The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-09-17


 ican Way of Victory marked out more than fifty years ago by the return ing blue clad leEions of the Army of the Potomac. the First Division, American Revolutionary Force, marched today. IL was WashinEtOn's first great parade of the war and il was conceived and carried out as the nations tribute not alone to the veteran fighting men who marched, but to the whole great army the Nation created to make certain the utter defeat of German dreams of world conquest.
 Marching in mass formation and equipped with all the guns, gas throwers and countless other death dealing devices of front line service, the First Division. fresh home from France, moved along the broad ave uuo. a living tide of sunburncd fight ing manhood that fHed the street from curb to curb. In their khaki and olive Gcab uniforms. the men swung by as resistlcssly as the spring floods of the Mississippi. Above each s1id block of infantry, rose ttle grim line of bayonets, the blued steel Gliuting dully as it caught the light. Farther back came the long lines of field guns. French "T5's" to which French officers have said France owes her salvation and. after all the trains and Wa gons rumbled by, came a bat -gIion of tanks, streaked and vel lowed with paint to conceal them from enemy eyes, but now growing and clankinS their way behind the troops in noisy response to the cheers that greeted them.
 There was nothing lacking to make the parade ausepitome of the whole vast army American skill and indonr itabIe will had created to meet and beat the enemy at his own game. There were guns of all types used In France that could he moved through the streets Machine guns, bis and little, bristled among the riflemen; squat mortars to hurl bombs from the trenches. high mounted rifles which peered s--yward as though still in search of enemy flyers. Some of the guns were horse drawn, some trundIed behind panting motor trucks or tractors. The show was as complete as the ingenuity of the War Department could make it. a cross section of the American Exepditior ary Forces.
 But it was to the lines of khaki clad. brown faced men themselves that first interest of the thronging crowds all along the wide avenue turned The home coming of this first unit of American man power to cross the submarine-infested seas was in marked contrast to its silent, r7veterious. uurepOrted departure, and the men and women along the way seemed to feel the significance of the spectacle. They recalled the days when the nation waited in word less anxiety to hear that these same smiling. free-striding boys had come safely ta 2 French harbor, those other days when inc first word filtered back that the boys had begun to prove their courage in action and the slow coming lists that carried the names of the men who sleep for ever in France.
 To one regiment of long, trim, ''-5s'' an unusual honor was accorded. The Sixth Field Artillery was placed between the two infantry brigades instead of marching with the rest Of the artillery brigade behind the in rautry. for it was C battery of the sixth which fired the first shot at the | Germans on Oct. 23. 1917. "7d- ard told the onlookers that at last they saw the very guns whose thun- der had carried that first message of defeat into the enemy ranks. Throughout thel ong line markers ! were freducnt telling what the ] strange implements of war over which | they floatcd were used for. Among the wachters were thousands upon | thousands of government clerks who . h vr~f~ h end Hoe | streams of papers talking of bombs and guns and murtars, of motor ma | chine shops, pOntoon bridges, ma | chine guns. -as throwers. flame pro- ! fcctors and all the other complicated war equipment of the troops. Never 1 before have these workers at home | seen all these tools of warfare ir ] their own warIike setting, however and the parade was an education foI ! them.
 1 Up the avenue at the head of the ! division rode Major General Edward ] F, McGlaChlin, commanding, and 1 with him rode two former comman- ders of the division the first to gC and the last of the divisions to come i home. They were Major Genera ', William L. Sibert, who took it tC France. and Lieutenant General Rob l crt L. BuIlard. who took it into ac ton and surrendered command only
 to take a higher post. Marching ahead of the formations, also, came a host of officers and men who saw their first service with the First Di
 vision in France, later to go to othel
 units as instructors
 Then came the First Infantry Bri
 cade, marching in the French mas.
 formation, twenty-four men abreas across the .evenue, red by the 3rG Machine Gun Battalion with its mo
 t0rized guns. The infantry march eC
 in column of fours, four cOmpanie! i abreast and with officers and fiji, i clOsers ahead. leaving the men tt
 form a solid block of bayonets fo 1 each battalion. The 18th Infantry
 veterans of the bitter fighting a ! Cantigny where France learned il
 what fashion America could ant
 would fight and breathed free agail
 after months of strain, led the way | After it's three battalion blocks ha, | pa ssed came the 18th Infantry il
 similar formation followed by the Is Machine Gun Battalion of the Brig
 ade.
 ] The 9th Field Artillery came nex followed by the Second Infantry Bri
 gade composed of the 26th and 2stl