"Full of 'pep' eh?" said Chester with a laugh.
"Yes," Hal agreed, "and I'll bet he's full of the same old 'pep' when it comes down to business."
And Hal was right.
CHAPTER XV
THE CAPTURE OF SEDAN
The American advance against Sedan was in full blast. All night the fighting had raged. Promptly at 6 o'clock on the evening of November 6 General Lejeune had hurled the Second division forward in accordance with the plans outlined by General Rhodes of the Forty-second.
Apparently the Germans had anticipated the attack, for they were braced to receive it when the first Yankee troops began to move. The enemy stood firm—and was continuing to stand firm almost twelve hours after the assault was launched.
There was a slight chill in the early November air as it grew light. The air was filled with shrieking shells and shrapnel. Rifle and machine-gun fire rose even above the noise of the field and siege guns. Shrill whistles punctuated intervals of seeming silence as American officers gave orders to their men. In the midst of battle, whistles are depended upon mainly for signals—also there are signals given with the hands. The confusion is usually too great to permit verbal orders being understood.
At the same time that General Lejeune attacked the enemy, General Rhodes, to the south, also had advanced. But the enemy was holding stubbornly in that section of the field also, and at 6 o'clock on the morning of November 7 the American forces had made only slight progress. However, they were still hammering hard at the German lines.
With a gallantry not exceeded in the annals of the war, the Second division kept at its task. When one enemy machine-gun nest was captured, they found themselves targets for others, whose gunners, discovered, had withheld their fire until the moment when it would be the most effective.