Our Army at the Front

enches and learning the several arts of getting out, the officers of

command of companies of the Blue Devils, and t

rgot 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

ficers worked excellently, at French as well as sold

roops 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

rs in the First Division and newly arriving troops, the Vosges fields of

actual battle conditions as absolutely as possible, and to eliminate,

s were being shown how to clean out trenches with live grenades, and the machine-gunners and

e of grenades by men advancing in formations ag

n get into the open. They trained in open warfare, and with a far greater zest-partly, of course

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 Europ

en and 3 officers. Each company was then divided into 4 platoons, with a lieutenant in command. Each regiment was made up

and 3 battalion commanders officer 3,600

the troops. The man?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, i

gence drill, with the result that some erstwhil

to Captain Nameless, and orders him to move L Company one-half mile to the east, and support K Compa

well. "Captain, the major says that you're to move your men a mile to the

ere 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 whi

n 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 req

d 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 ret

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

dded rifle fire to

hboy was a pattern of compactness,

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 grid

red 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 exc

ittle, to go far toward replacing them. For the Blue Devils had still w

tives 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 inst

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

servers had decided after a few weeks that the bayonet was a peculiarly British weapon, and in consequence i

f bayonet instructor of their army with a number of as

a familiar bluntness of criticism, which the Americans had rather missed with the polite Fre

factor, though in that they did not excel the French

t the end of the first week, they gave a demonstration to some visiting officers. Three short trenches had been constructed in a li

hree lines of trenches, lay out every Boche in the lot, and then get to cover and fire six rounds at them 'ere tin hats. D

urned to the second section, and put them through at a rounder pace. Then he took over some young officers, who were being i

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

were into the trench, the

ayonet work go like lightning, and cut down t

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

tween English and Americans, however spatty their exterior relationships may sometimes be, finally got everybody in together. The Americans found that a British

ch and British, and began the scheme of turning b

red intensive work. Officers' schools sprang up all over France, and all the supplemental forces, which had infant

ng 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 whe