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{
    "localId": "17343226",
    "label": "The Memoirs of Sergeant Verne Chaney",
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{
    "id": "17343226",
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    "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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    "hasTranscription": false
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            "logicalDate": "1919-01-01",
            "year": 1919
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    "seq": 23,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "23\nbut the Col. demanded that he get off and if he couldn't walk to get an\nambulance. He got off as instructed but as soon as the Col. rode off.I told\nhim to get on again, which he did. We went on that way for eight or ten\nkilos where the Col. found him again. The Col. rode up in his car and\njumped out and bawled out for that man to get off and stay off and he\nhoped he had to walk all the rest the way and that he hoped he'd starve\nbefore he caught up. There is no doubt but what the Col. was wrong in the\nfact that the incident wasn't taken up with the Captain in charge of the\nbattery.\nWe traveled overland from Kruth going thru Salzures, Vagney,\nRemiermont, Bayon, Toul and Nancy. Winding up at St. Mihiel and being\nin reserve, backing up the drive at that point.62 After three days at this place\nwe started overland to toward Verdun.63 It was after twenty seven days from\nthe time we left Kruth that we arrived at the front near the Argonne Forest.\nAfter making 500 kilos overland, thru mud, rain, light feeds for both horses\nand men, irregular feeding, long hours of traveling at night with men\ncarrying packs, we arrived in a big woods just ten kilos from the line. We\nIRUMIN\n\"NATIONAL\narrived here about eight a.m. and had breakfast at 11 o 'clock. 64 It was here\nARCHIVES &\nRECORDS\nADMIN.``\nE\nwe were entitled to a five days rest before taking up another position It was\nGOVERNMEE\n62\nThe 35th was in Army reserve. The division was concentrated in the Foret De Haye, southeast of\nSt. Mihiel. The 35th did not participate in the St. Mihiel battle. The 35th was one of the first divisions starrting\nfor the Meuse-Argonne.\n63\nVerdun is the site of the longest continual battle in recorded history. The French and German\nforces fought with various levels of intensity from February 21, 1916 until December 15, 1916. While driven back,\nthe French never lost the key forts. It is estimated that the total casualties on the Verdun front reached almost\none and one half million men.\n64\nWhen General Pershing refused to cancel the St. Mihiel attack, instead he made a counteroffer by\nagreeing to take over the French Meuse-Argonne sector and launch a full scale American attack. Generalissimo\nFoch reluctantly agreed and that night six American divisions started to the Meuse-Argonne. Thousands of the\n90,000horses and mules moving the divisions simply collapsed and died in their traces. Monumental traffic jams\nresulted from poor roads, rain, mud, exhaustion and inexperience. In the constant drizzle, army engineer and\nService of Supply (SOS) troops fought their own war to make the roads passable. Working tirelessly with rocks,\nlogs, animal carcasses and disabled vehicles to fill the enormous mud holes, they kept the roads open. An artillery\nlieutenant said \"Of course we had to come into position at night. I'll never forget it took two and a half hours\nto travel the last half mile.'"
}