Show Cei aeral story of the A eo F copyright 1931 in all coundrie coun trie by the north amert fath t a a an newspaper New paper All lanee world rigby 1 abo in fa sa virbin VI r la part prohibited CHAPTER continued the front occupied by the one hun dred sixty eighth regiment near ba had been under a severe ar attack on the fourth and a trench mortar platoon had been almost completely destroyed the french army commander congratulated geu eral on the way in which our troops repulsed this raid after an in of the different regiments of the division and a visit to the scene ot this action I 1 went to the hospital to eee the wounded they were all very cheerful especially a young officer aleut A W terrel fifty first artillery regiment aho vho had lost a leg he said that be wanted to stay through to the end of the war and hoped he could find something eom ething to do as a clerk all these farst contacts with the enemy were rel small affairs of course but they furnished many examples of wha we could expect of the american sol dier my diary notes this paris bunday march 10 1018 spent thursday morning with kernan langfitt and atterbury and made adjustments in port and railway construction and management visited camp de mailly where seacoast artillery 1 having splendid training under general on friday visited edwards twenty sixth division serving on chemin des dames under general maud buy the french corps commander arrived in paria late at night during airplane attack branch of judge advocate gen eral a office established at my headquarters upon colonel Er adleys report of thirty day medical supplies on hand sent urgent cable requesting immediate shipments cabled disapproval of suggestion by mr tor organization of division of men with polish antecedents ce secretary of war baker landed at brest today french train U 8 cooks major general maud buy spoke with considerable enthusiasm of the men and of the of the twenty sixth division below regimental commanders and especially praised their conduct of trench raids he complimented general traub one of the brigade commanders but was of the opinion that the higher officers generally needed more experience to make them efficient american troops that served with general maud huy held him in high esteem he was scrupulous regarding their instruction to which he gave special attention lie was very solicitous of the welfare of our troops even going so far as to interest himself in the preparation of their food by detailing brench cooks to teach ours the art when I 1 expressed my ap of his action he said know we are a nation of cools and we delight in preparing good things to eat after their instruction the cooks in these units did better thanks to the initiative of this fine old french general many of the cooks of the old arm became experts and the men in earl davs in the west fared better as a rule than our men in france where tb cooks lacked experience personal supervision by officers and the estah of cooking schools brought improvement in due course however there Is little doubt that much of the intestinal trouble in our divisions dur ing the early part of their service abroad was caused by poorly cooked food secretary baker arrives secretary baker arrived at brest march 10 as my diary showed and I 1 met him and his party in paris the next morning the secre part consisted of maj gen W M black chief of engineers aleut col M L brett commander R D white of the navy and ralph idyes his secretary it was essential that the secretary receive every opportunity to inspect our whole layout from the front areas to the services of supply that he might become familiar with plans observe the progress made toward their corn lon and obtain first hand informs alon of our requirements all of which he was especially anxious to do leav ing paris march 12 we inspected our most important ports depots hospitals regulating stations motor parks and schools and returned march 17 to my headquarters at chaumont the main air service school at Is bordun which we visited was a hive of activity being one of the fifteen schools where early instruction in flying was given general foulois and colonel allner went with us through the school the shops and the red cros and X buildings I 1 think the secretary was surprised to see here the really expert flying considered necessary to prepare aviators for their hazardous life at the front moving supplies to troops at clevres Gl evres about ellei directly south of paris on our main line ol 01 eudaly to the front were 20 men employed under col charles J managing our largest la perlor depot to illustrate the celerity with which the system operated we need take but one example which occurred when everything in the depot was in full swing at 8 15 one morning in august a telegram was received ordering exact ly 4 tons of supplies including 1 cans of tomatoes pounds of sugar COO cans of corned beef pounds of tinned hash and 1 pounds of dry beans at 0 15 clock in the evening or just ten hours later this colossal alon which required cars for transport was loaded and on its way to the advance depot no other place gave such an imbres slon of the tremendous task of supply ing our armies and the perfection of organization necessary to do it efel clentry the secretary got a bird s eye view of the general plan which