The knowledge that there were over a million American troops facing the enemy on the battle fronts in Europe came as a decided shock to the German army and people, who were forced to realize the failure of their submarine campaign.
AMERICANS PROVE THEIR METTLE
After the American forces in France had their first serious encounter with the Germans on April 20 at Seicheprey, a village near Renners forest, which they recovered from the enemy in a gallant counter-attack, the fighting was of a more or less local character throughout the rest of the month and in May, with varying fortunes.
On May 27 the Germans began another great offensive, taking the Chemin des Dames from the French and crossing the Aisne. On the following day they crossed the Vesle river at Fismes. But on this day also the Americans won their first notable victory, by capturing the village of Cantigny and taking 200 prisoners. The United States marines added to their laurels in this fight and held the position firmly against many subsequent counter-attacks.
Continuing their drive toward Paris, the Germans occupied Soissons on May 29, Fère-en-Tardenois May 30, and next day reached Chateau Thierry and other points on the Marne, where they were halted by the French.
In the early days of June several towns and villages fell to the Germans, but the French by counter-attacks recaptured Longpont, Corcy, and some other places. On June 6 American marines by a spirited attack gained two miles on a two and a half mile front, taking Hill 142 near Torcy and entering Torcy itself. The following day, with French aid, they completed the capture of Vilny, Belleau, and important heights nearby. In another battle northwest of Chateau Thierry the Americans advanced nearly two and a half miles on a six-mile front, taking about 300 prisoners.
These battles confirmed the impression that the American troops as fighters were equal to their allies.
ANOTHER ENEMY OFFENSIVE
On June 9 the Germans began the fourth phase of their offensive, planned by their high command to enforce peace. They attacked between Montdidier and the Oise, advancing about four miles and taking several villages. On the next day they claimed the capture of 8,000 French. The same day the American marines took the greater part of Belleau Wood. On June 11 they completed the capture of Belleau Wood, taking 300 prisoners, machine guns and mortars. The French at the same time defeated the Germans between Rubescourt and St. Maur, taking 1,000 prisoners. Other battles followed on the 12th and 13th, but on the 14th the latest German offensive was pronounced a costly failure.
From this time to the end of the month the fighting was of a less serious character, though the Americans in the Belleau and Vaux region gave the Germans no rest, attacking them continually and taking prisoners at will.
JULY 4 CELEBRATED ABROAD
America's Independence day, 1918, was officially celebrated in England, France, and Italy, as well as in the United States, making it a truly historic occasion. On that day Americans assisted the Australians in taking Hamel with many prisoners. On the 8th and 9th the French advanced in the region of Longpont and northwest of Compiègne, taking Castel and other strong points near the west bank of the Avre river. July 14, the French national holiday, was generally observed in America and by the American soldiers in France. Then, on July 15, the Germans began the fifth and disastrous last phase of the offensive which they started in the spring, on March 21.
STINGING DEFEAT FOR AUSTRIA
But Italy meanwhile had scored a great success against the Austrians. French and British regiments, with some Americans, were helping to hold the Italian line when, on June 15, the Austrians, driven by their German masters, began an offensive along a 100-mile front, crossing the Piave river in several places. For two days they continued violent attacks, penetrating to within 20 miles of Venice, at Capo Silo. Then the Italians, British, and French counter-attacked with great vigor and soon turned the Austrian offensive into a great rout, killing thousands, taking other thousands prisoner, and capturing a vast amount of war material, including many of the Austrian heavy-caliber guns. The entire Austrian, plan to advance into the rich Italian plains, where they hoped to find great stores of food for their hungry soldiers, resulted in miserable failure.
The defeat increased the discontent in Austria-Hungary and added to the bad feeling entertained towards Germany. Peace feelers were thrown out by Austrian statesmen, but the continued influence of German militarism prevented them from receiving serious attention by the Allies.
A WATERLOO FOR THE CROWN PRINCE
When the German divisions of the Crown Prince of Prussia began their last desperate offensive on July 15, they attacked from Chateau Thierry on the west to Massiges, along a 65-mile front, crossing the Marne at several places.
East and west of Reims the battle raged, with the Allies holding strongly everywhere and the Germans suffering heavy losses. The enemy aimed at Chalons and Epernay and hoped by turning the French flank at Reims to capture the cathedral city without a direct assault upon its formidable defenses. General Gouraud, the hero of Gallipoli, was in command of the French forces on the right, while General Mangin and General de Goutte held the left. Most of the Americans taking part in the battle were under the command of these noted generals, and strong Italian and British forces were with General Gouraud's army. The French constituted about 70 per cent of the Allies engaged.
GENERAL FOCH STRIKES
In a single day the German offensive was effectually blocked at the Marne. Despite the enemy's utmost efforts he could make no further advance.
Then Foch, the great French strategist and Allied generalissimo, struck the blow for which he had patiently bided his time!
Apparently having advance information of the German plans, or perhaps surmising them, General Foch had been preparing a surprise for the Crown Prince. In the forest of Villers-Cotterets on the German right flank, he had quietly massed large forces, including some of the best French regiments, together with the foreign legion, Moroccan and other crack troops, and many Americans. Everything possible had been done to keep these troop movements secret from the enemy.
On Thursday morning, July 18, 1918, a heavy attack was launched in force at the Germans under General von Boehm all along the line from Chateau Thierry on the Marne to the Aisne river northwest of Soissons.
The Germans were taken completely by surprise, and town after town was captured from them with comparatively slight resistance. When the first shock of surprise was over, their resistance stiffened, but the Allies continued to advance. Mounted cavalry were once more used to assist the infantry in the open, while tanks in large numbers were used to clear out enemy machine-gun nests.
The American troops, fighting side by side with the French, did their work in a manner to excite the admiration of their allies, and acquitted themselves like veterans. Thousands of prisoners were taken, with large numbers of heavy guns and great stores of ammunition, besides thousands of machine guns, many of which were turned against the enemy. The strategy of General Foch received world-wide applause. His master stroke met with immediate success.
