Show general ener pers buas co pyril tats lit by brtha the 11 north AmetI story of the t e A E 1 world served including right in whole who kf re it ili or in part prahl bIll d I 1 by gen john pershing service CHAPTER but the conditions of in france demanded more serious at tendon to theme not only as a matter of pride but because of the general effect upon morale and efficiency good discipline Is the first requisite to successful military effort and tile degree of its enforcement in a corn mand Is an almost certain index of the cha character of performance to be expected in battle likewise an officer or tidier willer who takes no pride in his personal appearance Is usually found careless in other respects and to that extent less reliable in time of tress it need hardly be added that those of class who came under my observation and did not immediately reapord to correction were very soon replaced CHAPTER frequent german ralda raids and re bened activities all along the he front by march 1 1018 1918 indicated the great german offensive might start at any time the french general staff thought the allies would be able to hold bold without serious dim culty until we could help but I 1 it was doubtful enough to cause caus grave apprehension it was depressing to think that ten en months had elapsed since our entry into the war and that c were just barely ready with one division of men lly aly dairy show shows the following notations chaumont Cb aumont wednesday march 6 1318 heavy german raid repulsed by kirst division friday morning the enemy also raided the twenty sixth division lines and were drivel off went to bligny ligny en barrels sunday to meet 11 clemenceau who came to congratulate the first division on success repulsing raid met general debeney who isho was mas enthusiastic over conduct of our men spent th the night at first division headquarters motored to langres landres with monday to speak at opening of second session of general staff college germans made raid on forty second division that morning upon conclusion of this inspection of the first division I 1 conald tred red it ready to take the offensive at any time it bad had been eight months in france with varied ex per perien lences ces in training had occupied an independent position in the st mihiel sector and hd hd made several trench raids the front occupied by the one hundred and sixty eighth regiment near Badon villers had been under a severe artillery attack on the fourth and a trench mortar platoon had bad been almost completely destroyed st the french army corn com mander congratulated general on the way may in which our troops repulsed this raid after an inspection of the different regi menis ments of the division and a visit to the scene of this action I 1 went to the hospital to see the wounded they were ere all very cheerful es pec lally a young alent A IV terrell fifty flroa artillery regiment who had lost a leg he ile said that he wanted to stay through to the end of the war and hoped he could find something to do as a clerk all these first contacts with the enemy were relatively small affairs of course but they furnished many examples of what we could expect of the american soldier my dairy notes this paris sunday march 10 1918 spent thursday morning with kernan langett and atterbury and made adjustments in port and railway construction st and management N Is cited camp de mailly where seacoast artillery to 1 tuning basing splendid training under general coe c ou friday u visited ed a d twenty sixth division serving on chemin des dames under general maud buy the french corps commander arrived in paril late at night during airplane attack branch of judge advocate generals office oldee established at my headquarters upon colonel P adleys report of 80 day medical supplies on hand sent urgent cable request immediate shipments cabled disapproval of suggestion by mr rader ewski for or i of division of men with polish antecedents secretary of war bamer landed a brest today french train U S cook cooks major general maud huy buy spoke with considerable enghu balabin of if the men and of the officers of the twenty sixth division below regimental commanders and especially praised their conduct t f trench raids he lie compile eted general traub one of the brigade commanders but was of the opinion that ahe higher of office flees generally needed more experience to make them efficient american troops that served with general maud huy buy held him in high esteem he lie was scrupulous regarding their instruction st to he gave special attention he ile 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 french cooks to teach ours the art when I 1 expressed my appreciation of bit hi he eald said you know we are a nation of cooks and ne 9 delight in preparing things to cat after their instruction the cooke cooks in these units did better thanks to the initiative of this fine old french general secretary baker arrived at brest march 10 as my dairy showed shoed and I 1 met him and his party in paris the next morning the party consisted of maj gen IV 11 black chief of engineers aleut col 11 L