billeted +with the peasants. And the marines said the peasants had to clean up and +air, and the peasants said the marines were insane. + +Those first days at training-camp, before the body of the troops +arrived, were circus enough for anybody. + +Six villages were to be got ready, the officers to have the pick of +places, and the privates to have next best. And the choice of +assignments for officers was still so far from ideal as to make the +house-cleaning a thorough job all around. + +The marines had a village to themselves, the farthest from the +inspection-grounds. The correspondents had a village to themselves, too, +though it wasn't because there was any excess of regard for the +importance of the correspondents among the men who laid out the grounds. +They were put where they could do the least harm, and where their +confusing appearance, in Sam Brown belts and other officer-like +insignia, would not exact too many wasted salutes. + +General Headquarters was still in Paris at this time, but General +Sibert had Field Headquarters at camp, and though his assignment was +relatively stylish, it could not have been said to offend him with its +luxury. + +He lived and worked in a little frame building in the main street of the +central village, which had probably once been a hotel. + +It was to be recognized by the four soldiers always at attention outside +it, whenever motors or pedestrians passed that way. Two of the soldiers +were American and two were French. + +Although all the American training-camp area became America as to +jurisdiction, as soon as the troops moved there, the French soldiers +were always present around headquarters, partly to help and partly to +register politeness. + +Inside Field Headquarters, the little bare wooden rooms were stripped of +their few battered vases and old chromos, and plain wooden tables and +chairs were set about. The marines opened the windows, and scrubbed up +the floors, and hung out the sign of "Business as usual," and General +Sibert moved in. + +The rest was not so easy. The various kitchens came in first for +attention. For many days French and American motor-lorries had been +trundling across France, storing the warehouses with heaping piles of +food-supplies. The procession practically never stopped. Trains brought +what could be put aboard them, but it was to motors that most of the +real work fell. So the thin, long line of loaded cars stretched +endlessly from coast to camp, and finally everything was attended to but +where to put the food and where to cook it. + +The houses with the good back sheds were picked for kitchens, and the +big army soup-kettles were bricked into place, and what passed for ovens +were provided for the bakers. + +For bathing facilities, there were neat paths marked to the river. That +is, the French called it a river. Every American who rides through +France for the first time has the same experience: he looks out of his +train-window and remarks to his companion, who knows France well: "Isn't +that a pretty little creek? Are there many springs about here?" And the +companion replies scornfully: "That isn't a creek--that's the Marne +River," or "That's the Aisne," or "That's the Meuse." The American +always wonders what the French would call the Hudson. + +It was one of these storied streams that ran through the American +training-camp, in which the Americans did their bathing. Whenever a +soldier wanted to get his head wet he waded across. + +Later, when the camps were filled, these river-banks were to offer a +remarkable sight to the French peasants, who thought all Americans were +bathing-mad anyway. Hundreds of soldiers, in the assorted postures of +men scrubbing backs and knees and elbows, disported with soap and +wash-cloth along the banks. Hundreds of others, swimming their suds off, +flashed here an arm and there a leg in the stream itself. It did not +take much distance to make them look like figures on a frieze, a new +Olympic group. Modesty knew them not, but there were not supposed to be +women about, and the peasants had a nice Japanese point of view in the +matter. At any rate, there was the training-camp bathtub, and they used +it at least once a day, to the unending stupefaction of the French. + +Where they slept was another matter, suggesting neither Corot nor +Phidias. + +The privates had houses first, then barns. The barns were freed of the +live stock, which was turned into meadows to graze, and the floors were +dug down to clean earth, and vast quantities of formaldehyde were +sprayed around. Then the cots were carried up to the second floors of +the barns and put along in tidy rows. At the foot of each soldier's bed +was whatever manner of small wooden box he could corral from the +quartermaster, and there he kept all he owned. His pack unfolded its +contents into the box, and his comfort-kit perched on the top. And there +he kept the little mess of treasures he bought from the gypsy wagons +that rode all day around the outskirts of the camp. + +Windows were knocked out, just under the eaves, for the fresh air that +seemed, so inexplicably to the French, so essential to the Americans. + +Even with the First Division, acknowledged to be about the smallest +expeditionary force known to the Great War, the soldiers averaged a +little over two thousand to the village, and since not one of the +villages had more than four or five hundred population in peace-times, +the troubles of the man who arranged the billets were far from light. + +Fortunately, the First Division did not ask for luxuries. Even the +officers spent more time in simplifying their quarters than in trimming +them up. The colonel of one regiment--one of those who became +major-generals soon after the arrival in France--had his quarters in an +aristocratic old house, set back in a long yard, where plum-trees +dropped their red fruit in the vivid green grass and roses overgrew +their confines--it was the sort of house before which the pre-war motor +tourists used to stop and breathe long "ohs" of satisfaction. + +The entrance was by a low, arched doorway. The hall was built of +beautifully grained woods, old and mellow of tone. The stairway was +broad and easy to climb. The colonel had the second floor front, just +level with the tree-tops. + +In the room there were rich woods and tapestried walls, and at the back +was a four-poster mahogany bed with heavy satin hangings, brocaded with +fleur-de-lis. The Pompadour would have been entirely happy there. But +the American colonel had done things to it--things that would have +popped the eyes out of the Pompadour's head. He pinned up the +four-poster hangings with a safety-pin, that being the only way he could +convey to his amiable little French servant-girl that he didn't want +that bed turned down for him of nights. And he had taken all the satin +hangings down from the windows. Under these windows he had drawn up a +little board table and an army cot. Beside the table was his little army +trunk. The space he used did not measure more than ten feet in any +direction, and his luxuries waited unmolested for some more sybaritic +soul than he. + +A major in that same village who had had a cavalry command before the +cavalry, as he put it, became "mere messengers," picked his quarters out +himself, on the strength of all he had heard about "Sunny France." His +house was nothing much, but behind it was a garden--a long garden, +filled with vegetables, decorated with roses, shaded by fruit-trees. At +the far end of the garden was a summer-house, in a circle of trees. Here +the major took his first guests and showed how he intended to do his +work in the open air, while the famous French sunshine flooded his +garden and warmed his little refuge. + +The one thing it will never be safe to say to any veteran of the First +Division is "Sunny France." The summer of 1917, after a blazing start in +June, settled down to drizzle and mist, cold and fog, rain that soaked +to the marrow. + +The major with the garden sloshed around the whole summer, visiting men +who had settled indoors and had fireplaces. By the time the warmth had +come back to his summer-house it was time for him to go up to the +battle-line, and the man who writes a history of the billets in France +will get a lot of help from him. + +Some of the makeshifts of this first invasion were excusable and +inevitable. Some were not. After the first two or three weeks of +settling in, General Pershing made a tour of inspection, and some of the +things he said about what he saw didn't make good listening. But after +that visit all possible defects were overcome, and the men slept well, +ate well, were as well clothed as possible, and were admirably +sanitated. + +The drinking-water was a matter for the greatest strictness. The French +never drink water on any provocation, so that water provisions began +from the ground up. + +It was drawn into great skins and hung on tripods in the shaded parts of +the billets, and it was then treated with a germicide, tasteless +fortunately, carried in little glass capsules. This was a legacy from +experiences in Panama. + +Each man had his own tin cup, and when he got thirsty he went down and +turned the faucet in the hanging skin tank. If he drank any other water +he repented in the guard-house. + +So, though the billets were rude and sometimes uncomfortable, the +soldiers did stay in them and out of the hospitals. + +And there were compensations. + +Half of these were in play-times, and half in work-times. The training, +slow at first, speeded up afterward and, with the help of the "Blue +Devils" who trained with the Americans, took on all the exhilaration of +war with none of its dangers. But how they trained doesn't belong in a +chapter on billets. How they played is more suitable. + +Three-fourths of their playing they did with the French children. The +insurmountable French language, which kept doughboys and poilus at arm's +length in spite of their best intentions, broke down with the +youngsters. + +It was one of the finest sights around the camp to see the big soldiers +collecting around the mess-tent after supper, in the daylight-saving +long twilight, to hear the band and play in pantomime with the hundreds +of children who tagged constantly after them. + +The band concerts were a regular evening affair, though musically they +didn't come to much. Those were the days before anybody had thought to +supply the army bands with new music, so "She's My Daisy" and "The +Washington Post" made a daily appearance. + +But the concerts did not want for attendance. The soldiers stood around +by the hundreds, and listened and looked off over the hills to where the +guns were rumbling, whenever the children were not exacting too much +attention. + +This child-soldier combination had just two words. The child said +"Hello," which was all his English, and the party lasted till the +soldier, billet-bound, said "Fee-neesh," which was all his French. But +nobody could deny that both of them had a good time. + +Letter-writing was another favorite sport with the First Division, to +the great dole of the censors. Of course the men were homesick. That was +one reason. The other was that they had left home as heroes, and they +didn't intend to let the glory lapse merely because they had come across +to France and been slapped into school. The censors were astounded by +what they read ... gory battles of the day before, terrific air-raids, +bombardments of camp, etc. Some of the men told how they had slaughtered +Germans with their bare hands. Most of the letters were adjudged +harmless, and of little aid or comfort to the enemy, so they were passed +through. But some of the families of the First Division must have +thought that the War Department was holding out an awful lot on the +American public. + +Mid-July saw the camp in fair working order. The First Division had word +that it was presently to be joined by the New England Division and +the Rainbow Division, both National Guardsmen, and representative of +every State. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information._ + +Buglers of the Alpine Chasseurs, assisted by their military band, +entertaining American soldiers of the First Division.] + +American participation began to take shape as a real factor, a stern and +sombre business, and all the lighter, easier sides of the expedition +began to fall back, and work and grimness came on together. + +The French Alpine Chasseurs--whom the Americans promptly called +"chasers"--had a party with the Americans on July 14, when the whole day +was given over to a picnic, with boxing, wrestling, track sports, and a +lot of food. That was the last party in the training-camp till +Christmas. + +The work that began then had no let-up till the first three battalions +went into the trenches late in October. The steadily increasing number +of men widened the area of the training-camp, but they made no +difference in the contents of the working-day, nor in the system by +which it proceeded. + +Within the three weeks after the First Division had landed, the work of +army-building began. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +GETTING THEIR STRIDE + + +That part of France which became America in July, 1917, was of about the +shape of a long-handled tennis-racket. The broad oval was lying just +behind the fighting-lines. The handle reached back to the sea. Then, to +the ruin of the simile, the artillery-schools, the aviation-fields, and +the base hospitals made excrescences on the handle, so that an apter +symbol would be a large and unshapely string of beads. + +But France lends itself to pretty exact plotting out. There are no lakes +or mountains to dodge, nor particularly big cities to edge over to. In +the main, the organizing staffs of the two nations could draw lines from +the coast to the battle-fields, and say: "Between these two shall +America have her habitation and her name." + +The infantry trained in the Vosges. The artillery-ranges were next +behind, and then the aviation-grounds. The hospitals were placed +everywhere along the lines, from field-bases to those far in the rear. +And because neither French train service nor Franco-American motor +service could bear the giant burden of man-and-supply transportation, +the first job to which the engineer and labor units were assigned was +laying road-beds across France for a four-track railroad within the +American lines. + +In those days America did not look forward to the emergency which was to +brigade her troops with French or British, under Allied Generalissimo +Foch. Her plans were to put in a force which should be, as the English +say of their flats, "self-contained." If this arrangement had a fault, +it was that it was too leisurely. It was certainly not lacking on the +side of magnificence, either in concept or carrying-out. + +The scheme of bringing not only army but base of supplies, both +proportionate to a nation of a hundred million people, was necessarily +begun from the ground up. The American Army built railroads and +warehouses as a matter of course. It laid out training-camps for the +various arms of the service on an unheard-of scale. As it happens, the +original American plan was changed by the force of circumstances. Much +of the American man-power eventually was brigaded with the British and +French and went through the British and French soldier-making mills. But +the territory marked America still remains America and the excellent +showing made by the War Department in shipping men during the spring and +early summer of 1918 furnished a supply of soldiers sufficient to make +allotments to the Allies directly and at the same time preserve a +considerable force as a distinctly American Army. It is possible that +the fastest method of preparation possible might have been to brigade +with the Allies from the beginning. But it would have been difficult to +induce America to accept such a plan if it had not been for the +emergency created by the great German drive of the spring of 1918. + +American engineers were both building railroads and running them from +July on. The hospital units were installed even earlier. The first work +of an army comes behind the lines and a large proportion of the early +arrivals of the A. E. F. were non-fighting units. At that there was no +satisfying the early demands for labor. As late as mid-August General +Pershing was still doing the military equivalent of tearing his hair for +more labor units and stevedores. A small number of negroes employed as +civilian stevedores came with the First Division, but they could not +begin to fill the needs. Later all the stevedores sent were regularly +enlisted members of the army. While the great undertaking was still on +paper and the tips of tongues, the infantry was beginning its hard +lessons in the Vosges. The First Division was made up of something less +than 50 per cent of experienced soldiers, although it was a regular army +division. The leaven of learning was too scant. The rookies were all +potentiality. The training was done with French soldiers and for the +first little while under French officers. A division of Chasseurs +Alpines was withdrawn from the line to act as instructors for the +Americans, and for two months the armies worked side by side. "You will +have the honor," so the French order read, "of spending your permission +in training the American troops." This might not seem like the +pleasantest of all possible vacations for men from the line, but the +chasseurs seemed to take to it readily enough. These Chasseurs +Alpines--the Blue Devils--were the finest troops the French had. And if +they were to give their American guests some sound instruction later on, +they were to give them the surprise of their lives first. + +The French officer is the most dazzling sight alive, but the French +soldier is not. Five feet of height is regarded as an abundance. He got +his name of "poilu" not so much from his beard as from his perpetual +little black mustache. + +The doughboys called him "Froggy" with ever so definite a sense of +condescension. + +"Yes, they look like nothing--but you try following them for half a +day," said an American officer of the "poilus." + +They have a short, choppy stride, far different to the gangling gait of +the American soldier. The observer who looks them over and decides they +would be piffling on the march, forgets to see that they have the width +of an opera-singer under the arms, and that they no more get winded on +their terrific sprints than Caruso does on his high C's. + +And after they had done some stunts with lifting guns by the bayonet +tip, and had heaved bombs by the afternoon, the doughboys called in +their old opinions and got some new ones. + +All sorts of things were helping along the international liking and +respect. The prowess of the French soldiers was one of the most +important. But the soldiers' interpretation of Pershing's first general +order to the troops was another. This order ran: + +"For the first time in history an American Army finds itself in European +territory. The good name of the United States of America and the +maintenance of cordial relations require the perfect deportment of each +member of this command. It is of the gravest importance that the +soldiers of the American Army shall at all times treat the French +people, and especially the women, with the greatest courtesy and +consideration. The valiant deeds of the French Army and the Allies, by +which together they have successfully maintained the common cause for +three years, and the sacrifices of the civil population of France in +support of their armies command our profound respect. This can best be +expressed on the part of our forces by uniform courtesies to all the +French people, and by the faithful observance of their laws and customs. +The intense cultivation of the soil in France, under conditions caused +by the war, makes it necessary that extreme care should be taken to do +no damage to private property. The entire French manhood capable of +bearing arms is in the field fighting the enemy, and it should, +therefore, be a point of honor to each member of the American Army to +avoid doing the least damage to any property in France." + +Veteran soldiers take a general order as a general order, following it +literally. Recruits on a mission such as the First Division's took that +first general order as a sort of intimation, on which they were to build +their own conceptions of gallantry and good-will. Not only did they +avoid doing damage to French property, they minded the babies, drew the +well-water, carried faggots, peeled potatoes--did anything and +everything they found a Frenchwoman doing, if they had some off time. + +They fed the children from their own mess, kept them behind the lines at +grenade practice, mended their toys and made them new ones. + +These things cemented the international friendliness that the statesmen +of the two countries had made so much talk of. And by the time the war +training was to begin, doughboys and Blue Devils tramped over the long +white roads together with nothing more unfriendly left between them than +rivalry. + +The first thing they were set to do was trench-digging. The Vosges boast +splendid meadows. The Americans were told to dig themselves in. The +method of training with the French was to mark a line where the trench +should be, put the French at one end and the Americans at the other. +Then they were to dig toward each other as if the devil was after them, +and compare progress when they met. + +Trench-digging is every army's prize abomination. A good hate for the +trenches was the first step of the Americans toward becoming +professional. It was said of the Canadians early in the war that though +they would die in the last ditch they wouldn't dig it. + +No army but the German ever attempted to make its trenches neat and +cosey homes, but even the hasty gully required by the French seemed an +obnoxious burden to the doughboy. The first marines who dug a trench +with the Blue Devils found that their picks struck a stone at every +other blow, and that by the time they had dug deep enough to conceal +their length they were almost too exhausted to climb out again. + +The ten days given over to trench-digging was not so much because the +technic was intricate or the method difficult to learn. They were to +break the spirit of the soldiers and hammer down their conviction that +they would rather be shot in the open than dig a trench to hide in. They +were also to keep the aching backs and weary shoulders from getting +overstiff. Toward the end of July the first batch of infantrymen were +called off their trenches and were started at bomb practice. At first +they used dummy bombs. The little line of Blue Devils who were to start +the party picked up their bombs, swung their arms slowly overhead, held +them straight from wrist to shoulder, and let their bombs sail easily +up on a long, gentle arc, which presently landed them in the practice +trenches. + +"One-two-three-four," they counted, and away went the bombs. The +doughboys laughed. It seemed to them a throw fit only for a woman or a +substitute third baseman in the Texas League. When their turn came, the +doughboys showed the Blue Devils the right way to throw a bomb. They +lined them out with a ton of energy behind each throw, and the bombs +went shooting straight through the air, level above the trench-lines, +and a distance possibly twice as far as that attained by the Frenchmen. +They stood back waiting for the applause that did not come. + +"The objects are two in bomb-throwing, and you did not make either," +said the French instructor. "You must land your bomb in the +trenches--they do no more harm than wind when they fly straight--and you +must save your arm so that you can throw all afternoon." + +So the baseball throw was frowned out, and the half-womanish, +half-cricket throw was brought in. + +After the doughboys had mastered their method they were put to getting +somewhere with it. They were given trenches first at ten metres' +distance, and then at twenty. Then there were competitions, and war +training borrowed some of the fun of a track meet. The French had odds +on. No army has ever equalled them for accuracy of bomb-throwing, and +the doughboys, once pried loose from their baseball advantage, were not +in a position to push the French for their laurels. The American Army's +respect for the French began to have growing-pains. But what with +driving hard work, the doughboys learned finally to land a dummy bomb so +that it didn't disgrace them. + +With early August came the live grenades, and the first serious defect +in the American's natural aptitude for war-making was turned up. This +defect had the pleasant quality of being sentimentally correct, even if +sharply reprehensible from the French point of view. It was, in brief, +that the soldiers had no sense of danger, and resisted all efforts to +implant one, partly from sheer lack of imagination in training, and +partly from a scorn of taking to cover. + +The live bombs were hurled from deep trenches, aimed not at a point, but +at a distance--any distance, so it was safe. But once the bombs were +thrown, every other doughboy would straighten up in his trench to see +what he had hit. Faces were nipped time and again by the fragments of +flying steel, and the French heaped admonitions on admonitions, but it +was long before the American soldiers would take their war-game +seriously. + +Later, in the mass attacks on "enemy trenches," when they were ordered +to duck on the grass to avoid the bullets, the doughboys ducked as they +were told, then popped up at once on one elbow to see what they could +see. The Blue Devils training with them lay like prone statues. The +doughboys looked at them in astonishment, and said, openly and +frequently: "But there ain't any bullets." + +It was finally from the British, who came later as instructors, that the +doughboys accepted it as gospel that they must be pragmatic about the +dangers, and "act as if...." Then some of the wiseacres at the camp +pronounced the conviction that the Americans thought the French were +melodramatic, and by no means to be copied, until they found their +British first cousins, surely above reproach for needless emotionalism, +were doing the same strange things. + +The state of mind into which Allied instructors sought to drive or coax +the Americans was pinned into a sharp phrase by a Far Western enlisted +man before he left his own country. A melancholy relative had said, as +he departed: "Are you ready to give your life to your country?" To which +the soldier answered: "You bet your neck I'm not--I'm going to make some +German give his life for his." + +This was representative enough of the sentiments of the doughboys, but +the instructors ran afoul of their deepest convictions when they +insisted that this was an art to be learned, not a mere preference to be +favored. + +After the live bombs came the first lessons in machine-gun fire, using +the French machine-gun and automatic rifle. The soldiers were taught to +take both weapons apart and put them together again, and then they were +ordered to fire them. + +The first trooper to tackle an automatic rifle aimed the little monster +from the trenches, and opened fire, but he found to his discomfiture +that he had sprayed the hilltops instead of the range, and one of the +officers of the Blue Devils told him he would better be careful or he +would be transferred to the anti-aircraft service. + +The veterans of the army, however, had little trouble with the automatic +rifle or the machine-guns, even at first. The target was 200 metres +away, at the foot of a hill, and the first of the sergeants to tackle it +made 30 hits out of a possible 34. + +The average for the army fell short of this, but the men were kept at it +till they were thoroughly proficient. + +One characteristic of all the training of the early days at camp was +that both officers and men were being prepared to train later troops in +their turn, so that many lectures in war theory and science, and many +demonstrations of both, were included there. This accounted for much of +the additional time required to train the First Division. + +But while their own training was unusually long drawn out, they were +being schooled in the most intensive methods in use in either French or +British Army. It was an unending matter for disgust to the doughboy that +it took him so long to learn to hurry. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SPEEDING UP + + +While the soldiers were still, figuratively speaking, in their own +trenches and learning the several arts of getting out, the officers of +the infantry camp were having some special instructions in instructing. + +Young captains and lieutenants were placed in command of companies of +the Blue Devils, and told to put them through their paces--in French. + +It was, of course, a point of honor with the officers not to fall back +into English, even in an emergency. One particularly nervous young man, +who had ordered his French platoon to march to a cliff some distance +away, forgot the word for "Halt" or "Turn around" as the disciplined +Blue Devils, eyes straight ahead, marched firmly down upon their doom. +At the very edge, while the American clinched his sticky palms and +wondered what miracle would save him, a helpful French officer called +"Halte," and the American suddenly remembered that the word was the same +in both languages--an experience revoltingly frequent with Americans in +distress with their French. + +But disasters such as this were not numerous. The officers worked +excellently, at French as well as soldiering, and little precious time +was needed for them. + +Three battalions were at work at this first training--two American and +one French. As these learned their lessons, they were put forward to the +next ones, and new troops began at the beginning. This plan was +thoroughly organized at the very beginning, so that the later enormous +influx of troops did not disrupt it, and as the first Americans came +nearer to the perfection they were after, they were put back to leaven +the raw troops as the French Blue Devils had done for the first of them. + +The plan further meant that after the first few weeks, what with +beginners in the First Division and newly arriving troops, the Vosges +fields offered instruction at almost anything along the programme on any +given day. + +Over the whole camp, the aim of the French officers was to reproduce +actual battle conditions as absolutely as possible, and to eliminate, +within reason, any advantage that surprise might give to the Germans. + +By the end of the first week in August, the best scholars among the +trench-diggers and bombers were being shown how to clean out trenches +with live grenades, and the machine-gunners and marksmen were getting +good enough to be willing to bet their own money on their performances. + +Then came the battalion problems, the proper use of grenades by men +advancing in formations against a mythical enemy in intrenched +positions. + +From the beginning, the American Army refused to accept the theory that +the war would never again get into the open. They trained in open +warfare, and with a far greater zest--partly, of course, because it was +the thing they knew already, though they found they had some things to +unlearn. + +Then the war brought about a reorganization of American army units, and +it was necessary for the officers to familiarize themselves with new +conditions. The reorganization was ordered early in August, and put into +effect shortly afterward. The request from General Pershing that the +administrative units of the infantry be altered to conform with European +systems had in its favor the fact that it economized higher officers and +regimental staffs, for at the same time that divisions were made +smaller, regiments were made larger. + +The new arrangement of the infantry called for a company of 250 enlisted +men and 6 commissioned officers, instead of 100 men and 3 officers. Each +company was then divided into 4 platoons, with a lieutenant in command. +Each regiment was made up of 3 battalions of 4 companies each, +supplemented by regimental headquarters and the supply and machine-gun +organizations. + +This made it possible to have 1 colonel and 3 battalion commanders +officer 3,600 men, as against 2,000 of the old order. + +This army in the making was not called on to show itself in the mass +till August 16, just a month after its hard work had begun. Then +Major-General Sibert, field-commander of the First Division and +best-loved man in France, held a review of all the troops. The +manoeuvres were held in a great open plain. The marching was done to +spirited bands, who had to offset a driving rain-storm to keep the men +perked up. The physical exercise of the first month showed in the +carriage of the men, infinitely improved, and they marched admirably, in +spite of the fact that their first training had been a specialization in +technical trench warfare. General Sibert made them a short address of +undiluted praise, and they went back to work again. + +A few days later the army had its first intelligence drill, with the +result that some erstwhile soldiers were told off to cook and tend +mules. + +The test consisted in delivering oral messages. One message was: "Major +Blank sends his compliments to Captain Nameless, and orders him to move +L Company one-half mile to the east, and support K Company in the +attack." The officer who gave the message then moved up the hill and +prepared to receive it. + +The third man up came in panting excitement, full of earnest desire to +do well. "Captain, the major says that you're to move your men a mile to +the east," he said, "and attack K Company." He peeled the potatoes for +supper. + +The gas tests came late in August. The officers, believing that fear of +gas could not be excessive, had done some tall talking before the masks +were given out, and in the first test, when the men were to enter a +gas-filled chamber with their masks on, they had all been assured that +one whiff would be fatal. The gas in the chamber was of the +tear-compelling kind, only temporarily harmful, even on exposure to it. +But that was a secret. + +The men were drilled in putting their masks on, till the worst of them +could do it in from three to five seconds. Both the French and the +British masks were used, the one much lighter but comparatively riskier +than the other. Officers required the men to have their masks constantly +within reach, and gas alarms used to be called at meal-times, or +whenever it seemed thoroughly inconvenient to have them. The soldiers +were required to drop everything and don the cumbersome contrivances, +no matter how well they knew that there wasn't any gas. There is no +question that this thoroughness saved many lives when the men went into +the trenches. + +When they masked and went into the gas-chamber the care they took with +straps and buckles could not have been bettered. One or two of the men +fainted from heat and nervousness, but nobody caught the temporary +blindness that would have been their lot if the gas had not been held +off. And after the first few entrants had returned none the worse, the +rest made a lark of it, and the whole experience stamped on their minds +the uselessness of gas as a weapon if you're handy with the mask. + +The first insistence on rifle use and marksmanship, which General +Pershing was to stress later with all the eloquence he had, was heard in +late August. The French said frankly they had neglected the power of the +rifle, and the Americans were put to work to avoid the same mistake. In +target-shooting with rifles the Americans got their first taste of +supremacy. They ceased being novitiates for as long as they held their +rifles, and became respected and admired experts. The first English +Army, "the Old Contemptibles," had all been expert rifle-shots, and, +after a period when rifle fire was almost entirely absent from the +battle-fields, tacticians began to recall this fact, and the cost it had +entailed upon the Germans. + +So the doughboys added rifle fire to their other jobs. + +About this time the day of the doughboy was a pattern of compactness, +though he called it a harsher name. + +It began in the training area at five o'clock in the morning. One +regiment had a story that some of the farm lads used to beat the buglers +up every day and wander about disconsolate, wondering why the morning +was being wasted. This was probably fictional. As a rule, five o'clock +came all too early. There was little opportunity to roll over and have +another wink, for roll-call came at five-thirty, and this was followed +by brief setting-up exercises, designed to give the men an ambition for +breakfast. At this meal French customs were not popular. The poilu, who +begins his day with black coffee and a little bread, was always amazed +to see the American soldier engaged with griddle-cakes and corned-beef +hash, and such other substantial things as he could get at daybreak. +Just after breakfast sick-call was sounded. It was up to the ailing man +to report at that time as a sufferer or forever after hold his peace. +While the sick were engaged in reporting themselves the healthy men +tidied up. Work proper began at seven. + +As a rule, bombing, machine-gun, and automatic-rifle fire practice came +in the mornings. Time was called at eleven and the soldiers marched back +to billets for the midday meal. Later, when the work piled up even more, +the meals were prepared on the training-grounds. Rifle and bayonet +practice came in the afternoon. Four o'clock marked the end of the +working-day for all except captains and lieutenants, who never found any +free time in waking hours. In fact, most of the excited +youngsters--almost all under thirty--let their problems perturb their +dreams. The doughboys amused themselves with swims, walks, concerts, +supper, and French children till nine o'clock, when they were always +amiable toward going to bed. + +With September came the British to supplement the French and, after a +little, to go far toward replacing them. For the Blue Devils had still +work to do on the Germans, and their "vacation" could not last too long. + +A fine and spectacular sham battle put a climax to the stay of the +French, when, after artillery preparation, the Blue Devils took the +newly made American trenches, advancing under heavy barrage. The three +objectives were named Mackensen, Von Kluck, and Ludendorff. The +artillery turned everything it had into the slow-moving screen, under +which the "chasers" crept toward the foe. All the watching doughboys had +been instructed to put on their shrapnel helmets. At the pitch of the +battle some officers found their men using their helmets as good front +seats for the show, but fortunately there were no casualties. Words do +not kill. + +The departure of the Blue Devils was attended by a good deal of +home-made ceremony and a universal deep regret. A genuine liking had +sprung up between the Americans and their French preceptors, and when +they marched away from camp the soldiers flung over them what detachable +trophies they had, the strains of all their bands, the unified good +wishes of the whole First Division, and unnumbered promises to be a +credit to their teachers when they got into the line. + +It was the bayonet which proved the first connecting-link between the +Americans and the British. American observers had decided after a few +weeks that the bayonet was a peculiarly British weapon, and in +consequence it was decided that for this phase of the training, the army +should rely on the British rather than the French. + +The British General Staff obligingly supplied the chief bayonet +instructor of their army with a number of assisting sergeants, and the +squad was sent down to camp. + +The British brought two important things, in addition to expert +bayoneting. They were, first, a familiar bluntness of criticism, which +the Americans had rather missed with the polite French, and a +competitive spirit, stirred up wherever possible between rival units of +the A. E. F. + +Their willingness to "act" their practice was another factor, though in +that they did not excel the French except in that they could impart it +to the Americans. + +The British theory of bayonet work proved to be almost wholly offensive. +They went at their instruction of it with undimmed fire. At the end of +the first week, they gave a demonstration to some visiting officers. +Three short trenches had been constructed in a little dip of land, and +the spectators stood on the hill above them. On the opposite slope tin +cans shone brightly, hoisted on sticks. + +"Ready, gentlemen," said the drill-sergeant. "Prepare for trench bayonet +practice by half sections. You're to take these three lines of trenches, +lay out every Boche in the lot, and then get to cover and fire six +rounds at them 'ere tin hats. Don't waste a shot, gentlemen, every +bullet a Boche. Now, then, ready--over the top, and give 'em 'ell, right +in the stomach." + +Over the top they went and did as they were told. But the excitement was +not great enough to please the drill-sergeant. He turned to the second +section, and put them through at a rounder pace. Then he took over some +young officers, who were being instructed to train later troops, at +cleaning out trenches. Sacks representing Germans were placed in a +communicating trench. + +"Now, remember, gentlemen," said the sergeant, "there's a Fritz in each +one of these 'ere cubby-'oles, and 'e's no dub, is Fritz. 