THE VETERANS RETURN
When the first contingent of doughboys came out of the trenches I went
to a French officer whom I knew well and asked him what he thought of
the Americans.
"Remember," I told him, "I don't want you to dress up an opinion for me.
Tell me what you really thought of our men when you saw them up there.
What did the French say about them?"
"Truly, I think they are very good," the Frenchman told me. Then he
corrected himself. "I mean I think they will be very good. They are
something like the Canadians. They were pretty jumpy at first, but that
doesn't do any harm. The soldiers up there, they wanted to fire when the
grass was moving and they did sometimes, without getting any orders.
They got over that pretty soon. By the third night they were pretty
well settled. Of course, they can shoot better than our men and they are
bigger and stronger, but in some things we have the advantage. You
Americans are much more excitable than we French."
As a rule French and British officers were inclined to be optimistic
about the Americans. They were impressed by their physique. The first of
the Canadians were probably a little huskier than the Americans and the
early contingents of Australians and New Zealanders were at least as
good, but now all the rest are falling off in their physical standards
on account of losses, while the most recent American arrivals in France
are better than any of our earlier contingents.
The American is potentially a good soldier, but it is a long cry of
preëminence. Any nation which establishes itself as the best in the
field will have to perform marvelous deeds. The chances are that nobody
will touch the high water mark of the French. After all, in her finest
moments, France has a positive genius for warfare. Her best troops
possess a combination of patience in defense and dash in attack. France
has a fighting tradition which we do not possess. We must gain that
before we can rival her.
From the point of view of the newspaperman the Frenchman is the ideal
soldier of the world. Not only can he fight, but he can tell you about
it. There is no trouble in getting a poilu to talk. He has opinions on
every subject under the sun. The only difficulty is in understanding him
once you have got him started. The doughboys, on the other hand, are
usually reticent. They're always afraid of being detected in some
sentimental or heroic pose and so they adopt a belittling attitude
toward anything which happens as protection. The first men who came back
from the trenches were not quite like that. These doughboys were more
like Rossetti's angels. "The wonder was not yet quite gone from that
still look" of theirs.
They did not minimize their experiences. I think I understand now what
Secretary Baker meant when he said that some of the most thrilling
stories of the war would come in letters from the soldiers. We went to
the major of a battalion which had just come back from the front to its
billets.
"No, nothing much happened while we were up there," he said. "They
didn't shell us very hard; they didn't try any raids or any gas and the
aeroplanes let us alone."
Then we tried the soldiers. "Yes, sir, we certainly did see some
aeroplanes," said a doughboy. "Why, one day there was two hundred and
twenty-five flew over my head. I think the French brought down twenty of
them, but I didn't see that." Another told how two hundred and fifty
Germans had started to attack the Americans. "Our artillery put a
barrage on them and in a couple of minutes all but three of them were
dead."
"Did you see those Germans yourself?" we asked him sternly.
"No," he admitted, "it was a little bit down to our left but I heard
about it."
There were other stories which may have grown in the telling, but they
sounded more plausible. One concerned a soldier who had his hyphen shot
away at the front. This man was of German parentage and his father was
in the German army. Before he went to the trenches he used to dwell on
what a terrible thing it was for him to be fighting against his father
and Fatherland. He declared that if it were possible he was going to
play a passive part in the war. But in the course of time he went into
the first line and no sooner was he in than he peeked over the top to
have a look at the folks from the old home. "Pat, pat, pat!" a stream of
bullets from a machine gun went by his head. The German-American gave a
grunt of surprise and then a yell of rage and jumped over the parapet
and began firing his rifle in the direction of the machine gun. He must
have made a lucky hit for by some chance or other the machine gun ceased
firing and the doughboy crawled back into the trench unharmed. He was
still mad and kept mumbling, "I didn't do anything but look at 'em and
they went and shot at me."
A story better authenticated concerns a visit which General Pershing
paid to the trenches. A young captain took his responsibilities much to
heart and wanted to leave nothing to his subordinates. He was on the
rush constantly from one point to another and at the end of fifty-two
hours of unceasing toil he went to his dugout to get three hours' sleep.
He had hardly started to snore when there was a knock and a doughboy
came in to complain that he had sore feet and what should he do. A few
minutes later it was another who wanted to know where he could get
additional candles. Rid of him, the captain really began to sleep, only
to be awakened by a knock at the door and a voice, "Is this the company
commander?"
"Yes," said the irritated captain, "and what the hell do you want?"
The door opened and the strictest disciplinarian in the American army
permitted himself the shadow of a smile. "I'm General Pershing," he
said.
One battalion came back from the front with an additional member. He was
a large dog of uncertain breed who had deserted from the German lines.
At least it was hard to say whether he belonged to the German army or
the French. The French first saw him one afternoon when he came
lumbering across No Man's Land and pushed himself through the wire in a
place where it had grown a bit slack. One French soldier fired at him.
The poilu thought it might be a new trick of the Germans. For all he
knew a couple of Boches might have been concealed inside the big hound.