By the 20th of July Soissons was threatened by the Allies. The Germans, finding themselves caught in a dangerous salient and attacked fiercely on both flanks, hurriedly retreated to the north bank of the Marne and were rapidly pressed back farther. Their condition was critical and the German Crown Prince was obliged to call for assistance from Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, commanding in the north. Taking advantage of this, the British and French in the north made frequent attacks, gaining ground and taking prisoners at numerous points.
For ten days the Allies continued their victorious progress on both sides of the Soissons-Reims salient, the Germans continuing to retire under strong pressure. They were forced back to the Oureq river, then to the Vesle, where they made a determined stand. Fère-en-Tardenois and Fismes fell into the hands of the victorious French and Americans, the latter gaining a notable victory in the occupation of Fismes over the vaunted Prussian guards, who had been brought up to endeavor to stay their progress. The first week of August saw most of the Reims salient wiped out by the German retreat, while rear-guard actions were being fought along the Vesle as the Germans sought defensive positions farther in the rear.
The prisoners captured by the Allies in their drive up to that time numbered more than 35,000 and more than 700 heavy guns also fell into their possession, with immense quantities of ammunition and stores. The Germans, however, succeeded in destroying many of the ammunition dumps and vast supplies which had been stored in the salient for their expected drive on Paris.
As they retired the Germans burned many of the occupied French villages, pursuing their usual policy. As many as forty fires were observed on the horizon at one time as the Allies advanced.
Soissons was retaken on August 2, and the valley of the Crise was crossed by the Allies, who dominated the plains in the German rear with their big guns.
The German losses in the great battle and retreat from the Marne were variously estimated at from 120,000 to 200,000. General von Boehm avoided a first-class disaster, but his defeat was a serious one and had far-reaching moral consequences among the enemy.
It was estimated that from the beginning of their offensive in March, the German armies lost more than 1,000,000 men in killed, wounded and prisoners. The Austrians in their ill-fated offensive of 1918 lost more than 250,000 men.
FOCH A MARSHAL OF FRANCE
On August 6 General Ferdinand Foch, commander-in-chief of the Allied forces, was elevated by the French council of ministers to the rank of a Marshal of France. In presenting his name Premier Clemenceau said:
"At the hour when the enemy, by a formidable offensive, counted on snatching the decision and imposing a German peace upon us, General Foch and his admirable troops vanquished him. Paris is not in danger, Soissons and Chateau Thierry have been reconquered, and more than villages have been delivered. The glorious Allied armies have thrown the enemy from the banks of the Marne to the Aisne."
AMERICANS AT FISMES
The American troops covered themselves with glory at many points in the Allied drive, notably in the hand-to-hand fighting in the streets of Fismes on August 4, when they captured that German base. The fighting was said to have been the bitterest of the whole war, the Prussian guards asking no quarter and being bayoneted or clubbed to death as they stood by their machine guns.
BRITISH VICTORY IN THE NORTH
On the Amiens front, in Picardy, the British Fourth Army, under General Rawlinson, and the French First Army, under General Debentry, stormed the German positions on August 8 on a front of over 20 miles, capturing 14,000 prisoners and 150 guns, and making an advance of over seven miles.
ALLIED GAINS IN PICARDY
Before the Germans had time to recover from the surprise of Marshal Foch's attack on the Marne, and while they were still retreating to the Vesle, the Allies delivered another heavy blow, this time on the Albert-Montdidier front in Picardy. Here the British and French suddenly attacked in force on the morning of August 8, stormed the enemy positions along a thirty-mile front and on the first day of the attack penetrated to a depth of seven miles.
For several days the enemy retreated, closely pursued by allied cavalry and tanks, which for the first time fought in a combination that proved irresistible. The tanks used were of a new small variety, known as "whippets," which rapidly wiped out the machine-gun nests with which the enemy sought to stem the tide of the victorious onrush. Some American troops fought with the British in their advance and gained high praise from the Allied commanders.
By August 15 the total number of prisoners captured by the British Fourth Army, under General Rawlinson, was 21,844. In the same period of one week the prisoners taken by the French First Army amounted to 8,500, making a total of 30,344 Germans captured in the operations of the Allied armies on the Montdidier-Albert front, besides 700 heavy guns, quantities of machine guns, and other important spoils of war.
North of the Somme, between Albert and Arras, the Germans continued to fall back to the old Hindenburg line, where there were strong defensive positions, with the British and French keeping in close touch with their retreat. On August 15 they had definitely given up the towns of Beaumont-Hamel, Serre, Bucquoy, and Puisieux-au-Mont, and at several points had crossed the Ancre river.
Field Marshal Haig announced that the proportion of German losses to those of the Allies in the Picardy offensive were greater than at any other period of the war. The total Allied casualties were not as large as the number of Germans taken prisoner.
JOY IN AMIENS AND PARIS
One important result of the British drive was that Amiens, the "dead city of Picardy," began to come to life again. Its population of 150,000, including 40,000 refugees, had fled before the German offensive in March, 1918, but the former inhabitants began to return when the menace of the invader disappeared, as the invader himself was chased back toward the Somme. A service of thanks to the Allied arms was held in the Great Cathedral of Notre Dame in Amiens, August 15. Despite the damage from German guns and bombs, the cathedral retained the title of the most beautiful in all France.
The city of Paris, at the same time, quietly celebrated the great change in the situation wrought in one short month. Just four weeks before, on July 18, the residents of Paris had been awakened by the sounds of such a cannonade as they never had heard before. It was General Mangin's counter-preparation against the great German attack which the enemy believed was to bring him to the gates of Paris. In the meantime the Germans, who were at the gates of Amiens, Reims, and Compiegne, had been soundly beaten and outgeneraled at every point, and the initiative had been forced from them by the military genius of Marshal Foch. The effect upon the Germans was apparent from the fact that General Hans von Boehm, the German "retreat specialist" had been appointed to the supreme command on the Somme front. The German withdrawal north of Albert was looked upon as the first application of his tactics. It was General von Boehm and his former command, the German Eighth Army, that stood the brunt of the Allied pressure in the Marne salient previous to the retreat of the Huns to the north of the Vesle river, where they were still standing in the middle of August.