'E's got ears +all down 'is back. Make your feet pneumatic. For 'eaven's sake, don't +sneeze, or 'is nibs will sling you a bomb like winkin', and there'll be +a narsty mess. Ready, Number One! 'Ead down, bayonet up ... it's no use +stickin' out your neck to get a sight of Fritzie in 'is 'ole. Why, if +old Fritz was there, 'e'd just down your point, and then where'd you be? +Why, just a blinkin' casualty, and don't you forget it. Ready again, +bayonet up. Now you see 'em. Quick, down with your point and at 'im. +Tickle 'is gizzard. Not so bad, but I bet you waked 'is nibs in the next +'ole. Keep in mind you're fightin' for your life...." + +By the time the officers were into the trench, the excitement was +terrific. + +It was such measures as these that made the bayonet work go like +lightning, and cut down the time required at it by more than one-half. + +The organized recreation and the competitions, two sturdy British +expedients for morale, always came just after these grimmest of all of +war's practices. The more foolish the game, the more rapturously the +British joined in it. Red Rover and prisoner's base were two prime +favorites. A British major said the British Army had discovered that +when the men came out of the trenches, fagged and horror-struck, the +surest way to bring them back was to set them hard at playing some game +remembered from their childhood. + +The British had even harder work, at first, to make the men fall in with +the games than they had with war practice. But the friendly spirit +existing basically between English and Americans, however spatty their +exterior relationships may sometimes be, finally got everybody in +together. The Americans found that a British instructor would as lief +call them "rotten" if he thought they deserved it, but that he did it +so simply and inoffensively that it was, on the whole, very welcome. + +So the Americans learned all they could from French and British, and +began the scheme of turning back on themselves, and doing their own +instructing. + +The infantry camp was destined to have some offshoots, as the number of +men grew larger, and the specialists required intensive work. Officers' +schools sprang up all over France, and all the supplemental forces, +which had infantry training at first, scattered off to their special +training, notably the men trained to throw gas and liquid fire. + +But, for the most part, the camp in the Vosges remained the big central +mill it was designed to be, and in late October, when three battalions +put on their finishing touches in the very battle-line, the cycle was +complete. Before the time when General Pershing offered the +Expeditionary Force to Generalissimo Foch, to put where he chose, the +giant treadway from sea to camp and from camp to battle was grinding in +monster rhythms. It never thereafter feared any influx of its raw +material. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +BACK WITH THE BIG GUNS + + +THE American Expeditionary Force which went into the great +training-schools of France and England was like nothing so much as a +child who, having long been tutored in a programme of his own make, an +abundance of what he liked and nothing of what he didn't, should be +thrust into some grade of a public school. He would be ridiculously +advanced in mathematics and a dunce at grammar, or historian to his +finger-tips and ignorant that two and two make four. He would amaze his +fellow pupils in each respect equally. + +And that was the lot of the Expeditionary Force. The French found them +backward in trench work and bombing, and naturally enough expected that +backwardness to follow through. They conceded the natural quickness of +the pupils, but saw a long road ahead before they could become an army. +Then the Americans tackled artillery, hardest and deepest of the war +problems, and suddenly blossomed out as experts. + +Of course, the analogy is not to be leaned on too heavily. The Americans +were not, on the instant, the arch-exponents of artillery in all Europe. +But it is true that in comparison to the size of their army, and to the +extent to which they had prepared nationally for war, their artillery +was stronger than that of any other country on the Allied side at the +beginning of the war, notwithstanding that it was the point where they +might legitimately have been expected to be the weakest. + +Hilaire Belloc called the American artillery preparation one of the most +dramatic and welcome surprises of the war. + +It must be understood that all this applies only to men and not in the +least to guns. For big guns, the American reliance was wholly upon +France and England, upon the invitation of those two countries when +America entered the war. + +And the readiness of America's men was not due to a large preparation in +artillery as such. The blessing arose from the fact that the coast +defense could be diverted, within the first year of war, to the handling +of the big guns for land armies, and thus strengthen the artillery arm +sent to France for final training. + +Artillery was every country's problem, even in peace-times. It was the +service which required the greatest wealth and the most profound +training. There was no such thing as a citizenry trained to artillery. +Mathematics was its stronghold, and no smattering could be made to do. +Even more than mathematics was the facility of handling the big guns +when mathematics went askew from special conditions. + +These things the coast defense had, if not in final perfection, at least +in creditable degree. And the diversion of it to the artillery in France +stiffened the backbone of the Expeditionary Force to the pride of the +force and the glad amazement of its preceptors. + +One other thing the coast defense had done: it had pre-empted the +greater part of America's attention in times of peace and +unpreparedness, so that big-gun problems had received a disproportionate +amount of study. The American technical journals on artillery were +always of the finest. The war services were honeycombed with men who +were big-gun experts. + +So when the first artillery training-school opened in France, in +mid-August of 1917, the problems to be faced were all of a more or less +external character. + +The first of these, of course, was airplane work. The second was in +mastering gun differences between American and French types, and in +learning about the enormous numbers of new weapons which had sprung from +battle almost day by day. + +The camp, when the Americans moved in, had much to recommend it to its +new inhabitants. There need be no attempt to conceal the fact that first +satisfaction came with the barracks, second with the weather, and only +third with the guns and planes. + +Some of the artillerymen had come from the infantry camps, and some +direct from the coast. Those from the Vosges camp were boisterous in +their praise of their quarters. They had brick barracks, with floors, +and where they were billeted with the French they found excellent +quarters in the old, low-lying stone and brick houses. The weather would +not have been admired by any outsider. But to the men from the Vosges it +owed a reputation, because they extolled it both day and night. The +artillery camp was in open country, to permit of the long ranges, and if +it sunned little enough, neither did it rain. + +The guns and airplanes supplied by the French were simple at first, +becoming, as to guns at least, steadily more numerous and complicated as +the training went on. + +The men began on the seventy-fives, approximately the American +three-inch gun, and on the howitzers of twice that size. + +The airplane service was the only part of the work wholly new to the +men, and, naturally enough, it was the most attractive. + +Although the officers and instructors warned that air observation and +range-finding was by far the most dangerous of all artillery service, +seventy-five per cent of the young officers who were eligible for the +work volunteered for it. This required a two-thirds weeding out, and +insured the very pick of men for the air crews. + +The air service with artillery was made over almost entirely by the +French between the time of the war's beginning and America's entrance. +All the old visual aids were abolished, such as smoke-pointers and +rockets, and the telephone and wireless were installed in their stead. +The observation-balloons had the telephone service, and the planes had +wireless. + +By these means the guns were first fired and then reported on. The +general system of range-finding was: "First fire long, then fire short, +then split the bracket." This was the joint job of planes and +gunners--one not to be despised as a feat. + +In fact, artillery is, of all services, the one most dependent on +co-operation. It is always a joint job, but the joining must be done +among many factors. + +Its effectiveness depends first upon the precision of the mathematical +calculation which goes before the pull of the lanyard. This calculation +is complicated by the variety of types of guns and shells, and, in the +case of howitzers, by the variable behavior of charges of different size +and power. But these are things that can be learned with patience, and +require knowledge rather than inspiration. + +It is when the air service enters that inspiration enters with it. +Observation must be accurate, in spite of weather, visibility, enemy +camouflage, and everything else. More than that, the observer in the +plane must keep himself safe--often a matter of sheer genius. + +The map-maker must do his part, so that targets not so elusive as +field-guns and motor-emplacements can be found without much help from +the air. + +Finally, the artillery depends, even more than any other branch of the +service, on the rapidity with which its wants can be filled from the +rear. The mobility of the big pieces, and their constant connections +with ammunition-stores, are matters depending directly on the training +of the artillerymen. + +These, then, were the things in which the Americans were either tested +or trained. Their mathematics were A1, as has been noted, and their +familiarity with existing models of big guns sufficient to enable them +to pick up the new types without long effort. + +They had a few weeks of heavy going with pad and pencil, then they were +led to the giant stores of French ammunition--more than any of them had +ever seen before--and told to open fire. One dramatic touch exacted by +the French instructors was that the guns should be pointed toward +Germany, no matter how impotent their distance made them. + +Long lanes, up to 12,000 metres, were told off for the ranges. The +training was intensive, because at that time there was a half-plan to +put the artillery first into the battle-line. In any case it is easier +to make time on secondary problems than on primary. + +Throughout September, while the artillerymen grew in numbers as well as +proficiency, the mastering of gun types was perfected, and the theory of +aim was worked out on paper. + +Late in the month the French added more guns, chief among them being a +monster mounted on railway-trucks whose projectile weighed 1,800 pounds. +The artillerymen named her "Mosquito," "because she had a sting," +although she had served for 300 charges at Verdun. It was not long +before every type of gun in the French Army, and many from the British, +were lined up in the artillery camp, being expertly pulled apart and +reassembled. + +By the time the artillery went into battle with the infantry, failing in +their intention to go first alone, but nevertheless first in actual +fighting, they were able to give a fine account of themselves. By the +time they had got back to camp and were training new troops from their +own experience, they were the centre of an extraordinary organization. + +The rolling of men from camp to battle and back again, training, +retraining, and fighting in the circle, with an increasing number of men +able to remain in the line, and a constantly increasing number of new +men permitted to come in at the beginning, ground out an admirable +system before the old year was out. + +The fact that the artillery-school could not take its material raw did +not make the hitches it otherwise would, chiefly, of course, because of +the coast defense, and somewhat because American college men were found +to have a fine substratum of technical knowledge which artillery could +turn to account. + +After all the routine was fairly learned, and there had been a helpful +interim in the line, the artillery practised on some specialties, partly +of their own contribution, and partly those suggested by the other +armies. + +One of these, the most picturesque, was the shattering of the +"pill-boxes," German inventions for staying in No Man's Land without +being hit. + +A "pill-box" is a tiny concrete fortress, set up in front of the +trenches, usually in groups of fifteen to twenty. They have slot-like +apertures, through which Germans do their sniping. They are supposed to +be immune from anything except direct hit by a huge shell. But the +American artillery camp worked out a way of getting them--with luck. +Each aperture, through which the German inmates sighted and shot, was +put under fire from automatic rifles, coming from several directions at +once, so that it was indiscreet for the Boche to stay near his windows, +on any slant he could devise. Under cover of this rifle barrage, bombers +crept forward, and at a signal the rifle fire stopped, and the bombers +threw their destruction in. + +All these accomplishments, which did not take overlong to learn, +enhanced the natural value of the American artilleryman. He became, in a +short time, the pride of the army and a warmly welcomed mainstay to the +Allies. + +Major-General Peyton C. March, who took the artillery to France and +commanded them in their days of organization, before he was called back +to be Chief of Staff at Washington, was always credited, by his men, +with being three-fourths of the reason why they made such a showing. +General March always credited the matter to his men. At any rate, +between them they put their country's best foot foremost for the first +year of America in France, and they served as optimism centres even when +distress over other delays threatened the stoutest hearts. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE EYES OF THE ARMY + + +America's beginnings in the air service were pretty closely kin to her +other beginnings--she furnished the men and took over the apparatus. And +although by September 1, 1917, she had large numbers of aviators in the +making in France, they were flying--or aspiring to--in French schools, +under American supervision, with French machines and French instructors. + +There existed, in prospect, and already in detailed design, several +enormous flying-fields, to be built and equipped by America, as well as +half a dozen big repair-shops, and one gigantic combination repair-shop, +assembling-shop, and manufacturing plant. + +But in the autumn, when there were aviators waiting in France to go up +that very day, there was no waiting on fields trimmed by America. + +When the main school, under American supervision, had filled to +overflowing, the remaining probationers were scattered among the French +schools under French supervision. Meanwhile, the engineers and +stevedores shared the work of constructing "the largest aviation-field +in the world" in central France. + +It was once true of complete armies that they could be trained to +warfare in their own home fields, and then sent to whatever part of the +world happened to be in dispute, and they required no more additional +furbishing up than a short rest from the journey. That is no longer true +of anything about an army except the air service, and it isn't literally +true of them. But they approach it. + +So it was practicable to give the American aviators nine-tenths of their +training at home, and leave the merest frills to a few spare days in +France. This, of course, takes no account of the first weeks at the +battle-front, which are only nominally training, since in the course of +them a flier may well have to battle for his life, and often does catch +a German, if he chances on one as untutored as himself. + +The French estimate of the necessary time to make an aviator is about +four months before he goes up on the line, and about four months in +patrol, on the line, before he is a thoroughly capable handler of a +battle-plane. They cap that by saying that an aviator is born, not made, +anyway, and that "all generalizations about them are untrue, including +this one." + +The air policy of France, however, was in a state of great fluidity at +this time. They were not prepared to lay down the law, because they were +in the very act of giving up their own romantic, adventurous system of +single-man combat, and were borrowing the German system of squadron +formation. They were reluctant enough to accept it, let alone +acknowledge their debt to the Germans. But the old knight-errantry of +the air could not hold up against the new mass attacks. And the French +are nothing if not practical. + +Even their early war aviators had prudence dinned into them--that +prudence which does not mean a niggardliness of fighting spirit, but +rather an abstaining from foolhardiness. + +Each aviator was warned that if he lost his life before he had to, he +was not only squandering his own greatest treasure, but he was leaving +one man less for France. + +This was the philosophy of the training-school. If the French were +impatient with a flier who lost his life to the Germans through excess +of friskiness, they were doubly so at the flier who endangered his life +at school through heedlessness. + +"If you pull the wrong lever," they said, "you will kill a man and wreck +a machine. Your country cannot afford to pay, either, for your fool +mistakes." + +But there their dogma ended. Once the flier had learned to handle his +machine, his further behavior was in the hands of American officers +solely, and these, he found, were stored with several very definite +ideas. + +The first of these--the most marked distinction between the French +system and the American--was that all American aviators should know the +theories of flying and most of its mathematics. + +Concerning these things the French cared not a hang. + +Neither did the American aviators. But they toed the mark just the +same, and many a youngster gnawed his pencil indoors and cursed the fate +that had placed him with a country so finicky about air-currents on +paper and so indifferent to the joys of learning by ear. + +The Americans accepted from the beginning the edict on squadron flying. +It was as much a part of their training as field-manoeuvres for the +infantry. And because they had no golden days of derring-do to look back +upon, they did less grumbling. Besides, there was always the chance of +getting lost, and patrols offered some good opportunities to the +venturesome. + +The air service had at this time an extra distinction. They were the +only arm of America's service that had really impressed the Germans. The +German experts, as they spoke through their newspapers, were +contemptuous of the army and all its works. They maintained that it +would be impossible for American transports to bring more than half a +million men to France, if they tried forever, because the submarines +would add to the inherent difficulties, and make "American +participation" of less actual menace than that of Roumania. + +The Frankfurter Zeitung said: "There is no doubt that the Entente lay +great stress on American assistance on this point (air warfare). Nor do +we doubt that the technical resources of the enemy will achieve +brilliant work in this branch. But all this has its limits ... in this +field, superiority in numbers is by no means decisive. Quality and the +men are what decide." + +Major Hoffe, of the German General Staff, wrote in the Weser Zeitung: +"The only American help seriously to be reckoned with is aerial aid." + +There was a quantity of such talk. Incidentally, the same experts who +limited America's troops to half a million in France at the most +indulgent estimate, said, over and over, that a million were to be +feared, just the number announced to be in France by President Wilson +one year from the time of the first debarkation. + +The aviators worked hard enough to deserve the German honor. In the +French school supervised by the Americans the schedule would have +furnished Dickens some fine material for pathos. + +The day began at 4 A. M., with a little coffee for an eye-opener. The +working-day began in the fields at 5 sharp. If the weather permitted +there were flights till 11, when the pupil knocked off for a midday +meal. He was told to sleep then till 4 in the afternoon, when flying +recommenced, and continued till 8.30. The rest of his time was all his +own. He spent it getting to bed. + +There was an average of four months under this regime. The flier began +on the ground, and for weeks he was permitted no more than a dummy +machine, which wobbled along the ground like a broken-winged duck, and +this he used to learn levers and mechanics--those things he had toiled +over on paper before he was even allowed on the field. + +After a while he was permitted in the air with an instructor, and +finally alone. There were creditably few disasters. For months there was +never a casualty. But if a man had an accident it was a perfectly +open-and-shut affair. Either he ruined himself or he escaped. It was +part of the French system with men who escaped to send them right back +into the air, as soon as they could breathe, so that the accident would +not impair their flying-nerves. + +After the three or four months of foundation work, if the term is not +too inept for flying, the aviator had his final examination, a +triangular flight of about ninety miles, with three landings. The +landings are the great trick of flying. Like the old Irish story, it +isn't the falling that hurts you, it's the sudden stop. + +If the pupil made his landings with accuracy he was passed on to the big +school at Pau, where acrobatics are taught. The flight acrobat was the +ace, the armies found. And no man went to battle till he could do +spiral, serpentine, and hairpin turns, could manage a tail spin, and "go +into a vrille"--a corkscrew fall which permitted the flier to make great +haste from where he was, and yet not lose control of his machine, at the +same time that he made a tricky target for a Boche machine-gun. + +While all this training was going on the ranks of American aviators were +filling in at the top. The celebrated Lafayette Escadrille, the American +aviators who joined the French Army at the beginning of the war, was +taken into the American Army in the late summer. Then all the Americans +who were in the French aviation service who had arrived by way of the +Foreign Legion were called home. + +These were put at instructing for a time, then their several members +became the veteran core of later American squadrons. This air unit was +finally placed at 12 fliers and 250 men, and before Christmas there was +a goodly number of them, a number not to be told till the care-free and +uncensored days after the war. + +By the beginning of the new year American aviation-fields were taking +shape. The engineers had laid a spur of railroad to link the largest of +them with the main arteries of communication, and the labor units had +built the same sort of small wooden city that sprang up all over America +as cantonments. + +There were roomy barracks, a big hall where chapel services alternated +with itinerant entertainers, a little newspaper building, plenty of +office-barracks with typewriters galore and the little models on which +aviators learn their preliminary lessons. + +There is one training-field six miles long and a mile and a half wide, +where all kinds of instruction is going on, even to acrobatics. + +And there are several large training-schools just behind the +fighting-lines, which have plenty of visiting Germans to practise on. + +The enormity of the American air programme made it a little unwieldy at +first, and it got a late start. But on the anniversary of its beginning +it had unmeasured praise from official France, and even before that the +French newspapers had loudly sung its praises. + +The American aviator as an individual was a success from the beginning. +He has unsurpassed natural equipment for an ace, and his training has +been unprecedentedly thorough. And he has dedicated his spirit through +and through. He has set out to make the Germans see how wise they were +to be afraid. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SCHOOLS FOR OFFICERS + + +The first economy effected after the broad sweep of training was in +swing was to segregate the officers for special training, and these +officers' schools fell into two types. + +First, there was the camp for the young commissioned officers from +Plattsburg, and similar camps in America, to give them virtually the +same training as the soldiers had, but at a sharper pace, inclusive also +of more theory, and to increase their executive ability in action; +second, there was the school established by General Pershing, late in +the year, through which non-commissioned officers could train to take +commissions. + +Of the first type, there were many, of the second, only one. + +The camp for the Plattsburg graduates which turned its men first into +the fighting was one having about 300 men, situated in the south of +France, where the weather could do its minimum of impeding. + +These youngsters arrived in September, and they were fighting by +Thanksgiving. The next batch took appreciably less time to train, partly +because the organization had been tried out and perfected on the first +contingent, and partly because they were destined for a longer stay in +the line before they were hauled back for training others. This process +was duplicated in scores of schools throughout France, so that the +Expeditionary Force, what with its reorganization to require fewer +officers, and its complementary schools, never lacked for able +leadership. + +The first school was under command of Major-General Robert Bullard, a +veteran infantry officer with long experience in the Philippines to draw +on, and a conviction that the proper time for men to stop work was when +they dropped of exhaustion. + +His officers began their course with a battalion of French troops to aid +them, and they were put into company formation, of about 75 men to the +company, just as the humble doughboy was. + +They were all infantry officers, who were to take command as first and +second lieutenants, but they specialized in whatever they chose. They +were distinguished by their hat-bands: white for bayonet experts, blue +for the liquid-fire throwers, yellow for the machine-gunners, red for +the rifle-grenadiers, orange for the hand-grenadiers, and green for the +riflemen. These indicated roughly the various things they were taught +there, in addition to trench-digging and the so-called battalion +problems, recognizable to the civilian as team-work. + +Their work was not of the fireside or the library. It was the joint +opinion of General Pershing, General Sibert, and General Bullard that +the way to learn to dig a trench was to dig it, and that nothing could +so assist an officer in directing men at work as having first done the +very same job himself. + +They had a permanent barracks which had once housed young French +officers, in pre-war days, and they had a generous Saturday-to-Monday +town leave. + +These two benefactions, plus their tidal waves of enthusiasm, carried +them through the herculean programme devised by General Bullard and the +assisting French officers and troops. + +They began, of course, with trench-digging, and followed with live +grenades, machine-guns, automatic rifles, service-shells, bayonet work, +infantry formation for attack, and gas tests. Then they were initiated +into light and fire signals, star-shells, gas-bombing, and liquid fire. + +Last, they came in on the rise of the wave of rifle popularity, and +trained at it even more intensively than the first of the doughboys. +"The rifle is the American weapon," was General Pershing's constant +reiteration, "and it has other uses than as a stick for a bayonet." + +But efficacious as schools of this type were, there was a need they did +not meet, a need first practical, then sentimental, and equally valuable +on both counts. + +This was the training for the man from the ranks. The War College in +America, acting in one of its rare snatches of spare time, had ordered a +school for officers in America to which any enlisted man was eligible. + +General Pershing overhauled this arrangement in one particular: he +framed his school in France so that nothing lower than a corporal could +enter it. This was on the theory that a man in the ranks who had ability +showed it soon enough, and was rewarded by a non-com. rank. That was the +time when the way ahead should rightfully be opened to him. + +This school commenced its courses just before Christmas, with everything +connected with it thoroughly worked out first. + +The commissions it was entitled to bestow went up to the rank of major. +Scholars entered it by recommendation of their superior officers, which +were forwarded by the commanders of divisions or other separate units, +and by the chiefs of departmental staffs, to the commander-in-chief. +Before these recommendations could be made, the record of the applicant +must be scanned closely, and his efficiency rated--if he were a +linesman, by fighting quality, and if in training still or behind the +lines, by efficiency in all other duties. + +Then he entered and fared as it might happen. If he succeeded, his place +was waiting for him at his graduation, as second lieutenant in a +replacement division. + +Enormous numbers of these replacement divisions had to be held behind +the lines. From them, all vacancies occurring in the combat units in the +lines were filled. And rank, within them, proceeded in the same manner +as in any other division. Their chief difference was that there was no +limit set upon the number of second lieutenants they could include, so +that promotions waited mainly for action to earn them. + +Within the combat units, the vacancies were to be filled two-thirds by +men in line of promotion within the unit itself, and one-third from the +replacement divisions. + +The replacement division's higher officers were those recovered from +wounds, who had lost their place in line, and those who had not yet had +any assignments. To keep up a sufficient number of replacement +divisions, the arriving depot battalions were held to belong with them. + +This school was located near the fighting-line, and its instructors were +preponderantly American. + +It put the "stars of the general into the private's knapsack," and +began the great mill of officer-making that the experiences of other +armies had shown to be so tragically necessary. Needless to say, it was +packed to overflowing from its first day. