Following the attack on the St. Mihiel salient, came the battle of the Argonne, where plans were drawn as before, using the added knowledge gained at St. Mihiel. The work was accordingly more satisfactory. However, the attempt to cover the entire American front of nine divisions with only six companies proved too great a task. Practically all gas troops were put in the front line the morning of the attack. Due to weather conditions they used mostly phosphorus and thermite with 4 inch Stokes’ mortars. Having learned how useful these were in taking machine gun nests, plans were made to have them keep right up with the Infantry. This they did in a remarkable manner considering the weight of the Stokes’ mortar and the base plates and also that each Stokes’ mortar bomb weighed about 25 pounds. There were cases where they carried these mortars and bombs for miles on their backs, while in other cases they used pack animals. [Illustration: FIG. 15.—Setting Up a Smoke Barrage with Smoke Pots.] Not expecting the battle to be nearly continuous as it was for three weeks, the men, as before stated, were all put in the front line the morning of the attack. This resulted in their nearly complete exhaustion the first week, since they fought or marched day and night during nearly the whole time. Taking a lesson from this, in later attacks only half the men were put in the line in the first place, no matter if certain sectors had to be omitted. Fully as good results were obtained because, as the men became worn out, fresh ones were sent in and the others given a chance to recuperate. Officers relate many different occurrences showing the discipline and character of these gas troops. On one occasion where a battalion of infantry was being held up by a machine gun nest, volunteers were called for. Only two men, both from the gas regiment, volunteered though they were joined a little later by two others from the same regiment, and these four took the guns. While it was not considered desirable for gas troops to attempt to take prisoners, yet the regiment took quite a number, due solely to the fact that they were not only with the advancing infantry but at times actually in front of it. On another occasion a gas officer, seeing a machine gun battalion badly shot up and more or less rattled, took command and got them into action in fine shape. At this stage the Second Army was formed to the southeast of Verdun and plans were drawn for a big attack about November 14. The value of gas troops was appreciated so much that the Second Army asked to have British gas troops assigned to them since no American gas troops were available. Accordingly in response to a request made by the American General Headquarters, the British sent 10 companies of their gas troops. These reached the front just before the Armistice, and hence were unable to carry out any attacks there.