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 saw to the left a line of
slow-crawling tanks. They were about as long as Ford cars and as tall
as a man. They were the French "baby tanks" coming up to help our boys
clean out the machine-gun nests. It was perfectly fascinating and
almost uncanny to watch tanks in action. There was no visible sign of
life or power, nor any seeming direction to their motion. They crawled
stealthily along, bowling over bushes or small trees or flattening out
wire entanglements. Steep banks or deep gulleys were taken or crossed
with equal ease. As a tank would creep up the side of a ridge it
seemed to poise momentarily on the crest, the front part extending out
into space until the center of gravity was passed, when the whole tank
plunged down headlong. We instinctively held our breath until we saw
it crawling away on the opposite side.
The tanks parked behind a hill. We worked our way through the
intervening valley, up the hill past the tank position, and on toward
the battle-line, giving out our supplies to all we met or passed.
Before we had finished, a Boche plane flew overhead, took a photo of
the tank position, and got away to the German lines before our
aviators could give chase. We were warned to retreat to a safe
position because the German guns would shell this area as soon as the
returning scout brought in news of the location of the tanks. Our
first concern, however, was the service we might be able to render the
boys. Personal safety was a secondary matter, especially since death
lurked everywhere. So we continued across a shell-torn slope, toward
the enemy line, going from shell-hole to shell-hole and giving a word
of good cheer, a bit of chocolate, and some smokes to the boys who had
taken temporary refuge in these ready-made "dug-ins" (a shallow
protection).
Having ministered to the wants of our own boys, we felt the brave
French pilots and gunners of these tanks were also deserving and as
we approached each tank on our return trip a small iron door in front
of the pilot opened, and the courteous appreciation, of which the
French are masters, told us that our remembrance of them had been
wisely chosen. Fritz was unintentionally good to us and waited until
we had finished our task in that sector and retraced our steps across
the valley before he began to shell it. By that time the wounded had
also been cared for and removed and the tank position changed. For
once Heinie's shells were wasted.
For ten wonderful days my duties took me (on foot, by touring-car, by
truck, and by ammunition wagon) from the "rail-head" six miles behind
the trenches where our boys went "over the top" on that first historic
day of the Argonne drive, up to within a half mile of the day's
farthest advance.
I saw artillery pieces and heavy cannon emplacements everywhere back
of the line. I saw these guns after their first terrific bombardment,
unlimbered and moved up to their new positions. The heaviest guns,
including the big naval guns, were especially well concealed in woods,
in orchards, and well camouflaged in fields. So well hidden were they
that I passed within a few rods of multitudes of them, as I traveled
the roads, without detecting their presence until I would either hear
the discharge of their shells or see them as they were being
unlimbered. To move a heavy gun in mud is no small task. For more than
an hour one day I was held up in a truck and watched a dozen experts,
with block and tackle and "caterpillar tractor" move a twelve-inch
monster from its hidden foundation up a slight incline toward the
roadway. It was an hour well spent, for it gave me an object lesson
concerning the difficulty with which great field pieces are moved
under unfavorable conditions.
By way of contrast, I watched at another time a crew of eight men
unlimber an eight-inch gun and move it about fifteen feet from its
foundation beside a railroad track to a flat car, which could carry it
at express speed to some other point of vantage. This told the great
value of railroad spurs leading up toward the enemy lines.
At one place our boys told me of one of our "mysterious" guns, mounted
on a specially prepared flat car, which made nightly trips out to
different points of vantage for firing on some enemy position,
returning again under cover of the darkness to its secret hiding
place.
Having seen the battlefields and behind the lines of both the Allied
and the German forces; and having noted the military efficiency of the
German preparation and their care in carrying out even the minutest
details; and having observed the skill in preparation and the accuracy
in use, especially of the French artillery; and having been thrilled
and pleased by the quick and ingenious adaptation of our American
army to the best and most efficient use of every type of weapon, I am
thoroughly convinced that an intelligent army, governed by Christian
ideals, is an invincible army, no matter what temporary advantage
military preparedness may have given to the enemy.