I have seen the wooden crosses at Ypres and Verdun,
I have marked the graves of such as lie where the Marne waters run,
And I know their dust is stirring by hill and vale and lea,
And their souls shall be our captains who march to Picardy.
Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp,
Hope shall fail us never—
Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp,
Forward, and forever!
And God is in His judgment seat, and Christ is on His tree—
And Pershing's men are marching, marching into Picardy.
Dana Burnet.
On June 2, the Second and Third Divisions met and checked the enemy at Château-Thierry. The Marne offensive was followed sharply by another on the part of the British, with whom our Twenty-Seventh Division was fighting, and on August 8 the Twenty-Seventh broke through the famous Hindenburg line.
OUR MODEST DOUGHBOYS
[August 8, 1918]
Said the Captain: "There was wire
A mile deep in No Man's Land,
And the concentrated fire
Was all mortal nerve could stand;
But these huskies craved the chance
To go out and leave their bones!"
"The climate's quite some damp in France,"
Said Private Thomas Jones.
Said the Major: "What is more,
At the point where we attacked,
Tough old veterans loudly swore
Hindy's line could not be cracked.
But the 27th said,
'Hindenburg! That guy's a myth!'"
"I slept last night in a reg'lar bed,"
Said Private Johnny Smith.
Said the Colonel: "They had placed
Pillboxes on the crests.
I can safely say we faced
Maybe thousands of those nests.
But our doughboys took one height
Seven times in that hell's hail."
"And were the cooties thick? Good night!"
Said Private William Dale.
Said the General: "We were told
Anything we'd start they'd stop—
That the Boche would knock us cold
When we slid across the top.
But the 7th with a yell
Made the Prussian Guards back down."
"You oughta lamped the smile on Nell!"
Said Private Henry Brown.