Show i general hershl ng story oi of the A E fie 1 1931 in all bount am by the alorth amerlean by general a newspaper allan All Alli ln enes world rights reserved t wie including the tb lo 10 whole bol 1 or in part an habited fi ervice john J pershing VI CHAPTER XVI continued in III with my lay lecorn men emendation dation commanders command cre from the states were being tent sent over to visit the battlefields armies and schools in arder to become acquainted alti iti conditions and to experience the atmosphere of var it wai was important that they should cante the realities and become fully impressed with the urgency of thorough prepare tion of their commands it was wn thought thou glit they bould become lin tin pressed with the aggressive spirit that characterized our training in france by ly coming into close touch with our methods these off officers leers were sent tj visit the allied front fronts and to ses demon st rations at sit our own min training fields and schools and were also taken d along the line illie of communications I 1 took occasion to give them per conally tonally my conception of the tho course of training that should be foll followed 1 wartime picture of col E M house at home making an especial point of rigid discipline ralp ria practice and the instruction of junior boffl cers in open warfare ed A number of the officers sent it over were either physically unfit or 0 had bad reached the age when new ideas fall to male much of an im pres slon and consequently I 1 rec om mended that those of both classes be left at home for other duty or to be retired CHAPTER marshal joseph joffre upon my invitation arrived at chaumont Cli aumont october 15 1917 to see our first division the french military officials were anxious to show their respect and it was arranged to have both an american and a french guard of honor drawn up to salute him upon his arrival at my residence tace two no small guards vied led with each other and both seemed to get a great thrill out of the ceremony after an interesting evening with nith the earshil and his staff as our guests we left the next morning by motor car for Tre veray accod pan ed by generals and alvord alord colonels de chambrun and mccoy and captain boyd tiie the troops of the dis division islon mere ere brwn up in line ready to receive us and pre entel a much better appearance pe arance than at the review bv president poincare the men were especially keen to he be inspected by a earshil of trance and their pride ans clearly evident by their perfect lines us as they swung by in the march past the marshal in turn was unis enthusiastic over their appearance and military and bear bearing ln apr one incident occurred that was 1111 nut not the on ou hie the way loit to the neld held for the ceremony a tern well groomed mule that happened or to be running loose pricked up tip his a cars ears looked us over and decided and to trot along alth a ath us one of my ere staff wagered that this wise ani mat mal knew what hat was going on and would be present to see the march past sure enough when we wi reached our position this MIsso missouri url product had preceded os us cautiously approaching he displayed the greatest curiosity in the guest of honor As all efforts to drive him away seemed futile be he hovered near as an interested spectator of the proceedings much to the amusement of the marshal I 1 gave a luncheon at Neuf chateau for the marshals party and my own and the officers of the first division after that we me saw the training conducted by the I 1 arst corps school and visited the american and french billets at the vil vl lage loge of st blin where the one hundred and first regiment amen ty sixth division and the french sixty ninth passed in review in III excellent form As we vie returned toward chaumont other american and french units were drawn up by tf tre e roadside in honor of the marshal it waa was rather late when we fit arted and darkness oer overtook took us abilo passing on foot through the inta line the trumpets of each mcgl eals ment sounded as we lie approached approach od rom and with the lights from our automobile parthe lose close behind illuminating RU the treta that bordered the high ater I 1 way may and the faces that peered sm I 1 phroh the to catch a h gil inise of the marshal the scene fu amne finally we halted and the troops including the french one hundred and fifty Arst hi fantry which ard made a remarkable acord at ver dun marched past us ai As the regi merits ments came come out of the darkness into tre oe spotlight of our autos they mado a 4 picture never ocier to be for gotten denie denies filie false cable rumor returning turning ne to paris october 10 19 1 learned that a dispatch from berlin to the new york times represented me as having gald said that the german lines were ere impregnable thu tho report might have bare beca idle gossip but it was more probably ay to create the impression that our armies were starting on a forlorn hope TI Is report wa as so far from the truth that I 1 cabled the secretary of war viar that it was absolutely false and without any foundation whatever in averl refe reference reneL to our future operations I 1 had strongly main tolled that it was wal not only possible to break the german libei but that it would be done the very