قراءة كتاب Our Army at the Front
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">XVIII.
ILLUSTRATIONS
| The battle of Seicheprey | Frontispiece |
| FACING PAGE | |
| General Pershing in Paris, July, 1917 | 16 |
| Buglers of the Alpine Chasseurs, assisted by their military band, entertaining American soldiers of the First Division | 64 |
| U. S. locomotive-assembling yards in France | 154 |
| Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly, formerly the American Ambulance Hospital | 166 |
| Secretary Baker riding on flat car during his tour of inspection of the American Expeditionary Forces | 202 |
| U. S. Marines in readiness to march to the front | 244 |
| The capture of Sergy | 262 |
OUR ARMY AT THE FRONT
CHAPTER I
THE LANDING OF PERSHING
A SHIP warped into an English port. Along her decks were lines of soldiers, of high and low degree, all in khaki. From the shore end of her gang-plank other lines of soldiers spread out like fan-sticks, some in khaki, some in the two blues of land and sea fighters. Decorating the fan-sticks were the scarlet and gold of staff-officers, the blue and gold of naval officers, the yellow and gold of land officers, and the black of a few distinguished civilians.
At the end of one shore-line of khaki one rigid private stood out from the rest, holding for dear life to a massive white goat. The goat was the most celebrated mascot in the British Army, and this was an affair of priceless consequence, but that was no sign the goat intended to behave himself, and the private was responsible.
Weaving through this picture of military precision, three little groups of men waited restlessly to get aboard the ship. One was the lord mayor of the port city, his gilt chains of office blazing in the forenoon brightness, with his staff; another was the half-dozen or so of distinguished statesmen, diplomats, and military heroes bringing formal welcome to England; the third was the war correspondents and reporters from the London newspapers.
The waiting was too keen and anxious for talk. Excitement raced from man to man.
For the ship was the Baltic. The time was the morning of June 8, 1917. The event was the landing of John J. Pershing, commander of America's Expeditionary Force. And the soldiers with him were the herald of America's coming—the holding of her drive with an outpost.
When the grandchildren of those soldiers learn that date in their history lessons it is safe to assume that all its historical significance will be fairly worked out and articulate.
It is