ng
us with mud, also where snipers sent rifle balls hissing only a few feet
away, almost our greatest treats were the scientific daily discourses
given by our Captain concerning the entire history of the first
campaign, explaining each event leading up to the present position of
the two armies. He gave the exact location of every French and allied
army corps on the entire front.

On the opposite side of the line he demonstrated the efficiency of the
French secret service by detailing the position and name of every German
regiment, also the date and the position it now holds. Thus, we were
able to know during the journey that it was the crack Prussian Guard
that was stopped by de Maud'Huy's Territorials and that the English
section under General French was opposed by Saxons.

Our Captain by these lectures gave us an insight into the second great
German blunder after the failure to occupy Paris, which was the failure
immediately to swing a line across Northern France, thus cutting off
Calais and Boulogne, where they could really have leveled a pistol at
England's head. He explained that it was the superiority of the French
cavalry that dictated that the line should instead run straight north
through the edge of Belgium to the sea. His explanations went further
than this, for he refuted many military arguments to the effect that
cavalry became obsolete with the advent of aeroplanes.

Cavalry formerly was used to screen the infantry advance and also for
shock purposes in the charges. Now that the lines are established, it
is mostly used with the infantry in the trenches; but in the great race
after the Marne to turn the western flanks it was the cavalry's ability
to outstrip the infantry that kept the Germans from practically all of
Northern France. In other words, the French chausseurs, more brilliant
than the Uhlans, kept that northern line straight until the infantry
corps had time to take up position.

My introduction to the real French Army was made at the point of
junction with the English troops, so I was thus able to make some
comparison between the types of the Allies. I did not see the Germans
except as prisoners, although on this trip I was sometimes within a few
yards of their lines. With all consideration for the statement that they
are the greatest fighting machine the world has ever seen, all I can say
is that the greatest fighting machine I have even seen is the French
Army.

To me they seem invincible