So the usual process of things in general is reversed, and the
person farthest removed from the fighting may really see, or rather
know, most about it.
And so with a storm of shot and shell, manmade thunders and
lightnings, and bolts of death from the earth below and the air
above, the great battle opened and advanced.
It progressed just as other battles had progressed. There was a
terrific artillery preparation, which took the Germans evidently by
surprise, for the response was long in coming, and then it was not
in proportion. After the great cannon had done their best to level
the big guns on the German side, a barrage, or curtain of fire was
started, and behind this, which was in reality a falling hail of
bullets, the Americans and their supporting French and British
comrades advanced. The curtain of steel was to kill or push back
the Germans, and to make it safe for the Americans to go forward.
By elevating the small guns the curtain fell farther and farther
into the enemy's territory, thus making it possible for the Allies
to go on farther and farther across No Man's Land.
The infantry rushed forward, fighting and dying nobly in a noble
cause. Position after position was consolidated as the Germans fell
back before the rain of shot and shell. It is always this way in an
offensive, small or large. The first rush of the attacking side, be
it German, French, British, or American, carries everything before
it.
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