ar Cambrai and
La Bassee.

Day by day the advance proceeded. On September 26th, the first American
army smashed through the Hindenburg line for an average gain of seven
miles, between the Meuse and the Aisne rivers on a twenty-mile front. On
September 27th, the French gained five miles in an advance east of
Rheims, and the British were attacking in the Cambrai sector on a
fourteen-mile front, crossing the Canal du Nord and piercing the
Hindenburg line at several points. On September 28th, the Americans
reached the Kriemhilde line, while the British were close in on Cambrai.
On September 30th, the British took Messines Ridge, while the French
were still advancing between the Aisne and Vesle Rivers. On October 1st,
the French troops entered St. Quentin and the British took the northern
and western suburbs of Cambrai. During the next week an enveloping
movement was instituted north and south of Lille. On October 5th, the
Germans evacuated Lille, on October 9th the British took Cambrai.

In these drives the American colored troops played a conspicuous part.
The entire Three hundred and sixty-fifth regiment, composed wholly of
colored troops, was later awarded the coveted Croix de Guerre, or War
Cross, by the French Government. It was a well-deserved honor, for the
boys of the Three hundred and sixty-fifth bore themselves with great
gallantry in the September and October offensive in the Champagne sector
and suffered heavy losses. In conferring the Croix de Guerre, the
citation dealt in considerable detail with the valor of particular
officers and praised the courage and tenacity of the whole regiment.

The Germans were retreating in Belgium day by day, under the attacks of
the Belgian and French armies. On October 11th the Germans evacuated the
Chemin des Dames. On October 16th the Germans began the evacuation of
the Belgian coast region and each day increased the number of Belgian
towns once more in Allied control.

CHAPTER XLVIII

BATTLES IN THE AIR

He who conquers the fear of death is master of his fate. Upon this
philosophy fifty thousand young men of the warring nations went forth to
do battle among the clouds. The story of these battles is the real
romance of the World War. In 1914 no one had ever known and history had
never recorded a struggle to the death in the air. When the war ended a
new literature of adventure had been created, a literature emblazoned
with superb heroisms, with God-like daring, and