BOLSHEVIKI EXECUTE EX-CZAR
Former Czar Nicholas of Russia was executed by the Bolsheviki in July, 1918, having been held as a prisoner since his dethronement.
Battle Line on the Western Front August 21,
Shaded portions of map show territory gained by American and Allied troops during July and August, 1918. Most of the territory gained by the Germans in their 1918 offensive was recaptured by the Allies before September 1, 1918.
AMERICANS AT CHATEAU THIERRY
Personal Accounts of Battle—Gas and Shell Shock—Marines Under Fire—Americans Can Fight and Yell—Getting to the Front Under Difficulties—The Big Day Dawns—The Shells Come Fast—A Funeral at the Front—Impression of a French Lieutenant— Keeping the Germans on the Run.
The name of Chateau Thierry will be long remembered in the United States, for it was there the American fighting quality was for the first time clearly impressed upon the Germans, to their immense astonishment, and with far-reaching effect. The German people and the German army had been told that the United States had no army, navy, or fighting quality; that the talk of an American army in Europe was "Yankee bluff," and nothing more; that even if we could raise an army we could not send it across the ocean, first because we had no ships, second because if we had ships the submarines of Germany would surely sink them. Yet here at Chateau Thierry they were confronted by United States troops and soundly beaten.
That effect upon the Germans was in itself of tremendous significance; but the historic effect was greater, and will grow in importance with the passage of time, for it is a fact, unperceived by onlooking nations at the moment, that it was the turning point of the war; and that the turning was accomplished by troops of a nation that hated war and was supposed to be incapable of military development; and that these troops had met and whipped the choicest troops of a power that above all things was military, that had assumed proprietary rights in the art of war, and believed itself invincible.
Late in February, 1918, General Ludendorff had told a Berlin newspaper correspondent that on the first of April he would be in Paris. It was inconceivable to the Germans that with the thorough preparation of a mighty army for an offensive that by sheer weight of numbers should drive through an opposition twenty times as strong as that which then confronted them, they could not with ease push in between the French and British forces, thrust straight through to Paris (as a spectacular performance rather than a vital military operation), and then walk over to the channel ports of France and bring both France and England to a plea for mercy.
From the 21st of March until along in May, 1918, it looked as though they might succeed. That is, to anyone unaware of the strategy of Marshal Foch, who sold terrain by the foot for awful prices in German lives, and held an unbroken front until such time as American forces could be brought into action, instead of wearing out his reserves and weakening his power for an offensive.
Unity of command had been accomplished by that time at the urgent demand of the United States Government. Foch had saved France and the world at the first battle of the Marne. Being given supreme authority over all the allied forces, as soon as the arrival of American troops in great numbers had been thoroughly established, he was ready; and the offensive passed from German to allied hands.
The tremendous German drive, which Ludendorff had confidently promised the German people would bring a smashing and decisive victory, was stopped. Retrocession began. On the Marne again, in July, 1918, in the sector held by Americans an action began at Chateau Thierry which forced the German retreat that in a few weeks was to shake the heart of Germany, scare out Bulgaria, Austria and Turkey, in the early autumn bring Germany to a plea for peace, send Ludendorff himself into retirement, dethrone the Kaiser, do away with the imperial form of government, set up a republic, and create conditions that would quash for all time the power of Prussia to disturb a decent world.
Floyd Gibbons, correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, a noncombatant who wanted to see the combat he was there to report, was in that memorable action. He lost his left eye there, and was otherwise severely shattered, but he got his story through. His home paper some months afterward gave Gibbons well earned credit for that contribution to current history. It said he "helped to put the Marines where they belong in the war's history, for he was with them in their early exploits and fell in one of their battles. Six thousand out of 8,000 engaged was their toll. They fought with the French through Belleau Wood, heartening the brave, tired, discouraged poilus, and after they came out upon the other side the name of the battlefield was changed to the 'Wood of the American Marines.' Mr. Gibbons says that when Marshal Foch began his great offensive, which in cosmic importance is second only to creation, he selected the units in which he had the most faith. These units were chosen not because they were braver nor more sacrificial, but because they knew. They were the Foreign Legion of France, two divisions of American Regulars, and the United States Marines."
From that day there was no change in the favorable fortunes of war on the western front.
AMERICANS CAN FIGHT AND YELL
An eyewitness of the first days of the Chateau Thierry battle thus describes the capture of the Beauleau wood:
"The Americans moved stealthily with fixed bayonet until they got into the edge of the woods and atop of the German machine gun-tiers. Then the farm boys cheered, and the lumberjacks shouted, and the Indians yelled. They were where they could mix it at close range with the Boche, and that was what they wanted.
"Their yells could be heard a mile away. They were up against two of the Kaiser's redoubtable divisions, the Two Hundredth Jaegers and the Two Hundred and Sixteenth reserve division. They fought with vim and joy.
"They had lost comrades at the hands of the Germans and now were to avenge them. No quarter was asked or expected. The Germans had orders to fight to the death and the Americans needed no such order.
"Without much artillery on either side and without gas, the Americans fought the Germans through that woods, four kilometers (nearly three miles) long, for six hours. At last we got through and took up a position across the northern end of the woods.
"Perhaps the most sensational part of the fight was when about Germans got around behind our men. They were chased into a clearing, where the Americans went at them from all sides with the bayonet, and I am told that three prisoners were all that were left of the Germans."
"How did you do it?" inquired a dazed Prussian officer, taken prisoner at Chateau Thierry by an American soldier. "We are storm troops."
"Storm hell!" said the American. "I come from Kansas, where we have cyclones."
