. Our greatest battle (the Meuse-Argonne). folds of ground, uphill and downhill,taking machine-guns with barrels hot, as the Ger-man gunners fired until the last moment. Thatnight it sent patrols into Fleville, a village on thebank of the Aire at the foot of a bluff, with theGermans holding the other bank three miles in theirrear. The possession of Fleville was that of aname on the map, which read well in the high ground above it was what counted,in the same way that possession of the porch countsif you wish to throw stones at a man on the drive-way below; and holding it in
. Our greatest battle (the Meuse-Argonne). folds of ground, uphill and downhill,taking machine-guns with barrels hot, as the Ger-man gunners fired until the last moment. Thatnight it sent patrols into Fleville, a village on thebank of the Aire at the foot of a bluff, with theGermans holding the other bank three miles in theirrear. The possession of Fleville was that of aname on the map, which read well in the high ground above it was what counted,in the same way that possession of the porch countsif you wish to throw stones at a man on the drive-way below; and holding it in face of fire from flankand rear flank required men who would dig holesand stick to them. The wedge was made, but it wasa sharp one of only one brigade front, as things hadnot gone as well as they might either with the rightof the ist or with the 32nd. The right of the ist crossing Exermont ravineunder enfilade and frontal fire charged into thewooded slopes of the Montrefagne, or Hill that day we had the hill; and twice the Ger-. VETERANS DRIVE A WEDGE 275 mans, reinforced, surged back and drove us men were saying that every Boche who didnthave a machine-gun had a cannon ; for the enemy,realizing the value of every foot of ground, wasusing roving guns attached to his infantry were doing the same. There were instances,in the course of this battle for the heights, whenour infantry charges came within a hundred feet offield guns which the enemy boldly—and it seemedmiraculously—withdrew under our rifle fire to thecover of reverse slopes. The repulse of the right of the 1st was of courseintimately concerned with the situation of the 32nd,which was fighting against the same kind of tacticson the same general kind of ground, which had itsown particularly refractory qualities. Before theattack the Arrows had entered Cierges, which theyfound unoccupied; but the German evacuation of thevillage only opened up a field of approach com-manded by the streng
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1919