would provide the supplies for an army of 2 and which with additional con would be able to meet the demands of an army twice that size back at chaumont t received word that arrangements had been made for the shipment of six divisions for train ing with the british the seventy sev anth eighty second twenty eighth seventy eighth eightieth and thirtieth CHAPTER march 21 the great german offen sive began against the british armies between the ole and the escarpe near the junction of the french and british lines on a front about fifty miles in length extending from near la fere 0 o arras near the center of the at tack was general boughs fifth army with the third army under general byng on its left the artillery bombardment pieced ing the infantry advance was of short duration but of great intensity with excessive use of gas shells follow ing a heavy barrage the german in fantry using taft tactical letb ati i oa our american comrades are arriving all together you will throw yourselves upon the invader the battle Is on soldiers of the clarne of the and of verdun I 1 call upon you the ate of france bangs in the balance the reports from the front gave an extremely dark picture of disaster and I 1 felt we should do ever thins po 1 to render assistance it was to offer general retain such of our troops as could be used that I 1 went to com plagne march 25 the general s customary confident and nonchalant attitude was entirely gone and he wore a very worried ex pres slon I 1 told him that for the moment I 1 should waive the idea of form ing the I 1 corps and that any of our dl visions that could be of service were at his disposal but with the IDS remark that of course we should look forward eventually to their as under their own commander march 24 it developed that the french divisions had received orden that if the enemy continued his drive in the direction of akiens amiens they were to fall back so as to cover paris mar fearing that this would result in separating the two armies at once communicated the situation to his government this brought about an important conference at boullen Do ullen march 20 between members of the british and french governments in which it was decided that some au should be designated to coor co or binate the action of the two armies and general foch was selected I 1 was not present at the doullens Doul lens conference but upon learning 0 its action it seemed essential that general foch himself should know our deser to do what we could to strengthen thi allies the british loss was then esti mated at not less than I 1 recall meeting lord northcliffe barcli 24 and found him almost unable to speak of it so many of his friends had lost relatives the depression air ng their people was probably worse than at any other period of the war among the french there was much salvation army classies lassies Las sies handing out doughnuts eliat had been so successful at figa and Car poretto delivered its blow the weather favored the enemy as a heavy fog continued intermittent ly for three days much to the altage antage of the defense the oer whelmine whelming wh elming force of sixty tour especially trained german divisions out of their one hundred ninety two then on the western front compelled the british lines to ilela although at the end of the first day the army had not entirely given away its losses had reached several thousand and there was no question that the germans were making a serious attempt to sep arate the british and french armies british pushed back 37 mile the last one of coughs rescues was put in on the second day yet hf received no support to stop the widen ing gap in the british front until the following day when one french in fan try division and one french dismount ed cavalry division arrived on the four others got into position these divisions and others that came in the next two or three days were put into battle by general fafole without regard to the integrity of units or the order of their entry some of them be ing very short of ammunition the british fifth army was evidently overwhelmed from the start yet no british reinforcements were sent to gough until the and then only one division no others arriving during the first week by the fifth day the german forces had driven a salient into the british front some thirty sev en miles deep and were threatening the important railway center of akiens amiens the capture of which would probably have made a complete breach between the french and british armies in the moment of greatest stress when it seemed very doubtful whether the german advance could be stopped general detain cent the following or der to his armies the enemy has hurled himself upon in a supreme effort he wants to separate us from the english eo as to open the way to paris cost what it may he roust be ed hold your ground I 1 stand firmi anxiety as to the safety of paris and there was talk of the government having to move to bordeaux again as it had done in 1914 the allied allne had not been stabilized and had offered our troops to petain it seemed to me that it might be well to make it emphatic that I 1 was ready to put into battle everything we could muster I 1 had often thought of the possibility of having to do this and I 1 went to find out the situation and lei general I 1 och know our attitude