That was and is the idea. This spirit enabled American soldiers to go wherever they wanted to go. A European officer on observation duty with the United States force at Chateau Thierry wanted to know how our soldiers got through as they did.
"They seem to have been trained somewhere," he said, "for they fight all right. But that doesn't explain to me the way they keep going."
The American officer with whom he was talking gave this explanation:
"They were thoroughly trained in our camps at home in all but one thing. They were not trained to stop going."
It was a splendid exhibition, the first of many of its kind.
A PERSONAL ACCOUNT
The following is one of hundreds of thrilling experience stories that could be told by officers and men who fought at that front.
Details of the participation of the United States Marines in the counter-attack of the allies against German forces on the Marne, July 18, are given in a letter written shortly afterward by Major Robert L. Denig, of the United States Marines, to his wife, in Philadelphia, and which had been forwarded to Washington for the historical files of the Marine Corps.
It is the best and truest form of war history, and important in that it gives details of action during those July days when American troops stopped the German drive.
It also establishes the fact that the Marines who helped stop the German drive on Paris at Belleau wood early in June were honored by being brought from this wood to Vierzy and Tigny, near Soissons, for participation with a crack French division in the great counter-attack which started the disintegration of the German front in the west.
Names that became familiar through the fighting in Belleau wood are mentioned in Major Denig's letter as being prominent in the allied counter-attack—Lieut. Col. Thomas Holcomb, Lieut. Col. Benton W. Sibley, Lieut. Col. John A. Hughes, Capt Pere Wilmer and others who took a prominent part in the fighting. The letter in substance follows:
"We took our positions at various places to wait for camions that were to take us somewhere in France, when or for what purpose we did not know. Our turn to enbus came near midnight.
GETTING TO THE FRONT UNDER DIFFICULTIES
"We at last got under way after a few big 'sea bags' had hit near by. We went at a good clip and nearly got ditched in a couple of new shell holes. Shells were falling fast by now and as the tenth truck went under the bridge a big one landed near with a crash and wounded the two drivers, killed two Marines and wounded five more.
"We did not know it at the time and did not notice anything wrong till we came to a crossroad, when we found we had only eleven cars all told. We found the rest of the convoy after a hunt, but even then were not told of the loss, and did not find it out till the next day.
"After twelve hours' ride we were dumped in a big field, and after a few hours' rest started our march. It was hot as hades and we had had nothing to eat since the day before. We at last entered a forest; troops seemed to converge on it from all points. We marched some six miles in the forest. A finer one I have never seen—deer would scamper ahead and we could have eaten one raw.
"At 10 that night, without food, we lay down in a pouring rain to sleep. Troops of all kinds passed us in the night—a shadowy stream, more than a half-million men. Some French officers told us that they had never seen such concentration since Verdun, if then.
THE BIG DAY DAWNS
"The next day, July 18, we marched ahead through a jam of troops, trucks, etc., and came at last to a ration dump, where we fell to and ate our heads off for the first time in nearly two days. When we left there the men had bread stuck on their bayonets. I lugged a ham. All were loaded down.
"We finally stopped at the far end of the forest, nearing a dressing station. This station had been a big, fine stone farmhouse, but was now a complete ruin—wounded and dead lay all about. Joe Murray came by with his head all done up—his helmet had saved him. The lines had gone on ahead, so we were quite safe.
"Late in the afternoon we advanced again. Our route lay over an open field covered with dead.
"We lay down on a hillside for the night near some captured German guns, and until dark I watched the cavalry, some 4,000, come up and take positions.
"At 3:30 the next morning the regiment was soon under way to attack. We picked our way under cover of a gas infected valley to a town where we got our final instructions and left our packs.
GAS AND SHELL SHOCK
"We formed up in a sunken road on two sides of a valley that was perpendicular to the enemy's front. We now began to get a few wounded; one man with ashen face came charging to the rear with shell shock. He shook all over, foamed at the mouth, could not speak. I put him under a tent and he acted as if he had a fit.
MARINES ADVANCE UNDER FIRE
"At 8:30 we jumped off with a line of tanks in the lead. For two 'kilos' the four lines of Marines were as straight as a die, and their advance over the open plain in the bright sunlight was a picture I shall never forget. The fire got hotter and hotter, men fell, bullets sung, shells whizzed-banged and the dust of battle got thick.
"Lieut. Overton was hit by a big piece of shell and fell. Afterwards I heard he was hit in the heart. He was buried that night and the pin found, which he had asked to have sent to his wife.
"A man near me was cut in two. Others when hit would stand, it seemed, an hour, then fall in a heap. I yelled to Wilmer that each gun in the barrage worked from right to left, then a rabbit ran ahead and I watched him, wondering if he would get hit. Good rabbit—it took my mind off the carnage.
"About sixty Germans jumped up out of a trench and tried to surrender, but their machine guns opened up, we fired back, they ran and our left company after them. That made a gap that had to be filled, so Sibley advanced one of his to do the job, then a shell lit in a machine gun crew of ours and cleaned it out completely.
DIGGING IN
"At 10:30 we dug in—the attack just died out, I found a hole or old trench and when I was flat on my back I got some protection Holcomb was next me; Wilmer some way off. We then tried to get reports. Two companies we never could get in touch with. Lloyd came in and reported he was holding some trenches near a mill with six men.
"Gates, with his trousers blown off, said he had sixteen men of various companies; another officer on the right reported he had and could see some forty men, all told. That, with the headquarters, was all we could find out about the battalion of nearly 800. Of the twenty company officers who went in, three came out, and one, Cates, was slightly wounded.
THE SHELLS COME FAST
"From then on to about 8 p. m. life was a chance and mighty uncomfortable. It was hot as a furnace, no water, and they had our range to a 'T.' Three men lying in a shallow trench near me were blown to bits.
"You could hear men calling for help in the wheat fields. Their cries would get weaker and weaker and die out. The German planes were thick in the air; they were in groups of from three to twenty. They would look us over and then we would get a pounding.
