as advancing, I saw 3,700 German prisoners
marching to the rear, and as it was still early in the day, you may
know with what thoroughness our boys were doing their work. Among
these prisoners was a German officer who knew the location of the
mines that had been planted to destroy tanks, bridges, roads, etc. The
Americans were not long in learning this and they compelled him to
point out these locations. Under his guidance, 52 mines were
destroyed. These might have done great damage to American tanks and
soldiers if they had not been set off. As it was, they opened a
pathway through which our tanks passed without danger.

As we went forward into the territory that had been held by the Huns,
we could see the results of our own work, that is to say, we could see
objects upon which we had given the range to the artillery, completely
destroyed. It was gratifying to note that our work and the work of the
artillery had been so accurate. Objects, such as headquarters,
railroad tracks, cross roads, that we had located through our strong
glasses before the drive, and upon which we had given the distance to
the gunners, had been shattered by direct hits, speaking wonders for
the marksmanship of the American gunners. At some places we saw scores
of men and animals that had been killed by shell fire; at others we
saw trenches that had been as completely wiped out as though they
never existed; we also saw ammunition dumps that had been hit and set
afire and which burned steadily for several days. These were
exceedingly dangerous places, and we kept a good distance from them
until they burned completely out, as the exploding shells threw flying
metal for a distance of a hundred yards or more. We also came across
railroad trains that had been hit as they were proceeding, and so
badly crippled that they had to be abandoned by the enemy, later to be
captured by us.

We advanced about ten kilometers the first day, and then our men were
directed to dig in. Here we met with our first real resistance. The
enemy counter attacked during the night, but his charges were finally
broken up by our accurate fire.

Our advance that day had been rapid and had penetrated deeply into the
enemy line. This had been possible because of the rapidity with which
our supplies had been brought up. The roads for the most part were not
badly cut up, and those that were damaged were quickly repaired by our
engineers. Bridges had been hastily built, obstruction