here were daily
stories.

There came a day when General Pershing no longer was in the department.
Officers of the general staff suddenly were missing from their desks. No
word of this was reported. Then came word from England that Pershing and
his officers were there. All was carried through without publicity.

Other matters relating to the expedition were carried out without a word
of publicity. The regiments that were to go with General Pershing were
all selected before he left and moving toward the seacoast from the
border. Other regiments also were moving north, east and west to the
points where they were to be expanded, and the movements of the troops
who were to be first in France were obscured in all this hurrying of
troop trains over the land.

Great shipments of war supplies began to assemble at the embarkation
ports. Liners suddenly were taken off their regular runs with no
announcement. A great armada was made ready, supplied, equipped as
transports, loaded with men and guns and sent to sea, and all with
virtually no mention from the press.

The navy bore its full share in the achievement. From the time the troop
ships left their docks and headed toward sea, responsibility for the
lives of their thousands of men rested upon the officers and crews of
the fighting ships that moved beside them or swept free the sea lanes
before them. As they pushed on through the days and nights toward the
danger zone, where German submarines lay in wait, every precaution that
trained minds of the navy could devise was taken.

A BRILLIANT CLIMAX.

The brilliant climax to the achievement was made public when it was
announced that not only had the last units of the expeditionary force
been landed on July 3, but that the American navy had driven off two
German submarines, probably sinking one of them, when the transport
ships and convoys had been attacked.

The last units of the American expeditionary force, comprising vessels
loaded with supplies and horses, reached France amid the screeching of
whistles and moaning of sirens. Their arrival, one week after the first
troops landed, was greeted almost as warmly as the arrival of the troops
themselves.

Many of the American soldiers crowded down to the wharf to greet the
last ships of the expedition and the American vessels in the harbor,
which had made up previous contingents of the force, joined in the
welcome. The late arrival of the supply ships was due not only to la