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Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury), 1876-1944

"Paths of Glory Impressions of War Written at and Near the Front"


Being thus warned we did get started.
Of a battle there is this to be said--that the closer you get to it the
less do you see of it. Always in my experiences in Belgium and my more
recent experiences in France I found this to be true. Take, for
example, the present instance. I knew that we were approximately in the
middle sworl of the twisting scroll formed by the German center, and
that we were at this moment entering the very tip of the enormous
inverted V made by the frontmost German defenses. I knew that
stretching away to the southeast of us and to the northwest was a line
some two hundred miles long, measuring it from tip to tip, where sundry
millions of men in English khaki and French fustian and German shoddy-
wools were fighting the biggest fight and the most prolonged fight and
the most stubborn fight that historians probably will write down as
having been fought in this war or any lesser war. I knew this fight had
been going on for weeks now back and forth upon the River Aisne and
would certainly go on for weeks and perhaps months more to come.


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