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[con-]tinuous savage cannonading. But the climax of war was reached between Bois d'Ormont and Bois Belleu where a bombardment of indescribable ferocity raged for two days. The forward lines and gun positions were deluged with high explosives combined with gas. The ravines behind were filled with gas, and kept filled. The woods were literally hidden in the clouds of mud and dirt thrown up by high explosive shells. An inspection of the terri­tory by officers following the armistice proved that not even the many months of intensive shelling of Douaumont, in front of Verdun, had wrought so complete a destruction as that of the few days at Belleu and d'Ormont, while the brave men of the 26th were there.

There were Hellish frontal charges, in jungles of trees and barb wire entanglements, through hurricanes of shrapnel, into the muzzles of thousands of machine guns. Four days this continued. Each day won a mile. The cost was terrible. In those hideous hours the division lost thousands and thousands of men. Those others of whom neither shell nor bullet, grenade nor gas had taken toll were almost dead with fatigue and lack of sleep and intolerable nerve strain and hunger and filth. It was thus that the Yankee Division completed 'doing its bit.'

Gen. Bamford, on November 18, the day he was relieved of his command, issued the following order:

'Officers and enlisted men of the 26th Division, I congratulate you upon your success in the war which has been fought to a victorious end.

'From your entry into the battle line on Feb. 5, 1918, at Chemin-des-Dames, as a division of recruits, until the cessation of hostilities on the 11th of November, 1918, when you laid down your arms fighting in the front line as a veteran division, you have shown yourselves worthy sons of the country that gave you birth.

'Bois Brule, Xivrav-Marvoisin, Torcy, Belleau, Givry, Bourescres, Hill 190, Epieds, Trugny, St. Mihiel salient, Bois d'Haumont, Bois Belleu, Bois d'Ormont, Bois de Ville, are indelibly written on your banners.'

And so the Army of Occupation marched away, without the 26th Division. Certainly that army would not be on German soil today had it not been for the patriotic, self-sacrificing men, who, at the drop of the hat, when the United States went to war, hurried to the recruiting offices and offered themselves to Uncle Sam for his army. They went early and therefore were trained early and because they were ready, stepped into the breach whenever there was a breach, until the days when they themselves made the breaches. The 26th Division, as much as any division serving in

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