or th

were granted to go to Paris, although the crown of the Eiffel Tower could be descried above the haze from the city by day and at night the searchlights, thrusting i

was right, the dull rumbling, like distant

these many months, they would have liked to go to Paris. Failing of both the front and Paris, they would have liked to go "any old p

g and cleaning rifles and other equipment and variously putting in the time as best they could, and fretting all the t

ay that they expected to launch in the spring the greatest effort they had yet put forth to break through the Allied lines, the Germans, on March 21st, strengthened by hundred

nes about St. Quentin. It did not succeed in this, but a great wedge was thrust

acked, on April 9th, in the region of Ypres, and thrown back so badly that Field Marsh

mmered down, but on May 27th the German Crown Prince's army flung itself out from the Chemin des Dames, in Champagne, and by June 3d had reached

key to Paris. This was plainly an effort to widen the wedge whose apex was at Chateau-Thierry, but Foch had out

looded in the various drives, but the Twenty-eighth Division had not yet had a taste of the Hun action. Marines, the First and Second divisions of the Reg

y had come in contact with the enemy, without exception, the American troops had "made good," and won the high encomiums of their British and French co

t Wilson, waiving any question of national pride, directed General Pershing to offer such tro

ation of divisions, each possibly capable of operating as a division, but the whole utterly unable to operate as a whole. By putting a brigade of Americ

ove up to a sector below the Marne, there to be brigaded with a French army. The artillery brigade had not yet come into

the same weary routine of drill and hike. This time, however, when they found lines of motor trucks stretching along the road see

and engineers, it was not directly northward, toward Montdidier, nor northeast, toward Soissons, wh

little river more or less closely. Through pretty little villages and, here and there, more pretentious towns they whirled, singing as the spirit moved them and

t full tilt is not the most luxurious mode of travel, especially for those on the inside. It is, however, so much

of where they had been, this meant little. They had small idea of the number of miles they had traveled, but they knew from the

ough Montmirail and went further east to Vauchamps. The trucks in the rear of the long column turned

the uttermost-a time of waiting for something big to do and hav

big guns at the front, but only as a low, growling rumble, so distant that, although it was ever present, after a day or so

y were closer to the front lines. Their surmises in this regard were strengthened by the added grav

t, which was held by French troops along the Marne. The distance betw

ly with their failure to get farther. Hourly they grumbled among themselves at the del

ebration of the Fourth of July, with extra "eats," concerts, sports and other events. The 109th had gone to sleep the night of Wednes

d. "Something was up," though the men in the ranks knew not what. Officers knew that an emergency had arisen t

ken through in the north and that "the old Hundred and Ninth is goin' in to stop Fritz, an' we sure will do that li'l thing." Small wonder that there was more than a usual touch of asperity in the commands snapped out in

ouble-time" was given and off they went at the smart dog trot that takes the place of running for an army on the march. Only when men began to lag behind was the re

Riding in the "tin bathtub" was a staff officer. He talked aside briefly with Colonel Millard D. Brown, of Phila

n for the return march. The men thought of the weary miles they had come in the cool of the night, glanced up at the scorching sun, remembered that l

ly the strangest the men ever had spent-had come and gone. As they dropped into exhausted sleep that night, the la

ad turned to ashes in their mouths and they very frankly were green with envy. When they heard the next day of the outcome of the

f Chateau-Thierry for advanced training under fire with French forces. They were not expected to have a ve

of Pittsburgh, made an extraordinarily good impression on their French comrades. The sector continually grew hotter

had taught them. Finally, just about the time their own regiments back in billets to the east were growing stale from monotony, the Americans around Vaux were invited to occupy positions wher

that is all that is expected of you. If, however, you so desire, such

the battle beside the French and under French command, laughing and singing, and covered themselves with glory. This was the first occasion in which units of

doughboys talked about and envied their companions and pledged themselves, each in his o

training work-rifle shooting, bayonet work, hikes and pra

ay almost straight south from the tip of the Soissons-Rheims salient. The French forces there were expected to make the crossing of the Marne so hazardous and costly an enterprise that the Germans either would give it up almost at the outset, or would be so harass

o hurry the usual morning duties, as there was "something doing." No larger hint was needed. Dressing, washing, "police duty" a

they marched northward, to the new positions assigned them. Parts of their routes lay over some of the famous roads of France that had not suffe

and laughingly remarked that "now he was camouflaged." His comrades paid no attention until he remarked later that it was a good thing to have, as it helped keep the flies away

e cannonading. Both the officers and men realized they were getting very much closer to artillery fire than they had been. A spirit of tense, nerv

red run, swung over and joined their road to keep it company on the northward route. Pargny-la-Dhuys was almos

for the regiment to turn off the road and take cover in a woods. Pargny and the whole countryside about w

way to the front and deliberately were trying to prevent them, through sheer fear of their well-known prowess. For many a Pennsylvania soldier had been telling his comrades and everybod

the 109th sallied forth from its green shelter and started ahead. Each time, just as it got well away a

northward, there was much gibing at Fritz and his spite against the regiment and little ho

r directions, and the regiment went over the hill, through what was lef

ance north of Pargny, the column turned into a field on the right of the road and made its way into a deep ravine bordering the northern side of the f

errupted by a screeching roar overhead, followed almost instantaneousl

ed a rather desirable place to be, after all. Most of the men would have preferred to be in position to do some retaliatory work, rather than sit still and have those

men. "Old Fritz must know the 109th

en would snatch some sleep, only to be roused by a renewal of the racket, for they had not yet reached that stage of old hands at the front,

the point of view. Theirs was an exceedingly hazardous duty, with none of the relatively safe shelter of the regiment, but, too

together should be in close touch. To do this men frequently do the seemingly impossible. Few duties in the ranks of an army

d not been given. Toward midnight, when the men were at a fever heat of expectancy, having sensed "something doing" in the very air, the regiment was for

nd high explosives. The next day, July 14th, would be Bastille Day, France's equivalent of our Independence Day, and the men of

re the little Surmelin River joins the Dhuys. Colonel Brown and the headquarters company swung out

anders in the gloom and then the first battalion swung off to the left, the third to

hamlet of Monthurel, northwest of Conde. The second battalion was strung out north of Con

d be of real present value to them-that which they had learned to do, laboriously, gru

cks and shovels. By daylight a long line of pits, with the earth taken out and heaped up on the side toward the enemy, scarred the fields. They were not pretentious, as trenches went in th

e the word seeped down through the ranks, and the men of the 110th and 111th and of the engineers got little ink

d Chateau-Thierry, on the west. The 103d Engineers held the eastern end. Then came, in the order named, the 109th