"We had a machine gun officer with us, and at 6 o'clock a runner came up and reported that Sumner was killed. He commanded the machine gun company with us. He was hit early in the fight, by a bullet, I hear. At the start he remarked: 'This looks easy; they do not seem to have much art.'
"Well, we just lay there all through the hot afternoon.
"It was great—a shell would land near by and you would bounce in your hole.
"As twilight came we sent out water parties for the relief of the wounded. At 9 o'clock we got a message congratulating us, and saying the Algerians would take us over at midnight. We then began to collect our wounded. Some had been evacuated during the day, but at that, we soon had about twenty on the field near us.
"A man who had been blinded wanted me to hold his hand. Another, wounded in the back, wanted his head patted; and so it went; one man got up on his hands and knees; I asked him what he wanted. He said: 'Look at the full moon,' then fell dead. I had him buried, and all the rest I could find.
"The Algerians came up at midnight and we pushed out. They went over at daybreak and got all shot up. We made the relief under German flares and the light from a burning town.
"We went out as we came, through the gully and town, the latter by now all in ruins. The place was full of gas. We pushed on to the forest and fell down in our tracks and slept all day.
A FUNERAL, AT THE FRONT
"That night the Germans shelled us and got three killed and seventeen wounded. We move a bit farther back to the cross road and after burying a few Germans, some of whom showed signs of having been wounded before, we settled down to a short stay.
"It looked like rain, and so Wilmer and I went to an old dressing station to salvage some cover. We were about to go when we stopped to look at a new grave. A rude cross made of two slats from a box had written on it:
"Lester S. Wass, Captain U. S. Marines. July 18, 1918."
"The old crowd at St. Nazaire and Bordeaux—Wass and Sumner killed, Baston and Capt. LeRoy T. Hunt wounded. We then moved further to the rear and camped for the night. Dunlap came to look us over. A carrier pigeon perched on a tree with a message. We decided to shoot him. It was then quite dark, so the shot missed. I then heard the following remarks as I tried to sleep: 'Hell! he only turned around!' 'Send up a flare!' 'Call for a barrage!' etc.
"The next day we were back in a town for some rest and to lick our wounds."
IMPRESSION OF A FRENCH LIEUTENANT
A French lieutenant thus describes the American fighting quality:
"The finest thing in the combat was the dash of the Americans. It was splendid to see those grand fellows, with their tunics thrown off and their shirt sleeves rolled up above their elbows, wading the rivers with the water to their shoulders and throwing themselves on the Boche like bulldogs.
"Any one who has seen such a sight knows what the American army is good for henceforth and to the end of the war. At the sight of these men, magnificent in their youth, physical force, good temper and dash, the Germans fled 'with every leg' or surrendered without awaiting the order to throw away their arms and take off their suspenders, which is the first thing a prisoner is told to do, in order that he may be compelled to keep his hands employed and out of mischief.
"The Germans hurried toward our lines gripping their trousers, haggard and mad with terror.
"Would that every mother in France who has lost a son in the war could have seen that epic sight. They would have seen themselves revenged, and it would have been some consolation to them in their sorrow."
KEEPING THE GERMANS ON THE RUN
The trench deadlock in northern France and Belgium was broken by Ludendorff's fatuous drive in March, 1918. After the allies had stopped it and inaugurated their counter-offensive all Europe made a startling discovery. The Germans were tenacious enough in trench warfare; in open fighting, known as war of maneouvre, they could not stand before American and the allied troops. Incessant attacks, rapidly delivered at the same time at many points on the long line between the North Sea and the Swiss border, were more than they could withstand. The mechanically trained troops of the central empires were futile before armies of men who did their own thinking and delighted in fighting an enemy they could see from the feet up. German armies had twice been almost at the gates of Paris. The first time they were driven back they dug themselves in. That was in 1915. The second time, in the spring of 1918, they were allowed no time for digging in. From the July days of 1918, when American soldiers at Chateau Thierry beat the best troops that ever were trained in Prussia, they were kept going. How industriously may be inferred from the story of the young corporal who was sitting on the roadside trying to tie the soles of his shoes to the uppers, in a hurry. Somebody asked him what was the matter.
"O, nothing much," said he. "Only I came over here to kill Germans, but they never told me I'd have to run 'em to death."
A STRANGER TO HIS OWN CHILD
There never was a war so prolific of personal incident in every shade of experience possible to human life. The devastated provinces of France offer perhaps more of these happenings than any other part of the steel-swept, shell-wrecked fronts of all Europe. An Associated Press correspondent tells one that is especially touching.
He was motoring toward Denaen, one of the cities the Germans had occupied through four hard years, when a French officer going in the same direction asked him for a lift, explaining that he had lived there but had neither seen nor heard from his wife during all that time.
Entering the city and turning into his street the officer saw the first house was in ruins. He gave a nervous start. A few doors farther on was his home. The officer climbed out with an effort, his eyes fixed on the place.
There was no sign of life. The windows were shuttered and on the door was a sign showing German officers had been living there. The officer pulled the bell with shaking hand. No one answered. He backed away like a man in a trance and leaned against the car, trembling.
Suddenly the door opened and an aged servant appeared, leading a beautiful baby girl with a wealth of golden curls. The officer took one step toward the child and halted. He was a stranger to his own flesh and blood. The child hid behind the nurse, peering out in fright.
The half blind eyes of the old nurse had recognized her master and she held out her hands, repeating, "Monsieur! Monsieur!" in ecstasy. He crossed the road and grasped her hands, but the baby drew back.
A door opened end a comely young matron came to see what was going on. She caught sight of her husband, then stopped. Her hands flew to her breast. She swayed for a second. With a sob of joy she hurled herself into his arms.
The correspondent moved away. And thus they were left, the nurse beaming on the happy couple and the curly headed youngster looking with troubled eyes at this strong man who had appropriated her mother so completely without a word.
