CHAPTER XIX   The Scope of it All

AND now, as the days passed and the fighting settled down to more of a desultory routine than it had been in the earlier stages of the terrific struggle, these men who had earned a new glory for the United States and American arms began to get a new perspective on what it was they had accomplished in squeezing that big bulge out of the enemy line. For the first time since the drive began they had opportunity to take account of stock, as it were, and to realize what it was they had done in administering ignominious defeat to these supposedly crack troops of the Kaiser—troops that had rested and trained over a long period while holding the St. Mihiel salient as a constant menace over all that section of France immediately beyond.

What was it that these Americans had accomplished? They had set the tide of war against the Hun hordes—started them upon the retreat which ended in defeat and disaster, and thus began the ending of the worst war in all human history.

Within the second day of the big drive the Americans had taken Thiaucourt, Thillet, Hattonville, Herbeville, St. Benoit, Jaulny, Vieville and Xammes, and Boche prisoners to the number of more than 15,000. As a matter of fact the German character is such that he is only courageous when victorious, only daring when fighting in excessively superior numbers, and optimistic only so long as fortune smiles upon his side. Let the conditions be reversed and his courage turns to cowardice, his daring becomes cringing fear, and surrender and safety become his dominant thoughts.

Thus it was as the Americans pushed on, overcoming all obstacles, fighting and conquering, even against great odds and under the most severe handicaps. The Germans, once realizing the invincibility and the determination of the armies in pursuit of them, lost their vaunted courage, ignored orders, cried “Kamarad! Kamarad!” in treacherous beseeching for mercy, throwing themselves upon the very principle of humanity which they had defied and attempted to destroy.

Nor had the boys themselves come through the terrible battle and their own harrowing experiences entirely unscathed. Tom, who had escaped wounds, was now bewailing the misfortune which had led him, crawling, one day during the attack, through a clump of weeds which had badly poisoned the left hand and arm. He had had two days under a surgeon’s treatment, and though on the way to speedy recovery, still had the damaged member swathed in drug-soaked bandages.

George Harper could tell what it felt like when a bullet cut its way across his scalp, just a fraction of an inch above the point where it would have meant his instant death. As Ollie put it, George had established a new style of coiffure for the army, parting his hair across, in the direction from ear to ear.

Ollie’s own optimism, however, was often strained as his face twitched with the pain from a badly sprained ankle which compelled him still to hobble around with a cane. And Ollie could trace his own pain and discomfort directly to a German, although the latter paid the worst penalty in the scrimmage, which involved the Hun, Ollie and a Frenchman who had come upon the scene in time to participate in the conclusion of the hostilities.

It was one of those personal encounters which were so frequent in the fighting in the woods. Ollie had come face to face with a Boche nearly twice his size in a thick clump of trees whose heavy foliage made the place almost as dark as night in mid-day. The German was out of ammunition, but evidently having heard or seen the young American approaching, he had the butt of his rifle posed for a crashing blow over Ollie’s scalp when that wide-awake youth realized his position and the necessity for instant action. It was too late to retreat, and he had lost his own gun ten minutes before and also was without bullets for his revolver.

He dodged, just as the gun descended, and as the heavy butt of the rifle came down upon his shoulders he grabbed the German by the legs and upset him. But Ollie also went down at the same time, and under the weight of the massive Boche. He wriggled free and had partially arisen when the German again threw his more than two hundred pounds of avoirdupois upon him. The force of the impact was such that something had to give way, and it was the ankle upon which most of the load came. In the excitement of the moment Ollie did not even feel a twinge of pain, for it was a life and death struggle, with all the odds in favor of the German. It was just at that moment that the Frenchman put in his appearance. With a glitter in his eyes that seemed to reflect all the stored-up wrath and hatred of France against the German race, the poilu raised his gun, butt-end first, just as the German had done when Ollie came upon him. But this time it was the German who was the intended victim, and he could not escape while the youthful American retained his iron grasp around his knees.

It was all over in an instant, but when Ollie tried to rise his left leg caved under him. The Frenchman gave him a helping hand, but even when he was upon his feet he could not walk, could not even touch his left foot to the ground, while the jar and shock of trying to hop sent excruciating pains shooting all the way to his hip.

