Show general PAM wr S a S tri by 7 N north 0 r t h A Amer r 1 loaa story ol of the A E e F 0 production world served erred including rights in whole r to the by gen gem ati I 1 pershing is a CHAPTER continued the asa assaulting lines line of 0 infantry I accompanied compa nied by numerous tanks succeeded without difficulty in reaching the limited objectives fort maewal kalmal lon ison the key point was reduced to a heap of rubbish by the very heavy artillery fire concentrated upon it the capture of this dominant position by the french caused the immediate withdrawal of tile the germans on the hie right 11 inca d le left t and during the succeeding j fortnight they retired behind the allette victory la Is offset till this achievement of the tha french in capturing positions against which the april offensive by nivelle dashed it felt to pieces had a very stimulating i effect upon their In morale Drale but it would have been more lasting had it not be been en followed so soon goon by the serious dei tent of the italians at Ca poretto october 24 after ex extending Lending thanks to our host w we 0 left for literally covered with mud stopping there to congratulate general retain petain on the sue suc cess of the day while at we wa dropped in at the dispensary where isom borne e american women under miss E elsie isle do de wolfe who afterward became came 0 lady mendl maintained a clinic tor for badly burned gas cases we also made a brief call at the hospital nearby to see colonel bunau of at iinuma canal fame who had lost a leg at the recent french offensive near verdun from ills his cheerful mood lie he seemed deemed to be rather proud ot of ills his wound in 1027 I 1 took part in the dedication 0 of f the ossuary near verdun at which colonel bunau varila was pres out eul on the rounds to inspect this fine monument we passed the many bays which contain the bones of men who lost their lives in the great battle when we came to the bay corresponding to the sector in which he fought lie he jovially remarked that he thought his leg must be in there dock construction delayed toward the end of october accompanied by gens richard N blatchford Blatch tord and mason M patrick and cols charles 11 krauthoff and david S stanley I 1 visited bordeaux one of the ports chosen for the use of amerlean american troops As facilities were only sufficient to accommodate a limited amount of additional medium draft shipping we had started the construction of new docks at bassens bossens Bas sens 12 miles below where deep water would permit vessels to come alongside although considerable quantities of material had bad been sent over this new construction was delayed principally because of the lack of piling which the engineers had planned to have 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 serious one ship that reached bordeaux was supposed to be loaded with especially long piling but upon inspection the engineers found it much shorter than prescribed serl bed bea upon inquiry it was learned that to get UK the piles in between bulkheads the supercargo had sawed the ends off while speaking of forest products another example of clency that occurred a little later might be mentioned one of tile the vessels from home was loaded hv bv the quartermasters denart Z IV C graves of corporal J B gresham and privates enright and hay ment with shavings for the cold stor age ag plant instead ot of steel billets for the manufacture of guns when tons of sawdust and shavings could have been obtained from the logging districts in france trouble with russians russian continuing tile tha inspection we went on sunday to Cor cordall mall about forty miles from bordeaux thinking it might possibly be available tor for our use later on it was wai then occupied by a brigade of disaffected russians who like most of 0 their fellows had defied heir officers and refused to participate further in the war after being withdrawn from the lie line they had given tile the french so much trouble eyen even to committing depredations on the people that they had to be sent out of the zone of the armies to this rather remote camp where they were held practically as prisoners there was vas no transportation to carry them thein back to russia and ns as they had been allowed to keep their arms it WM was cult to enforce discipline among them I 1 spoke to two colonels and ad criticized the ithe lack of sanitation mill atio but it was evident that they were unable to compel the men to wor noih h even to tile the extent of cleaning out stables latrines or drains and tile the conditions may be better imagined than described ser bl bed A the men were a heavy stupid looking lot who in their new estate apparently did not care caie how bow bad things were so long as the french continued to feed und and clothe them progress Is noted clevres Gl evres which aicia lies miles directly south of became the site of our principal supply depot la in france under col U C J able and ener energetic gette direction construction to cover an area of 12 square miles was going dorward fore aid with all possible speed colonel was gradually putting order and system into the place regardless Keg ardless of the adverse conditions under which the line of com munica dong was laboring there was everywhere a one fine and enthusiastic spirit among the and men who ft ho without exception were cheerful and optimistic after all considering the lack of men and ad material we were making progress on the physical side of the organization that would feed clothe and furnish munitions for the great army we hoped t to 0 have one obstacle however was to be round found in the number of independent bureaus represented at the ports and the larger centers of activity not only in our own system but especially in that of the french and the consequent difficulty of securing teamwork among them As a remedy I 1 sent to each base section a competent general officer with an organized staff to coordinate and systematize the management of affairs and in a brief time consid rable improvement was noticeable in methods of handling troop arrivals and cargo and in a the increased progress of construction CHAPTER breakfasting with me in parts paris no vember 4 1917 the british prime minister mr lloyd george referred to the italian defeat at cavoretto Ca poretto as be ing a most serious disaster and pointed out that sending british and freace divisions to italy had materially weak ened the lines in france mr air lloyd george BISO also spoke at some length on the lack of concerted action among the allied armies I 1 agreed with him and added that la in ray my opinion there never had bad been real operation cooperation co on the western front between the british and french that when one was attacking the other was usually standing still and that the germans were thus left free to concentrate their rese reserves arves against the threatened point we were facing a grave crisis next year if not sooner said mr lloyd george and no one knew how it was to be met the enemy might attack each one separately with the same results as in the case of italy ile he then asked what I 1 thought of creating a supreme war council having in mind councils called to decide upon military operations in the field I 1 told him that the advice of war councils was not usually of any great value and that the proposition did not appeal to me I 1 said that authority should be vested somewhere to co ardi nate bate the operations on the western front and suggested the possibility of having a supreme commander there lloyd george favors council mr lloyd george replied in effect that it was unlikely that the allies would agree upon any one as the F rench french would object to any but a frenchman and the BrIt britnell lell might not like that ile he