ird bullet got him. It tore out his left eye and made a compound
fracture of the skull. For three hours he lay conscious on the open
field in the Bois de Belleau with a murderous machine gun fire playing a
few inches over his head until under cover of darkness he was able to
crawl off the field. For his gallant conduct he received a citation from
General Petain, Commander-in-Chief of the French Armies, and the French
Government awarded him the Croix de Guerre with the Palm.

On July 5th, he was out of the hospital and back at the front, covering
the first advance of the Americans with the British forces before
Amiens. On July 18th he was the only correspondent with the American
troops when they executed the history-making drive against the German
armies in the Chateau-Thierry salient--the beginning of the German end.
He rode with the first detachment of American troops that entered
Chateau-Thierry upon the heels of the retreating Germans.

Floyd Gibbons was the first to sound the alarm of the danger of the
German peace offensive. Six weeks before the drive for a negotiated
peace was made by the German Government against the home flank in
America, Gibbons told that it was on the way. He crossed the Atlantic
with his crippled arm in a sling and his head bandaged, to spend his
convalescence warning American audiences against what he called the
"Crooked Kamerad Cry."

Gibbons has lived the war, he has been a part of it. "And They Thought
We Wouldn't Fight" is the voice of our men in France.

FRANK COMERFORD.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I THE SINKING OF THE _Laconia_ 17

II PERSHING'S ARRIVAL IN EUROPE 43

III THE LANDING OF THE FIRST AMERICAN CONTINGENT IN FRANCE 61

IV THROUGH THE SCHOOL OF WAR 78

V MAKING THE MEN WHO MAN THE GUNS 96

VI "FRONTWARD HO!" 117

VII INTO THE LINE--THE FIRST AMERICAN SHOT IN THE WAR 134

VIII THE FIRST AMERICAN SECTOR 158

IX THE NIGHT OUR GUNS CUT LOOSE 182

X INTO PICARDY TO MEET THE GERMAN PUSH 199

XI UNDER FIRE