The Forty-second was composed of former National Guardsmen from the various states, the Seventy-seventh recruited chiefly from New York City, and the Eighty-second, composed of Georgians, Tennesseeans and Alabamans. The Second division, as has been said, was a regular army unit.
It was with the Forty-second division that Hal and Chester found themselves when the advance began. Attached to the staff of Colonel O'Neil of the third regiment, Thirty-second division, commanded by Major-General William C. Haan, they had been sent to General Rhodes with dispatches just before the advance began.
It was the night of the second of November, 1918, and the Americans were forging ahead in spite of the lateness of the hour—midnight. This was one feature of Yankee fighting that the Germans were never able to understand. The German is a methodical man. Even in the art of war he is governed to no small degree by habit. Ordinarily the Germans did not fight at night. With the coming of darkness, as a rule, it had been their custom to postpone further actions till the morrow.
Now, however, they were forced to give up some of these customs. When American forces advanced they continued their work whether it was night or day. Consequently, the Germans had found themselves forced either to fight or run.
The Germans were fighting tonight. All day they had been retreating, but now, less than a dozen miles from the city of Sedan, they were making a desperate stand.
The voices of the great guns shattered the night; huge rockets and other signal flares lighted up the darkness. Dimly could be heard the crash of machine gun fire and the rattle of the rifles at points where the fighting was close.
All day Hal and Chester had been kept on the jump, carrying dispatches to the various regimental commanders. At midnight, there appeared little likelihood they would gain a much needed rest before morning. General Rhodes, realizing the advantage won earlier in the day, was determined to press it to the utmost. Over his field telephone he kept in touch with developments in other parts of the field. There, he learned, the Germans also were giving ground.
The advance guard of the Forty-second was now a few miles to the north of Maisoncelle, which had been captured late in the evening. General Rhodes determined upon a bold stroke.
He summoned Hal, who stood at attention beside Chester, in the general's quarters.
"Major Paine!" he called.