this division, a stranger to war, lay out in the damp terrain of the Argonne-Meuse sector, under what in scope and severity was the greatest bombardment of the war. They had been wondering what war was like. Now they knew, and next morning at the zero hour they went over the top. They may not have known much of war, but they knew how to fight.

Inside of three days these largely unskilled soldiers from farm and factory, from store and range, had defeated two Prussian divisions, pierced the presumable impregnable German defense to a depth of fifteen kilometers, and with other equally valiant American divisions, had set in motion the drive which ended in Sedan. …

Out of the Argonne-Meuse sector with a brief rest, and the division was shunted to Flanders, where fighting with the French, British and Belgians under that group of armies commanded by King Albert, it participated in two phases of the Lys-Scheldt offensive, driving the Germans across the latter river, following the enemy in some cases on pontoon bridges hastily constructed from wine casks which the Germans had drained dry. The division was located on both banks of the Scheldt about sixty-five kilometers from Brussels when the armistice halted further advance.