thought the council would be useful for the purpose primarily of bringing the heads oi 0 the allied governments together at intervals to determine general policies I 1 admitted that such an organization might serve to unite the allies in common purpose but that the conduct of operations by the combined armlet should be under military direction I 1 got the distinct impression that while lie he was seeking to secure greater unity of action lie he also sought some mean of controlling the activities of the british h army during previous months that army had been engaged in almost continuous offen offensive sivo operations practically single handed with wf heavy losses and few compensating adean lag L S mr air lloyd george went vent on to say that there was to be a meeting of 0 the prime pi line ministers at rapallo italy and that he hoped they might reach some agreement that would result in a council such its as lie he had in mind he thought that tile united states ought I 1 to be represented at this meeting and suggested that I 1 should attend As the purpose of a council seemed to be more moie for political ordination coordination co than tur for 1 I arely military control 1 I 1 told him that it seemed best for or me not to participate part lel without some intimation from my government to do so in the afternoon at st bf PaIn leves tile the european allies and america are not lighting fighting for the same thing thine mr air wilson thinks agrest a treat deal more of ills his ideas of people govern governing in g the themselves in of a friendly working arrangement among all the great powers after the war than he does of bf rials a is or specific things going to this or t that list country what lie wants Is to smash the german military powei power and have a society of democratic nations afterwards hut but to england nn gland france and italy these things are phrases useful perhaps hut but of second secondary itry interest england wants to maintain her colonial possessions to keep her position on the sea and her commercial place in the world we know what X k american troops moving to the front request I 1 called on him and he also told me of the proposal to form I 1 a su preme war council and wanted me to go to the conference in italy I 1 cave him the same reply that I 1 haj had given sir lloyd george shortly thereafter the Ita rapallo pallo meeting was held resulting in an agreement among the prime ministers of tile tho governments participating great britain france and italy approved by wilson the creation of the council did not meet with universal approval the commanders of the british and french armies and high officials in civil circles being opposed to it military commanders were afraid it would result in undue interference with the conduct of operations and in derision it was often referred to as the soviet the action of the three governments at rapallo was approved by president wilson november 17 and that fact appeared in the press a day or so BO later the presidents action strengthened the hands of those who favored the ie infix council and probably became tile the influence that saved it the fact Is that if the french and british army commanders in a friendly spirit of co operation cooperation had made a joint study of the military problem of the western front as it a and then had seriously undertaken to pull together as though under one oae control the supreme war council would never have been born the supreme war council made U a 11 favorable start and gave the impression that a ale and conservative exercise of its really unlimited powers would characterize its actions it refrained r from interfering directly with military commandos commanders and operations and confined itself largely to questions of policy such as the co ordination of allied resources sources le and the conservation and distribution d of allied strength however as s time went on tile the supreme war council assumed greater and greater authority over mili military tiry questions conflict with wilson ideals As to tile the political situation the undercurrent der current at tile the moment as nearly as could be learned showed a continued lack of accord among the different nations which were not at all in agreement with president Wll wilson sona a ideals each had its own aspirations and each sought to gain some advantage over the others some of af the divergent war alms had to do with to territory r distant from france fiance itald troops were sent that might have been more usefully employed on tile the western front in a letter to secretary of war baler baker I 1 a memorandum which was a report of 0 a conversation ii licud L I 1 d by a man in my confidence with a british official lit high 11 up in the counsel of great britain the date of this conversa conr ersa lion was october 21 2 1917 it should not be taken tz too seriously I 1 wrote but it Is an indication of the british attitude sees difference in alms in this conversation the british official decla declared redl france wants alsace lorraine as a indemnity and security for the future italy has definite territorial claims thus the governments of these countries think a great deal about what they want for themselves and less lesi about ideals unless these ideals are incidental to success so there to Is no clear unity among the allies in europe and america CHAPTER soon after the first division entered a quiet sector of the the peaceful aspect of the situation was disturbed by a german raid on an isolated post of the sixteenth infantry november 3 1917 A group was ft as caught in a box barrage and although the men made ads a courageous resistance three abrea were killed five wounded and twelve captured these were atre the first casualties that had occurred in our army to units serving in the trenches the dead were corporal james B gresham and privates thomas F E wright and merle D ilay hay all of company lil the french took charge of the funerals and turned out a formal guard in addition to our own the services were conducted by the french general bordeaux Dorde aut who came with ills his full staff and delivered a beautiful oration over the graves giaves A large number i f french troops also came informally to pay their final tribute this joint homage to our dead there under the fire of the guns seemed to symbolize the common sacrifices we were mere to make in the same great cause ammunition question acute the ammunition question again bo came acute at that time despite desail our agreements with the french and their positive assurances that they would make prompt deliveries but their explanation was that we had not furnished the full amount of raw material required in my early reference to the prospects of procuring pio curing artillery of and calibers and ammunition for its use it had been expected that nothing should diminish our efforts at home in their manufacture but when the probability of delay find and possibly failure fal lure of the french to furnish ammunition for these guns was reported to washington my iny cable met the complacent reply much to my surprise that the french government must furnish it tor for there Is no other way of getting it at the present time there Is not in this country any actual output of ammunition of the types mentioned none has been expected home ports overcrowded tile the difficulty of providing the french with raw material was largely traceable to the lack of shipping and of course the unscientific use of what we had the fact Is that the ports at home were overcrowded overclouded over clouded with all son of material and suli supplies plies awaiting vessels the french hod over tons of supplies at seu seaboard board which they were unable to move and were clamoring for tons additional of steel rails TO 10 BB CONTINUED |