now charged with coordinating all the allies in the western front, ferdinand fok initiated a counter offensive, attacking the salient where the german advance stopped. it went better than anticipated, reducing the pocket known as the black day of the german army. spurred by american general john pershing who was not content to let soldiers sit in the trencheses long there were two simultaneous offensives. one at sam yell and the others at the muse r. gone sector. this lasted september 26 until november 11. like all the other offenses prior, the assault was disappointing. the offenses stopped well short of the objective, sustained 117,000 casualtieses including 26,000 killed. to the americans, fresh faced and untroubled by years of failure the war was nothing like they imagined. although they accepted the death toll for what it was they had a hard time accepting the fact that every area, even the rear echelon positions were dirty, unsanitary and unsafe. 27-year-old corporal ross j. petijohn found himself at the forefront of the last offensive. he found it hard to consent to the filthi