Westbrook Pegler
Arkansas City Daily News/September 7, 1917
Headquarters for the American Armies in France Sept. 7.
There was not a single American Sammy today who was not willing to step right out and under French gunfire and go to the Germans. Yesterday’s exhibition of French artillery fire made a deep impression on the men.
Thousands of American soldiers sat on the rim of a mammoth amphitheater and watched French guns harrow a big section of the peaceful countryside in what was probably the greatest mock artillery battle ever staged. Stretching across a valley of a mile wide through alternating green and brown stripes like a carpet, wore the “Mackensen Ludendorff” and Rupprecht trenches. When the guns behind the American lines began to roar the trenches were hidden under geysers of smoke and spattered soil. General Sibert and other American and French generals observed the bombardment from a point near a field telephone, where messages to the batteries were sent demanding an ever increasing fire.
The American soldiers only witnessed the “front” end of the artillery feat. The guns themselves were stationed in a fort, hidden from prying eyes. The Americans did one phase of the artillery warfare when ammunition limbers, deceptively camouflaged, scurried along a nearby road. Interest of the troops in the bombardment was intense. Toward the last it was noted one stake of wire entanglements remained untouched. A command was telephoned to the gunners. Another single roar and the stake and its tangled wires vanished.
“Attaboy!” yelled the delighted Americans.
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