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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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    "ocrText": "THE MEMOIRS OF SERGEANT VERNE CHANEY\nCHIEF OF SECTION #3 -BATTERY \"D\"\n129th FIELD ARTILLERY REGIMENT\n60th FIELD ARTILLERY BRIGADE\n35th NATIONAL GUARD DIVISION\nAMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES\nFRANCE 1918\nEdited by:\nPencil corrections to\nfootuotes made by\nJames G. Henry\nMails Beveridge, Registrar HSTL\n6/12/98\n\"The moril of this story, it is plainly to be seen:\nYou 'aven't got no families when servin of the Queen-You 'aven't got no\nbrothers, fathers, sisters, wives, or sons-If you want to win your battles take an'\nwork your bloomin' guns!\"\n\"SNARLYOW\"\nBARRACK ROOM BALLARDS\n$ ARCHIVES & \"NATIONAL RECORDS LIBRARY\nADMIN.\"\nRUDYARD KIPLING\nU.S.\nGOVERNMENT\n2\nFt. Sill, Okla. 1\nAfter many months of waiting for the time to come when we should\npack up and start our journey to the coast, with France in view, as our\nobjective, we received them on May 6, 1918. 2 There was much joy and\ncelebration over the news. We at once set out to making boxes to put\nharness, saddles, blankets and horse equipment in. They were made\naccording to dimensions required by the Q.M. and strapped with strap iron.\nThen came the job of painting and addressing the boxes for identification\nand when completed there were one hundred and fifty four boxes for our\nbattery alone.\nOn the third day we were ordered to turn in our horses, 153 in all.\nThere was a great deal of haste to be the first to arrive at the Remount\nstation, in order to keep from waiting for hours until our turn. We arrived\nin due time and turned in one horse more than we started with. There was\ngreat rejoicing by the men because the would be no more horses to groom\nby detail, no more stable police, no more equitation and mounted drill. 3\nOn the last day we were paid off, every one had plenty of money.4\nThere was still a final clean up of all the tents and area and was somewhat\nhard to convince the men that it was necessary to leave the place clean.\nHARRITA U.S. GOVERNMENT TRUMAN ARCHIVES& \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN.\" LIBRARY\nDoniphan\n1\nFort Sill is the United States Army Field Artillery Headquarters. Camp Doniplan-was built within\nthe fort perimeter. Camp Doniplan Doniphan was the assembly point and training base for National Guard and National\nArmy troops from Kansas and Missouri.\n2\nThirteen months from April 6, 1917, the day the United States Congress declared war on Germany.\n3\nStable police is a euphemistic military term for mucking out stables. Mounted drill practiced setting\nthe gun up.\n4\nPay per month was $15 for a private, $21 for a corporal, $30 for a sergeant, $45 for a top sergeant,\n$142 for a Second Lieutenant. Then came various voluntary and involuntary contributions, along with disciplinary\nfines.\n3\nThen came the order that we would entrain at 9 o'c the next morning.\nThere was much hilarity that night and no one slept a good sleep.\nThe next morning brot the order to roll rolls. 5 When we boarded the\ntrain some men had most everything but bird cages and umbrellas. There\nwere a few Lawton friends there to bid us \"bon voyage. 116 We were\nunfortunate in not having Pullman cars as many other troops had, but we\nmade the best of it until we were given Pullmans at St.Louis. We traveled\nlike kings from there to New York.⁷\nThe people of the East gave us a much greater reception than the\npeople of the Central West. It may be attributed to the fact that the war\nwork had made a greater impression on their minds. They all seemed to\nturn out for us even whistles blew as if to say, \"We are with you. \"8\nWe arrived in New York the morning of the 16th of May. We were\nmarched, full pack to a ferry that was waiting for us. After boarding the\nferry we were held in the East River for about six hours waiting to put in at\nthe L.I.Ry station. After landing we boarded the train and stopped at\nRUMAN\nHARRY\n\"NATIONAL\nARCHIVES&\nRECORDS\nLIBRARY\nADMIN.\"\nus\nGOVERNMENT\n5\nRolls were made up of two blankets, and a rubber slicker rolled over a winter coat and personal gear\nrolled up into a sausage shape and tied with strings. The roll was then fitted over the backpack. If no backpack\nwas worn, then crossways over the shoulder. Sic : with the Model. 