“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.