CONTENTS
| PAGE | ||
|---|---|---|
| I. | Battle-Sight | [1] |
| II. | The Charge at Soissons | [73] |
| III. | Marines at Blanc Mont | [131] |
| IV. | Monkey-Meat | [199] |
| V. | The Rhine | [227] |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| Flare—Front Line, Champagne | [Frontispiece] |
|---|---|
| PAGE | |
| The Leathernecks, the Old Timers | Facing page [x] |
| “They looked fine, coming in there ... through those little tired Frenchmen” | Facing page [xiv] |
| Occasional wounded Frenchmen drifted back | [3] |
| Sketches from Captain Thomason’s note-book | Facing page [6] |
| Platoon column in support, Champagne, 1918 | Facing page [10] |
| “Catch some alive——” | Facing page [14] |
| The 2d Engineers | Facing page [20] |
| A tortured area ... lit by flares and gun-flashes | Facing page [24] |
| The hill blazed into action—not all the rifle-fire had gone astray | Facing page [28] |
| Pencil sketches made on scraps of paper, in Belleau Wood | Facing page [32] |
| Combat patrol | Facing page [36] |
| A sprinkling of old-time Marines | Facing page [40] |
| Some of them had been this way before | [47] |
| Boche grenadier | Facing page [48] |
| So many chaps were not with the brigade very long | [51] |
| The Boche had out his pistol | Facing page [52] |
| Certain designated individuals watched | [57] |
| Men fought in its corpse-choked thickets. | [59] |
| Bringing in German prisoners at St. Mihiel | Facing page [60] |
| Ration parties always sweated mightily and anticipated exciting incidents | [63] |
| “Bang away, Lulu——” | Facing page [68] |
| The automatic-rifle men | Facing page [78] |
| Prussians from Von Boehn’s divisions in and around the Bois de Belleau | Facing page [82] |
| “Keep on to the left until you meet the Moroccans, and go forward....” 4.30 A. M., July 18, 1918 | Facing page [90] |
| Listening-post rushed by Senegalese | Facing page [94] |
| A fighting swirl of Senegalese | Facing page [98] |
| Fighting from tree to tree in the woods south of Soissons | Facing page [102] |
| With reason the Boche feared them worse than anything living | Facing page [106] |
| The fighting in the woods at Soissons was close and savage | Facing page [110] |
| A lieutenant of Marines and a German major, hand to hand | Facing page [114] |
| Sketches made by Captain Thomason at Soissons on scraps of paper taken from a feldwebel’s note-book | Facing page [118] |
| Fighting north of Blanc Mont, Champagne | [124] |
| “Carry me back to Ole Virginny” | Facing page [126] |
| French grenadier—Blanc Mont | Facing page [136] |
| Those sawed-off shotguns they gave us at St. Mihiel | Facing page [142] |
| The shells began to drop into the trench | [149] |
| A flare during shelling in the front-line trenches | Facing page [150] |
| In the Essen trench—a runner | Facing page [154] |
| The morning of October 3d came gray and misty—a patrol | Facing page [158] |
| “Lordy, ain’t we ever goin’ to get outa this dam’ place an’ get at ’em—?” | [161] |
| Others lay on the ground over which the battalion passed | [163] |
| “Oh, Lordy! They’ve got us bracketed!” | Facing page [164] |
| Before zero hour | Facing page [168] |
| Flanking fire | Facing page [172] |
| The hush still hung around them as they moved out of the flat and began to ascend the long gray slope ahead | [175] |
| The first shell came screaming down the line from the right | Facing page [176] |
| “Here comes a battalion runner—what’s up anyway?” | Facing page [180] |
| A few iron-souled Prussians—the Boche had such men—stood up to meet bayonet with bayonet, and died that way | Facing page [184] |
| The last few men are always the most difficult to kill | [187] |
| A machine-gunner, Champagne | [189] |
| “Mademoiselle from Armentières” | Facing page [194] |
| “Hey, yuh dog-robbin’ battalion runner, you—what’s up!” | Facing page [200] |
| “He takes the war too serious” | Facing page [204] |
| The scout officer and the sergeant got him back some way, both filled with admiration at his language | Facing page [212] |
| “War—sure—is—hell” | Facing page [216] |
| “Sweet Ad-o-line” | Facing page [222] |
| The cooks issued corn-bill hash and dared any man to growl | Facing page [228] |
| A nice day for a hike | [231] |
| Men walked silent, remembering the old dead | Facing page [232] |
| One thick-bodied Boche ... His face in a cast of hate | Facing page [236] |
| They stood in stolid groups, wooden-faced | Facing page [240] |
| “I tell you, these Boche are dangerous! They have too many children.” | Facing page [243] |
| The 1st Battalion of the Rhine—5th Marines took the road | [245] |
| “Long Boy” | Facing page [248] |
FIX BAYONETS!
I
BATTLE SIGHT