WHAT PERSHING THOUGHT OF HIS YANKS
An American newspaper man who returned from Europe about the time hostilities ceased was informed that General Pershing suggested to Marshal Foch in June 1918, that he thought it bad policy to stick around waiting for the boche and that he felt the time had come to jump in and attack—"But" he was told, "we have not got the troops."
"Whats the matter with the Americans?" Pershing asked.
"They are not yet trained" was Foch's reply.
"Try them and see" said General Pershing. "They will go, anywhere you send them, and I will bet my life on it."
Pershing took the initiative in urging the offensive, supplied the troops that gave Foch his mobile reserve enabling him to strike his blow, and those American troops "delivered the goods."
HEALTH OF ARMY SURPRISING
Official reports to the war department show that the general health of the American army during the war had been surprisingly good. The death rate for all forces at home and abroad up to August 30th, 1918, was 5. per 1,000 men per year, or little more than the civilian death rate for men of the same age groups.
There were 316,000 cases of influenza among the troops in the United States during the late summer and fall of 1918 and of 20,500 deaths, between September 14th and November 8th, 19,800 were ascribed to the epidemic.
ARMY REACHED TOTAL OF 3,664
An official report shows that on the day the Armistice was signed more than twenty-five per cent of the male population of the United States between the ages of 19 and 31 years, were in military service, the army having reached a total of 3,664,000, with more than 2,000,000 of this number in Europe. As compared with an army strength of 189,674 in March 1917, one week before war was declared by the United States.
AMERICAN VICTORY AT ST. MIHIEL
First Major Action by All American Army—Stories to Folks at Home—Huns Carry Off Captive Women—Hell Has Cut Loose— Major Tells His Story—Enormous Numbers of Guns and Tanks— Over the Top at 5:30 A. M.—Texas and Oklahoma Troops Fight in True Ranger Style—Our Colored Boys Win Credit.
The first major action by an all American army was that which began before the St. Mihiel salient September 11, 1918. The Germans had occupied that salient almost four years, and had built it into what they believed to be an impregnable position. The Americans, under direct command of General Pershing, reduced it in a three days' advance.
The salient was a huge bulge, almost twenty miles in depth, turning southwest from Combres at the north base and Hattonville at the south and looping down around the towns of St. Mihiel and Ailly. It was powerfully held by masses of enemy troops.
General Pershing's army attacked from the west, south and east all the way from Bouzee to Norroy, and by September 13th had pushed it back to a straight line drawn from Combres to Hattonville. The French attacked at Ailly, the apex of the salient as it was on September 11.
The entire operation was conducted with rapidity and with irresistible energy. The dash and enthusiasm of the American soldiers astonished and delighted the French and British as completely as it staggered the Germans.
By September 13th the Americans had taken forty-seven towns and villages, reduced the German front from forty miles to twenty, captured the railway that connects Verdun with Commercy, opened the cities of Nancy and Toul to the allies, and with the French and British on the east, created a new battle front on a line running from Hattonville on the west to Pagny on the east—Pagny being a town on the Moselle river, at the German border.
The importance of this victory could hardly be overestimated. It opened the way to and was followed up by the demolition of the whole German line from the Swiss border to the North Sea, and hastened the great German retreat. In the action itself, September 11 to 13, about 15, Germans were taken prisoner by the Americans.
STORIES TO THE FOLKS BACK HOME
Sidelight stories of what happened in the St. Mihiel fight, mostly in letters written home by men who were in it, go far toward showing how completely the Germans were taken off their guard. Corp. Ray Fick of the 103d Infantry wrote home in this wise:
"We got into the woods and then kept on going until we reached a big city where there was a brewery, but they had set fire to the whole city before they left. We got some beer and wine just the same. It was a little stale, but it was fine. The Huns' warehouses were all fixed for the winter and the boys got cigars and cigarettes, but I was a little too late to get in on it.
"The whole thing was very interesting all the way through. The Huns sure did make themselves scarce in a hurry, but they kept many prisoners, a troop train and an ammunition train.
"Cigarettes are scarce and we look for smokes all the time. The Red Cross and the Salvation Army are the ones who look to our comforts. If any one wants to give, tell them the Red Cross and the Salvation Army are the ones to get it."
HUNS CARRY OFF CAPTIVE WOMEN
But Corporal Fick uncovers another Hun procedure that has no fun in it. While the Huns lost no time in getting away from there, they took care to carry off their captured women slaves.
"The women they have held captives for the last four years," he writes, "were driven ahead of them, but they were brought back by the Americans. Truckload after truckload passed us on the way, and they sure were happy to be free again."
"HELL HAS CUT LOOSE"
Another soldier wrote to his father telling about the first day of attack as he saw it:
"Hell has let loose. The woods are a mass of whistling shell and shrapnel. Every time the big twelves go off the flash lights up the entire camp like a flashlight picture, then the ground heaves and tumbles like old Lake Michigan does on a stormy day.
"The infantry have cleared the top and have gone on far in advance, almost outside of the range of fire. Our big objective has been wiped off the map and our men are preparing to keep right on going after them and backing up the doughboys who are doing such great work.
"I went up to the front last night on an ammunition caisson (which is the only way to get up there) and saw the thing commence. It started with one solitary gun of ours (a big one, too). Then the others joined in on the chorus, and it has been steady ever since.
"When the doughboys were told that they were going over the top at the zero hour, you never heard shouting to equal it; the Board of Trade on a Monday morning was just a whisper in comparison.
"Dad, that is the general feeling of our boys over here—always waiting to move up. I told a lad in one of the outfits that the artillery was right back of them and would blow them through to the objective if they did not make it, and he laughed and said, 'Hoboken by Christmas.' They were all in the best of mood and roaring to go."
These letters are good specimens of the thousands that have come over the sea. They not only give good sidelights on an event that will loom large in history, but they show the indomitable cheer and high spirit of our soldiers.
