Mullins, in his own mind, decided it was the former; McGee, in his mind, was confident that it was the latter, and he warmed to him.
“No matter,” Cowan himself made reply to his unanswered question as he turned from the window with much of his old self-confidence. “Responsibility is a thing which command imposes–and which I accept. However, that does not prevent me from profiting by the experience of others, as I expect to do in your case, McGee.”
“You can. A recent report from General Mitchell declares that casualties from all causes have been as high as eighty per cent per month in squadrons at the front. That’s pretty stiff! Fortunately, the General points out, the enemy losses have been as great, or even greater. I don’t want to leave a stone unturned that may help us to decrease that percentage in this pursuit group–and increase it among the enemy! Here, take a look at this map, McGee.”
He stepped to the table and with a pencil drew a circle around a spot south of Epernay. “We are here,” he said. “The lines are here.” He moved the pencil to the northwest of Epernay, where the heavy black lines indicating the front crossed the Marne. “Notice that the lines swing southwest through Comblizy and la Chapelle, then northwest again, back to the Marne, and on to Chateau-Thierry. To-morrow we are to go here.” He circled a spot just south of La Ferte sous Jouarre. “See anything peculiar in this situation?” He studied closely the faces of the two junior officers. Mullins offered no reply.
“I think it peculiar that we have come up here, miles out of our way to the north, when our destination is considerably southwest of us,” McGee offered.
“Exactly!” Cowan replied, approvingly. “But there is a reason for it–to mislead the enemy. Their Intelligence Department seems to learn of every 134move we make, and sometimes learns of it in advance of that move. That’s the real reason we are here.”
“I don’t get it,” Mullins said, shaking his head.
“The order sending us here came down in the regular way,” Cowan explained, “but the order that takes us to La Ferte, to-morrow morning, was highly confidential. I did not disclose it until the moment of our departure, and only then so that anyone forced down would know our destination. There is to be a considerable concentration of air forces on the apex of the salient between la Chapelle, this side of Chateau-Thierry, and Villers-Cotterets, on the other side. It is the beginning of a movement of concentration to drive the enemy back beyond the Vesle. Hence the secrecy, and the effort to mislead the enemy as to our movements.”
McGee smiled, somewhat skeptically.