He was no marksman, this soldier, for he missed the dog who promptly
turned sharply to the left and came in at another point in the trenches.
The soldiers made him welcome although there was some discussion as to
what his nationality might be. It was evident that he had come across
from the German lines, but it was possible that he was a French dog
captured in one of the villages which fell to the invaders. The men in
the front line tried him with all the German they knew--"You German
pig," "what's your regiment?" "damn the Kaiser," "to Berlin," and a few
others. He indicated no understanding of the phrases. Later he was taken
further back and examined at length by an intelligence officer but no
single German word could be found which he seemed to recognize. On the
other hand it was ascertained that he was equally ignorant of French.
However, he understood signs, would bark for a bone and never missed an
invitation to eat.
During the first week of his stay the soldiers were generous in giving
him a share of their rations. Later he became an old friend and did not
fare so well. One night he disappeared and an outpost saw him lumbering
back to the German lines. The Boches were out on patrol that night and
apparently the big dog reached their lines without being fired upon. He
was gone three weeks and then he returned for a long stay with the
French. So it went on. He never affiliated himself permanently with
either army and he never gave away secrets. Possibly his coming gave
some sign of declining morale across the way for when the men became
cross and testy the big dog simply changed sides. There was never any
indication that he had been underfed even when rumors were strongest
about the food shortage in Germany. The Boches took a pride in belying
these stories, as best they could, by keeping the hound sleek and fat.
The French called him Quatre Cent Vingt after the big gun but nobody
knew for certain his German alias. Once when he left the German lines in
broad daylight the Boches all along the line were heard whistling for
him to come back, but no one called him by name. The French chose to
believe that across the way he was known as "Kamerad," but there was no
evidence on this point. It is true that he would stand on his hind legs
and wave his paws when anybody said "Kamerad," but this was a trick and
took teaching.
He must have heard somehow or other about the coming of the Americans
for he left the Germans at noon one day when the doughboys had hardly
become settled in their new home. A French interpreter vouched for him
and he was allowed free access to third line, second line, first line
and, what he valued much more, to the company kitchen. Here for the
first time he tasted slum. Soldiers are fond of belittling this
combination of beef, onions, potatoes and carrots but Quatre Cent Vingt
was frank in his admiration of the dish. Naturally, free-born American
citizens could not be expected to know him by his outlandish French
name or any abbreviation of it and he became Big Ed in honor of the mess
sergeant. Hitherto Quatre Cent Vingt had been careful to show no favors.
He had been the company's dog but he became so distinctly partial to the
mess sergeant that the soldier took him over as his own and when the
company went away Quatre Cent Vingt went too, following closely behind a
rolling kitchen.
The experience in the trenches made American soldiers a little more
expressive than they had been before but the national character remained
baffling. As a nation we unquestionably have personality but our army is
somewhat lacking in this quality even among its leaders. Pershing is a
personality, of course, and Bullard and Sibert and March, but for the
rest all major generals seemed much alike to us. Sibert we remembered
because he was a quiet, kindly man who got the things he wanted without
much fuss. He was among the thinkers of the army. Mostly he was
listening to other people, but when he talked he wasted no words.
Undoubtedly he was one of the best loved men in the army for he combined
with his efficiency and his kindliness an occasional playful flash of
humor. I remember a visit which three American newspaperwomen paid to
him one day at his headquarters. The conversation had scarcely begun
when one of the women somewhat tactlessly remarked, "General, this is a
young man's war, isn't it?"
General Sibert is husky enough but he is a bit gray and he smiled
quizzically as he looked at his questioner over the top of a big pair of
horn-rimmed glasses.
"When I was a cadet at West Point," said General Sibert, "I used to
console myself with the thought that Napoleon was winning battles when
he was thirty. Now, I find that my mind dwells more on the fact that
Hindenburg is seventy."
Robert H. Bullard is probably the most picturesque figure in the
American army. He has a reputation as a fighter and a daredevil and he
is still one of the best polo players and broadsword experts in the
American army. They say that when a second lieutenant swore at him one
day in the heat of a game he made no complaint but laid for the young
man later on and sent him sprawling off his horse in a wild scrimmage.
He will fight broadsword duels with anybody regardless of rank if his
opponent promises to be a man who can test his mettle. And yet it was a
bit surprising that when the command of one of the crack divisions in
France was open, General Pershing chose Bullard for the command because
Major General Robert H. Bullard is perhaps the worst dressed major
general in the American army. A poilu in one of the provincial cities
mistook him for an American enlisted man and talked to him with great
freedom for more than half an hour before an excited French officer
rushed up and told him that the man with whom he was talking so
familiarly was an American general.
"Oh, that's all right," said Bullard, "I wanted to hear what he had to
say. Come around to my headquarters sometime and tell me some more."
On another occasion I saw an American captain suffer acutely because
Bullard appeared at a public Franco-American function with two days'
growth of beard. "What kind of an aide can he have," moaned the
captain. "I was on his staff for two years and I never let him come out
like that. I always had him fixed up when there was anything important
on."