1910 haversack, the \"Roll\" was carried\nvertically 6 and secured at the bo Hom by the pack carrier.\nIn 1917, Lawton, Oklahoma was the nearest town to Fort Sill. Lawton, the last of the Oklahoma land\nauction towns, sprang up almost overnight. It was said, that of the first one hundred structures, eighty five were\neither saloons or whorehouses.\n7\nPullman cars are railroad cars that can be converted from day coach to sleeping cars.\n8\nAt the United States entry into World War One, Americans of Germanic origin, having one or more\nforeign born parentcomprised over fifty percent of the population of the United States. The German-Americans\nwere concentratedin the midwest. While extremely loyal to the United States, they were not inclined to support\nGermany's two traditional enemies, France and England. It is not surprising that the sendoff from Oklahoma\nmight have been muted. Nevertheless almost all German-Americans served loyally and often with great\ndistinction. In France, many Germans were surprised to find Americans speaking fluent German and often with\nperfect regional accents.\n4\nGarden City where we hiked on to Camp Mills. 9 It was here where we were\ngiven complete outfits and our steel helmets. 10 We were all given passes to\nthe city which were enjoyed immensly by all of us. Many took nightly leaves\nfor nearby towns.\nOn the 16th Frank Spina, our battery barber, and myself met his sister\nand family outside the camp gates, and there we took a taxi to Astoria, L.I.\nto their home. 11 We enjoyed a good Italian dinner and wine. Afterwards the\nevening was well spent with singing, dancing and drinking along with ice\ncream and chocolates. Their hospitality was greatly appreciated. During our\nstay at Camp Mills, Col. Klemm was undergoing a severe questioning by the\nWar Department representatives, evidently considering his loyalty to the\n12\ncause\nHARR\n\"NATIONAL\nARCHIVES&\nRECORDS\nADMIN.\"\nUS.\nGOVERNMENT\n9\nThe arrival was at Pennsylvania Station on the West side of Manhattan at 34th street. In 1917 only\ntwo railroad lines came into Manhattan, both to Pennsylvania Station. The hike would be down 34th street to\nthe East River docks. A major shopping street, 34th street was always crowded. It is not surprising they received\na typical New York welcome during the two mile hike. After docking in Brooklyn, there was a one mile hike to\nthe Long Island Railroad terminus at Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. Garden City on Long Island is an affluent\nbedroom community for New York City. Camp Mills was located in Garden City, on a large undeveloped tract\nof land, it had a favorable location and nearness to New York City along with a good railroad system and an\nabundant water supply. The first troops arrived a month after it was selected, and no permanent structures had\nbeen constructed. Originally a tent camp, it was to cold for troops to winter in. It was deactivated for the Winter\nand reactivated in the spring of 1918. It was turned into a full fledged embarkation camp with permanent\nfacilities. It served as a demobilization camp at the end of the war. The camp could accommodate 50,000troops\nand had 838 buildings of which 398 were barracks. The camp hospital had 2500 beds. Camp Merritt in New\nJersey was the other embarkation camp.\n10\nSteel helmets of British design were a belated introduction into the combat wardrobe of the United\npeak\nStates Army. The steel helmets undoubtly saved many lives. The Smokey Bear' campaign hat although generally\nusless except for parade grounds show, was standard issue along with the \"Tin Hat\" to Marines and Doughboys\nup until World War Two. The \"Overseas Cap\" became the World War One headpiece of choice because it could\nbe worn under the helmet as padding and it kept the head warm, and could be easily folded and carried pocket. ina\n11\nThis taxi ride must have cost a healthy taxi bill. Astoria is located in Queens, a borough of New\nYork City. Astoria is a long way from Mineola.\n12\nColonel Karl Klemm, a West Pointer, left the Army to marry well. He continued to be active in\nthe National Guard. Most likely he was being questioned to determine his physical and professional fitness to\nserve in France. General Pershing had scant use for National Guard officers and the feeling was reciprocated.\nRegardless of his emotional problems in France, he performed well as Commander of the 129th Artillery\nRegiment. Tragically he committed suicide in 1924.