The Alaska daily empire., 1921-05-30

were freshly painted and gleamet in the bright sunlight French ant German cemeteries are found every where.
 .. Soissons.
 "All along the Chemin des Danes the lighting was particularly heavy ant not foot of ground remains undis 'urbed yet poppies, daisies, and . common purple flower are now growing thickly all around, giving a decidedly red, white and blue eff feet on the brown earth. Back oi Soissons is another American ceme tery.
 ,<,i,.ry Ypres.
 To-day we finished up. the Ypres salient, including the Messines Ridge The ssto&n is entirely gone. A few miles north of the town is tank graveyard where dozens of them lie in various stages of disintegration We saw Quentin Roosevelts grave IL occupies an attractive spot on 3 hillside and was well cared for and covered with flowers.
 Pont,a Mousson.
 "OA the left of the road leaving Thiacourt there is large American cemetery of those killed in the St Michael fight.
 Bar-lc-Duc
 We passed many small French cemeteries all through the deyas. tated region. The graves are very deliberately decorated with artificial flowers, wreaths. and otheF set pieces. There were women in mourn. ing iceverywhere.' and, at all the little hotels along the route. were others making their sad pilgrim ages. 7
 verdun.
 At Romagne, we visited the Ar. gonne cemetery where oyer 22,00O Americans are buried. It is being fixed up in fine shape. Already flowers are bioming and a large proportion of the graves have been sodded. No more appropriate or im. pressive national monument could well be conceived. It will be too bad if mistaken sentiment forces the return of any considerable nun Der of American dead to the United States.
 "The town of Romagne is a fitting location for the largest of our na. tional cemeteries as, around it oc. cured, during the second and third weeks of October some of the hot. test fighting our troops encountered The breaking of the Kfiemhilde Stel. lung at this point was vital to the success of the American offensive This formidable system of defenses extended from Grand Pre- east along the hills of the Cote Dam Marie above Romagne and across Hill 299 to the Mouse, where it joined the main line of the Hindenburg sys tenn
 Last Months of the War;
 Colonel Steese then gave in brief detail a resume of the operations of the world war from July 15 when the Germans made their last great bid for victory. starting their drive on both sides of Rheims, to the final armistice scenes after the American forces, following 47 days of fierce battling, had cut the Sedan Mezieres railroad, the main supply of the Ger. man forces on the greater part of the Western front.
 St. Mihiel. he described ae. the operation in which American com. manders and troops demonstrated their ability to plan and execute a big American operation" This bat tle, from September 12 to 15, he said was the first distinctly American offensive" To bring the operation more vividly before his hearers, Col. Steese compared it with the battle of Gettysburg. About 550,0O0 Ameri- cans were at St Mihiel; the Union forces at Gettysburg numbered 100,- 900. St. Mihiel set a record for con Gentration of artillery fire; consum- ing more than 100000 rounds of ammunition. In three days at Get. '' o'tNi 3' thC OhioH lIiOt y hIcu 900 rounds" said the speaker. s7 Meuse-Argonne Activities.
 The final big American drive in the war, the Meuse.Argonne offen. give, was covered by Col Steese. '"The object of the Meuse-Argonne offensive" he stated. Hsaid General Pershing in his report of November 20, 1918, was to draw the best Ger man divisions to our front and con, sume them This sentence ex. pressed better than any long descrip tiOn not only the object, but tlso the outcome of the operation. Every available American division was thrown against the, enemy. Every German division was thrown in to meet them. At the end of 47 days continuous battle, our divisions had consumed the German divisions. T
 He described, how foot by foot. the Yankee troops pushed back, the best of the German forces until the goal was won, the supply line cut near Se- dan early in November.
 Col. Steese summarized the last