Ours but to do and die,”
chanted Billy.
But with all his doubts, Tom went on with the fighting with renewed inspiration at the news that victory was near at hand. And his friends were filled with rejoicing that the Huns were being beaten to their knees and were about ready to acknowledge it. Their tremendous exertions and sacrifices in leaving America and coming across the sea to fight for liberty and civilization against brutality and barbarism had not been in vain. They felt something the way the Crusaders must have felt when they caught sight of Jerusalem, the goal of their endeavors.
And now the work of the last two weeks began to tell. The enemy resistance began to grow feebler, though he still hung on desperately and tried by stubborn rear-guard actions to hold these persistent Americans back. But the worst part of the forest had been cleared. The whole place had been a vast fortress. Above the ground every possible natural and artificial obstruction had been put in their path, and had had to be conquered one by one. Beneath the ground it had been like the Catacombs of Rome. There were subterranean passages, bombproof shelters, railways, communicating trenches, cunning traps, a thousand devices that the Germans had been four years in perfecting. But none of these had thwarted American ingenuity and American courage. And as the enemy saw how fruitless their endeavors were, their confidence melted away and began to give place to panic. Nothing could stop these Americans. What was the use of trying?
So the work grew easier for the Army Boys. They advanced faster and faster. They had got through the worst part of their task and were reaching the higher and clearer ground where tanks could operate more readily. Armored trucks and lorries were loaded with men and were sent forward in the direction of Stenay and Sedan. More prisoners were being brought in every day.
The big naval guns that had been brought over in sections by Plunkett’s men were beginning now to demonstrate their value. They outranged anything the Germans had. They threw projectiles that weighed fourteen hundred pounds a distance of from fifteen to twenty miles and they were concentrated now on the railway line from Mezieres to Sedan that was the Germans’ last hope either for supplies or retreat. The end was coming and coming fast, and the Army Boys were jubilant.
They were pressing forward in this mood one afternoon when they found themselves held up by an especially stubborn machine gun nest. It commanded a position that was the key of the German defense in that section and the Germans were putting forth herculean efforts to hold it.
It was useless to try to take it from in front, for a storm of bullets swept the road along which nothing could advance and live.
Corporal Wilson was given a squad of men, among whom were Frank, Billy and Tom, and commanded to silence the position.
They made a wide detour, worming their way along on both sides of the nest, and then at a given signal rushed the position. The startled gun crew turned their gun first one way and then the other in an attempt to check their assailants, but although some fell dead or wounded, the survivors reached their goal, leaped upon the gunners and bayoneted them at their posts.