\n5\nOn the morning of May 20 we boarded the H.M.S. Saxonia, a ship of\n17,000 tons 13 Our entry at the port was highly commented upon by the\nofficals in charge as our papers were made out correctly and men were\nentered without a hitch. I being 1st Sergeant was given a stateroom with 2nd\nclass meals. 14\nWith a few other ships we put to sea that evening and had\nan uneventual trip for two days when we put in Halifax at 8 o'clock on the\nmorning of May 23. There we took on coal and water and plans were made\nfor boat drills in which several trials were actually made. It was here that we\nmet the convoy and the ships that were to make up our fleet, seventeen in\nall. 15\nOn the morning of the 24th the fleet set sail. The sea was smooth and\ngave even the softest landlubber no trouble at all. The daily exercise and\nboat drill had its place in each day. The meals were strictly English, being\nsteam cooked and without seasoning, much to the disgust, of a well fed\nAmerican soldier. There must have been an over production of mutton\nsomewhere as we had ram, lamb, sheep and mutton most every day and in\nTRUMAN\n\"NATIONAL\nRECORDS\nLIBRARY\nADMIN.\"\nGOVERNMENT\n13\nThe Saxonia was built in 1900 for the Cunard Line, by John Brown and Company, Clydebank,\nGlasgow, Scotland. Deadweight tonnage was 14,179.It was 580 feet long and 64 feet wide. With twin screws, and\na single funnel, it could make sixteen knots. It had accommodations for 160 first class, 200 second class and 1600\nthird class passengers.\n14\nSergeant Chaney had been in the National Guard slightly over a year at this time. His actual rank\nwas sergeant (a three striper). Even with accelerated promotions from the expanding Army, his rank speaks\nhighly of his military ability. In the old Army it would have taken many years to attain that grade. He is called\n\"First Sergeant\" because he is the first among equals in the battery. The \"First Sergeant\" is selected by the battery\ncommander and serves at the discretion of the battery commander. There is an oddity here, Sergeant Chaney's\nwarrent as a sergeant was signed on February 27, 1919 at Rosiers, France but was his promotion was effective\nDecember 1, 1917. Sergeant Chaney states he enlisted on June 3, 1917. This would be mean a series of three\npromotions over a period of six months. Not a possible scenario. A more likely one is that Sergeant Chaney was\nNational Guard and held rank prior to being \"Federalized\" and considers being an enlistment as an oath had\nto be taken when \"federalized.\"\n15\nOver sixty percent of the United States troops and other personnel arriving in Europe did so on\nBritish vessels. In most cases the vessels were chartered passenger vessels manned by civilian crews. Except for\nthe very fast vessels, most ships traveled in convoys. The British and United States fleets could provide better\nprotection to convoys.\n6\nmost every form that it could possibly be served. Along with that we were\nhonored with rabbit, frozen in 1911 from Australia. 16\nOur trip was uneventful until the afternoon of June 2nd about four\nthirty, when a submarine made an appearance to our right rear. I was\nstanding on a raft, on the starboard, and had a good view of the counter\noperations. Three blasts of a whistle and all the ships did a left flank and\nthe destroyers made a dash to the rear dropping depth bombs bringing oil\nto the surface. But it was uncertain whether or not a hit was made. 17\nThe concussions caused by the depth charger caused the ships to\ntremble all over and one could feel the quiver and plainly hear the rattling\nof the steel plates of the ship. The men of our Regiment were very curious\nand all scrambled for a ringside view, much to the astonishment of the\nEnglish sailors manning the ship. 18\nAt about seven o'clock the same evening three more submarines made\nappearance, close in, on our right front. Again blasts from our flagship and\nthe rumbling of machinery turning the ship could be heard, and the ships\nbegan a zigzag course. This was immediately followed by the boom of guns,\nrumbling of the ship caused by explosions. The destroyers lost no time in\nTHARK GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES& RECORDS \"NATIONAL ADMIN.\"\n16\nThe rabbit frozen in 1911 and the chicken in the egg story has made just about every reference\nsource read by the editor. There must have been one hell of a rabbit hunt that year in Australia. However, there\nis no reason to doubt the accuracy of the references.