back again with still more fearful losses. A third attempt
met with a similar result. The Americans were standing like a rock.

"Guess Fritz is getting more than he bargained for," grinned Billy, as
the Germans were forming for another attack.

"Yes," agreed Frank, "but he'll try again. He'll stand a whole lot of
beating."

For several hours the fight continued with a bitterness that had not
been paralleled before in the whole course of the war. Again and again
the enemy attacked, only to be beaten back before the stonewall defense.

But the Americans were not satisfied with merely defending their
position. About two hours after noon they organized a counterattack.
With splendid vim and ardor, and in a dashing charge, they smashed the
division confronting them, driving them back in confusion and bringing
hundreds of prisoners back with them to the trenches.

"I guess that will hold them for a while," crowed Billy, as they rested
for a few minutes after their return.

"We certainly slashed them good and plenty," exulted Frank, as he
washed up a scratched shoulder that had been struck by a splinter of
shrapnel.

"If the rest of the line is holding as well as our fellows, the drive
will be ended almost as soon as it began," remarked Bart.

"And Heinie was going to walk all over us, was he?" grinned Billy.
"He's got another guess coming."

But their amazement was great a few minutes later when the order came
for the regiment to fall back.

"Fall back!" howled Billy when he heard the order. "What is this, a
joke?"

"Why should we fall back, when we've just licked the tar out of the
Heinies?" growled Bart.

"Orders are orders," said Frank briefly. "I suppose our commanders
know what they're doing. But it certainly is tough luck."

Their officers no doubt felt an equal chagrin, but the need was
imperative. The Germans had struck along a front of fifty miles. At
many points they had encountered a resistance as fierce and determined
as that put up by the old Thirty-seventh and its companion regiments of
the same division.

But at others they had been more successful. They had introduced a new
kind of tactics that had never been used before on the western front,
although it had been employed successfully in Russia. These were the
so-called Von Hutier tactics whereby, when a division was used up,
instead of falling back it simply opened up and let a fresh division
pass through and take up the burden.