by, came a battalion of tanks, streaked and yellowed with paint to conceal them 'from enemy eyes, but now growling and clanking their way behind the troops in noisy response to the cheers that greeted them. There was nothing lacking to make thfc parade an epitome of the whole vast arm> < American skill and indomitable will haa | created to meet and beat the enemv at! its own game. There were guns of all j tlui types used in France that could' be moved through the streats. Machine jams, big and little, bristled among the riflemen; squat mortars to hurl bombs from the trenches; high mounted rifles which peered skyward as though still in search of enemy flyers. Some of this gtms were horse-drawn, some trundled behind panting motor trucks or tractors. The show was as complete as the ingenuity of the war department could maks it, a cross section of the American expeditionary forces. But it was to the lines of khaki-clad, brown-faced men themselves that first- interest of the thronging crowds all along the wide avenue turned. The home-coming of this first unit of American man power to cross the submarine-infestoa seas was in marked contrast to its sil- - ent, mysterious, unreported departure, and. the men and women along the way seemed to feel the significance of the spectacle. They recalled the days when the nation waited in wordless anxiety to hear that these same smiling, free- striding boys had come safely to a French harbor, those other days when the first word filtered back that the boys had begun to prove their courage in action and the slow coming' lists that carried the names of the men who sleep forever in France. The one regiment of long, trim "75's" an unusual honor was accorded. The Sixth Field artillery was placed between the two infantry brigades instead 01 marching with the rest of the artillery brigade behind the infantry, for it was C battery of the Sixth which fired the first shot at the Germans on October 23, 1917. A standard, told me onlookers that at last they saw the very guns j whose .thunder had carried that first message of defeat into the enemy ranks. Throughout the long line markers were j frequent telling what the strange implements of war over which they floated were used for. Among the watchers were thousands upon thousands of government clerks who have dealt for months -with endless streams of papers talking of bombs and guns and mortars, of motor machine shops, pontoon bridges, machine guns, gas throwers, flame projectors ana all the other complicated war equipment of the troops. Never before have those workers at home seen all these tools of warfare in their own warlike setting, .however,' and the parade was an education for them| Up the avenue at the head of the division rode Major General Edward F. Mc'Glachlin, commanding, and with him rode two former commanders of the division the first to go and the last of the divisions t-> come home. They were Major General William E. Sibert, who took it to- France, and Lieutenant General Robert L. Bullard, who took it into ac- uon and surrendered command only to take a higher post. Marching ahead of the formations, also, came a host of ot- ficers and.men who saw their first service with the First division in Franc?, later to go to other units'as instructors. Then came the First Infantry brigade, marching in the French mass formation, twenty-four men, abreast across the avenue, led by the Third machine gun battalion with its motorized guns. The infantry marched in column of fours, four companies abreast and With officers and file closets ahead, leaving the men 1ft form a solid block of bayonets for each battalion. The Sixteenth infantry, veterans of the bitter fighting at- Cantigny where France learned in what faslno« America could and would fight and breathed free again after months of strain, led the way. After its three bac- talion blocks had passed came the Eighteenth infantry in similar formation followed by the First machine gun bat? talion of the brigade. The Sixth field artillery came next, followed by the Second infantry brigade composed of the 26th and 28th infantry and the Second machine grun battalion,' then the long lines of "75's" and . th^ Seventh field artillery. The, horse-drawn guns and limbers of the Fifth rolled by three columns abreast and the Seventh puffed and panted along with its heavier guns in the same formation. The regular trains of the division: followed, the First engineer regiment leading the way with the First engineer train behind it to be succeeded by the Second signal battalion. Then came the almost endless wagon and truck trains of tne ammunition, supply and sanitary trains and the First company, military police and finally the hospital trains, the Second, Third, Twelfth and Thirteenth am< bulance companies and field hospitals. At various points in the divisional Una and before the wallowing tanks hammered and clattered in an uprbaring conclusion to the five-hour spectacle, a,U manner of additional units, not part ot the division itself, were Inserted. These included searchlight trucks, ordnance machine shops, units on motor trucks, sound ranging devices for detecting thy position of hidden guns,... sound rangers for. spotting air raiders at night and much other mechanical equipment that : has played a constantly growing part in .the war. " So far as the First division itself is concerned, the official record of its activities during the war recently published by the war department speaks for itself. It stood 93 days ist active-Sectors of the front against 123 in - quiet parts of the line; it fought its way forward oyer 51 kilometers of sharply contested grounds; it captured 163 German officers and 6,304 German men; it .captured also "19 ^German guns; 62.trench mortars and •113 machine guns. It lists 4,411 officers and men killed or died of wounds and had 17,201 men wounded or gassed in the days it spent at the front and lost only 152 of its own personnel as prisonsrs to the enemy. Its replacements wero greater than its original strength', 30,20ij and 356 of its members won distinguished reryice crosses for conspicuous gallantry in action. p