\n17\nDepth charges were nothing more than 300 pounds of dynamite in a drum having a water pressure\nsensitive fuse. The rudimentary delivery equipment then in use did not permit powered ejection of the drum.\nThe defending ships crisscrossed the suspected area rolling the drums off the stern of the ship. The oil slick trick\nwas standard practice when attempting to convince the surface ships that the submarine had been damaged or\ndestroyed.\n18\nSergeant Chaney's regiment was the 129th Field Artillery Regiment, 60th Artillery Brigade, of the\n35th National Guard Infantry Division. The 35th Division was formed from National Guard units from Kansas\nand Missouri and filled out with volunteers. In France, the division was kept up to strength by National Army\nreplacements. National Army troops were draftees.\n7\ngetting to the spot getting all three of them. There was something like forty\nfive charges dropped altogether. 19\nThe ship was messing at the time and everyone must have his ringside\nseat, so then came the scramble. I had just finished mess and was leaning\nover the forward rail so had a good view of the quick manouver. Behind me\ncame a rush of feet and some one bawled down the hatch, \"Come on\nChawps, we're 'it. \"turning around I saw a deck hand with three life\npreservers on. The ships cooks left their posts for a dash to the deck.\nA few men, that were waiting to be fed, stayed down and they stole\nenough grub for a dozen men. The cooks returned all red under the ears,\ncalling us \"bloody Americans\" that wouldn't give a damn if the boat did sink,\nand they would stay on it to get a good feed before it went down. Then the\nsteward got sore and couldn't resist the temptation to cut loose, so he says\n\"I have fed Chinks, Canadians, English and Australians but I never seen\nsuch bloody chawps' as you\" I've seen 'em pray and wring their hands, but\nyou fellows either block our way or get a front seat and the ones that don't\ngo up steal all my grub.\" You chawps don't know what it is to get 'it.\"\n( ARCHIVES& \"NATIONAL LIBRARY\nDMIN:\nVERNMENT\nThere came a day when, the way the grub was put out, was taken up\nwith the C.O's for improvement if possible. Col. Rumbolt was in favor of\ntaking it up with the C.O. of the ship, but Col. Klemm said it was good\nenough for his men and remarked that they could \"take it or leave it.\" Day\nafter day there were words between the 2nd Steward and the men. Until\n19\nIn 1917 the submarine was still a primitive weapon. It usually tracked, attacked and escaped on the\nsurface. The low dark silhouette made it difficult to spot with a moderate sea running. The submarine could,\nbecause of battery life and oxygen limitations, hide only briefly under the sea. The underwater detection devices\nof the era were crude and unreliable and often hiding was enough. The standard German practice was to attack\nwith deck guns to conserve torpedoes. By July 1917, German submarines had sunk 1400 ships. The editor can\nfind no reference to substantiate Sergeant Chaney's statement of three submarines being sunk that day. Three\nsubmarines sunk in one day is a lot of submarines. An event of this magnitude would surely have elicited some\ninterest.\n8\none day they had boiled eggs for the men and many were not boiled soon\nenough they had chickens in them. Some one took his to the Steward and\nwanted some more and was refused and was given for an answer that he fed\n3600 chinees on his last trip and \"they didn't sqwak\" the Steward had stew\nand rotten eggs shoved in his face as a result. Conditions improved from\nthen on.\nOn the morning of June 3rd we were escorted by seaplanes and\ndirigibles, and entered the Thames River on the morning of the fourth. (one\nyear from the date of my enlistment). 20 After laying over we disembarked on\nthe morning of the fifth and entrained for Winchester, leaving Tillbery\ndocks about 9 o'c.\nWe arrived in a rest camp near Winchester and were put up in billets\nthat were formerly used by the British troops. This camp was a model of\ncleanliness. We were fed up on cheese, bacon and bread, this being English\ncamp rations and as a result we were bound up for two weeks from eating\nso much cheese. After having spent 48 hours confinement in this place we\nentrained for Southhampton, a port on the channel. We spent the day\nloafing around the docks and watching the gulls and jellyfish. Out toward\nthe channel we could see half sunken ships that had evidently been towed in\nto save them. It was about eight o'c that night when we boarded a good\nlooking ship with lines that spelled speed. Her name was Viper and she\nlooked the part for she made twenty five knots an hour. It was not a large\nship for, only being a channel boat, she had no sleeping quarters, as the men\nNATIONAL\nwere packed on like sardines. 