Thy peerless one, who died to make men free,
And in Man's grateful heart shall live immortally!
FROM LETTERS AND DIARY
OF ALAN SEEGER
Another participant in the attack upon Belloy-en-Santerre wrote for La Liberte of Paris the stirring account, of which this is a translation:
Six o'clock at night.
The Legion attacks Belloy-en-Santerre. The 3rd battalion is to carry the southern part of the village. With a rush, it starts, its two leading companies pressing straight forward, beneath the crash of bursting shells, across a chaos of detonations.... En avant!
The men hurry on, clutching tightly their arms; some set their teeth, others shout.
Three hundred meters yet to cross and they will reach the enemy.... En avant!
But suddenly, hands relax their grasp, arms open, bodies stagger and fall, as the clatter of the German mitrailleuses spreads death over the plain where, but a moment before, men were passing.
Hidden in the road from Estrees to Belloy, they have taken our men in flank, cutting to pieces the 11th company.