MAJOR TELLS HIS STORY
Concurrently with the action that originated at St. Mihiel on September 11, 1918, another great battle developed northwest of Verdun. It lasted about three weeks, and is graphically described by Lt. Col. B.M. Chipperfield (then a major) of the 23d Division. Lt. Col. Chipperfield was a participant in as well as an eyewitness of the whole engagement. Under date of September 29, 1918, the described it substantially as follows, in a letter to a friend at home:
"For several days preparations had been in progress for the action that began on Thursday, September 26th. The American troops were moved up by night, jamming the roads with their advancing columns and transport trains.
"Thousands and thousands of them," wrote Major Chipperfield, "trudged along without a light and in almost quiet.
ENORMOUS NUMBERS OF GUNS
"Tanks and cannon and guns of all sorts, every kind of vehicle, ambulance wagon, and transport passed in this continuous procession. It seemed that there was no end to it, and one could not help but admire the wonderful resources that had been gathered together by the United States to help perform its part in this great struggle for freedom.
"I think the greatest collection of guns that has ever been gathered together for participation in any conflict of the world was taken to the front where the attack was about to be made. It is estimated there were 6,000 of these guns, and the soldiers that were gathered together numbered hundreds of thousands.
"These guns and soldiers were conducted to their places so secretly and quietly that, although they marched many miles, the enemy did not even know a small part of the strength and could only speculate what it all meant.
UNDER ENFILADING FIRE
"In the arrangement of the plan of battle our division was on the extreme right. Across the river was a German stronghold. Here there were located a large quantity of artillery and many machine guns. Our officers understood that it was going to be a difficult advance, for a bridge had to be built across a creek, but everything in our division went like clockwork. It had all been planned in advance, and the plan was carried out exactly as made.
"It was arranged that at 11:30 o'clock on Thursday night the battle was to begin. Before that time I had reached my destination at the headquarters of the other division, and together with the rest of the headquarters staff we were in a favorable place to watch the commencement.
"At 11:25 it was silent as the grave, and the night was beautiful. Precisely at 11:30 from every conceivable direction the great bombardment commenced. In an instant the whole night was filled with a roar and thunder and reverberation of the cannon from, every quarter. The shriek and whistle and whine and clamor of the shells made a fearful chorus as they were hurled in the direction of the field occupied by our adversaries.
"From every quarter came the flash of the explosions, until the night was lighted as bright as day. Signal rockets rose from every portion and part of our lines and also from the enemy lines. It looked as though the heavens were ablaze and raining fire. It was a scene which has probably never been seen before upon any battlefield and may never be witnessed again.
"Apparently this fierce bombardment took the enemy entirely by surprise because our fire was so deadly and the extent so great that they could only make uncertain reply. They seemed to be stupefied.
"For six hours this terrific bombardment continued. It is estimated that each of the guns fired an average of three shots a minute and that 1,000,000 projectiles and charges of ammunition were used.
OVER THE TOP AT 5:30 A.M.
"As 5:30 approached the bombardment increased. The machine guns joined in the chorus and a curtain of steel and fire was placed in front of our troops and rained upon the guns and cannon of the enemy.
"After a brief period of this fire our men started over the top, and as they did so they swept the enemy before them in their irresistible rush. They advanced kilometer after kilometer. They could not be resisted or stayed at any stage of the attack.
"Soon the prisoners commenced to come in, and they told of the terrific effect that the great bombardment had upon the Germans. They said the bombardment was so terrible that it disrupted their plans so that they could not be carried out and that they could not resist the attack.
"Several times during the night I went out to witness the scene and as long as life lasts it will be remembered.
ON DEAD MAN'S HILL
"Once when two of our regiments came over a hill and saw thevalley that lay before them being terrifically shelled by the cannonand assailed by hail from the machine guns, the whole column wasseen to pause and a look of worry came over the faces of these menthat for just an instant was pitiful. They knew that ahead of them laydeath for many and it is not strange that for several seconds thelines were held up, but then a look of fierce determination and ofcourage took the place of the former expression and with a greatresolve and courage, dash, and daring, the lines shot forward at aredoubled step and the determination to do or die was manifested inevery action."These machine guns were speedily put out of business, andthen the attack would go on. That portion of the lines that thedivision of which I am a member was given for the purpose of theattack, it was thought would take the entire day, but our divisionwas on its objective by early afternoon and had commenced to digin, from which position they could defy the Germans with impunity."While the attack was going on I went up to Dead Man's Hill.This hill is the last word in the destructiveness of war."It is literally rent to atoms. Dugouts have been blown topieces. Hundreds of thousands of men had been killed in the earlierbattles before Verdun, and many of the bodies could not be reachedfor burial, the place was so torn up."
OTHER PERSONAL GLIMPSES
Many other personal glimpses of the fighting come from officers and men. One division was made up largely of Illinois regiments, among others the 3d Illinois Infantry, commanded by Col. John V. Clinnin. The position held by these troops was vital to the entire advance, and it required rapid action on the first day to reach the objective at the same time as the other units.
Menomme creek is a little stream which is not shown on maps. It runs eastward from the village of Septsarges to the Meuse. The stream holds vivid memories for the Illinois infantry. It was there that it met the most severe resistance, the Germans catching our men just as they were relieving other young soldiers. The men fought their way down to the creek. On the other side along the highway between Septsarge and Dannevoux the Germans had entrenched themselves and were shelling the road which the Americans had crossed. They were also using intrenched machine guns at the edge of the woods.
"I heard bullets whistling overhead," said a wounded soldier ina hospital. "We were lying near the edge of the creek at the timeand knew that a machine gun was shooting at us, so I just started outand got it."
"Our colonel was right up there with us getting into line." said Private Hiram E. Burnett. "One night when the shells were bursting all around and several men were wounded the colonel went over the top just like any of us."