Tall, spare, hawk-featured and straight, Bullard represents a type of
officer who has a large part to play in the American army. It is around
such men that tradition grows and tradition is the marrow of an army. It
was Bullard, too, who gave the best expression to the hope and purpose
of the American army which I heard in France. He had said that what the
American army must always maintain as its most important asset was the
offensive spirit and when we asked him just what that was he lapsed into
a story which was always his favorite device for exposition.
"There was once a Spanish farmer," said General Bullard, "who lived in a
small house in the country with his pious wife. One day he came rushing
out of the house with a valise in his hand and his good wife stopped him
and asked, 'Where are you going?' 'I'm going to Seville,' said the
farmer bustling right past her. 'You mean God willing,' suggested his
pious wife. 'No,' replied the farmer, 'I just mean that I'm going.'
"The Lord was angered by this impiety and He promptly changed the farmer
into a frog. His wife could tell that it was her husband all right
because he was bigger than any of the other frogs and more noisy. She
went to the edge of the pond every day and prayed that her husband might
be forgiven. And one morning--it was the first day of the second
year--the big frog suddenly began to swell and get bigger and bigger
until he wasn't a frog any more, but a man. And he hopped out of the
pond and stood on the bank beside his wife. Without stopping to kiss her
or thank her or anything he ran straight into the house and came out
with a valise in his hand.
"'Where are you going?' his wife asked in terror.
"'To Seville,' he said.
"She wrung her hands. 'You mean God willing,' she cried.
"'No,' thundered the farmer, 'to Seville or back to the frog pond!'"
In the main, however, American officers and soldiers were not very
successful in expressing their feelings and ideals in regard to the war.
One of the Y. M. C. A. huts carried on an anonymous symposium on the
subject "Why I joined the army." Only a few of the answers came from the
heart. Most of the rest were of two types. One sort was swanking and
swaggering, in which the writer unconsciously melodramatized himself,
and the other was cynical, in which the writer betrayed the fact that he
was afraid of being melodramatic. Thus there was one man who answered,
"To fight for my country, the good old United States, the land of the
free and the starry flag that I love so well." "Because I was crazy,"
wrote another and it is probable that neither reason really represented
the exact feeling of the man in question.
Some were distinctly utilitarian such as that of the soldier who wrote
"To improve my mind by visiting the famous churches and art galleries of
the old world." There was also a simplicity and directness in "to put
Malden on the map." But the two which seemed to be the truest of all
were, "Because they said I wasn't game and I am too" and "Because she'll
be sorry when she sees my name in the list of the fellows that got
killed."
For a time I was all muddled up about the American reaction to the war.
Sometimes we seemed helplessly provincial and then along would come some
glorious unhelpless assertiveness. This would probably be in something
to do with plumbing or doctoring. Even our friends in Europe are
inclined to put us down as materialists. They think we love money more
than anything else in the world. I don't believe this is true. I think
we use money only as a symbol and that even if we don't express them, or
if we express them badly, the American who fights has not forgotten to
pack his ideals. A young American officer brought that home to me one
day in Paris. He was a doctor from a thriving factory town upstate.
"You know," he began, "this war is costing me thousands of dollars. I
was getting along great back home. A lot of factories had me for their
doctor. My practice was worth $15,000 a year. It was all paid up, too,
you know, workman's compensation stuff. I'll bet it won't be worth a
nickel when I get back."
He sat and drummed on the table and looked out on the street and a
couple of Portuguese went by in their slate gray uniforms and then some
Russians, with their marvelous tunics, which Bakst might have designed;
there were French aviators in black and red, and rollicking Australians,
an Italian, looking glum, and a Roumanian with a girl on his arm.
"Did you ever read 'Ivanhoe'?" said the man with the $15,000 practice,
fiercely and suddenly.
I nodded.
"Well," he said, "when I was a boy I read that book five times. I
thought it was the greatest book in the world, and I guess it is, and
all this reminds me of 'Ivanhoe.'"
"Of 'Ivanhoe'?" I said.
"Yes, you know, all this," and he made an expansive gesture, "Verdun,
and Joffre, and 'they shall not pass,' and Napoleon's tomb, and war
bread, and all the men with medals and everything. Great stuff!
There'll never be anything like it in the world again. I tell you it's
better than 'Ivanhoe.' Everything's happening and I'm in it. I'm in a
little of it, anyway. And if I have a chance to get in something big I
don't care what happens. No, sir, if I could just help to give the old
Boche a good wallop I wouldn't care if I never got back. Why, I wouldn't
miss this for ----" His eyes were sparkling with excitement now and he
was straining for adequate expression. He brought his fist down on the
table until the glasses rattled. "I wouldn't miss this for $50,000
cash," he said.
* * * * *
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The corspondent=>The correspondent
it was passible to see the projectile in flight=>it was possible to see
the projectile in flight