New Britain herald., 1919-09-17


 vision. American Expeditionary Force, marched. It was Washington's first great parade of the war and it was conceived and carried out as the na-' tion's tribute not alone to the veteran fighting men who marched, but to the whole great army the nation created to make certain the utter de- feat of German dreams of world con- quest.
 March in Mass Formation.
 Marching in mass formation and equipped with all the guns, gas throw CTS and countless other death dealing devices of front line service, the First division, fresh home from France, moved along the broad ave- nue, a living tide of sunburned fight ing manhood that filled the street from curb to curb. Tn their khaki and olive drab uniforms, the men swung by as resistlessly as the spring floods of the Mississippi. Above each solid block of infantry, rose the grim line of bayonets, the blued steel glint- ing duly as it caught the light. Far ther back came the long lines of field guns, French "75's' to which French officers have said France owes her salvation and, after all the trains and wagons had rumbled by came a bat taliOn of tanks streaked and yellowed with paint to conceal them from en- emy eyes, but now growing and clanking their way behind the troops in noisy response to the cheers that greeted them.
 Guns of All Types Used.
 There was nothing lacking to make the parade an epitome of the whole
 
 itable will had created tc meet and beat the enemy at his own game. There were guns of all the types used in France that could be moved through the streets. Machine guns, big and little, bristled among the rifle men; squat mortars to hurl bombs from the trenches; high mounted rifles which peered skyward as though still in search of enemy flyers. Some of the guns were horse drawn, some trundled behind pantins motor trucks or tractors. The show was as complete as the ingenuity of the war depart ment could make it, a cross section of the American EXpeditionary 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, mys- terious, unreported departure, and the men and women along the way ! scene ed to feel the significance of the spectacle. They recalled the days when the nation waited in worthless | anxiety 10 hear that these same smll- l ing, ee-striding boys had come safe lv to a French harbOr, those other | days when the first word filtered back 1 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 forever in 1 France.
 l Fired First Shot in War. | TO one regiment of long, trim l "75's' an unusual honor was accorded 1 The Sixth Field artillery was placed l between the two infantry brigades in l stead of marching with the rest of the | artillery, brigade behind the infantry l for it was C battery of the Sixth which 1 fired the first shot at the Germans or 1 October 23. 1917. A standard tolc 1 the onlookers that at last they saw 1 the very guns whose thunder had car 1 riod that first message of defeat into 1 the enemy ranks
 Throughout the long line marker: l were frequent telling what the strange 1 implem ents of war over which they l foated were used for. Among the l watchers were thousands upon thou
 sands of gOvernme ent clerks who have l dealt for months with endless streams
 of papers talking of bombs and gun: 1 and mortars, of motor machine shops