The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-12-26
CANT|GNY TESTED
THE YANKEE GRIT
PROVED TO ALLIES THAT BAL.
ANCE OF ARMS WAS IN
THEIR FAVOR
GERMANS BEST IS HEAVILY REFUSED
Two Awful Days For Our First Divi-
sion Writes Glorious Chapter In
Our Country's History
(From Stars and Stripes)

(FrOm stars ana SLTlpeS)
1t is possible that in those ancient
years when Rome was crumbling be-
fore the attacks Of the ~barbarians
from beyond the Rhine, or when west
ern Gaul was trembling beneath the
armies of Attila, the civilized world
Of the time may have felt itself as
gravely threatened with destruction
as did modern civilization during the
months of April, May and June, 1918,
when once again the Huns, as always
through the ages the assailants Of the
higher types of human development,
were making their supreme effort to
crush the armies Of the Allies upon
the soil of France. But never in past
eras, certainly, was the stake involved
for humanity go vast, so worldembrac-
ing, and never did the outcome OF a
supreme struggle seem to hang more
perilously in the balance.
On the one hand was a German
army on the western front, reinforced
to nearly twice it's former proportions
by the collapse of Russia, armed and
trained to the last degree Of perfec-
ton and animated by a hope Of sue
cess, which, because it was based up
on almost unreasonable strength,
amounted to conviction. On the other
hand were the armies of France and
England, doggedly determined still,
but sorely tried through nearly four
years of ceaseless battle and cruelty
battered by the gigantic plunges Of
the enemy in his spring offensive.
What factor could furnish to one
side or the other the balance OF
weight which might turn the scale?
The only factor in view which might
accomplish this result was on the side
of the Allies, but it was n so new,
so untried and so incompletely de-
veloped that in those days of early
spring, when the German battering
ram had driven a wedge between the
British and French armies nearly to
the coast west of Amiens, and another
deep into the vitals of he British
front at KENNEL Hill, that it's ability
to turn the tide of battle could only
be hoped for, not certainly relied up
on.
This factor was the army OF the
United States, which had been in the
war theoretically for a year, blu which
was as yet represented in the zone OF
the armies by only a few insignificant
divisions, and these few trained only
for the terrible ordeal of modern war
fare by experience in quiet, stabilized
eootorc II noc nP cnnrCQ nppQSS9ry
that they should eventually be sub
jected to the supreme test, but, though
Americans themselves might feel per-
feet confidence in what the results
of that test would be, it could not
have been without some misgivings
that the French high command or
dered the 1st Division, U. S. A., Major
General Robert Lee Billiard, command
ing, to occupy the divisional sector
fronting Cantigny, in which it took po-
sition on April 25, 1918.
The sector Of Cantigny was not
merely an important n in the Allied
line of battle; it may be said to have
been almost supremely important.
Lying a few kilometers northwest OF
Montdidier, which, like Cantigny it.
self, was in the possession Of the Ger
mans, and about 25 kilometers south
east Of Amiens, it was at the very apex
of the salient which the enemy had
gained in their March offensive, when
they had come measurably e to
severing the British and French
armies. Upon the troops holding the
line here rested the chief RESPONSE.
bility for the safety Of Amiens and
the vital railways and other lines
Of communication, now necessarily
crowded close to the coast, by which
the British supplied all OF their line
north of the Somme from lie Havre
and other ports of the Channel coast.
Could the Americans be relied upon
to hold this vital point as well as the
French, who had here stopped the
German advance a few weeks before?
The Germans sneered at the idea, vow-
ing that the unframed and self-indu!-
gent Americans could never be made
into frst-class soldiers. The French
and the British believed that they
could, and, If the event should prove
that they could, moreover, when the
opportunity came, make head often
sively into the German lines opposite
to them, it would be to the wearied
armies and peoples of the Allied ma
lions like the first flush OF daylight
after the stormy night. Millions more
of American troops, potentially as
good as those of the list Division, were
coming, and II the list Division could
stand the supreme test, no doubt
would remain that eventually the wal
could be won.
After a period Of rigorous training
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