nces, the baggagetrains, had to be cut to the
barest minimum and General Thario wrote that evidently because of the
impossibility of taking along artillery the enemy had also abandoned
their light and heavy machineguns. Against this determined threat,
behind the wall of the Rockies, the American army waited with field
artillery, railway guns, bazookas and flamethrowers. For the first time
there was belief in a Russian defeat if not in eventual American
victory.

But the waiting Americans were not to be given the opportunity for
handtohand combat. Since planes could not report the progress of the
snowshoers over the grass, dirigibles and free balloons drifting with
the wind gave minutetominute reports. Though many of the airships were
shot down and many more of the balloons blown helplessly out of the
area, enough returned to give a picture of the rapid disintegration of
the invading force.

Nothing like it had happened to an army since 1812. The snowshoes,
adequate enough for short excursions over the edge of the grass, became
suicidal instruments on a march of weeks. Starting eastward from their
bases in northern California, Oregon and Washington, in military
formation, singing triumphantly in minor keys, the Slavic steamroller
had presented an imposing sight. Americans in the occupied area, seeing
column after column of closely packed soldiers tramping endlessly up and
over the grass, said it reminded them of old prints of Pickett's charge
at Gettysburg.

The first day's march went well enough, though it covered no more than a
few miles. At night they camped upon great squares of tarpaulin and in
the morning resumed their webfooted way. But the night had not proved
restful, for over the edges of every tarpaulin the eager grass had
thrust impatient runners and when the time came to decamp more than half
the canvases had been left in possession of the weed. The second day's
progress was slower than the first and it was clear to the observers the
men were tiring unduly. More than one threw away his rifle to make the
marching easier, some freed themselves of their snowshoes and so after a
few yards sank, inextricably tangled into the grass; others lay down
exhausted, to rise no more. The men in the balloons could see by the way
the feet were raised that the inquisitive stolons were more and more
entangling themselves in the webbing.

Still the Soviet command poured fresh troops onto the grass. Profiting
perhaps by th