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +SOME DISTINGUISHED VISITORS + + +So satisfactory to itself was the progress of the American Expeditionary +Force in becoming an army that by the end of its first month of training +it was ready for important visitors. True, the first to come was one who +would be certain to understand the force's initial difficulties, and who +would also be able to help as well as inspect. He was General Petain, +Commander-in-Chief of the French Army, and he came for inspection of +both French and American troops on August 19, three days after General +Sibert had had a family field-day to take account of his troops. + +General Petain came down with General Pershing, and the first inspection +was of billets. Then the two generals reviewed the Alpine Chasseurs, and +General Petain awarded some medals which had been due since the month +before, when the Blue Devils were in the line. + +After General Petain's visit with the American troops, he recommended +their training and their physique equally, and said: "I think the +American Army will be an admirable fighting force within a short time." + +This was also General Pershing's day for learning--his first session +with one of his most difficult tasks. He had to follow the example of +General Petain, and kiss the children, and accept the bouquets thrust +upon both generals by all the little girls of the near-by Vosges towns. + +General Pershing did better with the kissing as his day wore on, though +its foreignness to his experience was plain to the end. But with the +bouquets he was an outright failure. Graciously as he might accept them, +the holding of them was much as a doughboy might hold his first armful +of live grenades. + +The camp's next distinguished visitor was Georges Clemenceau, the +veteran French statesman who was soon to be Premier of France. +Clemenceau saw American troops that day for the second time, the first +having been when, as a young French senator, he watched General Grant's +soldiers march into Richmond. + +He recalled to the sons and grandsons of those dusty warriors how +inspired a sight it had been, and he added that he hoped to see the +present generation march into Berlin. + +When Clemenceau talked to the doughboys, however, he had more than old +memories with which to stir them. He has a graceful, complete command of +the English language, in which he made the two or three addresses +interspersed in the full programme of his stay. + +In one speech M. Clemenceau said: "I feel highly honored at the +privilege of addressing you. I know America well, having lived in your +country, which I have always admired, and I am deeply impressed by the +presence of an American army on French soil, in defense of liberty, +right, and civilization, against the barbarians. My mind compares this +event to the Pilgrim Fathers, who landed on Plymouth Rock, seeking +liberty and finding it. Now their children's children are returning to +fight for the liberty of France and the world. + +"You men have come to France with disinterested motives. You came not +because you were compelled to come, but because you wished to come. +Your country always had love and friendship for France. Now you are at +home here, and every French house is open to you. You are not like the +people of other nations, because your motives are devoid of personal +interest, and because you are filled with ideals. You have heard of the +hardships before you, but the record of your countrymen proves that you +will acquit yourselves nobly, earning the gratitude of France and the +world." + +At the end of this speech General Sibert said to the men who had heard +it: "You will henceforth be known as the Clemenceau Battalion." That was +the first unit of the American Army to have any designation other than +its number. + +Another civilian visitor was next, though he was civilian only in the +sense that he had neither task nor uniform of the army. He was Raymond +Poincare, President of the French Republic, the leader of the French +"bitter-enders," and sometimes called the stoutest-hearted soldier +France has ever had. + +President Poincare made a thorough inspection. He, too, began with the +billets, but he was not content to see them from the outside. In fact, +the first that one new major-general saw of him was the half from the +waist down, the other half being obscured by the floor of the barn attic +he was peering into. + +President Poincare made cheering speeches to the men, for the force of +which they were obliged to rely upon his gestures and his intonations, +since he spoke no English. But his sense was not wholly lost to the +doughboys. At the peak of one of the President's most soaring flights +those who understood French interrupted to applaud him. + +"What did he say?" asked a doughboy. + +"He said to give 'em hell," said another. + +Fourth, and last, of the great Frenchmen, and greatest, from the soldier +point of view, was Marshal Joffre, Marne hero, who came and spent a +night and a day at camp. + +It was mid-October when he came, and weeks of driving rain had preceded +him. In spite of their gloom over the weather, the doughboys were +eagerly anticipating the visit of Joffre, and they were wondering if the +man of many battles would think them worth standing in the rain to +watch. + +A detachment of French buglers--buglers whom the Americans could never +sufficiently admire or imitate, because they could twirl the bugles +between beats and take up their blasts with neither pitch nor time +lost--waited outside the quarters where the marshal was to spend the +night. Half an hour before his motor came up the sun broke through the +drizzle. + +"He brings it with him," said a doughboy. + +Marshal Joffre was accompanied by General Pershing, the Pershing +personal staff and Joffre's aide, Lieutenant-Colonel Jean Fabry, who was +with the French Mission in America. There were ovations in all the +French villages through which they passed, and there were uproarious +cheers when the party reached the American officers who were to be +addressed by Marshal Joffre. In his short speech he said that America +had come to help deliver humanity from the yoke of German insolence, and +added: "Let us be united. Victory surely will be ours." + +Later, after picked men had shown Joffre what they could do with +grenades and bayonets, the marshal made a short speech to them, telling +them of how his visit to America had cheered and strengthened him, and +how even greater was the stimulation he had had from seeing the +Americans train in France. + +In a statement to the Associated Press he said: "I have been highly +gratified by what I have seen to-day. I am confident that when the time +comes for American troops to go into the trenches and meet the enemy +they will give the same excellent account of themselves in action as +they did to-day in practice." + +Northcliffe came in December, with Colonel House and members of the +House Mission. He wrote a long impression of his visit for the English +at home, in which he said that the finest sight he saw was the American +rifle practice, in which the United States troops did exceptionally +well. Then he praised them for their mastery of the British type of +trench mortar, for their accuracy with grenades and, most significant of +all, for their able handling of themselves after the bombs were thrown, +so that they should have a maximum of safety in battle. The doughboys +had finally learned their hardest lesson. + +Sir Walter Roper Lawrence, who was coming to America on a special war +mission, went to camp in early December to see how the doughboys fared, +so that he might report on them at home. + +He had just inquired of General Sir Julian Byng, who had accidentally +had the assistance of some American engineers at Cambrai, what they +should be valued at, and Sir Julian had answered: "Very earnest, very +modest, and very helpful." + +"I must say that is my opinion, too," said Sir Walter, when he came to +camp. "They are fine fellows to look at--as good-looking soldiers as any +man might wish to see. They have a wonderfully springy step, much more +springy than one sees in other soldiers. They are clean, well set up, +and they are always cheerful. They are splendidly fed and well +quartered, and they are desperately keen to learn, and as desperately +keen to get into the thick of things. If they seem to have any worries +it is that they are not getting in as quickly as they would like to. + +"The American troops have everywhere made a decidedly favorable +impression. I am extremely proud of my British citizenship, I have been +all my life, but if I were an American I would be insufferably proud of +my citizenship. In all history there is nothing that approaches her +transporting such an enormous army so great a distance oversea to fight +for an ideal." + +After the new year W. A. Appleton, secretary of the General Federation +of Trades Unions in England, made a visit to France, and described the +American camps for his own public through the Federation organ. + +"I see everywhere," he wrote, "samples of the American armies that we +are expecting will enable the Allies to clear France of the Germans. +Most of the men are fine specimens of humanity, and those with whom I +spoke showed no signs of braggadocio, too frequently attributed to +America. They were quiet, well-spoken fellows, fully alive to the +seriousness of the task they have undertaken, and they apparently have +but one regret--that they had not come into the war soon enough. It was +pleasant to talk to these men and to derive encouragement from their +quiet, unobtrusive strength." + +These were the things which were playing upon public opinion in France +and England, reinforcing the good-will with which the first American +soldiers were welcomed there. + +When United States soldiers paraded again in the streets of London, late +in the spring of 1918, and when they marched down the new Avenue du +President Wilson in Paris, on July 4, 1918, the greetings to them had +lost in hysteria and grown in depth, till the magnitude of the +demonstrations and the quality of them drew amazement from the oldest of +the old stagers. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE MEN WHO DID EVERYTHING + + +If the American Expeditionary Force had landed in the middle of the +Sahara Desert instead of France, it would not have been under greater +necessity to do things for itself, and immediately. For even where the +gallant French were entirely willing to pull their belts in one more +notch and make provision for the newcomers, the moral obligation not to +permit their further sacrifice was enormous. And although, as it +happened, there were many things, at first, in which the A. E. F. was +obliged to ask French aid, this number was speedily cut down and finally +obliterated. + +The men on whom fell the largest burden of making American troops +self-sufficing in the first half-year of war, were the nine regiments of +engineers recruited in nine chief cities of America before General +Pershing sailed. They were officered to a certain extent by Regular Army +engineers, but more by railroad officials who were recruited at the +same time from all the large railroads of America. + +And they operated what roads they found, and built more, till finally, +after a year, during which they had assistance from the army engineers +and a fair number of labor and special units, they had created in France +a railroad equal to any one of the middle-sized roads of long standing +in this country, with road-beds, rolling-stock, and equipment equal to +the best, and railway terminals which, in the case of one of their +number, rivalled the port of Hamburg. + +These were the men who were first to arrive in Europe after General +Pershing, who beat them over by only a few days. They were not fighting +units, so that they did not dim the glory of the Regulars, though they +had the honor to carry the American army uniform first through the +streets of London. + +They were the first of the army in the battle-line, too, though again +their civilian pursuit, though failing to serve to protect them against +German attack, deprived them of the flag-flying and jubilation that +attended the infantrymen and artillerymen in late October. + +But though their public honor was so limited, their private honor with +the Expeditionary Force was without stint. It was "the engineers here" +and "the engineers there" till it must have seemed to them that they +were carrying the burden of the entire world. + +On May 6, 1917, the War Department issued this statement: "The War +Department has sent out orders for the raising, as rapidly as possible, +of nine additional regiments of engineers which are destined to proceed +to France at the earliest possible moment, for work on the lines of +communication.... All details regarding the force will be given out as +fast as compatible with the best public interests." + +The recruiting-points were New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, +Pittsburgh, Detroit, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. It was +the job of each city to provide a regiment. And it became the job of the +great railway brotherhoods to see that neither the kind nor the number +of men accepted would cripple the railways at home. + +The War Department asked for 12,000 men, and had offers of about four +times that many. The result was, of course, that the 9 regiments were +men of magnificent physique and sterling equipment. One regiment boasted +125 members who measured more than 6 feet. + +Their first official task was to help to repair and man the French +railways leading up to the lines, carrying food for men and guns. + +Their next was to build and man the railways which were to connect the +American seaport with the training-camps, and last, with the +fighting-line itself. + +The promise of immediate action in France was fulfilled to the letter. +Two months from the day the recruiting began, the "Lucky 13th," the +regiment recruited in Chicago, landed in a far-away French town, whose +inhabitants leaned out of their windows in the late, still night, to +throw them roses and whispers of good cheer--anything louder than +whispers being under a ban because of the nearness to the front--and the +day following, with French crews at their elbows, they were running +French trains up and down the last line of communications. + +These were men who had years of railroading behind them. Many of them +were officered by the same men who had been their directors in civil +life. It was no uncommon thing to hear a private address his captain by +his first name. One day a private said to his captain. "Bill, you got +all the wrong dope on this," to which the captain replied severely: "I +told you before about this discipline--if you want to quarrel with my +orders, you call me mister." + +But military discipline was never a real love with the engineers. +"What's military discipline to us? We got Rock Island discipline," said +a brawny first lieutenant, when, because he was a fellow passenger on a +train with a correspondent, he felt free to speak his mind. + +"I won't say it's not all right in its way, but it's not a patch on what +we have in a big yard. A man obeys in his sleep, for he knows if he +don't somebody's life may have to pay for it--not his own, either, which +would make it worse. That's Rock Island. But it don't involve any +salutin', or 'if-you-pleasin'.' If my fellows say 'Tom' I don't pay any +attention, unless there's some officer around." + +This attitude toward discipline characterizes all the special units to a +certain degree, though the engineers somewhat more than the rest, for +the reason that they had to offer not a mere negation of discipline but +a substitute of their own. + +But, whatever their sentiments toward their incidental job as soldiers, +there was no mistaking their zest for their regular job of railroading. + +They found the railways of France in amazingly fine condition, in spite +of the fact that they had, many of them, been built purely for war uses, +and under the pressure inevitable in such work. Those behind the British +lines were equally fine. + +As soon as the American engineers appeared in the communication-trains, +their troubles with the Germans began. On the second run of the "Lucky +13th" men, a German airplane swept down and flew directly over the +engine for twenty minutes, taking strict account. + +Then they began to bomb the trains, and many a time the crews had to get +out and sit under the trains till the raid was over. + +The engineers kept their non-combatant character till after the December +British thrust at Cambrai, when half a hundred of them, working with +their picks and shovels behind the lines, suddenly found themselves face +to face with German counter-attacking troops, and had to fight or run. +The engineers snatched up rifles and such weapons as they could from +fallen soldiers, and with these and their shovels helped the British to +hold their line. + +The incident was one of the most brilliant of the year, partly because +it was dramatically unexpected, partly because it permitted the +Americans to prove their readiness to fight, in whatever circumstances. +The spectacle of fifty peaceful engineers suddenly turned warriors of +pick and shovel was used by the journals of many countries to +demonstrate what manner of men the Americans were. + +But the work for British and French, on their strategic railways, was +not to continue for long. The great American colony was already on +blue-print, and the despatches from Washington were estimating that many +millions would have to be spent for the work. + +The annual report of Major-General William Black, chief of engineers, +which was made public in December, stated that almost a billion would +be needed for engineering work in France in 1919, if the work then in +progress were to be concluded satisfactorily. + +General Black's report showed that equipment for 70 divisions, or +approximately 1,000,000 men, had been purchased within 350 hours after +Congress declared war, including nearly 9,000,000 articles, among them 4 +miles of pontoon bridges. + +Every unit sent to France took its full equipment along, and the cost of +the "railroad engineers" alone was more than $12,000,000. + +Not long after the men were running the French and British trains, they +were building their lines in Flanders, in the interims of building the +American lines from sea to camp. + +The building was through, and over, such mud as passes description. The +engineers tell a story of having passed a hat on a road, and on picking +it up, found that there was a soldier under it. They dug him out. "But I +was on horseback," the soldier protested. + +The tracks were rather floated than built. Where the shell fire was +heavy, the men could only work a few hours each day, under barrage of +artillery or darkness, and they were soon making speed records. + +"The fight against the morass is as stern and difficult as the fight +against the Boche," said an engineer, speaking of the Flanders tracks. +One party of men, in an exposed position, laid 180 feet of track in a +record time, and left the other half of the job till the following day. +When they came back, they found that their work had been riddled with +shell-holes, whereat they fell to and finished the other half and +repaired the first half in the same time as had starred them on the +first day's job. + +It was not long till they had a European reputation. + +The tracks they were to lay for America, though they were far enough +from the Flanders mud, had a sort of their own to offer. The terminal +was built by tremendous preliminaries with the suction-dredge. The long +lines of communication between camp and sea were varyingly difficult, +some of them offering nothing to speak of, some of them abominable. The +little spur railways leading to the hospitals, warehouses, and +subsidiary training-camps which lay afield from the main line were more +quickly done. + +In addition to all these things, the engineers were the handy men of +France. They picked up some of the versatility of the Regular Army +engineers, whose accomplishments are never numbered, and they built +hospitals and barracks, too, in spare time, and they laid waterways, and +helped out in General Pershing's scheme to put the inland waterways of +France to work. The canal system was finally used to carry all sorts of +stores into the interior of France, and before the engineers were +finished the army was getting its goods by rail, by motor, and by boat, +though it was not till late in the year that the transportation +machinery could avoid great jams at the port. + +The engineers were, from first to last, the most picturesque Americans +in France. They came from the great yards and terminals of East and +West, they brought their behavior, their peculiar flavor of speech, and +their efficiency with them, and they refused to lose any of them, no +matter what the outside pressure. + +"It's a great life," said one of them from the Far West, "and I may say +it's a blamed sight harder than shooing hoboes off the cars back home. +But there's times when I could do with a sight of the missus and the +kids and the Ford. If it takes us long to lick 'em, it won't be my +fault." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +BEHIND THE LINES + + +The difficulty of describing the American organization behind the lines +in France lies in the fact that the story is nowhere near finished. The +end of the first year saw huge things done, but huger ones still in the +doing, and the complete and the incomplete so blended that there was +almost no point at which a finger could be laid and one might say: "They +have done this." + +But at the end of the first year all the foundations were down and the +corner-stones named, and though much necessary secrecy still envelops +the actual facts, something at least can be told. + +America could no more move direct from home to the line in the matter of +her supplies than she could in that of her men. And it was at her +intermediate stopping-point, in both cases, that her troubles lay. It +was, as Belloc put it, the problem of the hour-glass. Plenty of room at +both ends and plenty of material were invalidated by the little strait +between. + +It was not a month from the time of the first landing of troops, in +June, 1917, before the wharfs of the ports chiefly used by incoming +American supplies were stacked high with unmoved cases. + +The transportation men worked with might and main, but the Shipping +Board at home, under the goad of restless and anxious people, was +sending and sending the equipment to follow the men. And once landed, +the supplies found neither roof to cover them nor means to carry them +on. + +This was the point at which General Pershing began to lament to +Washington over his scarcity of stevedores, and labor units, and soon +thereafter was the point at which he got them. + +On September 14, 1917, W. W. Atterbury, vice-president of the +Pennsylvania Railroad, was appointed director-general of transportation +of the United States Expeditionary Force in France, and was given the +rank of brigadier-general. General Atterbury was already in France, and +had been offering such expert advice and assistance to General Pershing +as his civilian capacity would permit. With his appointment came the +announcement of others, giving him the assistance of many well-known +American railroad men. + +When the First Division reached France it was discovered that it +required four tons of tonnage to provide for each man. That meant 80,000 +tons for each division, which, in the figures of the railroad man, meant +eighty trains of 1,000 tons capacity for every division. + +For the first 200,000 men in France, who formed the basis for the first +railroad reckoning, 800 trains were necessary. + +Obviously, these trains could not be taken from the already burdened +French. Obviously, they could not tax further the trackage in France, +though the trains and engines shipped had essential measurements to +conform to the French road-beds, so that interchange was easy. Still +more obviously, the trains could not be made in this country and rolled +onto the decks of ships for transportation. + +So that before the first soldier packed his first kit on his way to +camp the A. E. F. required railway-tracks, enormous reception-wharfs, +assembling-plants and factories, and arsenals and warehouses beyond +number. + +The only things which America could buy in France were those which could +be grown there, by women and old men and children, and those which were +already made. The only continuing surplus product of France was big +guns, which resulted from their terrific specialization in +munition-plants during the war's first three years. + +To find out what could legitimately be bought in France, and to buy it, +paying no more for it than could be avoided by wise purchasing, General +Pershing created a General Purchasing Board in Paris late in August. +This board had a general purchasing agent at its head, who was the +representative of the commander-in-chief, and he acted in concert with +similar boards of the other Allied armies. His further job was to +co-ordinate all the efforts of subordinate purchasing agents throughout +the army. The chief of each supply department and of the Red Cross and +the Y. M. C. A. named purchasing agents to act under this board. + +It was not long till this board was supervising the spending of many +millions of dollars a month, which gives a fair estimate of what the +total expenditure, both at home and abroad, had to be. + +As a case in point, a single branch of this board bought in France, the +first fortnight of November, 26,000 tons of tools and equipment, 4,000 +tons of railway-ties, and 160 tons of cars. The cost was something over +$3,000,000. These purchases alone saved the total cargo space of 20 +vessels of 1,600 tons each. + +The General Purchasing Board adopted the price-fixing policy created at +Washington, in which it was aided by the shrewdest business heads among +the British and French authorities. + +This board also had power to commandeer ships, when they had to--notably +in the case of bringing shipments of coal from England, where it was +fairly plentiful, to France, where there was almost none. + +A second scheme for co-ordination put into effect by General Pershing +was a board at which heads of all army departments could meet and act +direct, without the necessity of going through the commander-in-chief. +When the quartermaster's department made its budgets, the co-ordination +department went over them and revised the estimates downward, or drafted +work or supplies from some other department with a surplus, or +redistributed within the quartermaster's stores, perhaps even granted +the first requests. But there was a vast saving throughout the army +zone. + +The problem of America's "behind the lines," including as it did the +creating of every phase of transportation, from trackage to terminals, +and then providing the things to transport, not only for an army growing +into the millions, but for much of civilian France, was one which, all +wise observers said, was the greatest of the war. Just how staggering +were these difficulties must not be told till later, but surmises are +free. And the praise for overcoming them which poured from British and +French onlookers had the value and authority of coming from men who had +themselves been through like crises, and who knew every obstacle in the +way of the Americans. + +But if the preparatory stages must be abridged in the telling, there is +no ban on a little expansiveness as to what was finally done. + +Within a year American engineers and laborers and civilians working +behind the lines had made of the waste lands around an old French port a +line of modern docks where sixteen heavy cargo-vessels could rest at the +same time, being unloaded from both sides at once at high speed, by the +help of lighters. These docks were made by a big American pile-driver, +which in less than a year had driven 30,000 piles into the marshy ooze, +and made a foundation for enormous docks. + +Just behind the docks is a plexus of railway-lines which, what with +incoming and outgoing tracks and switches and side-lines, contains 200 +miles of trackage in the terminal alone. + +It is for the present no German's business how many hundred miles of +double and triple track lead back to the fighting-line, and it is the +censor's rule that one must tell nothing a German shouldn't know. But +there is plenty of track, figures or no figures. + +Equal preparation has been made for such supplies as must remain +temporarily at the docks. + +There are 150 warehouses, most of them completed, each 400 by 50 feet, +and each with steel walls and top and concrete floors. When the +warehouses are finished they will be able to hold supplies for an army +of a million men for thirty days. They are supplemented by a giant +refrigerating-plant, with an enormous capacity, which is served by an +ice-making factory with an output of 500 tons daily, the whole ice +department being operated by a special "ice unit" of the army, +officially called Ice Plant Company 301. The ice department also has its +own refrigerator-cars for delivering its wares frozen to any part of +France. + +To provide for gun appetites as abundantly as for human, an arsenal was +begun at the same point, which, when completed, will have cost a hundred +million dollars. This arsenal and ordnance-depot is being built by an +American firm, at the request of the French Mission in America, who +vetoed the American project to give the work to French contractors, +because of the man-shortage in France. + +It has been built under the direct supervision of the War Department, +and was specifically planned so that it might in time, or case of need, +become one of the main munition-distribution centres for all the Allies. +Small arms and ammunition are stored and dispensed there, while big guns +go direct from French factories. + +Regiments of mechanical and technical experts were constantly being +recruited in America for this work, and they were sent by the thousands +every month of the first year. Maintenance of the ordnance-base alone +requires 450 officers and 16,000 men. + +Included in the arsenal and ordnance-depot are a gun-repair shop, +equipped to reline more than 800 guns a month, a carriage-repair plant +of large capacity, a motor-vehicle repair-shop, able to overhaul more +than 1,200 cars a month, a small-arms repair-shop, ready to deal with +58,000 small arms and machine-guns a month, a shop for the repair of +horse and infantry equipment, and a reloading-plant, capable of +reloading 100,000 artillery-cartridges each day. + +The assembling-shops in connection with the railroad were built on a +commensurate scale. Even in an incomplete state one shop was able to +turn out twenty-odd freight-cars a day, of three different designs, and +at a neighboring point a plant for assembling the all-steel cars was +making one full train a day. The locomotives were assembled in still a +third place. This will have turned out 1,100 locomotives, built and +shipped flat from America, at the end of its present contract. Already a +third of this work has been done. + +And there were, of course, the necessary number of roundhouses, and the +like, to complete the organization of the self-sufficient railroad. + +Not far away was a tremendous assembling and repair plant for airplanes, +the operators of which had all been trained in the French factories, so +that they knew the planes to the last inner bolthead. + +The last assembly-plant was far from least in picturesqueness. It was +for the construction, from numbered pieces shipped from Switzerland, +of 3,500 wooden barracks, each about 100 feet long by 20 wide, and of +double thickness for protection against French weather. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information._ + +U. S. locomotive-assembling yards in France.] + +The most amusing of the incidental depots was called the Reclamation +Depot, at which the numerous articles collected on the battle-field by +special salvage units were overhauled and refurbished, or altered to +other uses. Nothing was too trifling to be accepted. The "old-clo' man" +of No Man's Land was responsible for an amazing amount of good material, +made at the Reclamation Depot from old belts, coat sleeves, and the +like. Many a good German helmet went back to the "square-heads" as +American bullets. + +In the same American district there was a great artillery camp, with +remount stables, containing thousands of horses and mules. Under French +tutelage, the American veterinarians had learned to extract the bray +from the army mule, reducing his far-carrying silvery cry to a mere +wheeze, with which he could do no indiscreet informing of his presence +near the battle-lines. So the mule-hospital was one of the busiest spots +in the port. + +A short distance from the port, the engineers built a 20,000-bed +hospital, the largest in existence, comprising hundreds of little +one-story structures, set in squares over huge grounds, so that every +room faced the out-of-doors. + +Between the port and the hospital, and beyond the port along the coast, +were the rest-camps, the receiving-camps, and a huge separate camp for +the negro stevedores. Near enough to be convenient, but not for +sociability, were the camps for the German prisoners, who put in plenty +of hard licks in the great port-building. + +Midway between all this activity at the coast and the training and +fighting activity at the fighting-line there was what figured on the +army charts as "Intermediate Section," whose commanders were responsible +for the daily averaging of supply and demand. + +In the intermediate section, linked by rail, were the supplementary +training-camps, schools, base hospitals, rest-areas, engineering and +repair shops, tank-assembling plants, ordnance-dumps and repair-shops, +the chief storage for "spare parts," all machinery used in the army, +cold-storage plants, oil and petrol depots, the army bakeries, the +camouflage centre, and the forestry departments, busy with fuel for the +army and timber for the engineers. + +The achievement of the first year was literally worthy of the unstinted +praise it received. And perhaps its finest attribute was that most of it +was permanent, and will remain, while France remains, as America's +supreme gift toward her post-war recovery. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +FRANCE AND THE MEDICOES + + +The history of the A. E. F. will be in most respects the history of +resources cunningly turned to new ends, of force redirected, with some +of its erstwhile uses retained, and of a colossal adventure in making +things do. Where the artillery was weak, the A. E. F. eked out with the +coast-artillery. Where the engineer corps was insufficient, the +railroads were called on for special units, frankly unmilitary. A whole +citizenry was abruptly turned to infantry. But one branch of the +service, though scarcely worthy of much responsibility when the war +began, was, nevertheless, the one most thoroughly prepared. The prize +service was the Medical Corps, and it was in this state of astonishing +preparedness because immediately before it became the Medical Corps, it +had been the Red Cross, and the Red Cross knows no peace-times. + +The question of what is Medical Corps and what is Red Cross has always +been a facer for the superficial historian. + +Broadly speaking, the base hospitals of the army are organizations +recruited and equipped in America by the Red Cross, and transported to +France, where they become units of the army, under army discipline and +direction, and supplied by the Medical Corps stores except in cases +where these are inadvertently lacking, or unprovided for by the +strictness of military supervision. In any case, where sufficient +supplies are not forthcoming from the Medical Corps, they are given by +the Red Cross. + +This is the Red Cross on its military side. In its civilian work, which +is extensive, and in its recreational work it carries on under its own +name and by its own authority. Where it divides territory with the Y. M. +C. A., the division is that the Y. M. C. A. takes the well soldier and +the Red Cross the sick one, whenever either has time on his hands. + +But the Medical Corps plus the Red Cross created between them a branch +of the American Army in France which, from the moment of landing, was +the boast of the nation. + +For a year before America entered the war Colonel Jefferson Kean, +director-general of the military department of the American Red Cross, +had been organizing against the coming of American participation. Within +thirty days after America's war declaration Colonel Kean announced that +he had six base hospitals in readiness to go to the front, and within +another thirty days these six units were on their way, equipped and +ready to step into the French hospitals, schools, and what-not, waiting +to receive them, and to do business as usual the following morning. + +The six were organized at leading hospitals and medical schools: the +Presbyterian Hospital of New York, with Doctor George E. Brewer in +command; the Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland, with Doctor George W. Crile; +the Medical School of Harvard University, with Doctor Harvey Cushing; +the Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, with Doctor Richard Harte; the +Medical School of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, with +Doctor Frederick Besley, and Washington University Hospital, Saint +Louis, with Doctor Frederick T. Murphy. + +A little while later the Postgraduate unit went from New York, the +Roosevelt Hospital unit from there, and the Johns Hopkins unit from +Baltimore. Many others followed in due time. + +These hospital units, recruited and organized under the Red Cross, took +their full complement of surgeons, physicians, and nurses. All these +became members of the army as soon as they landed in France, and they +were supplemented, either there or before they crossed, with members of +Medical Corps, enlisted just after America entered the war. + +The military rank of the physicians and surgeons conformed in a general +way to the unofficial rank of the same men when they had worked together +in the hospitals from which they came. There were, of course, some +exceptions to this rule, but not enough to make it no rule at all. + +It was true of the medicoes, as it was of the engineers, that they took +military discipline none too seriously, because they brought a +discipline of their own. Wherever, in civilian pursuits, the lives of +others hang on prompt obedience, there is a strictness which no +military strictness can outdo. This was true of the personnel of any +hospital in America, before there was thought of war. It was equally +true, of course, after the units were established behind the +fighting-lines. But there was a certain lack of prompt salute and a +certain freedom with first names which not the stoutest management from +the military arm of the service could obliterate from the base +hospitals. The Medical Corps enlisted men were naturally not sinners in +this respect. The routine work of the base hospitals all fell to them. +It was usually a sergeant of the army--though he was never a +veteran--who attended the reception-rooms, kept account of symptoms, +clothes, and first and second names, and did the work of orderly in the +hospital. It was the privates who kept the mess and washed the dishes +and changed the sheets. + +The nurses went under military discipline and into military +segregation--sometimes a little nettlesome, when the hospitals were far +from companionship of any outside sort. + +The sites selected for the hospitals were either French hospitals which +were given over, or schools or big public buildings remade into +hospitals by the engineers. Each site was arranged so that it could be +enlarged at will. And the railways which connected the outlying +hospitals with the rest of the American communications were laid so that +other hospitals could be easily placed along their line. There was a +splendid elasticity in the Medical Corps plan. + +One base hospital was much like another, except for size. Those near the +line differed somewhat from those farther back, but their scheme was +uniform. At any rate, the history of their doings was similar enough to +have one history do for them all. Take, for example, one of the New York +units which landed in August and was placed nearer the coast than the +fighting. It was put in trim by the engineers, then sanitated by the +humbler members of the Medical Corps. The great wards were laid out, the +kitchens were built, windows were pried open--always the first American +job in France, to the great disgust and alarm of the French--and baths +were put in. + +The chief surgeon had specialized in noses and throats at home. When the +hospital was ready, naturally the soldiers were not in need of it--being +still in training in the Vosges--so the services of the hospital were +opened to the civilian population of France. + +By November there was not an adenoid in all those parts. The death-rate +almost vanished. Into this rural France, where there had been no +hospital and only a nursing home kept by some Sisters of Mercy who saw +their first surgical operation within the base hospital, there came this +skilful organization, handled by men whose incomes at home had been +measured in five figures, and all the healing they had was free. + +Multiply this by twenty, and then by thirty, before the pressing need +for care for soldiers directed the Medical Corps back to first channels, +and there will be some gauge of what this service did for France. + +And the gratitude of France was more than commensurate. Praise of the +American Medical Service flowed unceasingly from officials and +civilians, statesmen and journalists. There were constant demands made +upon the French Government that it should pattern its own medical forces +exactly upon the American, making it the branch of the medical +specialist and not of the politician or the military man. + +The individual officers of the Medical Corps had much to learn, however, +from the French and the British. Though they knew hygiene, prophylaxis, +antisepsis, and surgery as few groups of men have ever known it, they +became scholars of the humblest in the surgery of the battle-field. +Every officer of the Medical Corps was kept on a round of visits behind +French and British fronts during the fairly peaceful interim between +their landing and the American occupation of a front-line sector. + +The Red Cross was the great auxiliary of the Medical Corps. It kept up +its recruiting in America, both for nurses and physicians, and for +supplies. + +And in supplies it played its greatest part. The Red Cross maintained +enormous warehouses, separate entirely from army control, which +contained provisions to meet every possible shortage. It was known by +the Red Cross that never in the history of the world had there been a +medical corps of any army that had not finally broken down. No matter +how painstaking the provision, the need was always tragically greater. + +And so surgical dressings, sets of surgical instruments, medicines, +antiseptics, and anaesthetics piled up in the great A. R. C. +store-houses. + +Then there were the things for which the Medical Corps frankly made no +provision, which could have no place in a strictly military programme, +such as food delicacies of great cost, special articles of clothing, and +amusements. Every hospital convalescent ward had its phonograph, its +checker-boards, its chess-sets, and its dominoes. That was the Red +Cross. + +[Illustration: Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly, formerly +the American Ambulance Hospital] + +The Red Cross had three hospitals of its own in Paris. The first of +these was at Neuilly, the hospital which had been the American Ambulance +Hospital from the beginning of the war, given over on the third +anniversary of its inauguration. Here French and American soldiers, +American civilians who worked with the army, and Red Cross officers +and men were cared for. The second had been Doctor Blake's Hospital, and +when it became a Red Cross hospital, it was made to include the gigantic +laboratory where investigations were made, and where the American Red +Cross had the honor to ferret out the cause of trench-fever. This fever +had been one of the baffling tragedies of the war, because in the press +of caring for their wounded, other hospitals had been unable to give it +sufficient research. + +The third was the Reid Hospital, equipped and supplied by Mrs. Whitelaw +Reid. + +In the long period when all this hospital organization was at the +command of civilian France, inestimably fine work was done. It was a +sort of poetic tuition fee for the instruction in war surgery which was +meanwhile going on from veteran French surgeons to the American +newcomers. At the end of the first year, the Medical Corps was itself +ready for any stress, and it had mightily relieved the stress it had +already found. