he
city later.

CHAPTER II.

Our First Glimpse of France

At Brest, the American soldiers got their first idea of the magnitude
of the work that the American Government was doing in the prosecution
of the war. Prior to our arrival there we had heard a great deal about
the construction work in French ports that the Americans had
undertaken, but our ideas of just what this work was, were more or
less vague. At Brest we saw just what it was. We saw miles of concrete
piers that had been built in record-breaking time with American skill,
American speed and American thoroughness. This work was a revelation
to all France, and the magnitude of the task, together with the
remarkably short time in which it was completed, stamp it as one of
the wonders of the war and as a lasting tribute to American ingenuity
and efficiency. These piers and warehouses of American construction
played a great part in ending the war, for they enabled the American
Government not only to land millions of troops in France, but to
provide adequate food, ammunition, guns and other necessary supplies
for these men. Nothing like it had ever been done before in the
history of the world.

Soon after we left the boat at Brest, the men were lined up on the
pier and given a sensible and appreciated address by the Commanding
Officer. He told us that now more than ever before, since we were upon
foreign soil, orders were to be obeyed to the letter. We were told to
be careful in all that we did because by our actions the French people
would judge the American nation. He advised us to do everything
commanded of us by our officers with snap and thoroughness, so as to
show the French people that we were not raw recruits; that we were
real soldiers; that we could do as well at any task, if not better,
than the soldiers of Europe. The boys, to a man, lived up to those
instructions, and it was not long before the world knew that the
American soldier was the equal of any on earth.

After this interesting advice was received we swung into squad right
and our first march on French territory began. We first marched more
than a mile through the railroad yards in Brest. These were all of
American construction. We saw miles of warehouses, filled with various
kinds of material of war and great quantities of food, not only for
the American soldiers, but for the civilians of France as well. These
warehouses were of wooden construction, and so different in design and