erans, and the Marines eyed them a The tanks were new to the Marze 're in the Villers-Cotterets woods her. Company has the division's e to keep in touch with the here. They're Senegalese Sow on the road, and said Fighting from tree to tree in the woods south of Soissons. A chaut-chaut automatic rifle in action. "No special instructions, except, if we are held up any place, signal a tank by wavin' a rag or something on a bayonet, in the direction of the obstacle, and the tank will do the rest. "No rations, an' we move soon. that canteens are filled. Now go and exSee plain it all to your platoons, and better take a sketch from this map-it's the only one I have. Impress it on everybody our people. Tritt, I'm goin' to ca nap-wake me when we move It was dark when the battalion f and took the road again. They went it, for the highway was jammed single file on the right, at the very ed three columns of traffic, moving forw It began to rain, and the night, t under the thil The rain ceased, and the sky grew gray with dawn. The traffic thinned, and the battalion turned off on a smaller road, closed up, and hurried on. Five minutes by the side of the road to form combat packs and strip to rifle and bayonet. "Fall in quickly! Forward!" Overhead, the clouds were gone; a handful of stars paled and went out; day was coming. The battalion, lightened, hastened. They perceived, dimly, through a mist of fatigue, that a cloudless day was promised and that the world was wonderfully new washed and clean-and quiet! Not a gun anywhere, and the mud on the road muffled the sound of hobnailed boots. "Double time! Close up! Close up, there!" There had been fighting here; there trees. The battalion roads, where stone blasted by some gale of the road, what looked files swayed toward it canteens- "Back in ranks, you!" Then, barbed wire a and battered shallow and left, and a little ki American officers, Majo forward. The leading off to the left, along th 49th followed in colum ordered the major. "K until you meet the Mo forward. . . ." The 49 the trench, still in colum ing its way through the w tenant looked back at his their faces were gray and they were staggering w "Fix bayonets-" and t the steel on the locking-ri ragged column, loud in the Ir was 4.35, the mornin Miles of close-laid ba with one stupendous thur above the tree-tops spoke noises, the shriek and rumb heavy shells. Forward woods, very near, rose up crashing roar of explosions, a smoke, and a hell of bright ally renewed. It only lasted that barrage, with every American gun that could b bear firing at top speed. B terrible minutes for the Boche. Dazed, beaten down away, he tumbled out of his it lifted, only to find the long the Americans licking like flan forward positions, and those l the Senegalese, raging with k rifle-pits. His counter-barrag and weak, and when it came burst well behind the assault which were already deep in hi The 49th Company, runnin sodden with weariness, was e trees. The battalion panted to a roads, where stone buildings lay blasted by some gale of shell-fire. A the road, what looked like a well. files swayed toward it, clutching canteens- "Back in ranks! Bai. ranks, you!" Then, barbed wire across the road and battered shallow trenches to g and left, and a little knot of French American officers, Major Turrill sta forward. The leading company t off to the left, along the trenches. T oth followed in column. "Tum be rdered the major. "Keep on to the ntil you meet the Moroccans, and orward. . . ." The 49th went bey he trench, still in column of route, p g its way through the woods. The nant looked back at his men as he we eir faces were gray and drawn and a ey were staggering with wearinessFix bayonets-" and the dry di steel on the locking-ring ran along ged column, loud in the hush of da III was 4.35, the morning of July 1 shells. Forward through th s, very near, rose up a continge ing roar of explosions, and a murk e, and a hell of bright fires contine newed. It only lasted five minutes Darrage, with every French an an gun that could be brought ing at top speed. But they wer minutes for the unsuspecting Dazed, beaten down, and swe e tumbled out of his holes whe only to find the long bayonets f icans licking like flame across his positions, and those black devils galese, raging with knives in s His counter-barrage was slow - and when it came, the she behind the assaulting waves e already deep in his defenses ■Company, running heavily FIX BAYONETS! when the guns opened. A French rifleman squatted in a hole under the wire, and a sergeant bent over him and shouted: "Combien-how far-damn it, how you say?-combien-kilomètre à la Boche?" The Frenchman's eyes bulged. He did violent things with his arms. "Kilomèt'? kilomètre? Dieu, cent mètre'! Mon Cent mètre'!" Half the company, still in column, was struggling in the wire when, from the tangle right in front, a machine-gun order. To the left were only woods-no Senegalese in sigh the left the lieutenant anxiously his line, throwing out the last toons, while the leading one stabbed among the first Boche guns. He himself ran in that cursing and stumbling in wire a branches, having no time for Boches who fired at him over a b Finally, Corbett, the platoon con leading to the left, turned and w Prisoners coming back, Soissons. dinned fiercely and rifle-fire ran to left and right through the woods. It was well that the woods were a little open in that spot, so that the lieutenant's frantic signals could be seen, for no voice could have been heard. And it was more than well that every man there had been shot over enough not to be gun-shy. They divined his order, they deployed to the left, and they went forward yelling. That always remained, to the lieutenant, the marvel of the Soissons fight-how