They shoot from the hip, but in that way their fire is never very effective.  As they advance it is practically impossible to miss them, no matter how bad a shot any of us might be.  We get fifteen rounds per minute from our rifles and our orders are to shoot low and to full capacity.

In the attacks of the enemy which I have seen they certainly have been brave.  One must give them their due.  It takes courage to advance in face of rifle fire, machine gun fire and artillery shells, in this close formation.  Wave after wave of them come across in their field gray-blue uniforms and they never cower.  One wave will be mowed down and another will quicken the pace a trifle and take its place.  One man will go down and another will step into the gap.  They are like a vast animated machine.

In one attack which we repulsed I am conservative when I say that they were lying dead and wounded three and four deep and yet they attacked again and again without faltering, only to be driven back to defeat in the end.

This war is not over yet by a long shot, and I should like to offer some advice to the boys who are going over from this continent.  Our officers know better than we.  The generals and aides who have been working on the problem, on the strategy and tactics during the three years gone by, are more qualified to conduct the war than the private who has lately joined.  If you are told to stay in a certain place, then stay there.  If you are told to dig in, you are a bad soldier if you don’t dig and dig quickly.  You are only a nuisance as long as you question authority.  It does not pay.  The boys of the First Division learned by experience.  Do as you’re told.  The heads are taking no undue risks.  Your life is as valuable to them as it is to you.  They won’t let you lose it unnecessarily.  Get ahead and obey.

There is no need to lose your individuality.  The vast difference between us and the enemy soldier is that we can think for ourselves should occasion arise; we can act on our own responsibility or we can lead if the need be.

Remember, that every single man is of importance.  Each one is a cog in the vast organization and one slip may disrupt the whole arrangement.  Obey, but use your intelligence in your obedience.  Don’t act blindly.  Consider the circumstances and as far as you can use your reason as you believe the general or the colonel has used his.  You are bounded only by your own small sector.  What you know of other salients is hearsay.  The general knows the situation in its entirety.

Obedience, a cool head, a clean rifle and a sharp bayonet will carry you far.

[Illustration:  (C)_Famous Players—­Lasky Corporation.  Scene from the Photo-Play_

SHERMAN WAS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT.]

[Illustration:  Behind the barrage]

CHAPTER XV

OUT OF IT

Every man who goes into the active service of the present war knows that someday, somehow, somewhere, he is going to get plugged.  We have expressions of our own as to wounds.  If a chap loses a leg or an arm or both, he’ll say, “I lost mine,” but when there is a wound, no matter how serious, yet which does not entail the loss of a visible part of the body, we say, “I got mine.”