brett commander it U D II 11 bite of the navy and ralph hayes his secretary it was essential that the secretary receive ee ecy y opportunity to inspect our hole layout f om the front areas to the tile services service 3 of sup ply that he might become familiar with plans observe the progress made toward their completion and obtain first firsthand hand information of our requirements all of which he was especially anxious to todo do leaving paris march 12 we inspected our most important ports depots hospitals regulating stations motor parks and schools school sand and returned march 17 to my headquarters at chaumont the main air service school at issoudun which we visited was a hive of activity being one of the fifteen schools where early in st ruction in flying was mas given general and colonel kline r went with us through the school the shops and the lied red cross and Y buildings I 1 think the secretary was surprised to see here the really expert flying considered necessary emary to prepare aviators fir their hazardous life at the front moving supplies to troop troops at clevres Gl evres about miles dl south of paris on our main line of supply running to the front were men employed udder col charles J manog ins our largest interior depot to illustrate the celerity with which the sa stem operated we need take tale but one example which occurred wian ten everything in the depot was mas in full swing at 8 15 one morning in august a telegram was rec receded elied ordering exactly tons of supplies in eluding cans of tomatoes pounds of sugar cans of corned beef pounds of tinned hash and pounds of dry beans at 0 15 in to the evening or just ten hours later this colossal requisition which be quiren cars for tran transport spurt was loaded and on its way to the ad vance depot iso no other place gave cuch such an tin IM pres slon of tho tremendous task of supplying our armies arnd the perfection of organization necessary to do it efficiently the secretary got a birds eye view of the general plan which would mould the supplies for an army of and which with additional boula be able to meet the demands of an army amice that size back at chaumont I 1 received word ord that arrangements had been made for the shipment of six divisions for training with the british the seventy seventh eighty second twenty eighth seventy eighth eightieth and thirtieth CHAPTER march 21 the great german offensive began against the british armies between the olse oise and und the escarpe near the junction of the french and british lines on a front about fifty miles mile in length extend ing from near la fere to arras arms near the center of the attack was general coughs cough A fifth army with the third army under general ang on its left the artillery bombardment preceding the infantry advance was of short duration but of 0 great in with excessive use of gas shells following a heavy barrage the german infantry using the same tact tactical leal methods that had been so successful at riga and car I atiq it blow thod weather favored the enemy as a heavy fog tog continued intermittently tor for three days much to the vantage of the defense the overwhelming force of eltty four especially trained german disis divisions lons out rt ff their one hundred ninety two iwo then on the tile western front corn com relied the brill british th lines to lecil beld although at tile end of the first day t the I 1 is fifth army had not entirely glien away ite its losses had readied reached thousand and there was wits no question that the germans were ere making a serious attempt to separate the british and french armies british pushed hack lack 37 31 mile miles the last lost one of reserves was put in on the second day yet he be received ao no support to top the widening gap in the british front until the fol following losing day when one french infantry division and one french dIt dismounted mounted cavalry division arched one the four others got into position these divisions and others tint thit came in the next tao or three daye days were put into battle by general fayolle without regard to the integrity of units or the order of their entry some of thein being very short of ammini tion the D B ibish fifth army was evi eyl dently overwhelmed from the start jill A pershing in tin hat hatt yet no re were fut to gough until the and then only one no others arriving during the first week by the fifth day the german forces had driven a salient into the british front some thirty seven miles deep dec and were threatening the Import important aut railway center of allens amiens the cap tore lure of which would probably haic base made a complete breach between the french and british armies in the moment of greatest stress when it seemed very doubtful whether bether the german advance could be stopped general petain retain sent the following order to his armies the enemy has hurled himself upon us in a supreme effort lie ile wants to separate us from ill thi english so as to open the way to paris cost what it may he mut be stopped I 1 hold your ground 1 stand firmi firm I 1 our american comrades are arriving AH