Marne. Lying flat upon the ground, they
poured bullets into the panic-stricken, gray-coated Germans until each
man had fired a full 100 rounds.

While this was going on the British field guns came into play with a
shrapnel barrage fire which completed the demolition of the entrapped
enemy. It was little wonder that later 1,500 German dead could be
counted, or that 400 guardsmen surrendered with upheld hands and
emotional cries of "Kamerad!"

FRENCH CONTINUE ADVANCE IN APRIL

The French under General Nivelle continued their victorious advance on
the Soissons-Craonne line April 18, crushing the German resistance along
a front of thirty-five miles, and raising the total of German prisoners
taken during the movement to 17,000. Seventy-five guns, including a
number of heavy siege pieces, were captured.

CHAPTER XXX

GEN. PERSHING'S OWN STORY

_American Operations in France Described by the Commander-in-
Chief--Glowing Tribute to His Men_.

A remarkable summary of the operations of the American Expeditionary
Force in France from the date of its organization, May 26, 1917, to the
signing of the armistice November 11, 1918, was cabled to the Secretary
of War by General Pershing on November 20, 1918. His account of the
active military operations was as follows:

COMBAT OPERATIONS

During our period of training in the trenches some of our divisions had
engaged the enemy in local combats, the most important of which was
Seicheprey by the 26th on April 20, 1918, in the Toul sector, but none
had participated in action as a unit. The 1st Division, which had passed
through the preliminary stages of training, had gone to the trenches for
its first period of instruction at the end of October, and by March 21,
when the German offensive in Picardy began, we had four divisions with
experience in the trenches, all of which were equal to any demands of
battle action. The crisis which this offensive developed was such that
our occupation of an American sector must be postponed.

On March 28 I placed at the disposal of Marshal Foch, who had been
agreed upon as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies, all of our
forces to be used as he might decide. At his request the 1st Division
was transferred from the Toul sector to a position in reserve at
Chaumont en Vexin. As German superiority in numbers required prompt
action, an agreement was reached at the Abbeville conference of the
allied Premiers and commanders and myself on