Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-06-21

l65th in the St. Mihiel drive. Col
Frank Mccoy having been made a
brigadier general and left the divis-
ion. And now Colonel Kelley,
leader of the Rainbow engineers,
was made engineer of an army corps
and Col. J. NJ. Johnson succeeded
him, and Lieut.. Col Matt FINLEY
of Council Bluffs, Ia, succeeded
Colonel Bennett as commander of
the l68th from Iowa,
And so the Rainbow division
stood just in front of the linden
burg line, now looking back on their
part in the big American victory,
now looking longingly toward Metz,
while from the north and west there
came to it the low rumble of many
guns chanting for the armies of
Germany their death song.
Goes to Mouse Front
Trucks at a. m. and goodby to
St. Mhiel! The Rainbow-a shock
division now. to be held back like
a ring champions best punch-till
time for the knockout-was rushed
over to Benoit Vaux in the autumn
tinted country behind Verdun.
That was October |. Three days
later to Reicourt and on October
E to the Bots de Montfaucon, a pitt
able wreck of ruined forest,
gouged and chewed for four days by
the guns of the worlds armies seek
ing to conquer and to defend YER
dun.
And now Verdun lay behind the
Rainbow division, while every lay
the roar of the battle beyond came
down to its dead streets and its
brave citadel fainter and fainter.
And before the Rainbow division
lay the line of the First American
army fighting the final battle Tor
the world against the Armies of
German, and the armies of Germany
struggling with the last desperate
strength of tripped and beaten
beasts. The Rainbow crouched in
its black mud holes, waiting for
orders to strike.
Again it becomes necessary (as
the storm necessarily precedes the
advent of the bright-hued bow in
the sky) to paint in gray, neutral
tinted background.
Last Drive of War.
When we left the Rainbow divi-
sion in the last chapter the breezes
from the west were bearing toward
st. Mihiel the rumble of many guns
1t was the start of the Argonae-
Meuse drive of September 26-the
beginning of the end.
The echoes of the last American
barrage in the St. Mihiel salient
had scarcely died away when corps
and army artillery and some divi-
sions in reserve were starting west
ward for this, probably the great
est single operation of the war.
Their trip had ended back of the
line that stretched from the Mouse
river to the western edge of the
Argonne forest. On the other side
of the line was the heart of New
Germany" built by the German
army upon the ruins of France and
Belgium.
During four years the German
war-making plants had accumulated
there; there were his great military
railway hues, the northermost run
ming through Liege and Namur, the
southermost running through Long
uyon, Montmedy and Sedan. These
lines, the upper one starting at
Cologne and curving slightly south
west and the lower starting 1T
Coblenz and curving first south and
then northwest, met and crossed
east of Cambria.
Lines Vital to Huns
Through them all the armies OF
Germany in France and Belgium
were fed, clothed, armed, supplied
with ammunition and reinforced
with men. With them under control
the German armies were wonder
!. ' fully mobile; divisions could be