THE BURDEN FRANCE HAS BORNE 



329 



revealed, history will grant France this 

 honor. But it is an honor paid for in the 

 best blood of the country. 



Up to the present it has been the 

 French army, the French citizen soldier, 

 who has saved the world from German 

 conquest. 



A SPARTAN 1 " MOTHER AND WIFE 



As an example of what France gives, 

 let me quote the story of General Castle- 

 neau. He is a valiant, generous gentle- 

 man — a soldier with the soul of a Spartan. 



He and his sons were among the first 

 to draw their sabers in defense of their 

 land. During the first year of the war, 

 when he was pressed clown with the cares 

 of one of the most important commands 

 in the French army, news was brought to 

 General Castleneau, first, that one of his 

 sons had been killed ; then in a few 

 months a second died for his country. 



The third son fought in the army com- 

 manded by his father. He was his father's 

 favorite. Little more than a boy, in the 

 first battles he had shown a courage that 

 won him honor and rapid promotion. 

 Then in one of those attacks, where regi- 

 ment upon regiment charged through the 

 fields of death, this third son was mortally 

 wounded. 



Upon the death of this boy, broken by 

 his sorrows and the strain of war, Gen- 

 eral Castleneau thought to give up his 

 high command and live out his last days 

 on his home farm. Then his wife came 

 to him. He told her his thought. 



"No," said this French wife and 

 mother, "you have given the best of your- 

 self to your country. You have nothing 

 left to give save these last years. We 

 must keep up the fight." General Castle- 

 neau today is still at his post of duty. 



RESOURCEFUL FRANCE MEETS NEW 

 CONDITIONS 



Not only has France given the bodies 

 of her sons in the sacrifice of battle, but 

 she has also given the fruits of their 

 brains. The trained professional officers 

 of the French army have been the intelli- 

 gence which directed the military opera- 

 tions of the Entente armies. These offi- 

 cers were instructors in the art of war to 



the allied forces, and while acting in this 

 capacity they evolved new tactics which 

 so effectively thwarted German ambitions. 



The new tactics were the outcome of 

 trench warfare, which had brought into 

 use weapons long since discarded in 

 modern armies. When the war opened 

 French battalions, a thousand strong, had 

 the organization common to most armies, 

 namely, four companies and a mitrail- 

 leuse section of two guns. The men were 

 armed wholly with rifle and bayonet ; but 

 French ingenuity was quick to see the 

 changes of organization and armament 

 made necessary by the new warfare. 



Today half the battalion have discarded 

 the rifle and carry grenades or one-man 

 machine-guns. Three of the original 

 companies are still infantry, while the 

 fourth has been changed to a machine- 

 gun company with eight mitrailleuses. 



The infantry companies are subdivided 

 into sections and armed with special 

 weapons: first, the hand-grenade throw- 

 ers ; second, the rifle grenade soldiers, 

 who, instead of throwing the grenade, fire 

 it from their guns ; third, the soldiers fir- 

 ing automatic rifles, and these are fol- 

 lowed by the ordinary infantry, using 

 rifle or bayonet. 



The machine-guns as employed by the 

 Germans were the great bugbear of the 

 trenches, These weapons would mow 

 down a whole company of advancing 

 soldiers in the charge. French officers 

 set themselves to solving this problem 

 and devised the small cannon to be used 

 in the assault. The gun, I ^4-inch caliber 

 rapid fire, was dragged forward with the 

 charging line. When brought into action 

 it soon mastered the fire of any hidden 

 machine-gun. 



THE WORK OF THE RIFLE GRENADE 



That ingenious weapon, the rifle gren- 

 ade, merits special citation. It consists 

 of an iron receptacle, clamped to the end 

 of the regular rifle, in which a special 

 type of grenade is placed, and the rifle 

 fired. The explosion sends the grenade 

 about 200 yards through the air, while 

 the rifle bullet, piercing the center of 

 the bomb, sets free the fulminate, which 

 causes the grenade to explode on landing. 



I have no intention of going into a 



