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its victorious drive northwest of Verdun, was a battle of a magni­tude which would have attracted world-wide attention had it not been coincident with bigger doings on other parts of the French-Belgian front. Harassing attacks were carried on for some days.

Then the Germans began massing troops to stay the north­ward rush of the American army west of the Meuse, and the Yankee Division was ordered to the region of Sivry-sur-Meuse, 15 miles north of Verdun and just east of the river, where it arrived October 8, and two days later took over the sector from the 18th French Division and a part of the American 29th. The fighting there was serious enough, but it was child's play, as was all the fighting that preceded it, when compared to what was to follow.

The Division set out from Sivry October 21, advancing south­east through a hill and valley country, covered with what once had been forest but now reduced to a wilderness of scraggly chunks of trees which rose from a honeycomb of shellholes; a ghastly waste which includes the German point of departure for their drive against Verdun in which they sacrificed more than half a million of men. Bois Belleu, Hill 360, Bois d'Ormont, Bois Haumont, Bois d'Etrayes, Les Houppy Bois, La Wavrille, Bois de Ville devant Chaumont, Cote de Talon are names that will live for ever in the battle records of the Yankee Division.

THE BLOODY CLOSING DAYS

On November 7 opened that phase of the battle which can never be remembered without a shudder and a tear. In the four short days of war that remained before the last shot was fired, there fell thousands of the splendid lads of the 26th, killed and wounded. Swinging sharply from southeast due east the regiments headed straight for the Briey coal fields. Here, near Belleu Woods, the Division was the pivot of the attacking armies, just as it had been the pivot at the Belleau Woods of Chateau Thierry.

This time it was the Hun who cried, 'They shall not pass!' But the Yankee boys did pass. Division after division the German commanders threw into the battle, the best troops they had, in desperate effort to check the onrush of the irresistible 26th. The odds were all against the Americans. They went forward against thousands of machine guns, massed artillery of every calibre, a numerical superiority of infantry, carefully prepared defenses. The Briey coal fields must be saved, whatever the cost. Germany could not endure without them. But the Yankees carried on surely, relentlessly.

They sustained a shellfire that no soldier present had seen equalled. From the time they left Sivry they were under con-[tinuous]

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