only to creation,
he selected the units in which he had the most faith. These units were
chosen not because they were braver nor more sacrificial, but because
they knew. They were the Foreign Legion of France, two divisions of
American Regulars, and the United States Marines."

From that day there was no change in the favorable fortunes of war on
the western front.

AMERICANS CAN FIGHT AND YELL

An eyewitness of the first days of the Chateau Thierry battle thus
describes the capture of the Beauleau wood:

"The Americans moved stealthily with fixed bayonet until they got into
the edge of the woods and atop of the German machine gun-tiers. Then
the farm boys cheered, and the lumberjacks shouted, and the Indians
yelled. They were where they could mix it at close range with the Boche,
and that was what they wanted.

"Their yells could be heard a mile away. They were up against two of the
Kaiser's redoubtable divisions, the Two Hundredth Jaegers and the Two
Hundred and Sixteenth reserve division. They fought with vim and joy.

"They had lost comrades at the hands of the Germans and now were to
avenge them. No quarter was asked or expected. The Germans had orders to
fight to the death and the Americans needed no such order.

"Without much artillery on either side and without gas, the Americans
fought the Germans through that woods, four kilometers (nearly three
miles) long, for six hours. At last we got through and took up a
position across the northern end of the woods.

"Perhaps the most sensational part of the fight was when about
Germans got around behind our men. They were chased into a clearing,
where the Americans went at them from all sides with the bayonet, and I
am told that three prisoners were all that were left of the Germans."

"How did you do it?" inquired a dazed Prussian officer, taken prisoner
at Chateau Thierry by an American soldier. "We are storm troops."

"Storm hell!" said the American. "I come from Kansas, where we have
cyclones."

That was and is the idea. This spirit enabled American soldiers to go
wherever they wanted to go. A European officer on observation duty
with the United States force at Chateau Thierry wanted to know how our
soldiers got through as they did.

"They seem to have been trained somewhere," he said, "for they fight all
right. But that doesn't explain to me the way they keep going."

The American officer with whom he was talking gave this explanation:

"They were