The Washington times., 1918-12-04
EXUBERANT ROAR
ENDS WORLD WAR
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the shivery mess lines, hopping up
and down and shifting and scuffling
as they waited for the morning
coffee. 1t spread along the chains
of singing road members. along the
creeping columns of camions. Driver
called it to driver and runners toss
ed the word over their shoulders as
they hurried by. Now and again a
fleet of motorcycles. would whizZ
along through the heavy mist.
FInee La Guerre.
"The guerre will be .finee at IL
o'clock. Finee la guerre."
You could hear it called out again
and again.
What timer"
ELEVEN o'clock"
A pause.
Say, you, what time is 1t now?"
They took 1t a little incredulously
at first. That was old stuff, that ru-
NOR. They had heard It again and
again during the past fortnight.
well, the captain says it's So"
Hell. who's he? I'll wait till Foch
comes and tells me himself"
Why. the preceding Thursday night
that was the night the ENJOYS
came over from Spa-news that what
the doughboy seems to prefer calling
the 'arstimice" had been signed
spread like the Spanish flu from
Grandpre to the Mouse.
That night the flares inf1amed the
skies, the rockets streaked the night.
Bands burst into long-suppressed
music, and the headlights twinkled
all along the road. 1t did not last
long. this little unbidden furry, and
there was much scolding: but, as a
matter of fact, nothing much more
demoralizing to the enemy coul1
well have been staged than this spec
tacle of the First American Army
celebrating something he had not
heard.
All along the seventy-seven miles
held by the Americans the firing con-
tinued. literally. unto the eleventh
hour. At one minute before IL, when
million eyes were glued to the
slow-creeping minute hands of a mil
lion watches, the roar of the guns
was a thing to make the old earth
tremble. At one point-it was where
the Yankee division visiting, at the
time, with a French corps was having
brisk morning battle to the east of
the Mouse, a man stationed at one
battery stood with a handkerchief in
his uplifted hand, his eyes fixed on
his watch. 1t was one minute before
IL To the lanyards OF the four big
guns ropes were tied, each rope
manned by 200 soldiers. cooks. stray
glers, messengers, gunners. every
body. At IL the handkerchief fell.
the men. pulled, the guns cursed out
the last shot of the battery. And so
/ . \
places along the line.
Fight Fierce TIL Last.
Probably the hardest fighting being
done by any Americans in the final
hour was. that which engaged the
troops OF the 2Sth. 92nd. SIst and 9TH
Divisions with the Second American
Army, who launched a fire-eating at
tack above Vigneulles just at dawn
on the I1th. 1t was no mild thing,
that last flare OF the battle, and the
order to cease firing did not reach the
men in the front line until the last
moment, when runners sped with it
from fox hole to fox hole.
Then a quite startling thing oc-
CURED. The skyline OF the crest
ahead OF them grew suddenly popu-
lous with dancing soldiers, and down
the slope all the way to the barbed
wire, straight for the Americans, came
the German troops. They came with
outstretched hands, ear-to-ear grins
and souvenirs to swap foV cigarettes,
50 well did they know the little weak
ness of their foe. They came to tell
how pleased they were the fight hal
stopped, how glad they were the
Kaiser had departed for parts I'M
known, how fine IL was to know they
would have a republic at last in Ger
many.
NO" said one stubborn little Prus-
sian, its a kingdom we want"
Whereat his own companions
mobbed him and howled him down.
The farthest north at IL o'clock on
the front of the two armies was held
at the extreme American left up