dum_:

The Third Corps of the American Expeditionary Forces has been
created and consists of the 1st. and 2nd. Divisions, two divisions
that are known throughout France.

Officers and men of the Third Corps, you have been deemed worthy to
be placed beside the best veteran French troops. See that you prove
worthy. Remember that in what is now coming you represent the whole
American nation.

R. L. BULLARD,
Major General,
Commanding 3rd. Corps.

* * * * *

The German planes flying high over Villers-Cotterets Forest all day
during the 17th, had seen nothing. The appearance of all the myriad
roads that cross and recross the forest in all directions was normal.
But that night things began to happen in the forest.

For once at least, the elements were favourable to our cause. There was
no moon. The night was very dark and under the trees the blackness
seemed impenetrable. A heavy downpour of rain began and although it
turned most of the roads into mud, the leafy roof of the forest held
much of the moisture and offered some protection to the thousands of
men who spent the night beneath it. Thunder rolled as I had never heard
it roll in France before. The sound drowned the occasional boom of
distant cannon. At intervals, terrific crashes would be followed by
blinding flashes of lightning as nature's bolts cut jagged crevices in
the sombre sky and vented their fury upon some splintered giant of the
forest.

The immediate front was silent--comparatively silent if one considered
the din of the belligerent elements. In the opposing front lines in the
northern and eastern limits of the forest, German and Frenchmen alike
huddled in their rude shelters to escape the rain.

Then, along every road leading through the forest to the north and to
the east, streams of traffic began to pour. All of it was moving forward
toward the front. No traffic bound for the rear was permitted. Every
inch of available road space was vitally necessary for the forces in
movement. The roads that usually accommodated one line of vehicles
moving forward and one line moving to the rear, now represented two
streams--solid streams--moving forward. In those streams were gun
carriages, caissons, limbers, ammunition carts and grunting tractors
hauling large field pieces.

In