ss tern tem of training that we ue wire per foll following oming was vies based on the determination to force the germans out of their trenches and beat them in the open on oil no oth er theory could they have bare been de do let et without question there were not a few among our allies and probably some in III our own army who oho thought the task impossible supporting their view few by citing the failures of thep the previous relous three thre years eyears that of the spring of 1917 it was none the less legs a surprise ho however acier when then a report cime to me that such views vit shad had actually been expressed in the presence of civilian visitors by y officers acers of rink in our army 1 I was indignant to beirn of that kind of talk and aud in commenting on it to the americans who had heird heard such statements made I 1 that the german lines can con be broken they must be bro brol en and they will be broken and ond those present will mill recall lint that it was said with considerable emphasis positive steps were liken at once to eradicate si sich ch not notions lons or at leist present them from being openly stated and I 1 was deter mined to relieve immediately any officer vilt without hout regard to rank who should express any such opinion first division move moves in lly my general impression of the sit bation rt thia time was set get forth in to a cable to Il washington lashington october 21 I 1 during the last week the water soaked ground in flanders and on the western front generally has prevented further development of off offensive ensle movements sumal ig up wastage of german army in this years campaign a single offensive such as the anglo french in flan ders in progress since july 31 Is insufficient material materially to weaken Geri germany s man power next year must see tw 0 offensives contina bously m throughout sum mer if derisive Is to be obtained this can only be secured through aid of effective united states stater army on this side the troops on the western front have haie been enforced re by one german division from the russian front 1 As the training of the first dl di vision had now progressed clentry it was mas put lato into line in the quiet sector northeast of Lu leneille neille under the supervision of the french for actual trench expert ince trice the division was under officered and short of horses cloth ing and many other things especially rolling kitchens of which a few had only recently been received ard trucks were borr borrowed from the franch stresses need of winter clothing my repeated cables beginning in july for winter clothing had received scant attention and with the coming of colder weather the beturne critical tue initial stock requested wag wa cisal lowed the monthly allotments were totally inadequate and the depots depot were practically empty the explanation that came from the quartermaster generals office tint thit our rc could not be gran granted teil on account of the needs at home showed a total lack of appreciation clation of the necessity of properly clothing the fighting roan man actually at the front above all others after another urgent appeal a par till supply was sent but we had succeeded in obtaining a quantity of clothing from the british to tide us over CHAPTER upon the invitation of general I 1 went to the french hout to be present at their second often she slie since general nivelles Mv ellee failure in april arriving by motor at rt the he of general d esperdy Es perey commander of the group of armies of the north on the evening evenin of oc tober 22 1017 1917 the plans tor for the attack were nere explained to us and from toe the ex care taken in out the derails details and from their accurate knowledge kloft ledge of the forces and his ills position there seemed to be little doubt of sue cess boon soon after their victory near verdun in august the fience hid bid begun to prepare for this off ofTen ensle she in which they could not well rifford to fall the adi advance ince was mas made ninde b bv eight divisions of tile sixth army on a front of only seven seen and a half miles extending along the algne with the object of g lining a more position for the win ler ter and also still till further building up french morale extended artillery fire general maestre Ma Mal letre the army commander jenae are the tile operation hie his personal attention prescribing an artillery preparation coi covering ering six daa da a during the expenditure of ammunition woo wa even greater than then in the offensive of august 20 the ions long period of artillery fire as is considered necessary as the germans wore were strongly fortified long along the chalky bluffs of the aline here where numerous caverns afforded cover for larl larie e farrl garrit bons ions held near the front the assaulting lines 0 of infantry accompanied by nurr erous tanks succeeded without difficulty in reaching the limited objectives fort malmaison SIal Mal malson the key point was as reduced to a heap beep of rubbish by the ery iery heavy artillery fire con cent rated upon it it the capture of this dominant position by the french caused the immediate ft ith drapal of the germans on the right end and left and during the succeeding fortnight they retired behind the allette victory li Is offset this achievement of