“Get ready, boys!” Captain McCallum’s perfectly controlled voice spoke out down the trench, and the lads could hear other captains giving like orders to their own men.
And then the artillery began again, but it was more subdued than before. Tom looked upward and realized that the first streaks of dawn were stretching out across the sky.
He was immediately aware of something else, also. The smoke screen was being laid down!
This was the final of the preliminary moves to their “going over.”
It began only a few yards out from the trench line and gradually moved off toward where the enemy had been undergoing such terrific punishment.
Lieutenant Gaston was alternating his attention upon the smoke screen and his watch. Tom looked at his own timepiece. It was 5.25 on the morning of September 12, 1918, four years to a day since the Germans had established the St. Mihiel salient!
Men were readjusting their steel helmets or tugging impatiently at uniform and equipment.
Captain McCallum raised his right arm and the men as best they could in their cramped quarters came to attention.
“Thiaucourt!” the commander shouted.
A great cheer came from every throat. It was taken up and echoed by companies on their right and on their left.