sar
College, we stopped on a high ridge overlooking the battle line. This
was a favorite rendezvous on my return from night deliveries, as it
gave a wonderful panoramic view of the whole front line for miles in
either direction. The flashes of the guns, the dazzling brilliancy of
the star shells, the long lines of varicolored signals as they went up
from many camps and out-posts, and the flares dropped from scores of
planes, passing and repassing in the darkness overhead, can never be
forgotten. It was a nightly and wonderful Fourth of July celebration,
enhanced by the weirdness and danger of actual warfare.

As we stood this night, silhouetted against the moonlit sky, wearing
our "tin" hats and with gas masks at "alert," suddenly out of the
night loomed a German plane, flying low, the Boche engine
distinguished by its own peculiar throb. As it passed over our heads
it dropped a red flare and proceeded toward Baccarat. Evidently, it
had discovered our signals for that night and was using them. As soon
as its deception was discovered our gunners opened fire, but not until
it had dropped four bombs on the town and gotten away in safety toward
the German lines. The explosions from the bombs were terrific and the
flashes lit up the whole sky. We took refuge behind trees as shrapnel
from our anti-aircraft guns rattled down in the roadway and the "ping"
of machine-gun bullets startled our ears.

When we returned to town we found everything in confusion. One bomb
had exploded in the treetops a half block from our billet and had
wrecked the beautiful mansion of the French mayor of the town. It also
wounded some American soldiers in a nearby barracks. Another bomb
landed between two buildings at Hexo Barracks, killing three of our
boys and one French poilu, besides wounding many and shattering the
buildings. Four horses were killed by pieces of shrapnel, and when
looking over the scene of destruction the next morning I noticed a
hole, clean cut, through a half-inch steel tire on a nearby cart. It
had been cut by a piece of shrapnel about an inch long which had also
gone through spokes and hub and buried itself in the ground.

[Illustration: GERMAN AERIAL BOMB (Small)]

At four o'clock one day, after the regular round of hut deliveries, a
special order was handed me from our chief for immediate execution. In
ten minutes I was off in my ever-faithful flivver. My order took me to
Reherrey, a village near the line, where a s