the french in capturing positions against 1 bach the april offensive by nivelle dashed itself to pieces had a lery stimulating effect upon their thel r morale but it would have haie been more lasting had lied it not been fol 10 ed so 60 suon soon by the serious defeat of the italians It at Ca poretto october 21 after eten diL thanks to our host we ue lift ift for lit brally covered with mud stopping there to congratulate general petain on the success of the day lille at let we me dropped in at the dispensary where some american aomen omen under miss lisle de ote abo who afterward became become lady mendl maintained a clinic for badly burned gas cisek tte ile also made a brief cill nt at the hos altal nearby to see clonel bunau lorila of panama cinal fame who hid bid lost a leg at the recent I 1 trench off offensive ensle near verdun from his cheerful mood he seemed to be rather proud of his wound in III 1927 I 1 took part in the bedl cation of tre ile ossuary ferdun at which colonel banou varila varlia was mas present on the rounds to inspect this fine monument we me pissed the many ba bas s u which aich contain the bones of men who ho lost their lives in the great battle V hen lien we came to the bay corresponding to the sector in to hleb lie fought he jovially remarked that he LIs his leg must be in there dock construction delayed toward the end of october ac compan compa tiled led by gens richard N blatchford and mason 31 patrick and cols charles R krauthoff and david S stanley I 1 visited bor deaux one of the ports chosen for the use of american troops As facilities mere a only sufficient clent to accommodate a limited amount of ad dit lonal ional medium draft shipping we had started the construction of new docks at bossens Ras Bas sens 12 miles bc b low where deep water ater would per mit vessels to come alongside al though considerable quantities of material had been sent over this new construction was war delayed prin cipully because of the luck lack of pit ing which the engineers had bad planned to have here brought from the pacific coast an incident happened in connection with the shipments of piling from home that would have been amusing if it had not been so seri serl ens ous one ship that reached dor bor deaux was mas supposed to be loaded will with especially ions long piling but upon inspection the en engl pers ers found it much shorter than i 1 re scribed upon inquiry it mos learned that to set get the piles plies in between bulkheads the supercargo hal hai sawed the ends off IN bile peaking speaking of forest products adoth cr er example of inefficiency that oc burred a little later might be men coned one of the vessels from home vas loaded by the with shadings sha shai pings lings for the rold cold storage plant instead of steel billets for ine lie man ii facture of guns when tois tons of sawdust and ingi could lime have been obtained from the lo log siloe iIDA districts in prance trouble with russian russians continuing the inspection ne me vent lent nai ta t rau fl I 1 k forty mites miles from bordeaux think ing it might possibly bly be available for our use later on it uns wn then occupied by A brigade of disaffect cd ed Ilu silan who like moet most of their fe fellow llois bah had deard their olli cers and refused to participate further la in the war after being withdrawn from the line they had lied glien the french eo so much rouble trouble ean to committing depredations on the people that they had to be sent out of the lone zone of 0 the indica to this rather remote camp crimp uh here ere they were viere held practically as prisoner prisoners there WM was oo 00 transportation to carry them back to russia Ilus sla and as they had been allowed to keep their arms it as difficult dini cult to enforce dis dig among them I 1 ape eafe e to two tio colonels and criticized UK lack of sanitation but II 11 was ev evident lent that they were viere unable to compel the men to work een to the ex tent of cleaning out stabled stables latrines or drains and the conditions may be better imagined than described the men were a stUpid looking lot who in their new estate ap up parent ly did lot care low how bad things were ere so long ion ai as tin lie french continued to feed end sad clothe them progress Pro greti ll 11 noted clevres Gl evres which s antles directly south of peris paris became the site of our prin n oral dral supply depot in france undre col C Q J able and energetic direction construction to cover an area of 12 square mile wits going forward with all possible peed speed colonel was gradually putting order and system into the place regardless of the adverse condl eions under which the line of communications was laboring there was vias e everywhere very where a fine and enthuse enthusiastic aftic spirit among the officers and men who ho without exception were cheerful and optimistic after all considering the lack of men and material we were making progress on the physical side of the th that atwould would and furnish munitions for the great army we ie hoped to hae bae ono one obstacle boA however eier was to be found in the number of independent bureaus represented at the arts and the larger centers of not only onry in our ou own a sa stem but eq aily in that of the I 1 rend and the consequent difficulty of cecur ing |