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{
    "localId": "17343226",
    "label": "The Memoirs of Sergeant Verne Chaney",
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{
    "id": "17343226",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17343226",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "The Memoirs of Sergeant Verne Chaney",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17343226",
    "collections": [
        "Verne E. Chaney Papers",
        "Subject Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972",
        "Spina, Frank E., 1887-1972",
        "Klemm, Karl D., 1880-",
        "Wooldridge, Glenwood F., 1893-1977",
        "Pershing, John J. (John Joseph), 1860-1948",
        "Thacher, John H., 1872-1960",
        "Miles, John L., 1878-1961",
        "Soldiers",
        "World War, 1914-1918",
        "Artillery"
    ],
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            "logicalDate": "1919-01-01",
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    "seq": 19,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "19\nIn the meantime a German observation balloon must have gone up to\nascertain if they could see anything with the aid of flares, and rockets.53\nAnyway we had no more than gotten our breath, after the push, until the\nshells came screaming thru the air and bursting just above us, with the\nbr-r-r-r of the shrapnel going on down into the woods below us. There was\nabout a three foot bank on one side of the road affording us fair protection.\nWe needed no command to lay down and take all the protection that this\ngave to us. They kept coming but not from the direction we had fired. They\nmust have had the dope on us for they soon were dropping shells down\nwhere the carriages were stuck. 54The 1st Sgt.told the drivers to take cover.\nSome held their horses some turned them loose.I soon saw the horses going\npast us with the harness and traces dragging. Then came the sound of gas\nhorns to add to the terror of things.\nSchooling had taught me different methods of sending over gas and at\nour distance it must be sent by shell. Secondly no shells had hit the ground\nnear us on the side of the hill. Thirdly all gas is heavy and would be down\nthe hill if anywhere. Fourthly the wind was favorable to our position. So it\ndidn't bother me much about getting gassed, but the worst thing that\nRUMAN\nEs ARCHIVES& \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN.\nCONERANCE\n53\nObservation balloons differ from airships or dirigibles. Airships or dirigibles have a rigid or semi-\nrigid frame and are powered and capable of manuvering. Balloons have no frame structure and are not powered.\nObservation balloons are tethered to the ground by cables and can be winched back to the ground. Balloons were\nusually sausage shaped, of rubberized canvas and filled with highly explosive hydrogen gas. The life span of a\nballoon was short and by extension so was the observer's. The observers were equipped with parachutes, but the\nflaming balloon usually fell on them even if they were able to get out of the basket.\n54\nA specific location on a chart or map is designated by two sets of numbers called coordinates. The\nmap is sectioned off in squares and each vertical and horizontal line is numbered. To find the coordinates of any\nlocation on the map, a vertical and horizontial line is drawn from the side and top of the map. Where the lines\nintersect are the coordinates. A limited number of reference lines can be drawn on a map, therefore, coordinates\nusually have to be interpolated. If the chart or map is being used for indirect artillery work, the observer must\nhave a similar map. The \"dope\" Sergeant Chaney refers to, is either preregistration of the area by German\nartillery or new data from aeroplanes or balloons."
}