]
[Sidenote: Peers of the world's best soldiers]
The work done in their debut, by the American troops in conjunction with
our own, was magnificent. They fought against victorious soldiers sure
of success, and whipped them. They were engaged on a difficult terrain.
In the south they were obliged to cross a broad river and wide valleys,
to scale cliffs bristling with defensive positions. In the center they
were confronted by a confused entanglement of broken ground, hills and
ravines, woods and open fields, bisected by a deep valley half-concealed
by trees. In the north they became acquainted with the snare formed by
plateaus falling abruptly away into the wolf-trap of ravines, where the
enemy, lying in ambush, refused to give ground. The Americans triumphed
over all these obstacles, and deserve to be reckoned the peers of the
best soldiers in the world. On the other hand, fighting as they have
fought in these countrysides, so typically French in their simplicity
and grandeur, and seeing all their charms foully outraged, our
attractive villages destroyed, our churches--graceful masterpieces, in
almost every case, of the Middle Ages--desecrated and shattered, they
have come to understand France better; they have had a share in her
misfortunes and in her hopes.
Copyright, Atlantic Monthly, December, 1918.
* * * * *
Throughout the war Germans persisted in the assumption that by nightly
raids from bombing machines and Zeppelins they could spread terror among
the Allies and weaken their morale.
Pages:
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275