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +IN CHARGE OF MORALE + + +If the army as a whole was a story of old skill in new uses, certainly +the most extraordinary single upheaval was that of the Y. M. C. A. +Though it had grown into many paths of civil life, in peace-times, that +could not have been foreshadowed by its founders, probably the wildest +speculation of its future never included the purveying of vaudeville and +cigarettes to soldiers in France. + +Yet just that was what the Y. M. C. A. was doing, within less than a +year from the American Army's arrival in France, and its only +lamentation was that it had nowhere near enough cigarettes and +vaudeville to purvey. + +It accepted the offer of the United States Government to watch over the +morale of the soldiers abroad, partly because it was so excellently +organized that it could handle a task of such vast scope, and partly +because both French and British Armies had got such fine results from +similar organizations that the American Y. M. C. A. felt itself to be +historically elected. + +The Y. M. C. A. had cut its wisdom-teeth long before it became a part of +the army. Its directors had accepted the fact that a young man is apt to +be more interested in his biceps than in his soul, and that if he can +have athletics aplenty, and entertainment that really entertains, he'd +as lief be out of mischief as in it. + +But even this was not quite broad enough for the needs of the army away +from home. And one of the first things the Y. M. C. A. did in France, +and the stoutest pillar of its great success, was to abandon the +slightest aversion to bad language, or to the irreligion that brims out +of a cold, wet, and tired soldier in defiant spurts, and to cultivate, +in their stead, a sympathetic feeling for the want of smokes and a good +show. + +The secretaries sent abroad to build the first huts and watch over the +first soldiers were men selected for their skill in getting results +against considerable obstacles. Those who followed, as the organization +grew, were specialists of every sort. There were nationally famous +sportsmen, to keep the baseball games up to scratch, and to see that +gymnastics out-of-doors were helped out by the rules. There were men who +could handle crowds, keep an evening's entertainment going, play good +ragtime, make good coffee, and produce cigarettes and matches out of +thin air. + +And, most important of all, they were men who could eradicate the +doughboy's suspicion that the Y. M. C. A. was a doleful, overly +prayerful, and effeminate institution. + +The Y. M. C. A. was dealing with the doughboy when he was on his own +time. If he didn't want to go to the "Y" hut, nobody could make him. +Certain things that were bad for him were barred to him by army +regulation. But there was a margin left over. If the doughboy was doing +nothing else, he might be sitting alone somewhere, feeling of his +feelings, and finding them very sad. The army did not cover this, but +the Y. M. C. A. took the ground that being melancholy was about as bad +as being drunk. + +But, naturally, the Red Triangle man had to use his tact. If he didn't +have any, he was sent home. His job was to persuade the doughboy, not +to instruct him. And before long, the rule of the Y. M. C. A. was flatly +put: "Never mind your own theories--do what the soldiers want." + +That is why the "Y" huts--the combination shop, theatre, chapel, and +reading-room, coffee-stall and soda fountain, baseball-locker and +cigarette store, post-office and library which are run by the Y. M. C. +A. from coast to battle-line--are packed by soldiers every hour of the +day and evening. + +The "Y" huts began with the army. Before the second day of the First +Division's landing, there was a circus banner across the foot of the +main street stating: "This is the way to the Y. M. C. A. Get your money +changed, and write home." By following the pointing red finger painted +on the banner, one found a wooden shack, with a few chairs, a lot of +writing-paper and French money, a secretary and a heap of good-will. + +As the army moved battleward, these huts appeared just ahead of the +soldiers, with increased stores at each new place. American cigarettes +were on the counters. A few books arrived. + +The Y. M. C. A. proved its persuasiveness by its huts. A member of the +quartermasters' corps said, one day, in a fit of exasperation over a +waiting job: "How do these 'Y' fellows do it--I can't turn without +falling over a shack, built for them by the soldiers in their off time. +Do I get any work out of these soldiers when they're off? I do not. +They're too busy building 'Y' huts." + +The first entertainment in the "Y" huts was when the company bands moved +into them because the weather was too bad to play out-of-doors. The +concerts were a great success. By and by, men who knew something +interesting were asked to make short lectures to the soldiers. It was an +easy step to asking some clever professional entertainer to come down +and give a one-man show. Then Elsie Janis, who was in Europe, made a +flying tour of the "Y" huts, and a little while after, E. H. Sothern and +Winthrop Ames went over to see how much organized entertainment could be +sent from America. + +The result of their visit was The Over-There Theatre League, to which +virtually every actor and actress in America volunteered to belong. By +the end of the first year, about 300 entertainers were either in France +or on their way there or back. + +Three months was the average time the performers were asked to give, and +they circled so steadily that there were always about 200 of them at +work on the "Y" circuit. + +The work of the Y. M. C. A. did not stop with affording entertainment to +the soldiers in the camps. They rented a big hotel in Paris and another +in London, and they established many canteens in these two cities, so +that their patrols--secretaries whose job was to rescue stray, lonely +soldiers in the streets--would always have a near and comfortable place +to offer to the wanderers. + +Then they preceded the army to Aix-les-Bains and Chambery, the two +resorts in the Savoy Alps where American soldiers were sent for their +eight-day leaves, and arranged for cheap hotel accommodations, guides, +theatres, etc., and they took over the Casino entirely for the soldiers. + +Their field canteens were just back of the fighting-line, and late at +night it was the duty of the secretaries to store their pockets with +cigarettes and chocolate and with letters from home, and shoulder the +big tins of hot coffee made in the canteens and go into the front-line +trenches to serve the men there. In fact, the "Y" men did everything +with the army except go over the top. + +The largest part of work of this type fell to the Y. M. C. A. because +they had the most flexible organization ready at the beginning of +American participation. But they had substantial help, which as time +went on grew more and more in volume, from several other associations. +The Knights of Columbus and the Salvation Army both did magnificent +service, in canteens and trenches. And of course the Red Cross took over +the sick soldier and entertained and supplied him, as a part of their +co-army work. + +There was one branch of the Red Cross which perhaps did more than any +other one thing to keep up the hearts and spirits of the soldiers--it +was called the Department of Home Communications, and it was directed by +Henry Allen, a Wichita, Kansas, newspaper man. + +Mr. Allen believed that a soldier's letters did more for him than any +other one thing, and that, failing letters, he must at least have +reliable news of his home folks from time to time. Further, that every +soldier was easier in his mind if he knew that his home folks would have +news of him, fully and authentically, no matter what happened to him. + +So Mr. Allen posted his representatives in every hospital, in every +trench sector, and through them kept track of every soldier. If a man +was taken prisoner Mr. Allen knew it. If he was wounded Mr. Allen knew +just where and how. The man's family was told of it immediately. +Presently, where this was possible, Mr. Allen's representative was +writing letters from the wounded men to their relatives, and was +receiving all Mr. Allen's news of these relatives for the men in the +hospital. + +In addition to things of this kind, done by Red Triangle men, Red Cross +men, and the Salvation Army and the Knights of Columbus, all these +organizations worked together to effect distributions of comfort kits +and sweaters, gift cigarettes and chocolate, and all the dozen and one +things that made the soldiers find life a little more agreeable. + +There was more than co-operation from the army itself. There was the +deepest gratitude, openly expressed, from every member of the army, +whether general or private, because it was a recognized fact that, +though an army cannot do these things itself, it owes them more than it +can ever repay. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +INTO THE TRENCHES + + +After months of training behind the lines the doughboys began to long +for commencement. It came late in October. The point selected for the +trench test of the Americans was in a quiet sector. The position lay +about twelve miles due east from Nancy and five miles north of +Luneville. It extended roughly from Parroy to Saint-Die. Even after the +entry of the Americans the sector remained under French command. In +fact, the four battalions of our troops which made up the first American +contingent on the fighting-line were backed up by French reserves. No +better training sector could have been selected, for this was a quiet +front. American officers who acted as observers along this line for +several days before the doughboys went in found that shelling was +restricted and raids few. Many villages close behind the lines on either +side were respected because of a tacit agreement between the contending +armies. French and Germans sent war-weary troops to the Luneville sector +to rest up. It also served to break in new troops without subjecting +them to an oversevere ordeal, so that they might learn the tricks of +modern warfare gradually. + +Of course, even quiet sectors may become suddenly active, and care was +taken to screen the movements of the soldiers carefully. It proved +impossible, however, to keep the move a complete mystery, for when +camion after camion of tin-hatted Americans moved away from the training +area the villagers could not fail to suspect that something was about to +happen. Perhaps these suspicions grew stronger when each group of +fighting men sang loudly and cheerfully that they were "going to hang +the Kaiser to a sour apple-tree." + +The weather was distinctly favorable for the movement of troops. One of +the blackest nights of the month awaited the Americans at the front. +Rain fell, but not hard enough to impede transportation. Still, such +weather was something of a moral handicap. Many of the newcomers would +have been glad to take a little shelling if they could have had a bit +of a moon or a few stars to light their way to the trenches. Instead +they groped their way along roads which were soft enough to deaden every +sound. A wind moaned lightly overhead and the strict command of silence +made it impossible to seek the proper antidote of song. One or two men +struck up "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are Marching," as they headed +for the front, but they were quickly silenced. + +The march began about nine o'clock, after the soldiers had eaten +heartily in a little village close to the lines. At the very edge of +this village stood a cheerful inn and a moving-picture theatre. The +doughboys looked a little longingly at both houses of diversion before +they swung round the bend and followed the black road which led to the +trench-line. The people of the village did not seem to be much excited +by the fact that history was being made before their eyes. They had seen +so many troops go by up that road that they could achieve no more than a +friendly interest. They did not crowd close about the marchers as the +people had done in Paris. + +Seemingly the Germans had not been able to ascertain the time set for +the coming of the Americans. The roads were not shelled at all. In fact, +the German batteries were even more indolent than usual at this point. +The relief was effected without incident, although a few stories drifted +back about enthusiastic poilus who had greeted their new comrades with +kisses. + +The artillery beat the infantry into action. They had to have a start in +order to get their guns into place, and some fifteen hours before the +doughboys went into the trenches America had fired the first shot of the +war against Germany. Alexander Arch, a sergeant from South Bend, +Indiana, was the man who pulled the lanyard. The shot was a shrapnel +shell and was directed at a German working-party who were presuming on +the immunity offered by a misty dawn. They scattered at the first shot, +but it was impossible to tell whether it caused any casualties. When the +working-party took cover there were no targets which demanded immediate +attention, and the various members of the gun crew were allowed the +privilege of firing the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, +eighth, and ninth shots of the war. After that, shooting at the Germans +ceased to become a historical occasion, but was a mere incident in the +routine of duty, and was treated as such. + +The only unusual incident which seriously threatened the peace of mind +of the infantrymen in their first night in the trenches was the flash of +a green rocket which occurred some fifteen or twenty minutes after they +arrived. They had been taught that a green rocket would be the alarm for +a gas attack, but this particular signal came from the German trenches +and had no message for the Americans. The Germans may have suspected the +presence of new troops, for the men were just a bit jumpy, as all +newcomers to the trenches are, and a few took pot-shots at objects out +in No Man's Land which proved to be only stakes in the barbed wire or +tufts of waving grass. + +Although the Germans made the first successful raid, the Americans took +the first prisoner. He was captured only a few nights after the coming +of the doughboys. A patrol picked him up close to the American wire. He +was a mail-carrier, and in cutting across lots to reach some of his +comrades he lost his way and wandered over to the American lines. +Although he was surprised, he was not willing to surrender, but made an +attempt to escape after he had been ordered to halt. One of the +doughboys fired at him as he ran and he was carried into the American +trenches badly wounded. He died the next day. + +Beginning on the night of November 2 and extending over into the early +morning of November 3, the Germans made a successful raid against the +American lines immediately after a relief. After a severe preliminary +bombardment a large party of raiders came across. The bombardment had +cut the telephone wires of the little group of Americans which met the +attack and they were completely isolated. They fought bravely but +greenly. Three Americans were killed, five were wounded, and twelve were +captured. The Germans retired quickly with their prisoners. + +American morale was not injured by this first jab of the Germans. On the +other hand, it made the doughboys mad, and, better than that, made them +careful. A German attempt to repeat the raid a few nights later was +repulsed. The three men who were killed in this first clash were buried +close to the lines, while minute-guns fired shells over the graveyard +toward the Germans. General Bordeaux, who commanded the French division +at this point, saluted before each of the three graves, and then turned +to the officers and men drawn up before him and said: + +"In the name of the division, in the name of the French Army, and in the +name of France, I bid farewell to Private Enright, Private Gresham, and +Private Hay of the American Army. + +"Of their own free will they had left a prosperous and happy country to +come over here. They knew war was continuing in Europe; they knew that +the forces fighting for honor, love of justice and civilization were +still checked by the long-prepared forces serving the powers of brutal +domination, oppression, and barbarity. They knew that efforts were still +necessary. They wished to give us their generous hearts, and they have +not forgotten old historical memories while others forget more recent +ones. They ignored nothing of the circumstances and nothing had been +concealed from them--neither the length and hardships of war, nor the +violence of battle, nor the dreadfulness of new weapons, nor the perfidy +of the foe. + +"Nothing stopped them. They accepted the hard and strenuous life; they +crossed the ocean at great peril; they took their places on the front by +our side, and they have fallen facing the foe in a hard and desperate +hand-to-hand fight. Honor to them. Their families, friends, and fellow +citizens will be proud when they learn of their deaths. + +"Men! These graves, the first to be dug in our national soil and but a +short distance from the enemy, are as a mark of the mighty land we and +our allies firmly cling to in the common task, confirming the will of +the people and the army of the United States to fight with us to a +finish, ready to sacrifice so long as is necessary until victory for the +most noble of causes, that of the liberty of nations, the weak as well +as the mighty. Thus the deaths of these humble soldiers appear to us +with extraordinary grandeur. + +"We will, therefore, ask that the mortal remains of these young men be +left here, be left with us forever. We inscribe on the tombs: 'Here lie +the first soldiers of the Republic of the United States to fall on the +soil of France for liberty and justice.' The passer-by will stop and +uncover his head. Travellers and men of heart will go out of their way +to come here to pay their respective tributes. + +"Private Enright! Private Gresham! Private Hay! In the name of France I +thank you. God receive your souls. Farewell!" + +After the Germans had identified Americans on the Luneville front it was +supposed that they might maintain an aggressive policy and make the +front an active one. The Germans were too crafty for that. They realized +that the Americans were in the line for training, and so they gave them +few opportunities to learn anything in the school of experience. In +spite of the lack of co-operation by the Germans, the doughboys gained +valuable knowledge during their stay in the trenches. There were several +spirited patrol encounters and much sniping. American aviators got a +taste of warfare by going on some of the bombing expeditions of the +French. They went as passengers, but one American at least was able to +pay for his passage by crawling out from his seat and releasing a bomb +which had become jammed. When every battalion had been in the trenches +the American division was withdrawn, and for a short time in the winter +of 1917 there was no American infantry at the front. + +Curiously enough, the honor of participation in a major engagement +hopped over the infantry and came first to the engineers. It came quite +by accident. The 11th Engineers had been detailed for work behind the +British front. Early on the morning of November 30 four officers and 280 +men went to Gouzeaucourt, a village fully three miles back of the line. +But this was the particular day the Germans had chosen for a surprise +attack. The engineers had hardly begun work before the Germans laid a +barrage upon the village, and almost before the Americans realized what +was happening German infantry entered the outskirts of the place while +low-flying German planes peppered our men with machine-gun fire. The +engineers were unarmed, but they picked up what weapons they could find +and used shovels and fists as well as they retired before the German +attack. According to the stories of the men, one soldier knocked two +Germans down with a pickaxe before they could make a successful bayonet +thrust. He was eventually wounded but did not fall into the hands of the +enemy. Seventeen of the engineers were captured, but the rest managed to +fight their way out or take shelter in shell-holes, where they lay until +a slight advance by the British rescued them. + +Having had a taste of fighting, the engineers were by no means disposed +to have done with it. The entire regiment, including the survivors of +Gouzeaucourt, were ordered first to dig trenches and then to occupy +them. This time they were armed with rifles as well as intrenching-tools. +They held the line until reinforcements arrived. + +The conduct of the engineers was made the subject of a communication +from Field-Marshal Haig to General Pershing. "I desire to express to you +my thanks and those of the British engaged for the prompt and valuable +assistance rendered," wrote the British commander, "and I trust that +you will be good enough to convey to these gallant men how much we all +appreciate their prompt and soldierly readiness to assist in what was +for a time a difficult situation." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +OUR OWN SECTOR + + +THE Luneville sector was merely a sort of postgraduate school of +warfare, but shortly after the beginning of 1918 the American Army took +over a part of the line for its very own. This sector was gradually +enlarged. By the middle of April the Americans were holding more than +twenty miles. The sector lay due north of Toul and extended very roughly +from Saint-Mihiel to Pont-a-Mousson. Later other sections of front were +given over to the Americans at various points on the Allied line. +Perhaps there was not quite the same thrill in the march to the Toul +sector as in the earlier movement to the trenches of the Luneville line. +After all, even the limited service which the men had received gave them +something of the spirit of veterans. Then, too, the movement was less of +an adventure. Motor-trucks were few and most of the men marched all the +way over roads that were icy. The troops stood up splendidly under the +marching test and under the rigorous conditions of housing which were +necessary on the march. They had learned to take the weather of France +in the same easy, inconsequential way they took the language. + +For a second time the German spy system fell a good deal short of its +reputed omniscience. Seemingly, the enemy was not forewarned of the +coming of the Americans. Despite the fact that the troops were tired +from their long march, the relief was carried out without a hitch. Toul +had been regarded as a comparatively quiet sector, and, while it never +did blaze up into major actions during the early months of 1918, it was +hardly a rest-camp. It was, as the phrase goes, "locally active." Few +parts of the front were enlivened with as many raids and minor thrusts, +and No Man's Land was the scene of constant patrol encounters, which +lost nothing in spirit, even if they bulked small in size and +importance. + +It is probable that the Germans had no ambitious offensive plans in +regard to the Toul sector. They tried, however, to keep the Americans at +that point so busy and so harassed that it would be impossible for +Pershing to send men to help stem the drives against the French and the +English. The failure of this plan will be shown in the later chapters. + +Before going on to take up in some detail the life of the men in the +Toul sector, it is necessary to record a casualty suffered by +Major-General Leonard Wood. While inspecting the French lines General +Wood was wounded in the arm when a French gun exploded. Five French +soldiers were killed and Lieutenant-Colonel Charles E. Kilbourne and +Major Kenyon A. Joyce, who accompanied General Wood, were slightly +wounded. Wood returned to America shortly after the accident, and did +not have the privilege of coming back to France with the division he had +trained. But for all that he had a unique distinction. Leonard Wood was +the first American major-general to earn the right to a wounded stripe. + +The German artillery was active along the Toul front and the percentage +of losses, while small, was higher than it had been in the Luneville +trenches. Of course, the American artillery was not inactive. It had a +deal of practice during the early days of February. The Germans +attempted to ambush a patrol on the 19th and failed, and on the next +night a sizable raid broke down under a barrage which was promptly +furnished by the American batteries in response to signals from the +trench which the Germans were attempting to isolate. + +The first job for America did not come on the Toul sector, but near the +Chemin-des-Dames. American artillery had already shown proficiency in +this sector by laying down a barrage for the French, who took a small +height near Tahure. Hilaire Belloc referred to this action as "small in +extent but of high historical importance." The importance consisted in +the fact that for the first time American artillerymen had an +opportunity of rolling a barrage ahead of an attacking force. They +showed their ability to solve the rather difficult timing problems +involved. Certain historical importance, then, must be given to the +action of February 23, when an American raiding-party in conjunction +with the French penetrated a few hundred yards into the German lines and +captured two German officers, twenty men, and a machine-gun. This +little action should not be forgotten, because it was practically the +first success of the Americans. It gave some indication of the efficient +help which Pershing's men were to give later on in Foch's great +counter-attack which drove the Germans across the Marne. + +It is interesting to know that every man in the American battalion +stationed on the Chemin-des-Dames volunteered for the raid. Of this +number only twenty-six were picked. There were approximately three times +as many French in the party, and it must be remembered that the affair +was strictly a French "show." The raid was carefully planned and +rehearsals were held back of the line, over country similar to that +which the Americans would cross in the raid. At 5.30 in the morning the +barrage began and it continued for an hour with guns of many calibres +having their say. The attack was timed almost identically with the +relief in the German trenches and the Boches were caught unawares. The +fact that a shell made a direct hit on a big dugout did not tend to +improve German morale. The little party of Americans had already cut +2,999 miles and some yards from the distance which separated their +country from the war, and they were anxious to cover the remaining +distance. Their French companions set them the example of not running +into their own barrage. Poilus and doughboys jumped into the enemy +trench together. There was a little sharp hand-to-hand fighting, but not +a great deal, as the German officers ordered their men to give ground. +The group of prisoners were captured almost in a body. Further +researches along communicating trenches and into dugouts failed to yield +any more. + +Attackers and prisoners started back for their own lines on schedule +time. The German artillery tried to cut them off. One shell wounded five +of the Germans and six Frenchmen, but the American contingent was +fortunate enough to escape without a single casualty. The French +expressed themselves as well pleased with the conduct of their pupils. +They said that the Americans had approached the barrage too closely once +or twice, but this was not remarkable, as it was the first time American +infantry had advanced behind a screen of shell fire. Their inexperience +also excused their tendency to go a little too far after the German +trench-line had been reached. + +On February 26 the Americans on the Toul front had their first +experience with a serious gas attack. Of course, gas-shells had been +thrown at them before, but this was the first time they had been +subjected to a steady bombardment. Some of the men were not sufficiently +cautious. A few were slow in getting their masks on and others took +theirs off too soon. The result was that five men were killed and fifty +or sixty injured by the gas. Two days later the Americans on the +Chemin-des-Dames were heavily attacked, but the Germans were driven off. + +March found the Toul sector receiving more attention than usual from the +Germans. The Germans made a strong thrust on the morning of March 1. The +raid was a failure, as three German prisoners remained in American hands +and many Germans were killed. Gas did not prove as effective as on the +last occasion. The doughboys were quick to put on their masks and as +soon as the bombardment ended they waited for the attacking-party and +swept them with machine-guns. About 240 Germans participated in the +attack. Some succeeded in entering the American first-line trench, but +they were expelled after a little sharp fighting. An American captain +who tried to cut off the German retreat by waylaying the raiders as they +started back for their own lines was killed. On the same day a raid +against the Chemin-des-Dames position failed. The Germans left four +prisoners. + +Two days after the attempted Toul raid Premier Clemenceau visited the +American sector and awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm to two +lieutenants, two sergeants, and two privates. The premier, who knows +American inhibitions just as well as he knows the language, departed a +little from established customs in awarding the medals. Nobody was +kissed. Instead Clemenceau patted the doughboys on the shoulder and +said: "That's the way to do it." One soldier was late in arriving, and +he seemed to be much afraid that this might cost him his cross, but the +premier handed it to him with a smile. "You were on time the other +morning," he said. "That's enough." In an official note Clemenceau +described the action of the Americans as follows: "It was a very fine +success, reflecting great honor on the tenacity of the American infantry +and the accuracy of the artillery fire." + +The Americans made a number of raids during March, but the Germans were +holding their front lines loosely, and usually abandoned them when +attacked, which made it difficult to get prisoners. An incident which +stands out occurred on March 7, when a lone sentry succeeded in +repulsing a German patrol practically unaided. He was fortunate enough +to kill the only officer with his first shot. This took the heart out of +the Germans. The lone American was shooting so fast that they did not +realize he was a solitary defender, and they fled. On March 14 American +troops made their first territorial gain, but it can hardly be classed +as an offensive. Some enemy trenches northeast of Badonviller, in the +Luneville sector, were abandoned by the Germans because they had been +pretty thoroughly smashed up by American artillery fire. These trenches +were consolidated with the American position. + +April saw the first full-scale engagement in which American troops took +part at Seicheprey, but earlier in the month there was some spirited +fighting by Americans. Poilus and doughboys repelled an attack in the +Apremont Forest on April 12. The American elements of the defending +force took twenty-two prisoners. The German attack was renewed the next +day, but the Franco-American forces dislodged the Germans by a vigorous +counter-attack, after they had gained a foothold in the first-line +trenches. The biggest attack yet attempted on the Toul front occurred on +April 14. Picked troops from four German companies, numbering some 400 +men, were sent forward to attack after an unusually heavy bombardment. +The Germans were known to have had 64 men killed, and 11 were taken +prisoner. + +Numerous stories, more or less authentic, were circulated after this +engagement. One which is well vouched for concerns a young Italian who +met eight Germans in a communicating trench and killed one and captured +three. The remaining four found safety in flight. The youngster turned +his prisoners over to a sergeant and asked for a match. "I'll give you +a match if you'll bring me another German," said the non-commissioned +officer. The little Italian was a literal man and he wanted the match +very much. He went back over the parapet, and in five minutes he +returned escorting quite a large German, who was crying: "Kamerad." + +While American soldiers on the front were gaining experience, which +stood them in good stead at Seicheprey and later at Cantigny, great +progress was made in the organization of the American forces. Late in +the spring the first field-army was formed. This army was composed of +two army corps each made up of one Regular Army division, one National +Army division, and one division of National Guard. Major-General Hunter +Liggett became the first field-army commander of the overseas forces, +and it was his men who covered themselves with so much distinction in +the great counter-blows of July. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A CIVILIAN VISITOR + + +Destiny always plays the flying wedge. There is always the significant +little happening, half noticed or miscalculated, which trails great +happenings after it. On March 19, 1918, a derby hat appeared in the +front-line trenches held by the American Army in France. This promptly +was accorded the honor by the army and the Allied representatives of +being the first derby hat that had ever been seen in a trench. The hat +had the honor to be on the head of the first American Secretary of War +who had ever been in Europe in his term of office. And this first +American Secretary of War away from home was presently to have the honor +of helping to create the first generalissimo who had ever commanded an +army of twenty-six allies. + +All of which is to say that Newton D. Baker, on a tour of inspection of +the A. E. F., whose visit was to have such terrific fruition, +repudiated the war counsels which would have kept him out of the +trenches on this gusty March day, and went down to see for himself and +all the Americans at home how the doughboy was faring, and what could be +done for him. + +And as he peered over the parapet into No Man's Land, Secretary Baker +said: "I am standing on the frontier of freedom." The phrase grew its +wings in the saying, and by nightfall it had found the farthest +doughboy. + +The Paris newspapers announced, on the morning of March 12, that +Secretary Baker was in France. The troops had it by noon. And questions +flew in swarms. It was discovered that he would review the brigade of +veterans who had returned from service at the front on March 20, and +that meanwhile he would investigate the lines of communication. + +After a few days in Paris, during which Secretary Baker delivered all +the persuasions he had brought from President Wilson on behalf of a +unified command of the Allied armies, and had, it was rumored, turned +the scale in favor of a generalissimo, the distinguished civilian went +to the coast to see the port city which was the pride of the army and +the marvel of France. + +The secretary rode to the coast on a French train, but, once there, he +was transferred to an American train, which had to make up in +sentimental importance the large lack it had of elegance. + +A flat car was rapidly rigged up with plank benches. This had the merit +of affording plenty of view, and, after all, that was what the secretary +had come for. + +After rolling over the main arteries of the 200 miles of terminal +trackage, Secretary Baker inspected the warehouses, assembling-plants, +camps, etc., and walked three mortal miles of dock front which his +countrymen had evolved from an oozing marsh. He paid his highest +compliments to the engineers and the laborers, and amazed the officers +by the acuteness of his questions. If his visit did nothing else, it +convinced the men on the job that the man back home knew what the +obstacles were. + +Secretary Baker's next visit was to the biggest of the aviation-fields, +where again his technical understanding, as it came out in his +questions, astounded and cheered the men who were doing the building. