st Hun

French troops, under French higher command, and in the lin

r bushes, tiny streams, fences and an occasional farm building. Beyond these lay a dense woods, extending to the Marne, known variously in the dif

the front line. That was entirely in the hands of the French in that sector, and French officers who came back to visit the American headquarters and to establish liaison with these support troops conf

nding the 109th, and Colonel George E. Kemp, of Philadelphia, commanding the 110th. There were little holes

ttalion, to send two companies forward to the line, and Colonel Kemp, from his post command, desp

manded by Captain Edward P. Mackey, of Williamsport. Major Thompson sent Companies B, of New Brighton, a

were back of Fossoy and Mezy, directly in the great bend of the river. The Dhuys River enters the Marne near that point and this river separated the positions of the 1

nly at one point, directly southwest from Chateau-Thierry. If the expected happened, the green Pennsylvania troops would receive their baptism of fire within the zone of t

heir line to the east was too thin for comfort. Therefore, their units were drawn in somewhat at the fla

of the front a French regiment and then an American company. The disposition of the troops was completed well before midnight. The companies left behind had watched their

mpanies, facing the Germans at last after so many weary months of preparation, thought of sleep, even h

nd then, as a star shell hung its flare in the sky, they caught glimpses of the river, and sometimes

men lay in their trenches while the shells screamed overhead. It was by far the closest the Pennsylvania men had

e Germans to attack that night and that the French fire was designed to break

fire until the hour fixed for their bombardment. Midnight came and went, with the French can

of what the French afterward described as the most terrific bombardm

eath swung wide for many a

em that this was the great "friedensturm," or peace offensive, which was to force the Allies to make peace, and that, when the time came to advance, they would find themselves unopposed. The reason for this, said the order, was

ys, but continuously. Only later did the men in the trenches learn that the attack covered a front of about sixty-five miles, the

rprise fire attack and looked on the unparalleled picture

ut to them it was like no orchestra mortal ear had ever heard. Most of those who wrote home afterward used a much shorter word of only fo

rumbling thunder of the guns," to which they had been giving ear for weeks. Crashing, ear-splitting explosions came so fast they were blended into one vast dissonance that set the nerves to jangling

er its holiday celebration by the sound of that Titanic cannonade and saw the

ck areas as well as tearing through the front lines. Men clenched their hands to steady shaking nerves against the sheer physical pressure of that awful noise, but of

later in captured papers, called for the swinging of prepared pontoon bridges across the Marne at 1.30 o'clock, after one solid hour

le here to recall that during the fighting an automobile bearing the black and white cross of the Germans was drive

e not G

," replied an Ame

troops to be here at this time,

ll. Get out and walk back. You are

reparations that it was not until two hours after their schedule time, or 3.30 o'clock in

were torn in the oncoming hordes, only to be filled instantly as the Germans pushed forward from the rear. The execution done among the enemy when they were concentra

a boxer in the ring. Their French comrades said afterward they were amazed and deeply proud of the steadiness and calmness of t

major operation. Virtually the only exception to this was the case of the seven divisions of the British regular army that landed in France and were rushed at once

t a change in the Boche plans decreed otherwise. Thus, Pennsylvania regiments, with the engineers fighting as infantry,

ir front. It seemed almost as if the enemy knew he faced many new troops

ld. The great offen

the battlefield. Behind these, in support, were probably fourteen additional divisions, some of which, owing to the losses inflicted on those in the front line, were compelled to take part in the fighti