all together you will throw jour i ourselves selves upon the invader the battle Is on Cold soldiers lers of the marne of tle and of ver dun I 1 call upon you the file fate of france hangs in the balance penning pershing offer offers aid the reports from the front gave an extremely dark picture of dis aster atter and I 1 felt we should do everything possible to render as ss tance it was to offer general petain retain such of our troops as could be used that I 1 went to march 25 the generals customary con adent and nonchalant attitude was entirely gone and he wore a very worried expression I 1 told him that for the moment I 1 should waive the idea of forming the I 1 corps and that an any y of our divisions that tha t could be of service were at his disposal but with the qualifying remark that of come course we should look lok forward eventually to thelt thell under their own corn cow mander march 24 it developed deve loed that the I 1 reach had find received or deis dei tint if the enem enemy continued his ills druif in the direction of Atil amiens lens they were ere to fall back no so ne as to coer paris marshal haig fear ing that title this would result in seia sela rating the two armies at once communicated the tile situation to his ills government overn ment this brought about an important conference et at march 20 between members of ut lie british and trench governments in which it was decided that some au should be designated to coordinate the action of the two t 0 armies and general roch was selected I 1 nas as not present at the doullens Doul lens confere ce but upon learning of its action it teemed seemed essential that denend foca foch himself should know our desire to do what we could to strengthen the allies the british hi loss was mas then estimated at not less lesi than 1 I recall meeting I 1 ord northcliffe mar 24 and found him almost unable to speak of it so many of his friende had lost rela alvis the tile depression among their people was probably wone than at any other period of the fsr among the french there was much anxiety as to the safety of puria purls and there was talk of the government having to move MOT e to 11 I 1 ar r deaux again as it had done in 1314 1914 the allied lines bad had not been sta blitzed and although though 31 I 1 bad had offered our troops to petain retain it seemed to me that it might be ft i ell to make it emphatic that I 1 was ready to put into battle ei berj era thing we could mus ter t er I 1 had often thought of the possibility of having to do this and I 1 went to find tut out the situation and let general foch know our attitude gives word to foch As we entered tn general fochs farmhouse headquarters near cler mont sur olse clemenceau Clemenc cau foch petain and Lou cheur were intently studying a map spread out on the uble the situation situa tim was pointed out to me showing that already the british had used thirty alil alons and the french sei seventeen enteen against the germans seventy eight it seemed to be the opinion that the british fifth army was as getting back on its feet and that the lines would hold bold lor for the time being I 1 intimated that I 1 had bad come to see general foch and als 0 others withdrew into the yard leaving us alone I 1 told him that the ameri amerl cans 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 lie was evi dently very much touched and in his ills enthusiasm tool took me by the arm and without hesitation rushed me out across the linn ninn to where the others stood and asked me to repeat repent what I 1 had said to him they of course showed keen in terest especially M clemenceau Clemen ciau inu as I 1 told them what I 1 had said to gen eral foch roch colonel doyd boyd ny aid was bind kind enough to say th tint it un der the tile inspiration of the wom inon rit nt my french nas uns spoken with fk tin ency that I 1 could not ha hai mastered ten minutes before oi 01 after pershing offer of troop troops it appeared in the french papers the next morning although I 1 feel certain that it was written up in much better french than I 1 actu ally used the english translation follows 1 I have base come to tell aou ou that the american people would mould consider it a great honor for our troops to be engaged in the present battle I 1 ask yon for this in to their name and my own at this moment there are ra other questions but of DO ting ling infantry tir tillery aviation all rill that we hap haip are yours use them as you more will come in to numbers equal to requirements 1 I 1 have come especially to tell yea that tho km orlenn imn apo alp will be proud to take part in the greatest battle of history lil story TO BE DE LOCATION AMERICAN DIVISIONS MARCH 4 es pres bruxelles cm iia 0 Satt leline fine international dy numerals ind indicate leate divisions me 0 14 donled numerals those not in bs li 0 rao t MILES 1 IN I 1 1 1 H J 0 SO lio kilometers arras Q L k amiens t quentin V sedas sedan J 1 cl i sons HT 0 eims S GERMANY 6 adu metz mea cha lon L pr kisr 6 i s abdu birle B ir le uc I 1 ST I 1 4 onalle va a neu humeau N depinal cob 0 r i chaimo t I 1 1 I 0 E mul tours |