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information_. + +Secretary Baker riding on flat car during his tour of inspection of the +American Expeditionary Forces.] + +Secretary Baker carried his office with him, a delightful discovery to +the men in the aviation-fields, who had some problems sorely pressing +for decision, and who found, when they told them to Mr. Baker, that he +had no aversion to taking action on the spot. For example, at aviation +headquarters, Mr. Baker asked if the fliers who came first from America +were the first to have their commissions after the final flights in +France. He learned that because of some delay in giving final +instruction, through no fault of the aviators, these first commissions +had not been given. Mr. Baker instituted a full inquiry at once, and at +the end of it directed that the commissions, when finally awarded, +should bear a date one day in advance of all others, so that the +priority rightfully earned should not be lost. + +After hours in the field, during which hundreds of machines with +American pilots flew in squadron formation, and many experts did +spectacular single flights, Mr. Baker made a short speech to the fliers. +A French officer, who had been instructing at the field, said to Mr. +Baker: "With all these machines in the air, you see no more than a tenth +of what America has in this one school. You will soon have no more need +of French instruction. We have shown everything we know, and your young +men have taken to the art with astonishing facility, as well as +audacity, nerve, and resource. The danger and difficulties fascinate and +inspire them. I think it must be what you call the 'sporting spirit.'" + +As he was leaving the aviation-field Secretary Baker said: "The spirit +of every man in this camp seems in keeping with the mission which +brought him to France. The camps, appointments, and organization are +admirable. It is gratifying to learn from their French instructors that +our young aviators are proving themselves daring, cool, and skilful." + +On the night of March 18 Secretary Baker began his preparations for a +visit to the trenches. With a general commanding a division and one +other officer he motored to the farthest point, where he dined and +stayed the night in a French chateau. At dawn the next morning the +party made ready to go on. But the Boches appeared to have a hunch. +They shelled the road on which Secretary Baker had planned to travel +with such ferocity that the officers in command refused to take the risk +of permitting Mr. Baker to go over it. The American general and all the +French officers then begged Mr. Baker to give up the trip to the +trenches. They wasted a lot of persuasion. Mr. Baker just went by +another road. A colonel of about Mr. Baker's build had loaned him a +trench overcoat, and some rubber boots, and the secretary had a tin +helmet and a gas-mask, but he would wear the tin helmet only for a +moment, and the mask not at all. + +The officers in charge of the party found presently, to their acute +horror, that even the trenches were not enough for Mr. Baker. Nothing +would do him but a listening-post. And when he had finally got back +safe, and had come back to the communication-trenches from the front, +everybody breathed a sigh of relief. The relief was premature, for the +liveliest danger of all was on the return motor trip, when an immense +shell buried itself in a crater not fifty yards from the secretary. +Fortunately, the debris flew all in the opposite direction, and nobody +was hurt. + +The First Division heard an address the following day from Secretary +Baker. "It would seem more fit," he said, "and I should much prefer it, +if, instead of addressing you, I should listen to your experiences. Your +division has the distinction of being the first to arrive in France. May +every man in your ranks aim to make the First Division the first in +accomplishment. With you came a body of the marines, those +well-disciplined, ship-shape soldiers of the navy. + +"Yours was the first experience in being billeted, and in all the +initial details of adjusting yourselves to new and strange conditions. +In this, as in developing a system of training, you were the pioneers, +blazing the way, while succeeding contingents could profit by your +mistakes. + +"Day after day and week after week you had to continue the hard drudgery +of instruction which is necessary to proficiency in modern war. You had +to restrain your impatience to go into the trenches under General +Pershing's wise demand for that thoroughness, the value of which you now +appreciate as a result of actual service in the trenches. + +"If sometimes the discipline seemed wearing, you now know you would have +paid for its absence with your lives. + +"If I had any advice to give, it is to strike hard and shoot straight, +and I would warn you at the same time against any carelessness, any +surrendering to curiosity, which would make you a mark needlessly. The +better you are trained the more valuable is your life to your country, +as a fighter who seeks to make the soldier of the enemy, rather than +yourself, pay the supreme price of war. + +"On every hand I am told that you are prepared to fight 'to the end,' +and I see this spirit in your faces. Depend upon us at home to stand by +you in a spirit worthy of you." + +Next Secretary Baker spoke, though informally, to the Forty-second +Division, far better known as the Rainbow Division. There he explained +some of the reasons for military secrecy. + +"While it was in training at home I saw a good deal of the Rainbow +Division," he said "Then, one day, it was gone to France, where it +disappeared behind the curtain of military secrecy which must be drawn +unless we choose to sacrifice the lives of our men for the sake of +publicity. The enemy's elaborate intelligence system seeks at any cost +to learn the strength, the preparedness, and the character of our +troops. Our own intelligence service assures us that the knowledge of +our army in France which some assume to exist does not, in fact, exist. + +"If we were to announce the identity of each unit that comes to France, +then we would fully inform the enemy of the number and nature of our +forces. Published details about any division are most useful to expert +military intelligence officers in determining the state of the +division's preparedness, and the probable assignment of the division to +any section. + +"But now it is safe to mention certain divisions which were first to +arrive in France and have already been in the line. This includes the +Rainbow Division, famous because it is representative of all parts of +the United States. This division should find in its character an +inspiration to _esprit de corps_ and general excellence. It should be +conscious of its mission as a symbol of national unity. + +"The men of Ohio I know as Ohioans, and I am proud that they have been +worthy of Ohio. A citizen of another State will find himself equally at +home in some other group, and the gauge of this State's pride will be +the discipline of that group of soldiers, its conduct as men, its +courage, and its skill in the trenches. You may learn more than war in +France. You may learn lessons from France, whose unity and courage have +been a bulwark against that sinister force whose character you are +learning in the trenches. The Frenchman is, first of all, a Frenchman, +which stimulates, rather than weakens, his pride in Brittany as a +Breton, in Lorraine as a Lorrainer, and his loyalty and affection for +his own town, or village, or home. In truth he fights for his family and +his home when he fights for France and civilization. Thus, you will +fight best and serve best by being first an American, with no diminution +of your loyalty to your State and your community. + +"With us at home the development of a new national unity seems a vague +process compared to the concrete process you are undergoing. You are +uniting North, East, South, and West in action. We aim to support you +with all our resources, to make sure that you do not fight in vain." + +The brigade of the veterans was reviewed on the last day of the camp +inspection. + +Secretary Baker went by motor, with officers and aides, as far as the +foot of the hill from which he was to review the troops deploying in the +Marne valley. Twenty days of rain had made the hilltop inaccessible by +motor. As Secretary Baker started up one slope, General Pershing and his +aides ascended another, and the two men met at the top. + +The brigade swept by at company front, with full marching equipment. +They were the first brigade to be reviewed after it had been in action, +and they held to their flawless formation, chins up and chests out, in +spite of clogging mud that was almost too much for the mules. + +The review ended in compliments all around. Secretary Baker's +enthusiasm was conveyed even to the lesser officers. General Pershing +said: "These men have been there and know what it is. You can tell that +by the way they throw out their chests as they swing by." + +America at last had her veterans. They were to dignify the coming gift +of them to heroic size. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A FAMOUS GESTURE + + +When America had put the power of all her eloquence into the growing +demand among the Allies for a unified command, and when, as a result of +this pressure, General Foch, chief of staff of the French Army and hero +of the battle of the Marne, had been made generalissimo, General +Pershing put into words in what the French called a "superb gesture" the +final sacrifice his country was prepared to make. + +The first of the great German drives of 1918 had halted, but the battle +was nowhere near its end. General Foch was sparing every possible energy +on the battle-front and heaping up every atom of force for his reserve. + +And on the morning of March 28 General Pershing went to headquarters and +offered the American Army in full to General Foch, to put where he +pleased, without any regard whatever for America's earlier wish to fight +with her army intact. + +It was the final sacrifice to the idealistic point of view. It had +indisputably the heroic quality. And as such it was rewarded in the +countries of the Allies with appreciation beyond measure. + +"I have come," said General Pershing to General Foch that morning, "to +say to you that the American people would hold it a great honor for our +troops if they were engaged in the present battle. I ask it of you in my +name and in that of the American people. + +"There is at this moment no other question than that of fighting. +Infantry, artillery, aviation--all that we have are yours, to dispose of +them as you will. Others are coming, which are as numerous as will be +necessary. I have come to say to you that the American people would be +proud to be engaged in the greatest battle in history." + +This offer was placed immediately by General Foch before the French +war-council at the front, a council including Premier Clemenceau, +Commander-in-Chief Petain, and Louis Loucheur, Minister of Munitions, +and was immediately accepted. American Army orders went forth in French +from that day. And on those orders the army was presently scattered +through the vast reserve army, from Flanders with the British to Verdun +with the Italians and the French. They were not to go into actual +battle, except near their own sectors, till the third monster drive, in +July, for General Foch makes a religion of the reserve army and Fabian +tactics. But they spread through the battle-line from Switzerland to the +sea, as General Pershing had suggested, and "all we have" was at work. + +Paris acclaimed the move royally. _La Liberte_ wrote: "General Pershing +yesterday took, in the name of his country, action which was grand in +its simplicity and of moving beauty. In a few words, without adornment, +but in which vibrated an accent of chivalrous passion, General Pershing +made to France the offer of an entire people. 'Take all,' he said; 'all +is yours.' The honor Pershing claims is shared by us, and it is with the +sentiment of real pride that our soldiers will greet into their ranks +those of the New World who come to them as brothers." + +Secretary Baker, from American General Headquarters, gave out a +statement. "I am delighted at General Pershing's prompt and effective +action," he said, "in placing all the American troops and facilities at +the disposal of the Allies in the present situation. + +"It will be met with hearty approval in the United States, where the +people desire their expeditionary force to be of the utmost service in +the common cause. I have visited all the American troops in France, some +of them recently, and had an opportunity to observe the enthusiasm with +which officers and men received the announcement that they would be used +in the present conflict. One regiment to which the announcement was made +spontaneously broke into cheers." + +The British Government issued an official statement on the night of +April 1: "As a result of communications which have passed between the +Prime Minister and President Wilson; of deliberations between Secretary +Baker, who visited London a few days ago, and the Prime Minister, Mr. +Balfour, and Lord Derby, and consultations in France in which General +Pershing and General Bliss participated, important decisions have been +come to by which large forces of trained men in the American Army can be +brought to the assistance of the Allies in the present struggle. + +"The government of our great Western ally is not only sending large +numbers of American battalions to Europe during the coming critical +months, but has agreed to such of its regiments as cannot be used in +divisions of their own being brigaded with French and British units so +long as the necessity lasts. + +"By this means troops which are not sufficiently trained to fight as +divisions and army corps will form part of seasoned divisions, until +such time as they have completed their training and General Pershing +wishes to withdraw them in order to build up the American Army. + +"Throughout these discussions President Wilson has shown the greatest +anxiety to do everything possible to assist the Allies, and has left +nothing undone which could contribute thereto. + +"This decision, however of vital importance it will be to the +maintenance of the Allied strength in the next few months, will in no +way diminish the need for those further measures for raising fresh +troops at home to which reference has already been made. + +"It is announced at once, because the Prime Minister feels that the +singleness of purpose with which the United States have made this +immediate and, indeed, indispensable contribution toward the triumph of +the Allied cause should be clearly recognized by the British people." + +Lord Reading, the British Ambassador at Washington, conveyed to +President Wilson a message of thanks from the British Government, for +"the instant and comprehensive measures" which the President took in +response to the request that American troops be used to reinforce the +Allied armies in France. The Embassy then gave out a statement that "the +knowledge that, owing to the President's prompt co-operation, the Allies +will receive the strong reinforcement necessary during the next few +months is most welcome to the British Government and people." + +The London papers reflected this sentiment in even stronger terms. Said +the _Westminster Gazette_: "It seals the unity of the Allied forces in +France, and so far from weakening the determination to provide all +possible reinforcements from this country, it will, we are confident, +give it fresh energy. All the big loans America has made to Great +Britain and France, her heavy contributions of food, her princely gifts +through the Red Cross, and the high, stimulating utterances of President +Wilson, have done much to strengthen the Allied morale and lend material +assistance to the war against autocracy, but none of these counts so +heavily with the masses, because there are few families here or in +France who have not a personal and intimate interest in the soldiers +battling on the plains of Picardy." + +The _Evening Star_ wrote: "In a true spirit of soldierly comradeship +they will march to the sound of guns, and will merge their national +pride in a common stock of courage for the common good. It is a +chivalrous decision, and President Wilson, Mr. Baker, and General Bliss +have done a very great thing in a very great way. The British and French +people are moved by this splendid proof of America's fellowship in the +fight for world freedom." + +If this gift was so significant in spirit, it was also bravely helpful +in round numbers. At the end of March, 1918, General Pershing had +366,142 soldiers in his command in France, and of these, after nine +months of training and adjustment, he could put about 100,000 in the +line. + +And within three months after this time he had more than 1,000,000 +soldiers in France, the Navy Department having accomplished the +astounding feat of transporting 637,929 in April, May, and June. The +month that the reinforcement of the French and British Armies was +planned and accepted the transport figures jumped from forty-eight +thousand odd to eighty-three thousand odd. The month of its first +practical operation the figures jumped again to one hundred and +seventeen thousand odd, and in the month of June, the month of the +anniversary of the first debarkation, there was a transportation of +276,372 men. + +The last few days of March, 1918, saw the first large troop movements +from the American zone--that is, saw them strictly in the mind's eye. +Actually, the rain came down in such drenching downpours that the +French villagers whom the motor-trucks passed did not so much see as +hear the doughboys. Throughout the whole zone the activity was +prodigious. Along the muddy roads two great processions of motor-trucks +crossed each other day and night, the one taking the soldiers to one +front, the other to another. Sometimes the camions slithered in the mud +till they came to a stop in the gutter. Then the boisterous, jubilant +soldiers would tumble out and set their shoulders under wheels and +mud-guards, and hoist the car into the road again. The singing was +incessant. The mood of the songs swung from "The Battle Hymn of the +Republic" to "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town To-night." + +The exuberance of the soldiers knew no bounds. They were about to answer +"present" to the roll-call of the big guns, the call they had been +hearing for so many months, that had seemed to them so persistently and +personally compelling. They were going to become a part of that living +wall which for three years and a half had held the enemy out of Paris. + +Those who were going to the British front were particularly exultant +because they expected to find open fighting there, the kind they called +"our specialty." + +To all the units going into the French and British Armies a general +order was read, jacking up discipline to the topmost notch. + +"The character of the service this command is now about to undertake," +read the order, "demands the enforcement of stricter discipline and the +maintenance of higher standards of efficiency than any heretofore +required. + +"In future the troops of this command will be held at all times to the +strictest observance of that rigid discipline in camp and on the march +which is essential to their maximum efficiency on the day of battle." + +The first of the fighting troops arrived on the British front on the +morning of April 10, after an all-night march. They were grimed and +mud-spattered, hungry, and tired, and cold. But the cheering that rose +from the Tommies when they recognized the American uniforms at the head +of the column would have revived more exhausted men than they. + +The first comers were infantry, a battalion of them. Others came up +during the day, with artillerymen and machine-gunners. The celebration +of their coming lasted far into the next night, and the commanders of +the British front exchanged telegrams of congratulation with the +commanders of the French front that they were to be so welcomely +refreshed. + +But Generalissimo Foch, with his stanch determination not to be done out +of his reserve, held the Americans back, and they were destined to +remain behind the main battle-line for three and a half months longer. + +Meanwhile the American strength was piling steadily up in the reserve, +and in mid-May a large contingent of the National Army, said to be the +first of them to land in Europe, reached the Flanders front and began to +train at once behind the British lines, without preliminary work in +American camps in France. + +These men had what was probably the most exhilarating welcome of the +war. The Tommies, many of them wounded and sick, poured out into the +roadways as the new American Army arrived, and threw their caps into the +air and split their throats with cheers. The British had been +terrifically hard pressed in the German offensive. They had given ground +only after incredible fighting. They were, in the phrase of General +Haig, at last "with their backs to the wall." They held their line +magnificently, but they could not have been less than filled with +thanksgiving that they were now to have the help of the least war-worn +of all their allies. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FIRST TWO BATTLES + + +While Generalissimo Foch was strengthening his long line, with American +troops as flying buttresses, those sectors delegated to the Americans in +their own right saw two battles, within a few weeks of each other, which +attained to the dignity of names. The battle of Seicheprey, the first +big American defensive action, and the battle of Cantigny, the first big +offensive, the one in the Toul sector, the other in Picardy, were the +occasions of the American baptism of fire. The one was so valiant, the +other so brilliant, and both were so reassuring to the high commands of +the Allies, that they would deserve a special emphasis even if they had +not the distinction of being America's first battles. + +On the night of April 20-21 the German bombardment of Seicheprey, a +village east of the Renners wood, and just northwest of Toul, grew to +monstrous proportions. Frenchmen who had seen the great Verdun +offensive, in which the German Crown Prince had made a new record for +artillery preparation, said that the heavy firing on the American sector +eclipsed any of the action at Verdun. + +The firing covered a front of a mile and a quarter. The bombardment was +of high explosive shells and gas, apparently an effort to disable the +return fire from American artillery. But all through the night the +artillerymen sent their shells, encasing themselves in gas-masks. + +Toward dawn the attack began. A full regiment of German soldiers, +preceded by 1,200 shock troops, advanced under a barrage. Halfway across +No Man's Land the American artillery laid down a counter-barrage, and +many of the Germans dropped under it, but still the great waves of them +came on, focussing on the village of Seicheprey. + +The impact of their terrific numbers was too powerful to be withstood at +once. The American troops fell back from some of their first-line +trenches, which the first bombardment had caused them to hold loosely, +and part of the forces fell back even from the village. The Germans +marched into the village, evidently believing it to have been totally +abandoned, carrying their flame-throwers and grenades, but making no use +of them. Suddenly they discovered that certain American troops had been +left to defend the village, while the main force reformed at the rear, +and hand-to-hand fighting in the street became necessary. An American +commander sent word back that the troops were giving ground by inches, +and that they could hold for a few hours. + +Seicheprey, the first big American battle, had every element of the +World War in little. Before the loss of the village, which occurred +about noon, the troops defending it had fought from ambush and in the +open, had fought with gas and liquid fire, with grenades, rifles, and +machine-guns. In the inferno the new troops were giving proof of valor +that was to come out later and be scattered broadcast, as a measure of +what America would bring. + +In and out of the streets of Seicheprey, in its little public square, +from the yards of its houses, hundreds of American soldiers were +fighting for their lives. France lay behind them, trusting to be saved. +Other Americans were behind them, racing into formation with French +troops for the counter-attack. The defenders of Seicheprey, "giving by +inches," had a battle-cry of their own, brief and racy, of the +football-fields: "Hold 'em." + +After a while the Germans took Seicheprey. The hideously pressed, +slow-giving outpost moved back. Before the day had finished the +shell-stripped streets of Seicheprey, sheltering the invaders, weltered +again under the first American shells of the counter-attack. By +nightfall the troops were creeping forward under the counter-barrage. +The army, reformed, refreshed, and replenished, was on its way to take +its own back again. The counter-battle lacked the monstrous gruelling of +the first attack. It took less time. The superiority of numbers had +shifted to the other side, and the white heat of determination did its +share. + +The Germans held Seicheprey about four hours. + +The main positions of the army, which were threatened, were untouched +because of the stoutness of the resistance at the village, and most of +the first-line positions were retaken with the rush of the +counter-attack. + +The German prisoners who were captured had many days' rations in their +kits and extra loads of trench-tools on their backs. They had intended +to hold the American trenches for several days, facing them the other +way, before they commenced the new attack, which, in the plan of the +German high command, was to break apart the French and American lines +where they joined, above Toul. Once this wedge was into the Allied +vitals the rest was to be easy. + +Though Seicheprey did not count as a big battle in point of numbers +engaged or numbers lost, it loomed large enough in the importance it had +strategically. The German high command obviously expected little or +nothing from the "green American troops." The shock troops had been +rehearsed for weeks to take the American lines and hold them till the +Allied line should be broken apart. In fact, it was nobly planned. The +only compliment the Americans could squeeze out of it was that the +Germans were sent over in many places eight to their one. But the +capture of Seicheprey lasted just four hours, and the disruption of the +Franco-American line remained a mere brain-child of the Wilhelmstrasse. + +The French soldiers who joined the counter-attack told thrilling stories +of the Americans. They told that in one place north of Seicheprey, an +American detachment was separated into small groups, and was cut off +from the company to which it belonged through the entire fight. Behind +the Americans and on their left flank were German units, but they could +have retired on the right. They decided to stay and fight, so there they +stayed, notwithstanding incessant enemy bombardment. + +In the town of Seicheprey a squad of Americans found a few cases of +hand-grenades. With these they put up a tremendous fight through the +whole day, holding to a strip at the northern end of the village. They +refused to surrender when they were ordered to, and at the end of the +fighting only nine of the original twenty-three were left. By the grace +of these nine men Seicheprey was never wholly German, even for the four +hours. + +One New England boy passed through the enemy barrage seven times to +carry ammunition to his comrades. A courier who was twice blown off the +road by shell explosions carried his message through and dropped as he +reported. A lieutenant with only six men patrolled six hundred yards of +the front throughout the day, holding communications open between the +battalions to the right and left of him. A sanitary-squad runner +captured by the Germans, escaped them and made his way into Seicheprey, +tending the wounded there till help came. A machine-gunner found himself +alone with his gun, and on being asked by a superior officer if he could +hold the line there, replied that he could if he were not killed. He +did. A regimental chaplain went to the assistance of a battery which was +hard pressed, and carried ammunition for them for hours, then took his +turn at the gun. + +These make no roster of the heroes of Seicheprey. There were hundreds of +them. But the censor's passionate aversion to details of all battles has +scotched the narrative of heroes for the present. + +Cantigny will warm the cockles of the American heart as long as it +beats. There was a battle that for spirit, flare, brilliancy, came up to +the rosiest dream that ever was dreamed, in Washington, or London, or +Paris. + +Cantigny, like Seicheprey, was not an engagement of great numbers. It +was a little town that was hard to capture. It commanded a fine view of +the American lines for miles back, and it had been able to withstand +some violent attempts earlier, so it was particularly desirable. And it +was in a salient, so that it formed an angle in the line. Its taking +straightened the line, heartily disgruntled the Boches, who lost 200 +prisoners and many hundred wounded and dead in defending it, and it gave +the American troops their first taste of the offensive. But more than +all that, it gave these same troops a record of absolutely flawless +workmanship which, if not large, was at least complete. + +The capture of Cantigny and 200 yards beyond it, which included the +German second line, took just three-quarters of an hour. + +In the niggardly terms of the communique: "This morning in Picardy our +troops attacked on a front of one and a fourth miles, advanced our +lines, and captured the village of Cantigny. We took 200 prisoners and +inflicted on the enemy severe losses in killed and wounded. Our +casualties were relatively small. Hostile counter-attacks broke down +under our fire." + +It was on the morning of May 28. At a quarter to six a bombardment +began. At a quarter to seven the troops went over the top. The barrage +went first, a dense gray veil. Then came twelve French tanks. Just +behind the tanks stalked the doughboys. + +The soldiers moved like clockwork. There were no unruly fringes to be +nipped by the barrage. There was no break in the methodical stride. They +went forward first a hundred yards in two minutes. Then the barrage +slowed to a hundred yards in four minutes. In a little while the troops +had arrived at the edge of the village; then the close-quarter fighting +began. + +At 7.30 a white rocket rose from the centre of Cantigny, dim against the +smoky sky, to tell the men behind that "the objective is reached and +prisoners are coming." + +The Americans found the enemy in confusion and unreadiness, and the +initial resistance from machine-guns at the town's edge was easily +overcome. Where the burden of hard fighting came was in routing the +Germans out from the caves and tunnels and cellars of the town into +which they had retired. + +There was a long tunnel in the town, which, after furious fighting, was +surrounded and isolated. The flame-throwers were placed at both ends of +the tunnel, and that episode was ended. Some of the caves were large +enough to hold a battalion. These were handled by the mopping-up troops, +who threw hand-grenades. + +The prisoners began to file back almost immediately. One grinning +Pittsburgher, wounded in the arm, marched in the rear of a prison squad. +"That's handin' it to them Huns, blankety-blank 'em," he said +cheerfully. + +The village caught fire from the bombardment and the firing of the +tunnel, and for hours after its capture the soldiers had to fight +flames. + +The first of the American "shock troops" went from the village on to the +German second-line trenches, and under a hail of bullets from German +machine-guns dug themselves in and faced the trenches the other way. + +All that day they held their prize unmolested. They had all the high +ground beyond Cantigny, and an approach was, to put it mildly, +precarious. But by five of the afternoon the German counter-attacks had +begun. One wave after another stormed half-way up the hill, then tumbled +down again, broken under the American artillery. Four counter-attacks +were made against Cantigny, but all of them failed. The new positions +were consolidated, under heavy fire and gas attack, and there they +stayed. + +This gallant battle called forth intemperate commendation from the +headquarters of the Allies. The French despatch to Washington told +officially of the high opinion the French held of it, and there were +many congratulatory telegrams from London. The press of London and Paris +glowed with praises. The London _Evening News_ wrote: + +"Bravo, the young Americans! Nothing in to-day's battle narrative from +the front is more exhilarating than the account of their fight at +Cantigny. It was clean-cut from beginning to end, like one of their +countrymen's short stories, and the short story of Cantigny is going to +expand into a full-length novel, which will write the doom of the Kaiser +and Kaiserism. We expected it. We have seen those young Americans in +London, and merely to glance at them was to know that they are +conquerors and brothers in that great Anglo-Saxon-Latin compact which +will bring down the Prussian idol.... They do not swagger, and they have +no war illusions. They have done their first job with swift precision, +characteristic of the United States, and Cantigny will one day be +repeated a thousand-fold." + +_The Times_ wrote: + +"Our allies know the significance of that as well as we do. So, too, do +the German generals and the German statesmen. It means that the last +great factor between autocracy and freedom is coming into effective play +on the battle-field.... There could be no reflection more heartening for +the Allies or more dismaying to their adversaries." + +"Their adversaries," meanwhile, were doing what they could to keep their +dismay to themselves. In the German announcement of the loss of +Cantigny there was mention only of "the enemy." The German people were +not to know for a while that the "ridiculous little American Army" had +got to work. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +TEUFEL-HUNDEN + + +No branch of service in the American Army was so quick to achieve group +consciousness as the marines. To be sure, these soldiers of the sea had +a considerable tradition behind them before they came to France. The +world is never so peaceful that there is nothing for the marines to do. +Always there is some spot for them to land and put a situation into +hand. It is no fault of the marines that most of these brushes have been +little affairs, and they have found, as Mr. Kipling says, that "the +things that you learn from the yellow and brown will 'elp you a heap +with the white." + +The Navy Department has always been careful to preserve the tradition of +the marines. The organization has never lacked for intelligent +publicity. "First to fight" was a slogan which brought many a recruit +into the corps. Even the dreary work of policing, which falls largely +to the marines, has been dramatized to a certain extent by that fine +swaggering couplet of their song: + + "If the army or the navy ever gaze on heaven's scenes, + They will find the streets are guarded by United States marines." + +The belief that the marines would make a distinctive mark in the great +World War was practically unanimous. Army officers couldn't deny it, war +correspondents hastened to proclaim it, and the Germans admitted it by +bestowing the name "Teufel-hunden" (devil-dogs) on the marines +immediately after their first engagement. The marines themselves were +second to no one in the consciousness of their own prowess. + +"I understand," said a little marine just two days off the transport, +"that this Kaiser isn't afraid of the American Army so much, but that he +is afraid of the marines." + +The boy didn't say whether one of his officers had told him that, but +his belief was passionate and complete. However, the marines did not +allow their high confidence to interfere in any way with their +preparations. They showed the same anxiety to make good on the +training-fields that they later displayed on the line. Their camp in the +American area was just a bit farther from the centre of things than that +of any other organization. Whenever there was a review or a special show +of any sort for a distinguished visitor, the marines had to march twelve +miles to attend. And after that it was twelve miles home again. But they +thrived on hard work. They shot, bayoneted, and bombed just a little +better than any other organization in the first division. Sometimes +individual marines would complain a little about the fact that they were +worked harder than any men in the division, but they always took care to +add that they had finished the construction of their practice-trench +system days before any of the others. When they mentioned the fact that +they had achieved this result by working in day and night shifts it was +never possible to tell whether they were airing a grievance or making a +boast. It is probable that they were something of the mind of Job, whose +boils were both a tribulation and a triumph. + +There was no doubt as to the opinion of the marines when it seemed for a +time as if they might not get into the fighting. They did not go into +the trenches with the first division, but were broken up and sent to +various points for police duty. Of course they were bitterly +disappointed, but they merely policed a little harder, and it was a +severe winter for soldiers who went about with their overcoats +unbuttoned, or committed other breaches of military regulations. + +Since the marines did hard work well, they were rewarded by more hard +work, and this was labor more to their taste. The reward came suddenly. +On May 30 a unit of marines was in a training-camp so far back of the +lines that it was impossible to hear the sound of the guns even when the +Germans turned everything loose for a big offensive. On that same day +the Germans reached the Marne east of Chateau-Thierry and began an +advance along the north bank toward the city. That night the marines +were ordered to the front. + +They rode almost a hundred kilometres to get into the fight. It was late +afternoon when they reached a hill overlooking Chateau-Thierry. French +guns all about them were being fired up to their very limit or a little +beyond. The Germans were coming on. These marines had never been in a +battle before, with the exception of a few who had chased little brown +rebels in various brief encounters on small islands. They had never been +under shell fire. And this their first engagement was one of the biggest +in the greatest war in history. From the hill they could see houses fold +up and fields pucker under the pounding of big guns. The marines were +told that as soon as darkness came they would march into the town and +hold the bridges against the German Army, which was coming on. Somebody +asked a French officer some days later how these green troops had taken +their experience as they waited the word to go forward. "They were +concombres," said the Frenchman. Our word is cucumbers. + +Finally, the order came for the advance. It was a dark night, but the +marines could see their way forward well enough. The German bombardment +had set fire to the railroad-station. The Americans kept in the shadows +as much as they could, but they danced around so much that it was +difficult. They placed their machine-guns here and there behind walls +and new barricades, so that they could enfilade the approaches to the +bridges and the streets on the opposite side of the river. One +lieutenant with twelve men and two guns took up a position across the +river. It was up to him to stand off the first rush. + +The shelling from the enemy guns was intensified during the night, but +the infantry had not yet reached the town. It was five o'clock of a +bright morning when the little advance post of the Americans saw the +Germans coming across the open field toward the river. They were +marching along carelessly in two columns and there were twelve men in +every line. One of the machine-guns swung her nose around a little and +the fight was on. At last the American was definitely in one of the +major engagements of the war. American machine-gunners were doing their +bit to block the advance on Paris. All day long the marines held the +Germans back with their machine-guns. And that night they beat back a +German mass attack when the Boches came on and on in waves, with men +locked arm in arm. They could hear them, for they sang as they rushed +forward, and the machine-gunners pumped their bullets into the spots +where the notes were loudest. + +The next day the Americans were forced to give some ground when the +order came to retire, but they had been through, perhaps, the most +intensive two days of training which ever fell to the lot of green +troops. + +The marines did not have to wait long for retaliation. Other units of +marines from other camps had been hurrying up to the front, and on June +6 an offensive was launched on a front of two and a half miles. The +first day's gain was two and three-sixteenth miles and 100 prisoners +were captured. This attack yielded all the important high ground +northwest of Chateau-Thierry. The marines did not rest with this gain. +They struck again at five o'clock in the afternoon, and by June 7 the +attack had grown to much greater proportions. Four villages, Vinly, +Veuilly-la-Poterie, Torcy, and Bouresches, fell into the hands of the +French and Americans. The thrust was pressed to a maximum depth of two +miles on a ten-mile front. More than 300 prisoners were captured by the +Americans. The attack was carried out under American command, +Major-General James G. Harbord being in charge of the operation. + +As in the Cantigny offensive, the Americans worked with great speed, and +showed that they could make the rifle an effective weapon even under the +changed conditions of modern warfare. But though they were swift they +were not silent. They went over the top shouting like Indians, and they +kept up the noise as they went forward. The second attack was carried +out by the same men who had advanced in the morning. The early showing +had been so promising that it was decided to go on, particularly as the +Germans seemed to be somewhat shaken by the violence of the assault. In +this new sweep the marines took ground on either side of Belleau Wood. +They also captured the ravine south of Torcy. The Germans were not able +to organize an effective counter-attack immediately, for they had been +too much surprised by the thrust. Also the effective work of the +American artillery made it difficult for the Germans to bring up fresh +troops. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by the Committee on Public Information._ + +U. S. Marines in readiness to march to the front.] + +In the rough country over which the battle was fought there was +opportunity for the fight to disintegrate into the little eddies where +individual initiative counts for so much. In a fight near Le Thiolet, +Captain James O. Green, Jr., found himself cut off by the Germans. He +was accompanied by five privates. Back at regimental headquarters Green +had already been reported as killed or captured. He proved the need of +clerical revision, for he and his men fought their way back to the +American lines. At one point ten Germans tried to intercept him, but the +six Americans succeeded in killing or wounding every member of the enemy +party. A single marine who was taking back a prisoner ran into two +German officers and ten men. He fell upon them with rifle and bayonet +and disposed of both officers and several of the men. Then he made his +escape. Somebody told the marine when he got back to the American lines +that he certainly had been "in luck." + +"Hell! no," said the fighting man; "they took my prisoner away from +me." + +Still another marine was captured while dazed by a blow on the head. He +recovered in time to deal his captor a tremendous punch on the jaw, and +made his way back to the American lines. The favorite slogan of the +Americans was: "Each man get a German; don't let a German get you." + +Early on June 8 the Germans launched a counter-attack against the +American position between Bouresches and Le Thiolet. This attack broke +down. The trenches which the Americans held were new and shallow, but +the troops were well supplied with machine-guns, and the German infantry +never got closer than within a couple of hundred yards of the position. +The marines were not yet content with their success. They took the +initiative again on June 10 and smashed into the German lines for about +two-thirds of a mile on a 600-yard front. In this attack two minenwerfer +were captured. The object of the attack was to clean out Belleau Wood. +The Germans retained only the northern fringe. + +By this time the offensive had ceased to be wholly a marine affair. The +9th and 23d Regiments of infantry, comprising what is known as the +Syracuse Brigade, took up their positions on the right of the soldiers +of the sea. During the next few days the Germans made several violent +counter-attacks, but without success, and on June 26 the Americans +pushed their gains still further by a successful assault south of Torcy, +in which more than 250 Germans were captured. This victory gave +Pershing's men absolute command of the Bois de Belleau, which was the +strategic point for which the Germans had fought so hard. + +It was after the Chateau-Thierry offensive that for the first time the +American Army won a place in the German official communique. Before that +they had been simply "the enemy," and once, upon the occasion of a +successful German raid, North American troops. But now Berlin unbent a +little and used the term "an American regiment." Germany was prepared to +admit that America was in the war. It is just possible that some of +their men who broke before the rush of the marines returned to give +headquarters the information. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE ARMY OF MANOEUVRE + + +While the American Army was showing its quality in the minor battles of +Seicheprey, Cantigny, Chateau-Thierry, and Vaux, and its quantity was +showing itself in leaps of hundreds of thousands of men a month, a +destiny was shaping for it, equally in circumstances and in the mind of +Generalissimo Foch, which was to be even greater than that it had +sacrificed in late March, when it submerged its identity and said: "Put +us where you will." + +For when, on July 18, the fifth German offensive suddenly shivered into +momentary equilibrium and then rolled back, with Foch and the Allies +pounding behind it, and when this counter-attack developed into a +continuing offensive which was to straighten the Marne salient and throw +back the Germans from before Amiens and do the future only knows what +else besides, the Allied world said, in one voice: "Foch has found his +army of manoeuvre, and it's the Americans." + +This "army of manoeuvre" has always been the king-pin of French +strategy. While the Germans were trying two systems--first, the broad +front attack which trusted to overbear by sheer weight anything which +opposed it, and, second, the so-called Hutier system of draining the +line of all its best fighters, and organizing shock troops immeasurably +above the average for offensive, while the line was held by the rag-tag +and bobtail--the French stuck to their traditional system. This was to +hold the lines with the lightest possible number of men, of the highest +possible caliber, and to thrust with a mobile force, foot-loose and +ready to be swung wherever a spot seemed likely to give way. + +It was with the "army of manoeuvre," thrown up from Paris in frantic +haste by Gallieni, in taxicabs and trucks, that General Foch made the +miraculous plunge through the Saxon army at Fere-en-Tardenois, in +September, 1914, which saved the first battle of the Marne. + +When General Foch became generalissimo, in late March, just after the +first German offensive on March 21 had thrown the British back, and when +the French were retreating at Montdidier, the expectation universally +was that the Allies would begin an offensive, within the shortest +possible time. Foch had been quoted all over the world as saying that +"defensive fighting was no defense." Yet April, May, and June passed, +and part of July, and except for scattering attacks along the Marne +salient, and patient rear-guard action when the retreats were necessary, +the Allies made no move. + +The Austrian debacle came and went. Foch had Italy off his mind, and the +Italians were more than taking care of themselves. Still he did not +strike. And finally it became clear that he was showing this long +patience because he wanted what every Frenchman wants first in every +battle, and what he did not surely have until July--his army of +manoeuvre. + +The fitness of the American Army for this brilliant use was dual: first, +that its source was virtually inexhaustible; second, that it was better +at offensive than defensive fighting. + +The American Army had a quality, and the defect of that quality: it +wanted to get to Berlin regardless of tactics. And while General Foch +was trusting to time to prove to them that, pleasant or unpleasant, the +tactics had to be observed, he turned their spectacular fire and +exuberance to direct account. + +Of course, the American troops in France then ready to fight could not +alone make up the Allied army of manoeuvre. They were the core of it, +however, and their growing numbers guaranteed it almost indefinitely, so +that the attack of which it was to be the backbone could safely be +begun. Some of the troops originally intended for welding with the +British and French Armies were kept in the line without change. + +But in the main the statement was true: the American Army was to rove +behind the Allied lines till Foch discovered or divined a German +weakness to strike into. + +In the second battle of the Marne, begun that July 18, when the Allies +took the offensive again for the first time in more than a year, the +crown prince and his army of approximately half a million were tucked +down in the Marne salient, driving for Paris. The German line came down +from Soissons to Chateau-Thierry, ran east from Chateau-Thierry along +the Marne River, then turned up again to Rheims. In a space about thirty +miles square the crown prince had imprudently poured all his troops, +which, for the fifth offensive, begun July 15, included about a third of +the man-power of the western front. + +The Allied troops lying around the three sides of this salient were +French and American on the western side, Americans across the bottom, +east from Chateau-Thierry, and French, British, and Italian from the +Marne up to Rheims. While the French and British were squeezing in the +two sides at the top, it was the American job to keep the Germans from +bursting out from the bottom, and, if possible, to break through or roll +them back. + +The Americans began the attack east of Chateau-Thierry, where the +Germans had crossed the Marne and lay a few miles to the south of it. +There had been lesser actions here for several days, in the process of +stopping the enemy offensive, and by the morning of the 18th the +Americans dominated the positions around the Marne. The first day of the +counter-offensive had magnificent results. The Germans were forced back +on a 28-mile front, for a depth varying from 3 to 6 miles, and the +Americans captured 4,000 prisoners and 50 guns. Twenty French towns were +delivered, and the Germans began what appeared to be a precipitate +retreat. Foch's attack was mainly on the flank of the crown prince's +army, which had been left exposed in the rush toward Epernay and +Chalons, far south of the Marne. + +The infantry attack was made with little or no artillery preparation. +The German general, Von Boehm, was plainly caught napping. + +The communiques of both sides were for once in agreement. The French +said: "After having broken the German offensive on the Champagne and +Rheims mountain fronts on the 15th, 16th, and 17th, the French troops, +in conjunction with the American forces, attacked the German positions +on the 18th, between the Aisne and the Marne on a front of forty-five +kilometres [about twenty-eight miles]. We have made an important +advance into the enemy lines, and have reached the plateau dominating +Soissons ... more than twenty villages have been retaken by the +admirable dash of the Franco-American troops.... South of the Ourcq our +troops have gone beyond the general line of Marizy, Ste.-Genevieve, +Hautvesnes, and Belleau." + +The German communique said: "Between the Aisne and the Marne, the French +attacked with strong forces and tanks, and captured some ground." Later +in the same communique the conclusion was drawn: "The battle was decided +in our favor." + +On the second day, while the march under Soissons continued, and there +were scattering gains on the Marne side, the number of Allied prisoners +grew to 17,000, and the number of guns captured to 360. Nobody could +tell, at this point, whether the crown prince's army was retreating +voluntarily or involuntarily. In many places the Germans were taken by +American soldiers from the peaceful pursuit of cutting wheat behind the +lines. Some high officers were nabbed from their beds. On the other +hand, the fact that the German rear-guard actions were chiefly with +machine-guns seemed to indicate that they were moving their heavy pieces +back in fair orderliness. + +On the third day the Germans were thrown back over the Marne, and the +crown prince, having sent an unavailing plea to Prince Rupprecht for new +troops, suddenly showed fight with the crack Prussian guards. + +These guards had their worst failure of the war when they met the +Americans. It is difficult to prevent the statement from sounding +offensively boastful. It is, none the less, true. The Germans, having +decided that their retreat was wearing the look of utter rout, and that +they must resist fiercely enough to stop it, risked a British +break-through to the north by throwing in Ludendorf's prize soldiers +above the Marne. And although the American total of prisoners around +Soissons had risen to nearly 6,000, and though they did force back the +Prussian guard, they did not make prisoners from their number. One +American after another told, afterward, with a sort of reluctant +admiration, that the Prussian guard had died where it stood. This +fighting near the Ourcq, and fatally near the vitals of the encircled +crown prince, was the most desperate of the second Marne battle. + +On July 21 Chateau-Thierry was given up by the Germans, and the pursuing +Allies, French and American, drove the enemy beyond the highroad to +Soissons, and threatened the only highway of retreat, as well as the +German stores. The supply-centre within the salient was +Fere-en-Tardenois, and it was being raked by Allied guns from both sides +of the salient. + +The character of the fighting changed again, so that again it was +impossible to make sure if Von Boehm intended to stand somewhere north +of the Marne and put up a fight, or if he intended to make all speed +back to a straight line between Soissons and Rheims. The resistance was +by machine-gun, so that Americans, having their first big experience +with the enemy, insisted that he had nothing but machine-guns to trust +to. It is, of course, possible that the crown prince and Von Boehm knew +no more than anybody else whether they were going to clear out, men and +supplies, or whether they would stop again and fight face foremost. + +On July 22 the German command answered the question at least partially. +On a line well above the Marne, they brought the big guns into play, and +poured in shock troops. Airplanes from the Allied lines discovered, +however, that the Germans were burning towns and store-houses for many +miles behind the line. + +The pressure on the Germans was being brought from the south, where the +Americans were six or seven miles above Chateau-Thierry, and from the +west and north, where the Franco-American troops were flaying the +exposed side. + +The stiffened resistance and the German artillery slowed, but could not +stop, the Allied advance. The eastern side of the salient, from the +Marne to Rheims, bore some desperate blows, but did not give way. As the +pincers closed in, at the top of the salient, the German command +appeared to go back to its original plan of attacking Rheims from the +south. + +This was the side on which British and Italian troops were co-operating +with the French, and the German command got for its pains in that +direction a counter-attack which narrowed the distance from battle-line +to battle-line across the top of the salient. The French menaced +Fere-en-Tardenois, the German base of supplies. + +Allied aviators bombed these stores, the long-range guns pounded at +them, and what with these and the conflagrations started defensively by +the Germans the Marne salient was a caldron which turned the skies +blood-red. + +On July 24 the ground gained all along the line averaged two miles. The +British southwest of Rheims made a damaging curve inward, and the shove +around the other two sides was fairly even. + +On July 25, one week from the beginning of the offensive, the Americans +and French from the Soissons side and the British and French from the +Rheims side had squeezed in the neck of the trap till it measured only +twenty-one miles. The French arrived within three miles of +Fere-en-Tardenois, and although the German resistance increased again, +the evacuation of Fere and the removal of stores to Fismes, far up on +the straight line, were foreshadowed. + +The road leading between the two supply-bases was shelled incessantly, +and the difficulties of resistance within the fast-narrowing salient +became almost superhuman. But the rear-guard of the Germans "died to a +man," to quote the observers, and the rear action held the Allied gains +to a few miles daily. + +A definite retreat began on the morning of July 27, with what the airmen +reported as an obvious determination to make a stand on the Ourcq. The +forest of Fere was taken, and many villages, but the fighting was +insignificant because, in the language of the communiques, "our forces +lost contact with the enemy." Possibly this is what the famous phrase of +the Ludendorf communique, "The enemy evaded us," had in mind. + +There was a certain psychological stupidity in this German decision to +make a stand on the Ourcq. It was on the Ourcq that Joffre and Foch made +the fatal stroke of the first Marne battle, and the very name of the +river inspired France. + +While this retreat was in progress, the swiftest of the battle, the +German communique read: "Between the Ourcq and the Marne, the enemy's +resistance has broken down. Our troops, with those of our allies, are in +pursuit." + +On the 29th the Germans crossed the Ourcq, with the Americans behind +them. The "pursuit" continued. The American troops, with French to the +right and left of them, forced the enemy to within a mile of the Vesle, +where his halt had no hope of being more than temporary. The brilliant +charge across the Ourcq was done by New Yorkers--the "fighting 69th," +which refuses to be known by its new name of "165th." Edwin L. James, +writing of this charge for the New York _Times_, said: "There is doubt +if any chapter of our fighting reached the thrills of our charge across +the Ourcq yesterday. Americans of indomitable spirit met a veritable +hell of machine-guns, shells, gas, and bombs in a strong position, and +broke through with such violence that they made a salient jutting into +the enemy line beyond what the schedule called for." + +This American charge cured the Germans of any intention to stay on the +Ourcq. The resistance, after that first attack, was sporadic and +ineffectual. Village after village was reclaimed. + +It became plain that the whole Marne salient was to be obliterated, and +that the Germans could not stop till they reached the thirty-six-mile +stretch directly from Soissons to Rheims, at which they had strong +intrenchments. + +One terrific stand was made by the Germans at Sergy, just above the +Ourcq. It changed hands nine times during twenty-four hours, with +Americans fighting hand to hand with the Prussian guards. Sergy was +taken in the first rush over the Ourcq, but a counter-attack by the +Prussian Fourth Guard Division, under artillery barrage, gave them the +city. Once these guards were in the city, the artillery barrage could no +longer play over it, and to the stupefaction of the Germans, the +Americans rushed in and fought hand to hand till they cleared the town, +while the German guns were powerless. Time and again this process was +repeated, till at last the Germans gave it up and joined the general +retreat. This counter-attack is believed, however, to have enabled the +crown prince to reclaim great stores of supplies in a woods north of the +village. + +At the end of these two weeks of infantry fighting the artillery took +up the task, and the infantry rested for a day, though on August 2 they +made a two-mile gain. + +The total of German prisoners for that fortnight was 33,400. + +The hideous fighting above the Ourcq between the Americans and the +picked German divisions continued for days, with each day marking a +small advance for the Americans. On August 2 the French regained +Soissons. + +On August 3 the Allies advanced six miles, retook fifty villages, and +reached the south bank of the Vesle. American forces entered Fismes. The +salient was annihilated. + +On August 4 Fismes fell, and the great supply and ammunition depot +became Allied property. The enemy was forced to cross the Vesle, and +victory on victory was reported along the line which so lately had +dipped into the nerve-centres of France. + +The second battle of the Marne had been won. + +[Illustration: The capture of Sergy. + +"The Americans rushed in and fought hand to hand till they cleared the +town."] + +The part of it achieved by America could not fail to stir her heart to +pride and to exaltation. Though numerically the troops were few +enough, not more than 270,000, they traversed the longest distance of +the salient, from Vaux, at its lowest tip, to Fismes, on the straight +line. Their fighting called forth comment from French officers who had +been through the four years of the war, which could not be called less +than rapturous. "They are glorious, the Americans," rang through France. +Clemenceau, speaking of Foch at the end of the battle to which the +Americans had contributed so much, said: "He looks twenty years +younger." He had both found and proved his "army of manoeuvre." + +The story of this first battle's heroes must wait, though it will be +long enough when it comes, and can include something more heartening +than that "a boy from New England did thus and so," and "the army is +thrilled by the heroic feat of---- of Michigan." + +Probably the first death in France in which the whole nation grieved was +that of young Quentin Roosevelt, aviation lieutenant, son of the +ex-President, who fell in an air fight in the preliminary to the battle +on July 17. He was last seen in a fight with two enemy planes. His +machine fell within the German lines. Weeks later the onward Allied +army found his grave, marked, in English, "Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, +buried by the Germans," and an official despatch from Germany stated +that he had been buried with full military honors. + +Colonel Roosevelt made a brief statement: "Quentin's mother and I are +very glad that he got to the front, and had a chance to render some +service to his country and to show the stuff there was in him before his +fate befell him." The news of his death arrived just a few weeks after +the news that he had downed his first German plane. The simple sincerity +of this statement, and its courage, gave an example to the mothers and +fathers of fighters which no one feared they would fail to come up to. +And when the casualty lists from the second Marne battle came in, every +bereavement was stanched by the fact that "they had shown the stuff +there was in them." + +Certainly not least in importance was the fact that they had shown it to +the Germans. An official German Army report was captured, July 7, on an +officer taken in the Marne region. After giving a prodigious amount of +detail concerning the American Army, its composition, destination, and +so on, it appended the following opinion: + +"The 2d American Division may be classified as a very good division, +perhaps even as assault troops. The various attacks of both regiments on +Belleau Wood were carried out with dash and recklessness. The moral +effect of our firearms did not materially check the advance of the +infantry. The nerves of the Americans are still unshaken.... Only a few +of the troops are of pure American origin; the majority is of German, +Dutch, and Italian parentage, but these semi-Americans, almost all of +whom were born in America and never have been in Europe, fully feel +themselves to be true-born sons of their country." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +ST. MIHIEL + + +Historians and military experts are fond of taking one particular battle +or campaign, and saying: "This was decisive." It enables one to simplify +history, to be sure, but often any such process is more simple than +truthful. After all, every battle is to some degree decisive, and the +great actions of the war are so closely connected with smaller ones that +it is difficult to separate them. It is the fashion now to speak of the +second battle of the Marne as the deciding factor in the war. Indeed, +there is one school of strategists which goes back to the first Marne, +and speaks as if nothing which happened after that really mattered. + +In this spirit, it is true, that the great tide in the allied fortunes +which began at Chateau-Thierry and swept higher and higher until the +Germans had been smashed in the second battle of the Marne, did put a +new complexion on the war. The battle definitely robbed the German +offensive of its threat. Paris was saved, in all human probability, from +ever coming into danger again during the course of the war. +Nevertheless, it is far-fetched to take the attitude that the war had +already been won early in August. It was evident by this time that the +German Army had suffered a great defeat. Perhaps a great disaster would +be better. And yet other armies have suffered great disasters and grown +again to power and success. The plight of the Germans was certainly +little worse than that of the Italians after the German offensive, and +yet everybody knows that the Italian Army came back from that defeat to +final victory. + +Morale is subject to miracles, and soldiers can be born again. There +might have been combinations of circumstances which would have permitted +the German Army to recover from its fearful defeat and find again its +old arrogance and confidence. Only it had no rest. It is fitting, then, +that the men of all the armies who completed the downfall of the Germans +in the marvellous campaigns at the close of the year 1918 should have +due credit. Their work was also decisive. No one can tell what would +have happened to the German Army if it had not been subjected to the +steady pounding of the allied armies. + +No attempt will be made here to estimate the relative importance of the +work done by the various allied armies in the closing campaigns of the +war. This is an interesting, although somewhat ungrateful, task for +military experts. In this account we are dealing simply with the +fortunes of the American Army. It might not be amiss to suggest that the +final victories of the war were won by team-play, and that in such +combinations of effort the praise should go to all, just as the labor +does. + +There need be no controversy, however, about the battle of St. Mihiel. +This was an American action. It was under the command of General +Pershing himself, and his forces were made up almost entirely of +Americans. The French acted in an advisory capacity, and we were +dependent, in part, upon them for certain material. General Pershing in +his official report says: "The French were generous in giving us +assistance in corps and army artillery, with its personnel." We were +also under obligation to the French for tanks, but here they were not +able to assist us so liberally, because they had barely enough tanks for +their own use. One of the surprising features of the St. Mihiel victory +is that it was achieved with comparatively slight tank preparation. + +St. Mihiel represented the biggest staff problem attempted by the +American Army up to that time. It was, of course, a battle which dwarfed +any previous action in the military history of America. Compared to the +battle of St. Mihiel, the whole Spanish-American War was a mere patrol +encounter, and Gettysburg itself a minor engagement. With the force at +his command, and the weapons, General Pershing could have annihilated +the army of either Grant or Lee in half an hour. Some idea of the +magnitude of the battle may be gathered from the report of General +Pershing: that he had under his command approximately 600,000 troops, or +four times the peace standing of the entire American military +establishment before the war. + +It is difficult enough to move an army of that size, with its supplies +and its guns, under any conditions, but the plan for the St. Mihiel +offensive called for a surprise attack, and it was necessary to make all +the troop movements at night. In spite of the vaunted efficiency of the +German intelligence, there seems to be evidence that their high command +had little inkling of the magnitude of the blow impending or the date on +which it would fall. The St. Mihiel salient had been so long a fixture +in the geography of the battle-lines that no change was expected. + +In preparation for the offensive the First Army was organized on August +10, under the personal command of General Pershing. Following this move +the Americans took over part of the line. This became a permanent +American sector. Pershing took command of the sector on August 30. At +that time the sector under his command began at Port sur Seille, and +extended through a point opposite St. Mihiel, then twisting north to a +point opposite Verdun. The preparations for the offensive included, in +addition to guns, men, and tanks, the greatest concentration which the +American Army had ever known in transport, ambulances, and aircraft. +Most of the planes in action were of French make, and some were flown by +the French, but there were a few of our manufacture, for on August 7 an +American squadron, completely equipped by American production, made its +appearance at the front. + +The preparations for the offensive were minute as well as extensive. It +is, perhaps, worth noting as a sample of the thoroughness with which the +American Army went about the job that no less than 100,000 maps were +issued which showed the character of the terrain around St. Mihiel, with +all the natural and artificial defenses carefully noted, and some +estimate of the strength in which the enemy was likely to be found at +each point. The army had 6,000 telephone instruments, and at least 5,000 +miles of wire, so there was no difficulty in keeping in touch with what +the men were doing at every point. The attack began at 1 A.M. on +September 12. The American artillery had been crowded into the sector to +such an extent that the German artillery was completely dominated. The +bombardment lasted for four hours, and then the troops went forward, +preceded by a few tanks, but there were points where infantry went +forward without the aid of these auxiliaries. It was misty when the +seven divisions in the front line sprang out of their trenches, and this +helped to keep losses down. Indeed, throughout the battle the resistance +proved much less determined than had been anticipated. + +Although the bombardment had been short, most of the wire had been cut. +There remained a few jobs, however, for the wire-cutters, and for other +soldiers armed with torpedoes. With one method or the other our men +smashed what was left of the wire guarding the enemy first-line +trenches. And then the waves came on and over. There was little +resistance in the first line, for the Germans in these positions were +pretty well demoralized by the terrific artillery pounding which they +had received and the sight of thousands upon thousands of Americans +rushing upon them from out of the fog. For the most part they +surrendered without resistance. As the advance progressed resistance +became stiffer at some points, but the attackers kept pretty generally +up to schedule, or ahead of it. Thiaucourt was taken by the First Corps. +The Fourth Corps fought its way through Nonsard. The Second Colonial +Corps was not asked to make a very great advance, but it had the most +difficult terrain over which to work. It had won all its objects early +in the day. A difficult task was also set for the Fifth Corps, which +took three ridges and then immediately had to repulse a counter-attack. +St. Mihiel fell early in the day. And in an incredibly short period a +salient which had been in the enemy hands for almost four years was +pinched out of existence. + +Everybody was delighted to find that in one respect the American +preparations had been too extensive. No less than thirty-five +hospital-trains had been assembled back of the attacking forces, and +there were beds for 16,000 men in the advanced areas, with 55,000 a +little farther back. As a matter of fact, less than one-tenth of these +facilities proved necessary, for the American casualties were only +7,000, and many of these were slight. The German General Staff always +maintained that it had anticipated the attack and that its men were +under orders to retire, as the salient was of no strategic importance. +The last assertion may be true, but there seems to be little to support +the rest, for the total of prisoners was 16,000, with 443 guns. The +quantity of material captured was enormous. In a single depot there were +found 4,000 shells for 77's and 350,000 rounds of rifle cartridges. +Among the other assorted booty were 200 machine-guns, 42 trench-mortars, +30 box-cars, 4 locomotives, 30,000 hand-grenades, 13 trucks, and 40 +wagons. The number of German helmets which fell to the doughboys was +naturally countless. + +The attack was so completely successful and ran so closely to schedule +that there were few surprises. A little group of newspaper men, however, +were frank to admit that they had encountered one. Following closely +upon the heels of the attacking troops, they came to a village which was +being heavily shelled by the Germans. Accordingly, the newspaper men +took refuge in a dugout until such time as the opportunity for +observation should be more favorable. Coming from the other direction, +a group of German prisoners entered the same village. They had +surrendered to one of the waves of onrushing Americans, but everybody +was too busy to conduct them personally to the rear. They had merely +been instructed to keep marching until they encountered some American +officers or doughboys who were not otherwise engaged, and then surrender +themselves. When the shells fell fast about them the Germans darted for +the dugout in which the newspaper men had previously taken refuge. The +correspondents were astounded and disturbed when sixteen field-gray +soldiers came tumbling in upon them. They could only imagine that at +some point the Germans had struck back and that the counter-attack had +broken through. And the correspondents admit that without a moment's +hesitation they gave one look at the Germans and then raised their +weaponless hands and cried "Kamerad." The perplexing feature of the +situation was that the Germans did exactly the same thing, and a +complete deadlock ensued until a squad of doughboys happened along that +way and took the Germans in charge. + +Both sides in the battle were willing to admit that their foemen had +fought with courage. While it is true that the first waves of the +American Army had an easy time, there was stiff but ineffectual +resistance by German machine-gunners later in the day. Many of these men +served their guns without offering surrender, and had to be bombed or +bayoneted. In a document by a German intelligence officer, which fell +into American hands much later in the war, a very frank tribute was paid +to the extraordinary courage of the Americans. The German officer said +that they seemed to be absolutely without fear on the offensive, and +must be reckoned with as shock troops, although they sometimes fought +greenly. He reported, however, that American leadership was less +impressive, and stated that the American Army might have gone much +farther if it had been more quick to take advantage of its early +success. But this would seem to be a mere effort to whistle up courage +in the German General Staff, for a consideration of the territory which +fell into American hands as a result of the attack shows some measure of +its success. This comprised 152 square miles which was recovered from +the Germans. And in this liberated district were 72 villages. + +And yet the importance of the battle can hardly be measured in territory +regained, and much less in booty or in guns. "This signal success of the +American Army in its first offensive was of prime importance," wrote +General Pershing in his report to Secretary Baker. "The Allies found +that they had a formidable army to aid them, and the enemy learned +finally that he had one to reckon with." Moreover, the pinching out of +the St. Mihiel salient put the American Army in a position to threaten +Metz. This threat was one of the factors which caused the enemy to +realize a few months later that further resistance could not hope to +check the allied armies for any considerable time. + +The divisions employed at St. Mihiel comprised many of our best units. +Among the divisions engaged were the Eighty-second, the Ninetieth, the +Fifth, and the Second, which made up the First Corps, under +Major-General Hunter Liggett. In the Third Corps were the Eighty-ninth, +the Forty-second, and the First Divisions, under Major-General Joseph +T. Dickman. The Fifth Corps, under Major-General George H. Cameron, had +the Twenty-sixth Division and a French division. In reserve were the +Seventy-eighth, Third, Thirty-fifth, and Ninety-first Divisions. The +Eighteenth and Thirty-third were also available. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +MEUSE-ARGONNE BEGINS + + +Having successfully accomplished one piece of work, the American Army +received as its reward another piece of work. The reward consisted in +the fact that the second task assigned to Pershing's men was, perhaps, +the hardest possible at any point in the line. Since 1915 the Argonne +Forest had been a rest area for the German Army. Everything had been +done to make the position impregnable, and so it was in theory. But the +Americans broke that theory and took the forest. So confident were the +Germans of their tenancy that they had built all sorts of palatial +underground dwellings. Barring light, there was no modern convenience +which these dugouts (although that is no fit name) did not possess. Some +had running water. All the most pretentious ones had feather-beds, and +the big underground rooms were gay with pictures and furniture stolen +from the French. The defenses of the positions in the forest included +miles and miles of barbed wire, sometimes hidden in the underbrush, and +again carried around tree-trunks higher than a man could reach. There +were high concrete walls to stop the progress of tanks and deep-pit +traps into which they might fall. And machine guns were everywhere. + +The Meuse-Argonne campaign, which falls into three phases, reads far +differently than the taking of St. Mihiel. Except in its early stages +this was no grand running, flawless offensive without a hitch worth +mentioning. In the nature of things it could not be so. The Argonne was +less susceptible to the laws of military strategy. Warfare in these +woods became a struggle between small detached units. Much of the +fighting took place in the dark and practically all of it in the rain. +The American victory was a triumph of the bomb and the rifle, and +perhaps the wire-cutter should be added, over the machine-gun. In many +encounters the opposing units fired at each other from short ranges, and +directed their fire solely by the flashes of the other fellow's +machine-gun. War in the Argonne Forest was a cat-and-dog fight, and +Germany was destined to play the cat's usual role, though she clawed her +hardest. + +And yet though many of the phases of the Meuse-Argonne were primitive +and elemental in their nature, sound strategy lay behind the campaign. +General Pershing in his vivid report explains not only the necessity for +the campaign but the objects which he sought and gained. St. Mihiel +shook the confidence of the Germans, but neither that success nor those +scored by other allied armies was sufficient to batter the Germans into +defeat. + +"The German Army," wrote General Pershing, "had as yet shown no +demoralization, and while the mass of its troops had suffered in morale, +its first-class divisions, and notably its machine-gun defense, were +exhibiting remarkable tactical efficiency as well as courage. The German +General Staff was fully aware of the consequences of a success on the +Meuse-Argonne line. Certain that he would do everything in his power to +oppose us, the action was planned with as much secrecy as possible, and +was undertaken with the determination to use all our divisions in +forcing decision. We expected to draw the best German divisions to our +front and to consume them while the enemy was held under grave +apprehension lest our attack should break his line, which it was our +firm purpose to do." + +"Our right flank," wrote General Pershing in describing his position at +the beginning of the battle, "was protected by the Meuse, while our left +embraced the Argonne Forest, whose ravines, hills, and elaborate defense +screened by dense thickets, had been generally considered impregnable. +Our order of battle from right to left was: the Third Corps from the +Meuse to Malancourt, with the Thirty-third, Eightieth, and Fourth +Divisions in line, and the Third Division as corps reserve; the Fifth +Corps from Malancourt to Vauquois, with Seventy-ninth, Eighty-seventh, +and Ninety-first Divisions in line, and the Thirty-second in corps +reserve; and the First Corps, from Vauquois to Vienne Le Chateau, with +Thirty-fifth, Twenty-eighth, and Seventy-seventh Divisions in line, and +the Ninety-second in corps reserve. The army reserve consisted of the +First, Twenty-ninth, and Eighty-second Divisions." + +The American Army had no extended vacation after the victory at St. +Mihiel. That action had hardly been completed when some of the artillery +left its positions and departed for the Meuse-Argonne front. St. Mihiel +began on September 12. Just two weeks later the first attack in the +long-protracted Meuse-Argonne campaign began. The first portion of this +offensive was by far the easiest. It was difficult, to be sure, but the +terrific hardships were still to come. One factor which mitigated the +task of the troops engaged in the first attack was that again the +Germans seemed to have been taken by surprise. The Americans moved very +fast over difficult terrain. This was country which had already been +sorely disputed, and shell-holes were everywhere. In the places where +there were no shell-holes there was barbed wire. + +As the attack progressed the German resistance increased. Artillery was +moved forward and machine-guns seemed to spring up overnight in that +much ploughed and harrowed land. Yet after three days' fighting the +Americans had penetrated a distance of from three to seven miles into +the enemy's positions, in spite of the large numbers of reserves which +were thrown in to check them. Even a German _communique_ writer would +hardly have the face to maintain that the territory captured by the +Americans was of no strategic importance. Every mile that Pershing's men +went forward brought them that much nearer to Sedan, and on Sedan rested +the whole fate of the German lines in France. But Sedan was still many a +weary mile away. The territorial gains in the onward rush of the first +three days included the villages of Montfaucon, Exermont, Gercourt, +Cuisy, Septsarges, Malancourt, Ivoiry (known to the doughboys, of +course, as Solid Ivory), Epinonville, Charpentry, and Very. Ten thousand +prisoners were taken. + +In spite of this great success it was not possible for the Americans to +drive straight forward. The country over which the action was fought was +so bad that several days were needed to build new roads up to the +positions which had been won. Even with the best efforts in the world, +the moving of supplies was a prodigious job. The mud was almost as great +a foe as the German guns. In the necessary lull the Germans, of course, +rushed new troops into the sector to combat the American advance. +Naturally, the lull was not complete. There was constant raiding by +Americans to identify units opposed to them, and here and there in small +local attacks strategic points were taken which would be of advantage in +the big push to come. From prisoners the Americans learned that among +the divisions opposite them were many of the crack units of the German +Army. America was also represented by its best organizations, but under +the constant losses incurred in attacks against strongly intrenched +positions units dwindled, and replacements were poured in. Under the +circumstances it was necessary to send many soldiers to the front who +had been in training but a short while. These were mixed in, however, +with veterans, and it should be said to the credit of these green men +that in practically every case they upheld the reputation of the units +to which they were sent. They were quick to feel themselves as sharers +in the reputation of their new-found organizations. + +There was no element of surprise to help the American Army when the +attack began again in full force on October 4. Where progress before had +been measured in miles, now it was counted in yards. Possibly it was +even a matter of feet at some points in the line. Yet always the +movement was forward. Weight of numbers and dogged courage proved that +machine-gun nests of the strongest sort were vulnerable. The Germans +counter-attacked constantly, but such tactics were actually welcomed by +the Americans as they brought the Germans into the open and gave our +riflemen and machine-gunners something at which to shoot. The +difficulties with which the Americans had to contend may be judged by +the fact that, according to an official report, the Germans had +machine-guns at intervals of every yard all along their line. + +The Argonne fighting produced many actions more important than the +rescue of the Lost Battalion, but hardly any as dramatic. The incident +could have happened only in the Argonne, where communication with +co-operating units was always difficult, and sometimes impossible. +Major Whittlesey's battalion, in making an attack through the forest, +gained their objectives, only to find that they were out of touch with +the American and French units with which they were co-operating. It is +not true, as sometimes reported, that Whittlesey pushed ahead beyond the +objectives which had been set for him. Nevertheless, he was so far away +from help as to make his chances of rescue small. German machine-guns +were behind him. His men were raked by fire from all sides. Yet their +position was a strong one and they hung on. Soon their rations were +gone. For more than twenty-four hours even their position was unknown to +the American Army. Eventually they were located by aeroplanes and an +attempt was made to supply them with food and ammunition. Even yet +rescue seemed a long chance. The Germans thought the battalion was at +their mercy and sent a messenger asking Whittlesey to surrender. He +refused, and the "Go to Hell" which has been put into his mouth as a +fitting expression for the occasion will probably go down in American +history in spite of the fact that Whittlesey has done his best to +convince people that he never said it. Several attacks were made in an +effort to rescue the Americans but without success until a force under +Lieutenant-Colonel Gene Houghton broke through and brought the exhausted +men back to safety. + +The last strongly fortified line of the Germans was the Kriemhilde, and +the second phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive had not been in progress +long before our men were astride the line at many points. But there was +still much desperate fighting to do before the Germans were completely +driven from their scientifically perfect positions. The honor of +actually breaching the line fell to the Fifth Corps, which entered the +line on October 14 and drove the Germans out after some fearful close +fighting. In the meantime the continual pressure of the American forces +was beginning to tell. Chatel-Chehery fell to the First Corps on October +7. On the 9th the Fifth Corps took Fleville, and the Third Corps, after +some desperate fighting, worked its way through Brieulles and Cunel. By +October 10 the Argonne Forest was practically clear of the enemy. + +One of the important factors in the Argonne campaign was aviation. +Aerial activity was great on both sides, since in no other campaign was +observation so difficult or so important. Both sides did a great deal of +day bombing, and during one such American foray the greatest battle of +the air took place. The American expedition consisted of thirty-four +machines. It was attacked by thirty-six Fokkers. Although the German +machines are faster, the American squadron managed to hold its +formation. Seven Fokker machines were brought down in the battle and +five American. + +All in all, the Meuse-Argonne campaign was one of the most remarkable in +the history of the war. Its second phase in particular is sure to be a +bone of contention for military experts. General Pershing himself +declared very frankly in his report to Secretary Baker that he had +purposely abandoned traditional military tactics in the campaign. "The +enemy," he wrote, "had taken every advantage of the terrain, which +especially favored the defense, by a prodigal use of machine-guns manned +by highly trained veterans, and by using his artillery at short ranges. +In the face of such strong frontal positions we should have been unable +to accomplish any progress according to previously accepted standards, +but I had every confidence in our aggressive tactics and the courage of +our troops." + +Such strategists as oppose the theory of the Meuse-Argonne campaign will +undoubtedly assert that American losses were high. In rebuttal defenders +of the plan of the campaign will say that the losses were very light +considering the nature of the fighting, and that the campaign shortened +the duration of the war appreciably by putting the Germans into a +position where they were compelled either to surrender or be +overwhelmed. But whatever decision may be reached by the experts, there +is no necessity of calling for testimony as to the part the American +soldier played in this campaign. It seems fair to say that he has never +shown more dogged courage or resourcefulness than in the fighting in the +forest. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +CEASE FIRING + + +Before taking up the final phases of the Meuse-Argonne campaign, and the +final phases of the war, it is fitting to follow the fortunes of some +divisions which saw action in other parts of the front. The Second +Corps, for example, remained with the British and saw desperately hard +service and won corresponding fame. This corps was composed of the +Twenty-seventh and Thirtieth Divisions, and in conjunction with the +Australian Corps it participated in the attack which broke the +Hindenburg line near St. Quentin. The Twenty-seventh Division had the +honor of being the first unit actually to breach the famous defensive +system of the Germans. + +The attack began on September 29 and continued through October 1. Both +divisions were compelled to advance over difficult terrain against +strongly fortified positions. They were raked from both sides by +machine-gun fire as they cut their way through innumerable lines of +barbed wire. But in spite of the determined resistance of the Germans, +they broke the line. The divisions also saw hard service from October 6 +to October 19. In these operations the Second Corps was credited with +the capture of more than 6,000 prisoners, and advanced into enemy +territory for a distance of thirteen miles. Marshal Haig expressed his +admiration of the conduct and achievements of both the American +divisions which served with his forces. + +American divisions also played an important role in conjunction with the +French when they assisted in an attack against the Germans just outside +of Rheims. This operation continued from October 2 to October 9 and was +marked by severe and bitter fighting. The American forces engaged were +the Second and Thirty-sixth Divisions. Perhaps the most noteworthy +achievement in the campaign was the capture of Blanc Mont by the Second +Division. Blanc Mont is a wooded hill, and was very strongly held by the +Germans. The Americans were repulsed in their first assault, but came +back and tried again. This time they swept the German defenders before +them. The assault by no means completed their labors, for after the +capture of the hill the division was called upon to repulse strong +counter-attacks in front of the village of St. Etienne. Not content with +driving the Germans back, the Second went on and took the town. The +Germans were forced to abandon positions they had held ever since the +autumn of 1914. + +By this time the Second Division had earned a rest, and it was relieved +by the Thirty-sixth. The relieving troops were inexperienced. They had +never been under fire, and the Germans subjected them to a severe +artillery strafing, but did not shake their confidence. The division +performed useful work in pursuing the Germans in their retirement behind +the Aisne. + +Other divisions saw service with the French in Belgium. After the ending +of the second phase of the Meuse-Argonne campaign, the Thirty-seventh +and Ninety-first Divisions were withdrawn and sent to join the French +near Ypres. They took part in a heavy attack on October 31. The +Thirty-seventh inflicted a severe defeat upon opposing troops at the +Escaut River on November 3, and the Ninety-first won much praise from +the French for a flanking movement which resulted in the capture of the +Spitaals Bosschen Wood. + +Although the German Army had begun to disintegrate by November 1, the +Americans saw some hard fighting after that date. The task set for +Pershing's men was in theory almost as difficult as clearing the Argonne +Forest. The offensive was aimed at the Longuyon-Sedan-Mezieres railway, +which was one of the most important lines of communication of the German +Army. Germany was aware of the gravity of this threat and used her very +best troops in an effort to stop the Americans. For a time the Germans +fought steadily, but their morale was waning at the end. The Americans +found on several occasions that their second-day gains were greater than +those of the first day, which was formerly an unheard of thing on the +western front. + +In the final days of the war the Americans had to go their fastest in an +effort to reach Sedan before the armistice went into effect. During one +phase of the battle doughboys mounted on auto-trucks went forward in a +vain effort to establish contact with the enemy. The roads were so bad, +however, that the Americans were unable to catch up with the fleeing +Germans. + +The third phase of the Meuse-Argonne campaign found the Americans +absolutely confident of success. They knew their superiority over the +Germans, and the American Army was constantly growing stronger while the +Germans grew weaker. Pershing was able to send well-rested divisions +into the battle. The final advance began on November 1. American +artillery was stronger than ever in numbers and much more experienced. +Never before had our army seen such a barrage, and the German infantry +broke before the advance of the doughboys. The German heart to fight had +begun to develop murmurs, although there were some units among the enemy +forces which fought with great gallantry until the very end. +Aincreville, Doulcon, and Andevanne fell in the first day of the attack. +Landres et St. Georges was next to go, as the Fifth Corps, in an +impetuous attack, swept up to Bayonville. On November 2, which was the +second day of the attack, the First Corps was called in to give added +pressure. By this time the German resistance was pretty well broken. It +was now that the motor-truck offensive began. Behind the trucks the +field-guns rattled along as the artillerymen spurred on their horses in +a vain effort to catch up with something at which they could shoot. At +the end of the third day of the attack the American Army had penetrated +the German line to a depth of twelve miles. A slight pause was then +necessary in order that the big guns might come up, but on November 5 +the Third Corps crossed the Meuse. They met a sporadic resistance from +German machine-gunners but swept them up with small losses. By the 7th +of November the chief objective of the offensive thrust was obtained. On +that day American troops, among them the Rainbow Division, reached +Sedan. Pershing's army had cut the enemy's line of communication. +Nothing but surrender or complete defeat was left to him. + +In estimating the extent of the American victory it is interesting to +note that General Pershing reported that forty enemy divisions +participated in the Meuse-Argonne battle. Our army took 26,059 prisoners +and captured 468 guns. Colonel Frederick Palmer estimates that 650,000 +American soldiers were engaged in the battle. This is a greater number +than were engaged at St. Mihiel, and it was, of course, a new mark in +the records of the American Army. Colonel Palmer has stated his opinion +that Meuse-Argonne was one of the four decisive battles of the war. The +other three which he names are the first battle of the Marne, the first +battle of Ypres, and Verdun. + +Curiously enough, Chateau-Thierry looms larger in the mind of the +average American than Meuse-Argonne, although the number of Americans +engaged in the former battle was not half as great as those who battered +their way through the forest. Of course the importance of a battle is +not to be judged solely by the number of men engaged, but there seems to +be no good reason for assigning a strategic importance to +Chateau-Thierry which is denied to Meuse-Argonne. Most of the military +critics are of the opinion that the wide-spread belief that the +Americans saved Paris at the battle of Chateau-Thierry is not literally +true. The American victory was a factor, to be sure. It was even an +important factor. Perhaps, from the point of view of morale, it was +vital, but judged by strict military standards there is no support for +the frequent assertion that only a few marines stood between Paris and +the triumphant entry of the German Army. Meuse-Argonne, on the other +hand, was not only a campaign solely under American control but a +large-scale battle which probably shortened the war by many months. This +victory was America's chief contribution in the field to the cause of +the Allies. It is on Meuse-Argonne that our military prestige will rest. +The divisions engaged were the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, +Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, Thirty-second, Thirty-third, +Thirty-fifth, Thirty-seventh, Forty-second, Seventy-seventh, +Seventy-eighth, Seventy-ninth, Eightieth, Eighty-second, Eighty-ninth, +Ninetieth, and Ninety-first. The First, Fifth, Twenty-sixth, +Forty-second, Seventy-seventh, Eightieth, Eighty-ninth, and Ninetieth +were particularly honored by being put in the line twice during the +campaign. + +Though the armistice was now close at hand the war had not ended. The +policy of allied leadership was to fight until the last minute lest +there should be some hitch. The American plans called for an advance +toward Longwy by the First Army in co-operation with the Second Army, +which was to threaten the Briey iron-fields. If the war had kept up, +this would have been followed by an offensive in the direction of +Chateau-Salins, with the ultimate object of cutting off Metz. The attack +of the Second Army was actually in progress when the time came set in +the armistice for the cessation of hostilities. At eleven o'clock the +hostilities ceased suddenly, although just before that the Second Army +was advancing against heavy and determined machine-gun fire, with both +sides apparently unwilling to believe that the war was almost over. At +other points in the line where no offensive was set for the last day, +the artillerymen had the final word to say. Most of the American guns +fired at the foe just before eleven o'clock, and in many batteries the +gunners joined hands to pull the lanyards so that all might have a share +in the final defiance to Germany. + +When the war ended, the American position ran from Port-sur-Seille +across the Moselle to Vandieres, through the Woevre to Bezonvaux, +thence to the Meuse at Mouzay, and ending at Sedan. There were abroad or +in transit 2,053,347 American soldiers, less the losses, and of these +there were 1,338,169 combatant troops in France. The American Army +captured about 44,000 prisoners and 1,400 guns. The figures on our +losses are not yet entirely checked up at the time of this writing, but +they were approximately 300,000 in killed, died of disease, wounded, and +missing. + +When he wrote his report to Secretary Baker, General Pershing reserved +his final paragraph for a tribute to his men, and in it he said: + +"Finally, I pay the supreme tribute to our officers and soldiers of the +line. When I think of their heroism, their patience under hardships, +their unflinching spirit of offensive action, I am filled with emotion +which I am unable to express. Their deeds are immortal, and they have +earned the eternal gratitude of our country." + + + + +GENERAL PERSHING'S REPORT + +BATTLES FOUGHT BY AMERICAN ARMIES IN FRANCE FROM THEIR ORGANIZATION TO +THE FALL OF SEDAN + +[CABLED BY GENERAL PERSHING TO MR. BAKER, SECRETARY OF WAR, AND MADE +PUBLIC WITH HIS ANNUAL REPORT, DEC. 5, 1918] + + +November 20, 1918. + +_My dear Mr. Secretary:_ In response to your request, I have the honor +to submit this brief summary of the organization and operation of the +American Expeditionary Force from May 26, 1917, until the signing of the +armistice Nov. 11, 1918. Pursuant to your instructions, immediately upon +receiving my orders I selected a small staff and proceeded to Europe in +order to become familiar with conditions at the earliest possible +moment. + +The warmth of our reception in England and France was only equalled by +the readiness of the Commanders in Chief of the veteran armies of the +Allies, and their staffs, to place their experience at our disposal. In +consultation with them the most effective means of co-operation of +effort was considered. With the French and British Armies at their +maximum strength, and when all efforts to dispossess the enemy from his +firmly intrenched positions in Belgium and France had failed, it was +necessary to plan for an American force adequate to turn the scale in +favor of the Allies. Taking account of the strength of the Central +Powers at that time, the immensity of the problem which confronted us +could hardly be overestimated. The first requisite being an organization +that could give intelligent direction to effort, the formation of a +General Staff occupied my early attention. + +A well-organized General Staff, through which the Commander exercises +his functions, is essential to a successful modern army. However capable +our division, our battalion, and our companies as such, success would be +impossible without thoroughly co-ordinated endeavor. A General Staff +broadly organized and trained for war had not hitherto existed in our +army. Under the Commander in Chief, this staff must carry out the policy +and direct the details of administration, supply, preparation, and +operations of the army as a whole, with all special branches and bureaus +subject to its control. As models to aid us we had the veteran French +General Staff and the experience of the British, who had similarly +formed an organization to meet the demands of a great army. By selecting +from each the features best adapted to our basic organization, and +fortified by our own early experience in the war, the development of our +great General Staff system was completed. + +The General Staff is naturally divided into five groups, each with its +chief, who is an assistant to the Chief of the General Staff. G. 1 is in +charge of organization and equipment of troops, replacements, tonnage, +priority of overseas shipment, the auxiliary welfare association, and +cognate subjects; G. 2 has censorship, enemy intelligence, gathering and +disseminating information, preparation of maps, and all similar +subjects; G. 3 is charged with all strategic studies and plans, movement +of troops, and the supervision of combat operations; G. 4 co-ordinates +important questions of supply, construction, transport arrangements for +combat, and of the operations of the service of supply, and of +hospitalization and the evacuation of the sick and wounded; G. 5 +supervises the various schools and has general direction and +co-ordination of education and training. + +The first Chief of Staff was Colonel (now Major Gen.) James G. Harbord, +who was succeeded in March, 1918, by Major Gen. James W. McAndrew. To +these officers, to the Deputy Chief of Staff, and to the Assistant +Chiefs of Staff, who, as heads of sections, aided them, great credit is +due for the results obtained, not only in perfecting the General Staff +organization, but in applying correct principles to the multiplicity of +problems that have arisen. + + +ORGANIZATION AND TRAINING + +After a thorough consideration of allied organizations, it was decided +that our combat division should consist of four regiments of infantry of +3,000 men, with three battalions to a regiment and four companies of 250 +men each to a battalion, and of an artillery brigade of three regiments, +a machine-gun battalion, an engineer regiment, a trench-mortar battery, +a signal battalion, wagon trains, and the headquarters staffs and +military police. These, with medical and other units, made a total of +over 28,000 men, or practically double the size of a French or German +division. Each corps would normally consist of six divisions--four +combat and one depot and one replacement division--and also two +regiments of cavalry, and each army of from three to five corps. With +four divisions fully trained, a corps could take over an American sector +with two divisions in line and two in reserve, with the depot and +replacement divisions prepared to fill the gaps in the ranks. + +Our purpose was to prepare an integral American force which should be +able to take the offensive in every respect. Accordingly, the +development of a self-reliant infantry by thorough drill in the use of +the rifle and in the tactics of open warfare was always uppermost. The +plan of training after arrival in France allowed a division one month +for acclimatization and instruction in small units from battalions down, +a second month in quiet trench sectors by battalion, and a third month +after it came out of the trenches when it should be trained as a +complete division in war of movement. + +Very early a system of schools was outlined and started which should +have the advantage of instruction by officers direct from the front. At +the great school centre at Langres, one of the first to be organized, +was the staff school, where the principles of general staff work, as +laid down in our own organization, were taught to carefully selected +officers. Men in the ranks who had shown qualities of leadership were +sent to the school of candidates for commissions. A school of the line +taught younger officers the principles of leadership, tactics, and the +use of the different weapons. In the artillery school, at Saumur, young +officers were taught the fundamental principles of modern artillery; +while at Issoudun an immense plant was built for training cadets in +aviation. These and other schools, with their well-considered +curriculums for training in every branch of our organization, were +co-ordinated in a manner best to develop an efficient army out of +willing and industrious young men, many of whom had not before known +even the rudiments of military technique. Both Marshal Haig and General +Petain placed officers and men at our disposal for instructional +purposes, and we are deeply indebted for the opportunities given to +profit by their veteran experience. + + +AMERICAN ZONE + +The eventual place the American Army should take on the western front +was to a large extent influenced by the vital questions of communication +and supply. The northern ports of France were crowded by the British +Armies' shipping and supplies, while the southern ports, though +otherwise at our service, had not adequate port facilities for our +purposes, and these we should have to build. The already overtaxed +railway system behind the active front in Northern France would not be +available for us as lines of supply, and those leading from the southern +ports of Northeastern France would be unequal to our needs without much +new construction. Practically all warehouses, supply depots, and +regulating stations must be provided by fresh constructions. While +France offered us such material as she had to spare after a drain of +three years, enormous quantities of material had to be brought across +the Atlantic. + +With such a problem any temporization or lack of definiteness in making +plans might cause failure even with victory within our grasp. Moreover, +broad plans commensurate with our national purpose and resources would +bring conviction of our power to every soldier in the front line, to the +nations associated with us in the war, and to the enemy. The tonnage for +material for necessary construction for the supply of an army of three +and perhaps four million men would require a mammoth programme of +shipbuilding at home, and miles of dock construction in France, with a +corresponding large project for additional railways and for storage +depots. + +All these considerations led to the inevitable conclusion that if we +were to handle and supply the great forces deemed essential to win the +war we must utilize the southern ports of France--Bordeaux, La Pallice, +St. Nazaire, and Brest--and the comparatively unused railway systems +leading therefrom to the northeast. Generally speaking, then, this would +contemplate the use of our forces against the enemy somewhere in that +direction, but the great depots of supply must be centrally located, +preferably in the area included by Tours, Bourges, and Chateauroux, so +that our armies could be supplied with equal facility wherever they +might be serving on the western front. + + +GROWTH OF SUPPLY SERVICE + +To build up such a system there were talented men in the Regular Army, +but more experts were necessary than the army could furnish. Thanks to +the patriotic spirit of our people at home, there came from civil life +men trained for every sort of work involved in building and managing the +organization necessary to handle and transport such an army and keep it +supplied. With such assistance the construction and general development +of our plans have kept pace with the growth of the forces, and the +Service of Supply is now able to discharge from ships and move 45,000 +tons daily, besides transporting troops and material in the conduct of +active operations. + +As to organization, all the administrative and supply services, except +the Adjutant General's, Inspector General's, and Judge Advocate +General's Departments, which remain at general headquarters, have been +transferred to the headquarters of the services of supplies at Tours +under a commanding General responsible to the Commander-in-Chief for +supply of the armies. The Chief Quartermaster, Chief Surgeon, Chief +Signal Officer, Chief of Ordnance, Chief of Air Service, Chief of +Chemical Warfare, the general purchasing agent in all that pertains to +questions of procurement and supply, the Provost Marshal General in the +maintenance of order in general, the Director General of Transportation +in all that affects such matters, and the Chief Engineer in all matters +of administration and supply, are subordinate to the Commanding General +of the Service of Supply, who, assisted by a staff especially organized +for the purpose, is charged with the administrative co-ordination of all +these services. + +The transportation department under the Service of Supply directs the +operation, maintenance, and construction of railways, the operation of +terminals, the unloading of ships, and transportation of material to +warehouses or to the front. Its functions make necessary the most +intimate relationship between our organization and that of the French, +with the practical result that our transportation department has been +able to improve materially the operations of railways generally. +Constantly laboring under a shortage of rolling stock, the +transportation department has nevertheless been able by efficient +management to meet every emergency. + +The Engineer Corps is charged with all construction, including light +railways and roads. It has planned and constructed the many projects +required, the most important of which are the new wharves at Bordeaux +and Nantes, and the immense storage depots at La Pallice, Mointoir, and +Glevres, besides innumerable hospitals and barracks in various ports of +France. These projects have all been carried on by phases keeping pace +with our needs. The Forestry Service under the Engineer Corps has cut +the greater part of the timber and railway ties required. + +To meet the shortage of supplies from America, due to lack of shipping, +the representatives of the different supply departments were constantly +in search of available material and supplies in Europe. In order to +co-ordinate these purchases and to prevent competition between our +departments, a general