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Epieds and Trugny and in the forest of Fere, advancing more than 15 kilometres in depth in spite of the desperate resistance of the enemy.

'I take great pleasure in communicating to Gen. Edwards and his valiant Division this expression of my great esteem, together with my heartiest congratulations for the manner in which they have served the common cause. I could not have done better in a similar occasion with my best troops.'

THE BITTER CUP OF DISAPPOINTMENT

The division had done its share, and much more, in the Second Battle of the Marne, and the men went into camp in the little villages of the Marne valley, for they were tired, fagged out lads when they left the battlefield, and their horses were in pitiable shape, those that had survived the terrible strain of the battle. Then the regiments moved to the vicinity of Chatillon, on the headwaters of the Seine. First in pup tents, then in billets in the villages, the boys rested a little while, in preparation for their fur­loughs, promised twice before, and of necessity withheld. It was a jubilant camp for each man was to have seven days all his own, away from exacting commanders. But again there was the slip twixt cup and lip. Imperative orders arrived to proceed to the front again. Furloughs were cancelled, the soldiers said 'C'est la Guerre,' and the 26th started on its way to take a vital part in the sudden snapping off of the St. Mihiel salient.

ST. MIHIEL

The preparations for this campaign were conducted with the utmost possible secrecy. The last stages of the advance were made entirely at night. It rained night and day. In the long dark hours of the northern autumn the companies and batteries plodded along in the rain, freezing cold, sometimes hungry, for in active warfare there must be at times long gaps between meals; and forbidden to smoke, because of the betraying lights. And when each day dawned and men slept, somewhere, anywhere, wrapped in soggy wet blankets. Finally they were in the forest on the western side of the salient where in 1915, 30,000 French soldiers laid down their lives in stemming the German tide, which in its onrush engulfed 15 French divisions.

Troyon, as the French called it, the New England Sector, as the 26th called it, is about half way between St. Mihiel and Verdun, on the heights of the Meuse, and was regarded as the most difficult section of the line of attack which eliminated the salient. After an artillery bombardment of almost unprecedented ferocity the

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