The Bois des Forges has been a battle ground since the war began, with trenches in front and miles of barbed wire, machine gun nests and concrete pillboxes inside. A frontal attack on such a stronghold apparently meant suicide, but the Illinois men, led by Col. Sanborn and Col. Abel Davis, took it so neatly and quickly that they bagged nearly 1,000 soldiers, fifteen officers, twenty-six guns ranging from 105s down, 126 machine guns, twenty-one flatcars, two rolling kitchens, an ambulance and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
"We were looking for you in front," said a captured German officer. "We did not expect that you would come through the swamp and outflank us. We did not think that any Yankee outfit was so foxy."
"A GREAT SHOW"
"It was a great show when we crossed that river and rushed on through the woods, cleaning up machine gun nests," said Private Gray McKindy of Woodstock, "The machine guns in the woods started throwing bullets as soon as we reached the river. They thought they could stop us from going up the opposite hill, but we did it and got every gun there."
Private Kenneth W. Steiger was one of those who went in on the second night when his captain called for volunteers to make up a patrol. Steiger became separated from the others in the darkness and ran into a party of three Germans. Quickly covering them with his rifle he brought all three back.
Private Bernard Snyder returned with prisoners before dark on the first day. Making use of his ability to speak German, he induced a dozen Germans to lay down their arms, pick up stretchers and carry American wounded back five kilometers (three miles) to where ambulances were waiting.
A FIGHTING CHAPLAIN
Lieut. Jorgen R. Enger, the chaplain of a Kansas-Missouri outfit, carried the wounded for three days from the Montfaucon woods two miles to the ambulance. Searching in the woods in the darkness one night with shells bursting and bullets whistling he found a husky sergeant wounded in the foot and growing weaker and weaker from loss of blood. The chaplain shouldered the man and carried him back to a dressing station, saving his life.
"I didn't think a chaplain would do a thing like that," said the sergeant. "I would rather save you than save a general," replied the chaplain.
When not searching for wounded hidden in the tangle of under-brush the chaplain was busy helping the surgeons at a first aid dressing station.
"I never thought any clergyman would have the opportunities for doing good such as I am haying," he said when I saw him.
Col. Eugene Houghton, Wisconsin, who was a British major until America entered the war, distinguished himself by personally leading a unit of New York men. According to them he escaped death repeatedly as by a miracle.
"DESERT? NO, WANTED TO FIGHT"
Capt. Carl F. Laurer while assisting in the examination of German prisoners, was surprised when an American prisoner was brought before him. "Where do you belong?" asked the captain. "I am with an aerial squadron in the south of France" replied the prisoner. "I walked fourteen days to get here." "Did you desert?" asked Captain Lauer. "No," the man replied, "I want to fight. That is what I came to France for. When I get home the folks will ask what I did in the war and when I answer 'worked' they will say 'Why the devil didn't you fight?'" The boy's wish was gratified and he was sent forward.
"We have everything good and plenty—rations, ammunition and other things. It looks like a regular Sunday."
TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA TROOPS SHOW GREAT FIGHTING FORM
In this district, the 36th Division, made up of troops from Texas and Oklahoma, veterans and raw recruits together, showed splendid fighting form. They were under terrific shell fire day after day, but they met several murderous attacks firmly, and drove the boches back in brilliant counter attack, chasing them in true Ranger style. All these men showed the same spirit that animated Roosevelt's renowned Rough Riders in the war with Spain, so many of whom were Texas and Oklahoma men.
Reporting this fight, General Naulin, commanding the Corps of which the 2d and 36th Divisions were parts, said "the 36th Division, a recent formation not yet completely organized, was ordered into line on the night of October 6-7 to relieve, under conditions particularly delicate, the 2d Division, and to dislodge the enemy from the crest north of St. Etienne and throw him back to the Aisne. Although being under fire for the first time, the young soldiers of Maj. Gen. W. R. Smith, rivaling in combative spirit and tenacity the old and valiant regiment of General LeJeune, accomplished all the tasks set for them." Every American knows full well the bright record of the 2d Division of Infantry, the regulars of which were composed of the 5th and 6th Marines and the 9th and 23rd Infantry. These are the boys who stopped the Germans up in Belleau Wood when the boches were headed for Paris and cocksure of getting there, blandly unaware that they were goose-stepping toward an American knock-out.
OUR COLORED TROOPS WIN CREDIT
American negro troops had a considerable share in the last few months of fighting, and acquitted themselves in a highly creditable manner. They were great trench diggers and trench fighters, and their endurance on the march was a marvel to the allied armies. They were very popular with the French people, who were delighted with their good nature and their never-ceasing songs. Regular negro melodies these songs were, nearly all of them of the camp-meeting variety—and sung with that choral beauty which especially distinguishes all of their musical performances. The negro notion of war and indifference to death was instanced in the case where a white officer overheard one of them at the zero hour call out, "Good night ol' world! Good mawin,' Mistah Jesus!" as he went over the top.
"The colored boys," said Charles N. Wheeler, a distinguished correspondent with the American armies, "are great fighters, and are no better and no worse than any other group of American soldiers in France, whatever the blood strain. They do take pardonable pride in the fact that 'Mistah' Johnson, a colored boy, was the first American soldier in France to be decorated for extraordinary bravery under fire.
THEY CAN FIGHT AND SING
"The color line has about died out in the American army—in France. They play together, sing their songs together—the blacks and the white—and they go over the top together. They come back together, too, the wounded, and there is no thought of the color of a man's skin. They mix together on the convoy trains going up to the front, and all sing together, sharing each other's dangers and their joys. It is not an uncommon sight to see a crowd of white doughboys around a piano in some 'Y' or Red Cross hut, singing to beat the band, with a colored jass expert pounding the stuffing out of the piano. The white boys enjoy immensely the wit of the colored comrades, and many a bleak and drab day of privation and suffering is made a bit brighter by the humor that comes spontaneously to the lips of the 'bronze boys.'
"The children of France love them. I suppose that is because they wear American soldiers' uniforms. I have seen scores of white children holding the hands of colored boys and trudging along on the march with them or romping into their tents and sitting on their knees and just exuding the affection that all the children of France have for anything and everybody from the United States."