purchasing agency was created early in our +experience to co-ordinate our purchases and, if possible, induce our +allies to apply the principle among the allied armies. While there was +no authority for the general use of appropriations, this was met by +grouping the purchasing representatives of the different departments +under one control, charged with the duty of consolidating requisitions +and purchases. Our efforts to extend the principle have been signally +successful, and all purchases for the allied armies are now on an +equitable and co-operative basis. Indeed, it may be said that the work +of this bureau has been thoroughly efficient and businesslike. + + +ARTILLERY, AIRPLANES, TANKS + +Our entry into the war found us with few of the auxiliaries necessary +for its conduct in the modern sense. Among our most important +deficiencies in material were artillery, aviation, and tanks. In order +to meet our requirements as rapidly as possible, we accepted the offer +of the French Government to provide us with the necessary artillery +equipment of seventy-fives, one fifty-five millimeter howitzers, and one +fifty-five G. P. F. guns from their own factories for thirty divisions. +The wisdom of this course is fully demonstrated by the fact that, +although we soon began the manufacture of these classes of guns at home, +there were no guns of the calibres mentioned manufactured in America on +our front at the date the armistice was signed. The only guns of these +types produced at home thus far received in France are 109 seventy-five +millimeter guns. + +In aviation we were in the same situation, and here again the French +Government came to our aid until our own aviation programme should be +under way. We obtained from the French the necessary planes for training +our personnel, and they have provided us with a total of 2,676 pursuit, +observation, and bombing planes. The first airplanes received from home +arrived in May, and altogether we have received 1,379. The first +American squadron completely equipped by American production, including +airplanes, crossed the German lines on Aug. 7, 1918. As to tanks, we +were also compelled to rely upon the French. Here, however, we were less +fortunate, for the reason that the French production could barely meet +the requirements of their own armies. + +It should be fully realized that the French Government has always taken +a most liberal attitude, and has been most anxious to give us every +possible assistance in meeting our deficiencies in these as well as in +other respects. Our dependence upon France for artillery, aviation, and +tanks was, of course, due to the fact that our industries had not been +exclusively devoted to military production. All credit is due our own +manufacturers for their efforts to meet our requirements, as at the time +the armistice was signed we were able to look forward to the early +supply of practically all our necessities from our own factories. + +The welfare of the troops touches my responsibility as Commander in +Chief to the mothers and fathers and kindred of the men who came to +France in the impressionable period of youth. They could not have the +privilege accorded European soldiers during their periods of leave of +visiting their families and renewing their home ties. Fully realizing +that the standard of conduct that should be established for them must +have a permanent influence in their lives and on the character of their +future citizenship, the Red Cross, the Young Men's Christian +Association, Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army, and the Jewish +Welfare Board, as auxiliaries in this work, were encouraged in every +possible way. The fact that our soldiers, in a land of different customs +and language, have borne themselves in a manner in keeping with the +cause for which they fought, is due not only to the efforts in their +behalf, but much more to their high ideals, their discipline, and their +innate sense of self-respect. It should be recorded, however, that the +members of these welfare societies have been untiring in their desire to +be of real service to our officers and men. The patriotic devotion of +these representative men and women has given a new significance to the +Golden Rule, and we owe to them a debt of gratitude that can never be +repaid. + + +COMBAT OPERATIONS + +During our period of training in the trenches some of our divisions had +engaged the enemy in local combats, the most important of which was +Seicheprey by the 26th on April 20, in the Toul sector, but none had +participated in action as a unit. The 1st Division, which had passed +through the preliminary stages of training, had gone to the trenches for +its first period of instruction at the end of October, and by March 21, +when the German offensive in Picardy began, we had four divisions with +experience in the trenches, all of which were equal to any demands of +battle action. The crisis which this offensive developed was such that +our occupation of an American sector must be postponed. + +On March 28 I placed at the disposal of Marshal Foch, who had been +agreed upon as Commander in Chief of the Allied Armies, all of our +forces, to be used as he might decide. At his request the 1st Division +was transferred from the Toul sector to a position in reserve at +Chaumont en Vexin. As German superiority in numbers required prompt +action, an agreement was reached at the Abbeville conference of the +allied Premiers and commanders and myself on May 2 by which British +shipping was to transport ten American divisions to the British Army +area, where they were to be trained and equipped, and additional British +shipping was to be provided for as many divisions as possible for use +elsewhere. + +On April 26 the 1st Division had gone into the line in the Montdidier +salient on the Picardy battle-front. Tactics had been suddenly +revolutionized to those of open warfare, and our men, confident of the +results of their training, were eager for the test. On the morning of +May 28 this division attacked the commanding German position in its +front, taking with splendid dash the town of Cantigny and all other +objectives, which were organized and held steadfastly against vicious +counter-attacks and galling artillery fire. Although local, this +brilliant action had an electrical effect, as it demonstrated our +fighting qualities under extreme battle conditions, and also that the +enemy's troops were not altogether invincible. + + +HOLDING THE MARNE + +The Germans' Aisne offensive, which began on May 27, had advanced +rapidly toward the River Marne and Paris, and the Allies faced a crisis +equally as grave as that of the Picardy offensive in March. Again every +available man was placed at Marshal Foch's disposal, and the 3d +Division, which had just come from its preliminary training in the +trenches, was hurried to the Marne. Its motorized machine-gun battalion +preceded the other units and successfully held the bridgehead at the +Marne, opposite Chateau-Thierry. The 2d Division, in reserve near +Montdidier, was sent by motor trucks and other available transport to +check the progress of the enemy toward Paris. The division attacked and +retook the town and railroad station at Bouresches and sturdily held its +ground against the enemy's best guard divisions. In the battle of +Belleau Wood, which followed, our men proved their superiority and +gained a strong tactical position, with far greater loss to the enemy +than to ourselves. On July 1, before the 2d was relieved, it captured +the village of Vaux with most splendid precision. + +Meanwhile our 2d Corps, under Major Gen. George W. Read, had been +organized for the command of our divisions with the British, which were +held back in training areas or assigned to second-line defenses. Five of +the ten divisions were withdrawn from the British area in June, three to +relieve divisions in Lorraine, and in the Vosges and two to the Paris +area to join the group of American divisions which stood between the +city and any further advance of the enemy in that direction. + +The great June-July troop movement from the States was well under way, +and, although these troops were to be given some preliminary training +before being put into action, their very presence warranted the use of +all the older divisions in the confidence that we did not lack reserves. +Elements of the 42d Division were in the line east of Rheims against the +German offensive of July 15, and held their ground unflinchingly. On the +right flank of this offensive four companies of the 28th Division were +in position in face of the advancing waves of the German infantry. The +3d Division was holding the bank of the Marne from the bend east of the +mouth of the Surmelin to the west of Mezy, opposite Chateau-Thierry, +where a large force of German infantry sought to force a passage under +support of powerful artillery concentrations and under cover of smoke +screens. A single regiment of the 3d wrote one of the most brilliant +pages in our military annals on this occasion. It prevented the crossing +at certain points on its front while, on either flank, the Germans, who +had gained a footing, pressed forward. Our men, firing in three +directions, met the German attacks with counter-attacks at critical +points and succeeded in throwing two German divisions into complete +confusion, capturing 600 prisoners. + + +OFFENSIVE OF JULY 18 + +The great force of the German Chateau-Thierry offensive established the +deep Marne salient, but the enemy was taking chances, and the +vulnerability of this pocket to attack might be turned to his +disadvantage. Seizing this opportunity to support my conviction, every +division with any sort of training was made available for use in a +counter-offensive. The place of honor in the thrust toward Soissons on +July 18 was given to our 1st and 2d Divisions in company with chosen +French divisions. Without the usual brief warning of a preliminary +bombardment, the massed French and American artillery, firing by the +map, laid down its rolling barrage at dawn while the infantry began its +charge. The tactical handling of our troops under these trying +conditions was excellent throughout the action. The enemy brought up +large numbers of reserves and made a stubborn defense both with machine +guns and artillery, but through five days' fighting the 1st Division +continued to advance until it had gained the heights above Soissons and +captured the village of Berzy-le-Sec. The 2d Division took Beau Repaire +Farm and Vierzy in a very rapid advance and reached a position in front +of Tigny at the end of its second day. These two divisions captured +7,000 prisoners and over 100 pieces of artillery. + +The 26th Division, which, with a French division, was under command of +our 1st Corps, acted as a pivot of the movement toward Soissons. On the +18th it took the village of Torcy, while the 3d Division was crossing +the Marne in pursuit of the retiring enemy. The 26th attacked again on +the 21st, and the enemy withdrew past the Chateau-Thierry-Soissons road. +The 3d Division, continuing its progress, took the heights of Mont St. +Pere and the villages of Charteves and Jaulgonne in the face of both +machine-gun and artillery fire. + +On the 24th, after the Germans had fallen back from Trugny and Epieds, +our 42d Division, which had been brought over from the Champagne, +relieved the 26th, and, fighting its way through the Foret de Fere, +overwhelmed the nest of machine guns in its path. By the 27th it had +reached the Ourcq, whence the 3d and 4th Divisions were already +advancing, while the French divisions with which we were co-operating +were moving forward at other points. + +The 3d Division had made its advance into Roncheres Wood on the 29th and +was relieved for rest by a brigade of the 32d. The 42d and 32d undertook +the task of conquering the heights beyond Cierges, the 42d capturing +Sergy and the 32d capturing Hill 230, both American divisions joining in +the pursuit of the enemy to the Vesle, and thus the operation of +reducing the salient was finished. Meanwhile the 42d was relieved by the +4th at Chery-Chartreuve, and the 32d by the 28th, while the 77th +Division took up a position on the Vesle. The operations of these +divisions on the Vesle were under the 3d Corps, Major Gen. Robert L. +Bullard commanding. + + +BATTLE OF ST. MIHIEL + +With the reduction of the Marne salient, we could look forward to the +concentration of our divisions in our own zone. In view of the +forthcoming operation against the St. Mihiel salient, which had long +been planned as our first offensive action on a large scale, the First +Army was organized on Aug. 10 under my personal command. While American +units had held different divisional and corps sectors along the western +front, there had not been up to this time, for obvious reasons, a +distinct American sector; but, in view of the important parts the +American forces were now to play, it was necessary to take over a +permanent portion of the line. Accordingly, on Aug. 30, the line +beginning at Port sur Seille, east of the Moselle and extending to the +west through St. Mihiel, thence north to a point opposite Verdun, was +placed under my command. The American sector was afterward extended +across the Meuse to the western edge of the Argonne Forest, and +included the 2d Colonial French, which held the point of the salient, +and the 17th French Corps, which occupied the heights above Verdun. + +The preparation for a complicated operation against the formidable +defenses in front of us included the assembling of divisions and of +corps and army artillery, transport, aircraft, tanks, ambulances, the +location of hospitals, and the molding together of all the elements of a +great modern army with its own railheads, supplied directly by our own +Service of Supply. The concentration for this operation, which was to be +a surprise, involved the movement, mostly at night, of approximately +600,000 troops, and required for its success the most careful attention +to every detail. + +The French were generous in giving us assistance in corps and army +artillery, with its personnel, and we were confident from the start of +our superiority over the enemy in guns of all calibres. Our heavy guns +were able to reach Metz and to interfere seriously with German rail +movements. The French Independent Air Force was placed under my command, +which, together with the British bombing squadrons and our air forces, +gave us the largest assembly of aviators that had ever been engaged in +one operation on the western front. + +From Les Eparges around the nose of the salient at St. Mihiel to the +Moselle River the line was, roughly, forty miles long and situated on +commanding ground greatly strengthened by artificial defenses. Our 1st +Corps (82d, 90th, 5th, and 2d Divisions), under command of Major Gen. +Hunter Liggett, resting its right on Pont-a-Mousson, with its left +joining our 3d Corps (the 89th, 42d, and 1st Divisions), under Major +Gen. Joseph T. Dickman, in line to Xivray, was to swing toward +Vigneulles on the pivot of the Moselle River for the initial assault. +From Xivray to Mouilly the 2d Colonial French Corps was in line in the +centre, and our 5th Corps, under command of Major Gen. George H. +Cameron, with our 26th Division and a French division at the western +base of the salient, was to attack three difficult hills--Les Eparges, +Combres, and Amaranthe. Our 1st Corps had in reserve the 78th Division, +our 4th Corps the 3d Division, and our First Army the 35th and 91st +Divisions, with the 80th and 33d available. It should be understood that +our corps organizations are very elastic, and that we have at no time +had permanent assignments of divisions to corps. + +After four hours' artillery preparation, the seven American divisions in +the front line advanced at 5 A. M. on Sept. 12, assisted by a limited +number of tanks, manned partly by Americans and partly by French. These +divisions, accompanied by groups of wire cutters and others armed with +bangalore torpedoes, went through the successive bands of barbed wire +that protected the enemy's front-line and support trenches in +irresistible waves on schedule time, breaking down all defense of an +enemy demoralized by the great volume of our artillery fire and our +sudden approach out of the fog. + +Our 1st Corps advanced to Thiaucourt, while our 4th Corps curved back to +the southwest through Nonsard. The 2d Colonial French Corps made the +slight advance required of it on very difficult ground, and the 5th +Corps took its three ridges and repulsed a counterattack. A rapid march +brought reserve regiments of a division of the 5th Corps into Vigneulles +and beyond Fresnes-en-Woevre. At the cost of only 7,000 casualties, +mostly light, we had taken 16,000 prisoners and 443 guns, a great +quantity of material, released the inhabitants of many villages from +enemy domination, and established our lines in a position to threaten +Metz. This signal success of the American First Army in its first +offensive was of prime importance. The Allies found they had a +formidable army to aid them, and the enemy learned finally that he had +one to reckon with. + + +MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE, FIRST PHASE + +On the day after we had taken the St. Mihiel salient much of our corps +and army artillery which had operated at St. Mihiel, and our divisions +in reserve at other points, were already on the move toward the area +back of the line between the Meuse River and the western edge of the +Forest of Argonne. With the exception of St. Mihiel the old German front +line from Switzerland to the east of Rheims was still intact. In the +general attack all along the line the operations assigned the American +Army as the hinge of this allied offensive were directed toward the +important railroad communications of the German armies through Mezieres +and Sedan. The enemy must hold fast to this part of his lines, or the +withdrawal of his forces, with four years' accumulation of plants and +material, would be dangerously imperiled. + +The German Army had as yet shown no demoralization, and, while the mass +of its troops had suffered in morale, its first-class divisions, and +notably its machine-gun defense, were exhibiting remarkable tactical +efficiency as well as courage. The German General Staff was fully aware +of the consequences of a success on the Meuse-Argonne line. Certain that +he would do everything in his power to oppose us, the action was planned +with as much secrecy as possible and was undertaken with the +determination to use all our divisions in forcing decision. We expected +to draw the best German divisions to our front and to consume them while +the enemy was held under grave apprehension lest our attack should break +his line, which it was our firm purpose to do. + +Our right flank was protected by the Meuse, while our left embraced the +Argonne Forest, whose ravines, hills, and elaborate defense, screened by +dense thickets, had been generally considered impregnable. Our order of +battle from right to left was the 3d Corps from the Meuse to Malancourt, +with the 33d, 80th, and 4th Divisions in line and the 3d Division as +corps reserve; the 5th Corps from Malancourt to Vauquois, with the 79th, +87th, and 91st Divisions in line and the 32d in corps reserve, and the +1st Corps from Vauquois to Vienne le Chateau, with the 35th, 28th, and +77th Divisions in line and the 92d in corps reserve. The army reserve +consisted of the 1st, 29th, and 82d Divisions. + +On the night of Sept. 25 our troops quietly took the place of the +French, who thinly held the line in this sector, which had long been +inactive. In the attack which began on the 26th we drove through the +barbed-wire entanglements and the sea of shell craters across No Man's +Land, mastering all the first-line defenses. Continuing on the 27th and +28th, against machine guns and artillery of an increasing number of +enemy reserve divisions, we penetrated to a depth of from three to seven +miles and took the village of Montfaucon and its commanding hill and +Exermont, Gercourt, Cuisy, Septsarges, Malancourt, Ivoiry, Epinonville, +Charpentry, Very, and other villages. East of the Meuse one of our +divisions, which was with the 2d Colonial French Corps, captured +Marcheville and Rieville, giving further protection to the flank of our +main body. We had taken 10,000 prisoners, we had gained our point of +forcing the battle into the open, and were prepared for the enemy's +reaction, which was bound to come, as he had good roads and ample +railroad facilities for bringing up his artillery and reserves. + +In the chill rain of dark nights our engineers had to build new roads +across spongy, shell-torn areas, repair broken roads beyond No Man's +Land, and build bridges. Our gunners, with no thought of sleep, put +their shoulders to wheels and drag ropes to bring their guns through the +mire in support of the infantry, now under the increasing fire of the +enemy's artillery. Our attack had taken the enemy by surprise, but, +quickly recovering himself, he began to fire counter-attacks in strong +force, supported by heavy bombardments, with large quantities of gas. +From Sept. 28 until Oct. 4 we maintained the offensive against patches +of woods defended by snipers and continuous lines of machine guns, and +pushed forward our guns and transport, seizing strategical points in +preparation for further attacks. + + +OTHER UNITS WITH ALLIES + +Other divisions attached to the allied armies were doing their part. It +was the fortune of our 2d Corps, composed of the 27th and 30th +Divisions, which had remained with the British, to have a place of honor +in co-operation with the Australian Corps on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 in the +assault on the Hindenburg line where the St. Quentin Canal passes +through a tunnel under a ridge. The 30th Division speedily broke through +the main line of defense for all its objectives, while the 27th pushed +on impetuously through the main line until some of its elements reached +Gouy. In the midst of the maze of trenches and shell craters and under +crossfire from machine guns the other elements fought desperately +against odds. In this and in later actions, from Oct. 6 to Oct. 19, our +2d Corps captured over 6,000 prisoners and advanced over thirteen miles. +The spirit and aggressiveness of these divisions have been highly +praised by the British Army commander under whom they served. + +On Oct. 2-9 our 2d and 36th Divisions were sent to assist the French in +an important attack against the old German positions before Rheims. The +2d conquered the complicated defense works on their front against a +persistent defense worthy of the grimmest period of trench warfare and +attacked the strongly held wooded hill of Blanc Mont, which they +captured in a second assault, sweeping over it with consummate dash and +skill. This division then repulsed strong counter-attacks before the +village and cemetery of Ste. Etienne and took the town, forcing the +Germans to fall back from before Rheims and yield positions they had +held since September, 1914. On Oct. 9 the 36th Division relieved the 2d, +and in its first experience under fire withstood very severe artillery +bombardment and rapidly took up the pursuit of the enemy, now retiring +behind the Aisne. + + +MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE, SECOND PHASE + +The allied progress elsewhere cheered the efforts of our men in this +crucial contest, as the German command threw in more and more +first-class troops to stop our advance. We made steady headway in the +almost impenetrable and strongly held Argonne Forest, for, despite this +reinforcement, it was our army that was doing the driving. Our aircraft +was increasing in skill and numbers and forcing the issue, and our +infantry and artillery were improving rapidly with each new experience. +The replacements fresh from home were put into exhausted divisions with +little time for training, but they had the advantage of serving beside +men who knew their business and who had almost become veterans +overnight. The enemy had taken every advantage of the terrain, which +especially favored the defense, by a prodigal use of machine guns manned +by highly trained veterans and by using his artillery at short ranges. +In the face of such strong frontal positions we should have been unable +to accomplish any progress according to previously accepted standards, +but I had every confidence in our aggressive tactics and the courage of +our troops. + +On Oct. 4 the attack was renewed all along our front. The 3d Corps, +tilting to the left, followed the Brieulles-Cunel road; our 5th Corps +took Gesnes, while the 1st Corps advanced for over two miles along the +irregular valley of the Aire River and in the wooded hills of the +Argonne that bordered the river, used by the enemy with all his art and +weapons of defense. This sort of fighting continued against an enemy +striving to hold every foot of ground and whose very strong +counter-attacks challenged us at every point. On the 7th the 1st Corps +captured Chatal-Chenery and continued along the river to Cornay. On the +east of Meuse sector one of the two divisions, co-operating with the +French, captured Consenvoye and the Haumont Woods. On the 9th the 5th +Corps, in its progress up the Aire, took Fleville, and the 3d Corps, +which had continuous fighting against odds, was working its way through +Brieulles and Cunel. On the 10th we had cleared the Argonne Forest of +the enemy. + +It was now necessary to constitute a second army, and on Oct. 9 the +immediate command of the First Army was turned over to Lieut. Gen. +Hunter Liggett. The command of the Second Army, whose divisions +occupied a sector in the Woevre, was given to Lieut. Gen. Robert L. +Bullard, who had been commander of the 1st Division and then of the 3d +Corps. Major Gen. Dickman was transferred to the command of the 1st +Corps, while the 5th Corps was placed under Major Gen. Charles P. +Summerall, who had recently commanded the 1st Division. Major Gen. John +L. Hines, who had gone rapidly up from regimental to division commander, +was assigned to the 3d Corps. These four officers had been in France +from the early days of the expedition and had learned their lessons in +the school of practical warfare. + +Our constant pressure against the enemy brought day by day more +prisoners, mostly survivors from machine-gun nests captured in fighting +at close quarters. On Oct. 18 there was very fierce fighting in the +Caures Woods east of the Meuse and in the Ormont Woods. On the 14th the +1st Corps took St. Juvin, and the 5th Corps, in hand-to-hand encounters, +entered the formidable Kriemhilde line, where the enemy had hoped to +check us indefinitely. Later the 5th Corps penetrated further the +Kriemhilde line, and the 1st Corps took Champigneulles and the important +town of Grandpre. Our dogged offensive was wearing down the enemy, who +continued desperately to throw his best troops against us, thus +weakening his line in front of our allies and making their advance less +difficult. + + +DIVISIONS IN BELGIUM + +Meanwhile we were not only able to continue the battle, but our 37th and +91st Divisions were hastily withdrawn from our front and dispatched to +help the French Army in Belgium. Detraining in the neighborhood of +Ypres, these divisions advanced by rapid stages to the fighting line and +were assigned to adjacent French corps. On Oct. 31, in continuation of +the Flanders offensive, they attacked and methodically broke down all +enemy resistance. On Nov. 3 the 37th had completed its mission in +dividing the enemy across the Escaut River and firmly established itself +along the east bank included in the division zone of action. By a clever +flanking movement troops of the 91st Division captured Spitaals +Bosschen, a difficult wood extending across the central part of the +division sector, reached the Escaut, and penetrated into the town of +Audenarde. These divisions received high commendation from their corps +commanders for their dash and energy. + + +MEUSE-ARGONNE--LAST PHASE + +On the 23d the 3d and 5th Corps pushed northward to the level of +Bantheville. While we continued to press forward and throw back the +enemy's violent counter-attacks with great loss to him, a regrouping of +our forces was under way for the final assault. Evidences of loss of +morale by the enemy gave our men more confidence in attack and more +fortitude in enduring the fatigue of incessant effort and the hardships +of very inclement weather. + +With comparatively well-rested divisions, the final advance in the +Meuse-Argonne front was begun on Nov. 1. Our increased artillery force +acquitted itself magnificently in support of the advance, and the enemy +broke before the determined infantry, which, by its persistent fighting +of the past weeks and the dash of this attack, had overcome his will to +resist. The 3d Corps took Ancreville, Doulcon, and Andevanne, and the +5th Corps took Landres et St. Georges and pressed through successive +lines of resistance to Bayonville and Chennery. On the 2d the 1st Corps +joined in the movement, which now became an impetuous onslaught that +could not be stayed. + +On the 3d advance troops surged forward in pursuit, some by motor +trucks, while the artillery pressed along the country roads close +behind. The 1st Corps reached Authe and Chatillon-sur-Bar, the 5th +Corps, Fosse and Nouart, and the 3d Corps, Halles, penetrating the +enemy's line to a depth of twelve miles. Our large-calibre guns had +advanced and were skillfully brought into position to fire upon the +important lines at Montmedy, Longuyon, and Conflans. Our 3d Corps +crossed the Meuse on the 5th, and the other corps, in the full +confidence that the day was theirs, eagerly cleared the way of machine +guns as they swept northward, maintaining complete co-ordination +throughout. On the 6th a division of the 1st Corps reached a point on +the Meuse opposite Sedan, twenty-five miles from our line of departure. +The strategical goal which was our highest hope was gained. We had cut +the enemy's main line of communications, and nothing but surrender or an +armistice could save his army from complete disaster. + +In all forty enemy divisions had been used against us in the +Meuse-Argonne battle. Between Sept. 26 and Nov. 6 we took 26,059 +prisoners and 468 guns on this front. Our divisions engaged were the +1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 32d, 33d, 35th, 37th, 42d, +77th, 78th, 79th, 80th, 82d, 89th, 90th, and 91st. Many of our divisions +remained in line for a length of time that required nerves of steel, +while others were sent in again after only a few days of rest. The 1st, +5th, 26th, 42d, 77th, 80th, 89th, and 90th were in the line twice. +Although some of the divisions were fighting their first battle, they +soon became equal to the best. + + +EAST OF THE MEUSE + +On the three days preceding Nov. 10, the 3d, the 2d Colonial, and the +17th French Corps fought a difficult struggle through the Meuse hills +south of Stenay and forced the enemy into the plain. Meanwhile, my plans +for further use of the American forces contemplated an advance between +the Meuse and the Moselle in the direction of Longwy by the First Army, +while, at the same time, the Second Army should assure the offensive +toward the rich coal fields of Briey. These operations were to be +followed by an offensive toward Chateau-Salins east of the Moselle, thus +isolating Metz. Accordingly, attacks on the American front had been +ordered, and that of the Second Army was in progress on the morning of +Nov. 11 when instructions were received that hostilities should cease at +11 o'clock A. M. + +At this moment the line of the American sector, from right to left, +began at Port-sur-Seille, thence across the Moselle to Vandieres and +through the Woevre to Bezonvaux, in the foothills of the Meuse, thence +along to the foothills and through the northern edge of the Woevre +forests to the Meuse at Mouzay, thence along the Meuse connecting with +the French under Sedan. + + +RELATIONS WITH THE ALLIES + +Co-operation among the Allies has at all times been most cordial. A far +greater effort has been put forth by the allied armies and staffs to +assist us than could have been expected. The French Government and Army +have always stood ready to furnish us with supplies, equipment, and +transportation, and to aid us in every way. In the towns and hamlets +wherever our troops have been stationed or billeted the French people +have everywhere received them more as relatives and intimate friends +than as soldiers of a foreign army. For these things words are quite +inadequate to express our gratitude. There can be no doubt that the +relations growing out of our associations here assure a permanent +friendship between the two peoples. Although we have not been so +intimately associated with the people of Great Britain, yet their troops +and ours when thrown together have always warmly fraternized. The +reception of those of our forces who have passed through England and of +those who have been stationed there has always been enthusiastic. +Altogether it has been deeply impressed upon us that the ties of +language and blood bring the British and ourselves together completely +and inseparably. + + +STRENGTH + +There are in Europe altogether, including a regiment and some sanitary +units with the Italian Army and the organizations at Murmansk, also +including those en route from the States, approximately 2,053,347 men, +less our losses. Of this total there are in France 1,338,169 combatant +troops. Forty divisions have arrived, of which the infantry personnel of +ten have been used as replacements, leaving thirty divisions now in +France organized into three armies of three corps each. + +The losses of the Americans up to Nov. 18 are: Killed and wounded, +36,145; died of disease, 14,811; deaths unclassified, 2,204; wounded, +179,625; prisoners, 2,163; missing, 1,160. We have captured about 44,000 +prisoners and 1,400 guns, howitzers, and trench mortars. + +COMMENDATION + +The duties of the General Staff, as well as those of the army and corps +staffs, have been very ably performed. Especially is this true when we +consider the new and difficult problems with which they have been +confronted. This body of officers, both as individuals and as an +organization, has, I believe, no superiors in professional ability, in +efficiency, or in loyalty. + +Nothing that we have in France better reflects the efficiency and +devotion to duty of Americans in general than the Service of Supply, +whose personnel is thoroughly imbued with a patriotic desire to do its +full duty. They have at all times fully appreciated their responsibility +to the rest of the army, and the results produced have been most +gratifying. + +Our Medical Corps is especially entitled to praise for the general +effectiveness of its work, both in hospital and at the front. Embracing +men of high professional attainments, and splendid women devoted to +their calling and untiring in their efforts, this department has made a +new record for medical and sanitary proficiency. + +The Quartermaster Department has had difficult and various tasks, but it +has more than met all demands that have been made upon it. Its +management and its personnel have been exceptionally efficient and +deserve every possible commendation. + +As to the more technical services, the able personnel of the Ordnance +Department in France has splendidly fulfilled its functions, both in +procurement and in forwarding the immense quantities of ordnance +required. The officers and men and the young women of the Signal Corps +have performed their duties with a large conception of the problem, and +with a devoted and patriotic spirit to which the perfection of our +communications daily testifies. While the Engineer Corps has been +referred to in another part of this report, it should be further stated +that the work has required large vision and high professional skill, and +great credit is due their personnel for the high proficiency that they +have constantly maintained. + +Our aviators have no equals in daring or in fighting ability, and have +left a record of courageous deeds that will ever remain a brilliant page +in the annals of our army. While the Tank Corps has had limited +opportunities, its personnel has responded gallantly on every possible +occasion, and has shown courage of the highest order. + +The Adjutant General's Department has been directed with a systematic +thoroughness and excellence that surpassed any previous work of its +kind. The Inspector General's Department has risen to the highest +standards, and throughout has ably assisted commanders in the +enforcement of discipline. The able personnel of the Judge Advocate +General's Department has solved with judgment and wisdom the multitude +of difficult legal problems, many of them involving questions of great +international importance. + +It would be impossible in this brief preliminary report to do justice to +the personnel of all the different branches of this organization, which +I shall cover in detail in a later report. + +The navy in European waters has at all times most cordially aided the +army, and it is most gratifying to report that there has never before +been such perfect co-operation between these two branches of the +service. + +As to the Americans in Europe not in the military service, it is the +greatest pleasure to say that, both in official and in private life, +they are intensely patriotic and loyal, and have been invariably +sympathetic and helpful to the army. + +Finally, I pay the supreme tribute to our officers and soldiers of the +line. When I think of their heroism, their patience under hardships, +their unflinching spirit of offensive action, I am filled with emotion +which I am unable to express. Their deeds are immortal, and they have +earned the eternal gratitude of our country. + +I am, Mr. Secretary, very respectfully, + +JOHN J. PERSHING, + +_General, Commander in Chief, +American Expeditionary Forces._ + +To the Secretary of War. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Army at the Front, by Heywood Broun + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT *** + +***** This file should be named 36514.txt or 36514.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/5/1/36514/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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