ricked him in the left breast with
the point of his bayonet in an over-hand thrust of his rifle. Still he
had failed to give his foe a lethal stroke, and as he recoiled for a
final encounter he resolved to give him the full benefit of a body
thrust and drove his bayonet home, the blade breaking as the foe
crashed to the ground.

There is a sequel to this story which we must never forget. Whatever
may have been the undaunted heroism of our boys when in action, each
one of them not only "had a heart" but also a conscience. And while
_war_, which is _worse_ than Sherman's "hell," suspends for the time
the heart appeal and stifles the conscience, the reaction is almost
invariably the same.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] "Corn willie" was corned beef carried in small tin cans and eaten
cold when on the march.

CHAPTER V

TANKS AND TRACTORS

The infantry is the most mobile of any division of the army. Men can
go where horses and guns find it impossible. They can file silently
through narrow passes or a maze of forest trees and underbrush. They
can scale cliffs. They can dodge shell-holes and negotiate muddy roads
and morasses. They can move slowly or quickly at will and can
therefore take difficult positions where it is impossible quickly to
bring up artillery support.

The Ohio boys were in the line exposed to the merciless and cruel
machine-gun and artillery fire of the enemy. It was said that the
Germans had one machine gun for every two of our rifles. The conflict
was desperate. The enemy realized that their cause depended upon
their practical annihilation of the American troops. These fighters,
who with such courage and disregard of danger had taken this part of
the impregnable Hindenburg line, now threatened their supporting
lines. It is no disgrace to acknowledge that during those awful
initial days of the Argonne drive we paid the price that an army
advancing must pay. Of course it was heart-breaking to see the long
lines of our stretcher-bearers coming out of that belching brimstone
line with the punctured and broken bodies of our boys. But it was
glorious to know that the line had not wavered. _How long could they
last?_ And how speedily could artillery be brought to their aid? These
were the momentous questions that quivered on every lip and that gave
imperative urgency to the commands and appeals of the officers who
watched with choking emotion the slaughter of "their boys."

As we gazed over the valley we s