The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-09

)n their return from France. ''and yet the censors didn't let the word reach America!"
 We went into action at Soissons," he continued, without any artillery preparation. The men had no hand srenades. Ordnance had failed to de- liver them. For that matter, during their forty days in Belleau Wood and vicinity, the men were without hand grenades, too.
 I tell you," he said forcefu1ly. "the men were great, up there at Sots- sons, great I remember reading in an enthusiastic Paris account that they went into action with nothing put their youth and bayonets.' That was 1t. nothing but their youth and bayonets.
 The German Dream Ended.
 "It spelled" he said, "the end of the German dream. From then on the allied armies attacked all along the line, first in one place, then in another The great leaders of the al- lied armies knew the tide was turned. They never relaxed their blows. First one would strike, then another. And they never stopped driving the Ger mans back until Nov. II and the arm istice."
 It was after their victory at Sois- sons that Major General Lejeune took command of the. Second, which from July 15 to July 28 had ben under Major General James G. Harboard and before that, from It's organization Nov. s, 1917, had been under Major General Omar Bundy. General Le- 1eune commanded the Second there after through the St. MihieI Cham pagne and Meuse-Argonne offensives and took 1t across the Rhine and brought it back home
 As you look at him sitting there in his wicker easy chair in an office in the Hall of Records overlooking City Hall Park, with St PauPs at the end or the vista, you recall all the stories you have heard as to how the men of the Second Division idoIize him. And your estimate is that General Lejeune is just what you would have an American general be.
 His face is kindly, it Is efficient, and it is American. The black hair limiting at gray and coming down in a disordered bang over a low, broad forehead; the weather worn cheeks that tell you frankly here is a man who were probably does his own shaving and at least seldom submits to a barber's massage; the wide firm mouth and the emphatic chin all might very well belong to a. hardy frontiersman of the early days Of medium height, with a square pow erful figure and sturdy legs so strong they seem slightly, bowed, well, he might be a Daniel Boone ready to tackle the old wilderness trail
 His smile Is something to look at. It brings the lines of laughter to the corners of your own mouth. As for the timbre of his voice, it tells you here is something to cotton to. Then, to cap it all, he doesn't stand on dignity and now and then he cusses by way of emphasis.
 "A he-man," says a leatherneck lieutenant. 1ounging on the frfnges of the interview, in whispered aside.
 You agree with him.
 A Top Sergeant Who Climbed.
 This same lieutenant of Marines is tall, spare individual with a leathery face, sandy eyebrows and blue unwinkling eyes. He, too, Is a pioneer type. An enlisted man in the Marine Corps, he went into action at Belleau Wood a top sergeant. Bravery in action and coolness in a crisis won him his grade.
 And so you look at them both-the general and the top sergeant that was-you recall that the Marine Corps is an all-American organization which takes its recruits only after they prove citizenship and pass the hardest kind of examination and yoe remerr, ber (with all due respect to the regc- lars who toted half the lead of the Second Divisions 1abors and total it t0,n ha hnJ "a nf the division were Marines. Then you realize why those at Belleau Wood couldn't stop the Second Division.
 A Mixed Division.
 But to % back to the beginning of things The Second Division at first consisted of skeleton ot regular army tits padded odt with raw re- cruits, and 1t was not until January 1918, that it was decided to mix up regulars and Marines to form a di- vision of some 23,O0c. Previous ly the men thus brought together had been in training here and -here about France. and their combination was deprecated in many quarters.
 "The regulars and leathernecks tMarines) won't mix, that's an," was the army verdict. They'll fight like Kilkenny cats.'
 And they did. But not among them- selves. On the contrary, 1t is the verdict of the Second Division itself that the combination of regulars and Marines was invincib1e, that ii achieved a marvellous harmony, and that its esprit de corps is second to none in the A. B. F.
 Harmony Report True. As for the harmny, many a story is told Once up in the Champagne a Thirty sixth Division man said something sighting about the Ma rines of the Second Division. A mule skinner of the Second was driving by.
 Whoa Nance" to the leader. | He dropped lightly to his feet from | the seat of the wagon and swung | from the hip.
 Then he climbed back up. ''Giddap, Nancee."
 It took ten minutes to bring that Thirty -,cond Division man to hi. ] 0onseA