n's belch and shells' burst. Now and then a great red glare
filled the sky, when some ammunition dump was set afire. Off to the
right appeared a lurid eruption of rockets and signal lights of all
kinds, the varied pyrotechnics lasting for ten or fifteen minutes; the
infantry's stores of rockets had been hit. Along the crest ahead, where
ran the road on which we heard so much traffic at night, shells from the
enemy's heavy guns were dropping. In addition to the heavy bombardment
of the front lines, there was constant fire on all trenches, roads and
other ways of communication.

At 4 a. m., the blackness was lightening to grey. The guns were laid,
ready to drop a barrier of bursting shells when the enemy's first wave
neared our front line. The 'phone rang. There was checking of data and
minute directions. At 4:15 came the command, "Fire," and the guns along
the trench began to blaze and bang unceasingly. The men worked like
demons, deaf now to all the thunder and roar about them, no eye to the
crimson glare that lit up the horizon in front beneath the black piles
of smoke like thunder clouds over the front lines, unconscious of the
occasional shrapnel that fell near or the fragments from the big shells
that burst along the crest and sometimes over towards them. Hour after
hour they fed the guns at the same rate of speed. They could see no
signs of the enemy themselves, none but the shells from his guns. But
they knew that on the other side of the crest their fire was thinning
the successive grey waves of Germans that hurled themselves on our
infantry. The strength, the lives of our infantry depended on these
75's, and we could not fail them for a second. Fatigue, hunger, thirst
were unminded. Coffee was brought to the gun crews at noon. The first
food was some beans and hard-tack at midnight, more than thirty hours
after mess of the evening before.

At 11 a. m. came a lull. The enemy's first mighty effort was broken.
General Gouraud's plan had succeeded. By drawing back all his forces
from the front lines to the intermediate defences, he had caused the
bombardment of hundreds of the enemy's guns to fall harmlessly, and
exposed the German infantry waves to the more deadly fire of our cannon
and machine-guns while they crossed the vacated trenches. In addition to
the three German divisions holding the sector opposite the 21st French
Corps--comprising three French divisions and the 42d Division--six
first-class divisions of