defend ourselves and fight if
necessary, we were not, in the strict sense of the word, combatants.
It was more important for us to keep the lines of communication in
working order, to give the artillery the range on certain objects, to
locate machine gun nests and direct fire upon them so they could be
destroyed, than to fight, for there were sufficient numbers in other
branches of the army for that purpose. But we did not overlook an
opportunity to help our cause, and it is with a great deal of pleasure
that I tell of a machine gun nest of thirteen men captured by three of
the men of our detachment, though of a different post from mine. It
was during the early morning of the first day of the drive. It should
be stated that the American infantry advanced so rapidly that it
frequently went right by carefully concealed machine gun nests. This
was just what the Germans wanted them to do, because they opened fire
from the rear and rained bullets on our men from two sides. The three
men that captured the nest of which I am telling were just in back of
the second wave of infantry that went over the top, following it up
for the purpose of establishing our line of communication from front
to rear. They came upon this nest as the Huns were preparing to fire
at our advancing men. When they first located the nest the Americans
had their revolvers carefully wrapped in greased coils and in their
holsters, not expecting to use them--the greased coils being to keep
the weapons from rusting from the dampness of the trenches. These
resourceful American boys lost no time, however, in getting their
weapons ready for use, and by a quick and intrepid manoeuver, they
approached the Huns, covered them with their revolvers, and compelled
them to surrender without so much as firing a shot. The Huns were
taken to the rear, and their gun, a Vicker, became a trophy of war.

It was about 9 o'clock in the morning while we were advancing that I
came upon a petite French tank, which had run upon a Hun mine and had
been completely destroyed. The machine was reduced to a pile of junk,
and it was hardly believable that a mine would work such destruction.
The heavy iron was torn in shreds, and while we knew it was a tank and
we knew what had happened to it, it was now nothing but scrap iron.

Just about that time the infantry was capturing thousands of Hun
prisoners--men who had occupied the front German trenches and who were
overcome by our boys. As I w