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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": 27,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "27\nand flying low. It was here that I saw three of our observation balloons shot\ndown by one plane, one right after the other and falling in flames to the\nground.73\nWe were standing on a road stalled on account of a bridge having\nbeen blown up by a Boche plane. We went into position a few hundreds\ndistance, behind a hedge fence, and awaited orders for shooting. It was a\nbad place as the enemy opened up on us with direct fire, but their shooting\nwas bad. 74 It killed a few horses and wounded a few men. Then the limbers\ncame up after us and we moved out in the open, a shell torn field that\nseemed almost impossible to cross. After getting stuck a number of times in\nshell holes we finally hit a dirt road leading forward. After having been the\nfirst battery to go forward, and now leading the Regiment, we came to the\ntop of a bald hill, crossing several trenches we were halted. Before us lay a\ndeep ravine that was deep and steep. It was here we saw many dead\nGermans and saw an elaborate system of dugouts, equipped with running\nwater, bath, swimming pool and all the modern conveniences. Also it was\nhere the Germans found us a better target than before. They sent them over\nthick and fast and they fell on both sides of us. But every one of the men\nNATIONAL\nRCHIVES &\n\"stuck\" as tho there were nothing going on. Soon the Major ordered to\nRECORDS\nADMIN\nunlimber and to take the horses to cover. One of my teams were coming\nthru the ravine and a pole broke, and I sat on my horse and cursed my luck.\nI looked around to find an officer giving me orders from a shell hole. We\n73\nCaptain Harry S.Truman describes this scene in his writings. The balloons were filled with\nHydrogen gas, one of the most explosive of gases.\n74\nThis is an indication of how desperate the Germans were becoming at this stage of the war. Direct\nfire was almost never used by a defender. A defender would have had all the forward ground, his ground and\nthe ground to the rear preregistered in case it was necessary to fall back. The reason for this was probably that\nthe Germans were short on artillery and had to move their artillery units around to provide support for their hard\npressed infantry.\n75\nThe sector had been relatively quiet for long period of time. When given time the German\nengineers would invariably fortify the trenches with ferro-concrete reinforced walls and construct ferro-concrete\nreinforced bunkers and pillboxes."
}