So the Frenchman, who was not very tall, but extremely broad of shoulder—a man who had been a hard-working, peaceful farmer until the barbarous German armed mobs had come coursing over neutral Belgium and into France—had taken him upon his back and had carried him for more than half a mile to the nearest first-aid station.

Thus it was that all three lads, although able to be moving around, were on the sick list and were called upon, if at all, only for the lightest duties. And so it was, also, that when the great summing up came—the casting of the total, so to speak—when every agency that had been brought to bear or had participated in the campaign was taken into the accounting, the three lads were brought into that semi-clerical, altogether pleasant and highly informative task.

It afforded them an entirely new impression of the magnitude of a single big battle in war, when they learned something of what had taken place in that now historic St. Mihiel Drive, of which they were themselves no small or unimportant part.

All had seen the vast telephone system in operation, a system which was changed and extended and contracted almost hourly as the tide of battle swung back and forth and the advance steadily continued. Nevertheless it was in the nature of a revelation to know that no less than ten thousand men had been engaged in operating it. And supplementing all this, a silent corps of three thousand carrier pigeons had flown back and forth, faithful and often martyred servants in the great cause of humanity, fulfilling their duty unquestioningly, unerringly with that rare sense of direction which man has never fathomed.

More than six thousand telephone instruments were connected up to five thousand miles of wire in the system already mentioned, and together with the pigeon service supplementing it, it afforded a service rivalling that of many fair-sized cities.

Ollie Ogden, going through the figures set forth in one set of reports, uttered an involuntary ejaculation as his total correctly showed that during the drive four thousand, eight hundred motor trucks had carried food, men and munitions into the lines. And in addition to this, miles of American railroad, both standard and narrow gauge, carrying American-made equipment, assisted in the transportation of men and supplies throughout the period of advancing conquest.

Of the more than one hundred thousand detailed maps, together with some forty thousand photographs, completely showing every foot of the ground over which the battle was to be fought, the youths knew before the drive was fully launched. But significant as these facts were of the scope and thoroughness with which the battle was to be carried out, they were not prepared for the proofs of American efficiency which their present duties brought before them.

Apparently no contingency was overlooked, and it was this care in preparation which figured so largely in the sustained drive which utterly routed the theretofore self-confident Germans.

The hospital facilities that were provided for the care of the sick and wounded included thirty-five complete hospital trains, with no less than sixteen thousand beds in the advanced, or almost front line, sector, and fifty-five thousand such additional beds behind the lines. That not more than ten per cent of them ever had to be used was a matter of natural gratification and another proof of the expert strategy which directed every mile of the advance. Nevertheless the preparations had been made, in the event that they were needed, and this sort of leadership served but to strengthen the confidence and determination of the American fighting forces.

During every daylight hour that the battles raged, the records as well as the personal knowledge of the boys showed, the skies constantly had been swept by squadrons and fleets of aeroplanes, preventing aerial observations by the enemy, attacking the moving infantry, artillery and supply trains of the retreating Germans, and at the same time most effectively directing the fire of the American artillery, with the most devastating effects upon the demoralized Hun forces.

In all a total of one hundred and fifty-two square miles of French territory, and seventy-two villages, which the Germans had held for four years, were captured outright in the drive, and for the reduction of the German defenses which they had thought impregnable, and for the creeping barrage which almost invariably preceded the doughboys in their attacks, more than a million and a half shells were fired by the American artillery, making the territory being traversed by the fleeing Germans a great charnel country of death and destruction.

With a remarkably small casualty list to themselves, everything considered, the American forces took no less than sixteen thousand prisoners, which was only a small proportion of those annihilated in the merciless advance, and to this conquest of territory and men they added the taking of one hundred and eleven guns, many of them of large calibre and great distance range, and great stores of munitions and supplies which the Boches had not time even to destroy in their headlong flight back toward the Rhine.

But most significant of all, as Tom with pride of his country pointed out, as the boys in the approach of evening got together to compare notes, was the confidence displayed in advance that all of this would take place, exactly as it had been planned and according to scheduled time and program.

And that it all had been expected, counted upon, taken for granted as practically assured before the first gun was fired, was evidenced by the fact that every arrangement was made for the use that was made of more than ten thousand feet of moving picture film, actually portraying the Germans in their disorganization which speedily grew to a rout and presaged their early and certain defeat in a war which they had precipitated upon the whole world and practically all civilization.