Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-09-04
ALLIES DAZZLED
BY OUR ARMADA
Fleet of Transports, With
$4,000 Men. Steals in
During Night

American Port. Western Franco.
Correspondence of The Associated
Press.-Twelve o'clock at nigh:. a"
lights out ashore and afloat. heavy
rain squalls sweeping out TO sea arf
this great port dark and silent as tn'
latest fleet CT American transports
and convoys-thirteen monster ships,
ten. destroyers. $4,000 fighting men
and 5000 crew-creeps in from the
Atlantic.
With an American Army escort.
we had climbed to a high point on
the seafront to get a glimpse of this
first process OF the gigantic military
migration from America to Europe,
the greatest the world has ever
known. and then to follow it step
by step us its vast and intricat~ &C
tivities unfolded up to the arrival az
the men on the fighting front.
The wireless station had received
a cipher message giving warning OF
the approach of the fleet. 1t had
been hoped the arrival would be in
daylight, with flags flying, bands
playing and the sun shining as the
American lighting men got their first
glimpse of Europe. But this is no
dress parade. said the admiral. and
there is no time for stage effects.
Stole I'm at Midnight
And so at midnight in the rain
| and darkness, with signal hghtS
showing for the first time since they
left the other side, the huge flottlla
moved in n long line of lights to the
sheltered roadstead. There was the
Creak of windlass and chains as the
anchors gripped.
And yet this midnight arrival in
the darkness and rain is only one or
the steady procession of great ar
| madas coming every three or fonc
days in the colossal American nth-
tary influx. which Secretary Baker
gives at 275,000 men for single
month. These $4,000 men just in
are the population of good-sized
! city; twice as many men as we sent
to Cuba in the Spanish American
| War: about half the force Napoleon
| had at Waterloo when the destinles
of Europe were in the scale.
| And while this is one of the record
/ debarkmcnts. yet il is only small
part of that mighty stream coming
in from the West. 1t is the unprece-
! dented magnitude of such military
1
face of submarines that has thrilled
the allied world and broken the
spirit of the adversary.
Stirring Scene by Daylight
1t was 4 stirring scene in the mar
I Dor the morning that followed as
the transports unloaded their $4,000
men. The sky had cleared and the
| huge huHs Of the transports loomed
| out of the mist. their tunnels punt
1 = cd or
| With fantastic camouflage and their
decks rising like terraces. crowded
with khaki-clad Americans in their
broad -brimmed sombreros. The de-
! stroyers had drawn off and were ly-
! ing punched ten across. They looked
| diminutive beside the big ships, but
their power showed in the CLINT of
| guns and the long. lean build, like
greyhound stretched for action. Fur
ther back were the Franch warships:
All about were innumerable small
craft, army and navy tugs. lighters,
launches and a flotilla of fishing
craft, with their nets hanging to dry
like huge sails of lace. Back OF this
water scene stretched the huge
| American warehouses, sprung up
like mushrooms, until the whole
front was black with buildings and
the skeletons of more buildings. Al
ready the lighters were alongside and
the soldiers came tramping down
the gangways to go ashore.
To Make Docks at Sea
| The Americans found this port
without any system of big docks. A
few of the smaller ships can come Ia
the docks, hut most of the unloading
| from the deep-draught ships must
be by lighters. The American com.
| manders are planning to change al
/ this. and soon the long breakwater
will be linked to the land by
bridges. thus creating at stroke a
huge docking system by which the
American troops will march strdigh'
| ashore from the ships.
A lighter was now pushing off
with 500 troops packed on it like the
crowd at a holiday procession. The
men were feeling gay, for they were
about to step on solid ground again
and to have their first look at Franc
and, besides. they had the regimen
| tai band, which was sending the
Star Spargled Banner echoinG
| over the water. Every head was
| barred as the strains of the anthem
went up. over the men floated a
| huge dirigible balloon pointing out
to sea in quest of a submarine. The
| soldiers gazed at it as the first sign
of warfare. After it rose two hydro
planes like monster beetles and
| Joined in the search for submarines.
Now lighters were at the dock,
and with the tide out the men
| climbed Up twenty feet to the
wharves. As they fell in for the
march to camp they had an earnest,
quizzical look, for this was the first
| sight these men of the new world
| were taking of the old world-most
of them from Iowa. Nebraska and