gives word to foch As we entered fineral s farm house headquarters near clermont sur olse clemenceau retain and Lou cheur were intently studying a map spread out on the table the sit bation was pointed out to me showing that already the british had used thirty and the french seven teen aganet the germans geenty eight it seemed to be the opinion that the british fifth army was getting back on its feet and that the lines would hold for the time being I 1 intimated that 1 had come to see general och and the others withdrew into the yard leaving us alone 1 told him that the americans were ready and anxious to do their part in this crisis that I 1 was willing to send him any troops we had and asked for suggestions as to how we might help he was evidently ery much tou clied and in his enthusiasm took me by the arm and without hesitation rushed me out across the lawn to where the oth era stood and asked me to repeat what I 1 had bald to him they of course showed keen inter est especially M clemenceau as I 1 told them what I 1 had said to general foch offer of troop it appeared in the french papers the next morning although I 1 feel tain that it was written up tn much better I 1 anch than I 1 actually used the english translation follows 1 I have tome to tell you that the american people would consider it a great honor for our troops to be en in the present battle 1 ask you for this tn their name and my own at this moment there are no other questions but 0 infantry artillery aviation all that use them as you we have are yours wish more will come in bumbera equal to requirements 1 I have come especially to tell you that the american people will be proud to take part in the greatest battle of history it the responsibility had been mine I 1 should not have hesitated a moment to put into the battle any or all of our five divisions then in france the first was the only one used tor the time being the others being placed in quiet sectors each to relieve two french divisions As our divisions were more than twice as large aa theirs it amounted to almost ate reinforcement of ten divisions at the time of the german attack a battalion of the american sixth ment of engineers was on duty behind the british fifth army engaged in railway construction and repairs these troops were given arms and participated with the british forces in the defensive operations until after the lines were stabilized CHAPTER secretary of war baker went to london to discuss with the british authorities ties the prospects for additional shipping and also the general subject of munitions alle there he sent me the following telegram march 25 1918 embodying suggestions from the prime minister which showed the deep anal ety of the british 1 I hae just had a long talk with the prime minister ue urges three proposals to your consideration first that our divisions in france be placed immediately in line to relieve french divisions tor service elsewhere quiet sectors being chosen for troops with least training second that all available engineer troops be taken from lines of communication work and sent to aid of british engineers preparing positions back of present lines it Is urged that huspen slon of our work would be but tern horary and that the work suggested Is imperative third that infantry be sent first of the entire six divisions to be trans ported by british in view of present acute needs of that army no answer to the foregoing Is necessary until I 1 see you tomorrow when we can dis cuss the suggestions fully first division ordered into line my diary notes the following chaumont friday march 29 1918 held conference with the secretary of war and general bliss yesterday on joint recommendation men dation of military representatives of the war council lett paris this morning for chaumont at petain s request the first division ordered to battle line which mr baker said people at home would enthusiastically approve mr paul cravath dined with us this evening and speaking of unity favored placing control in the hands of a committee corn posed of marshal general petain and myself council asks change in plans the situation had become so serious that the military representatives seemed to think it necessary to becom mend that all previous plans for the shipment of american troops be disregarded and that nothing but infantry and machine gun units be shipped un til otherwise directed by the supreme war council this they did in the form of a joint or unanimous note which was of course approved by the su preme war council I 1 was very much surprised at the at of general bliss our military representative with the council as without his consent the joint note could not have been submitted to the council when the joint note was presented to secretary baker I 1 pointed out to him and general bliss that the proposal if approved by the president would place the disposition of ameri can units entirely in the hands of the supreme war council and take them quite out of our control even for training and would without doubt destroy all possibility of our forming an american army the secretary was strongly opposed to any such outcome as I 1 and after some discussion he dictated Ms hews in a cable to president allson explicitly recommending that the con arol of our forces should be retained by our commander |