those men, two days without food, three nights without sleep, after a day and a night of forced marching, flung off their weariness like a discarded piece of equipment, and at the shouting of the shells sprang fresh and eager against the German line. Liaison to keep the touch-was his Compen arms. And through the trees he sa colored uniforms, running with their Senegalese lean, rangy men in mus onets all aslant. He turned back to his company with the sweetest feeli relief that he had ever known; he ha contact established; his clever and wise company would attend to keepin no matter what happened to him. Three lines of machine-guns, echelon The battle roared into the w held it. Here the Forêt de Retz was Dante's wood, so shattered and tortu and horrible it was, and the very t seemed to writhe in agony. Here fury of the barrage was spent, and great trunks thick as a man's body w sheared off like weed-stalks; others w מממוו. Listening-post rushed by Senegalese. "With reason the Boche feared them worse t living."-Page 574. swayed half-severed; splinters and débris choked the ways beneath. A few German shells fell among the men-mustard-gas; and there in the wet woods one could see the devilish stuff spreading slowly, like a snaky mist, around the shell-hole after the smoke had lifted. Machine-guns raved everywhere; there was a crackling din of rifles, and the coughing roar of hand-grenades. Company and platoon commanders lost control-their men were committed to the fight and so thick was the going that anything like formation was impossible. It was every man for himself, an irregular, broken line, clawing through the tangles, climbing over fallen trees, plunging heavily into Boche rifle-pits. Here and there a well-fought Maxim gun held its front until somebody-officer, non-com., or private got a few men together and, crawling to left or right, gained a flank and silenced it. And some guns were silenced by blind, furious rushes that left a trail of writhing khaki figures, but always carried two or three frenzied Marines with bayonets into the emplacement; from whence would come shooting and screaming and other clotted unpleasant sounds, and then silence. his rifle, while he wiped t his eyes with a shaking h white or red after their nat ing takes men differently does the four grouped aro of them squatted and w And one of them, quit freckled, explored a near prodded half a dozen Boches were most anxious to make other three took interest in Boches saw death in their howled like animals, these b of Saxony, and capered in a of terror. The freckled M feet deliberately, judging and poised his bayonet. Th grasped his arm- "No! N back-they've quit. Take rear, I tell you!" The f obeyed, very surly, and went the tangle to the rear. The turned and went on. To left and right he caught his men, running, crawling, fir went. In a clearing, Lieuten gate, of the 17th Company, or came into view. He waved his shouted something. He was gr All the men were grinning he Boche feared them worse than anything 574 rifle, while he wiped the sweat and right he caught glimpses ing at his side, went down, clawing at a bright jet of scarlet over his collar. The war became personal again-a keening sibilance of flesh-hunting bullets, ringing under his helmet. He found himself prone behind a great fallen tree, with a handful of his men; bark and splinters were leaping from the round trunk that sheltered them. "You"-to a panting half-dozen down the log-"crawl back to the stump and shoot into that clump of green bushes over there, where you see the new dirtit's in there! Everything you've got, and watch for me up ahead. Slover"-to Sergeant Robert Slover, a small fiery man from Tennessee "come on." They crawled along the tree. Back toward the stump, the Springfields crackled furiously. Somewhere beyond, the machine-gun raved like a mad thing, and the Boches around it threw hand-grenades that made much smoke and noise. The two of them left the protection of the trunk, and felt remarkably naked behind a screen of leaves. They crawled slowly, stopping to peer across at the bushes. The lieutenant caught the dull gleam of a round gray helmet, moved a little, and saw the head and the hands of the Boche who worked the gun. He pushed the sergeant with his foot and, moving very carefully, got his rifle up and laid his cheek against the stock. Over his sights, the German's face, twenty metres away, was intent and serious. The lieutenant fired, and saw his man half rise and topple forward on the gun. Machine-guns hidden in the whaat Then things happened fast. German came into view strainin the fallen gunner off the firing me Slover shot him. There was ano another. Then the bush boiled ant-heap, and a feldwebel sprang a grenade, which he did not get t It went off, just the same, and rines from the other end of the ti with bayonets. . . . Presently th on. . . . "There's a squad of th tards to do orderly duty for the an' little Tritt," said the s "Spread out more, you birds." Afterward, sweating and pant freckled one who had started ba prisoners caught up with the lieu "Lootenant, sir!" he gasped, wip tain stains from his bayonet w sleeve. "Them damn Heinies trie on me, an' I jest natcherly had t 'em up a few-" and he looked gui into the officer's eyes. "Why you. . . fall in behind me, then, an along. Need another orderly." He pondered absently on the ma frightfulness as he picked his way There were, in effect, very few pi taken in the woods that morning. close-up, savage work. "But spea frightfulness, one of these ninetee olds, with never a hair to his fac spitting gust of machine-gun bull an end to extraneous musings. Later, working to the left of h pany, he was caught up in a f swirl of Senegalese and went wit into an evil place of barbed wi |