21 We soon pulled out for France and we had\nARCHIVES&\nRECORDS\nADMIN\nGOVERNMENT\n20\nThat date would be June 4, 1917. The United States Congress declared war on Germany April 6,\n1917.\n21\nChannel boats plied the English Channel moving people and goods to other ports on the channel.\nIf the Viper could make twenty five knots (29 MPH) fully loaded, it was a fast boat indeed.\n9\nplenty of escorts as small fishing boats and destroyers hovered around us all\nnight.\nIt was one miserable night, as we were forbidden to go below deck\nand it soon turned cold once we cleared of the shore. Men began to unroll\ntheir rolls and make their bunks any where they found room enough to\nstretch out. For my part I curled up around the smoke stack and rested my\nweary bones on an iron grating about six feet above the deck, which served\nas an opening to the engine room. Well! It was a case of roast on one side\nand freeze on the other, and believe me I wasn't much black by morning,\nbut at that it was better than standing up.\nAt daybreak we found ourselves in La Harve. 22 We hiked at once to a\nrest camp, which we named Cinder Camp. This camp is made entirely of\ncinders and was the dirtiest clean place we have ever been in. We had\nEnglish rations again with an occasional \"cup o'ta\" to go with our cheese.\nHere we came on contact with many British troops who had been at the\nfront. From all appearances the moral of the British troops were very low.\nThey told us we didn't know what we were going up against, well! we didn't\nthink we were going to a banquet. 23\nAfter a few days in camp all the non-coms were given a pass to visit\nLa Harve. We went in a bunch and had a very good time winding up with a\nbig dinner at a hotel. Lt. Younger was the officer in charge, and we\nGOVERNMENT ARCHIVES & NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN.\" ABRARY\n22\nGeneral Pershing selected ports providing easy access to the American sector. This was done to\npreclude tieing up of the roads, docks and railroads in the French and British sectors. Troops coming from\nEngland would disembark at La Harve after a short trip. This avoided the longer exposure to submarines that\na trip to the American sector ports would entail.\n23\nThe British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had been fighting a dead end war since 1914. The British\nTommy had been fighting some of the most murderous battles he had ever been engaged in. The battle of the\nSomme had cost the British 60,000 casualties on the first day alone. When the battle finally trailed off, the\ncasualty list was over 500,000. The Tommy had every reason to be dispirited. Nevertheless, he was a skillful,\nresourceful, tough and stubborn fighter.\n10\narranged for a good meal. They served all the beer we could drink and it\nsure tasted good not having even a drink of water for several hours. We\nlater had much fun riding on the street cars and trying to tell the\n\"conductess\" how many of us there were.\nOn June 12 th we received orders to entrain for \"somewhere In the\ninterior.\" We loaded on box cars, not half as large as American cars, and it\nwas marked on the side of the car, \"Hommes 40\" Cheval 8\" 24 It seemed\nstrange that we should be shipped like horses but we had a lot to learn\nabout transportation of troops. In the car I was in we had forty five and it\nwas hardly enough room to stand, but we \"stood\" for it for twenty four\nhours, finally arriving at Angers at about 12 o'c p.m. 25 Everything was pitch\ndark where we got off. We were finally assembled and given \"left face\"\n\"forward\" \"march\". We hiked and rested, alternating until it was about three\nthirty in the morning. Still from all I could find out we didn't even know\nwhere we were going, just merely trying to find some place to sleep.\nAt last we found an old bowling alley that was marked \"hommes\" 150.\nWe didn't need and invitation to sleep, as most of us just \"flopped\" without\nblankets. Morning found us about eight kilos out of Angers. In which we\nstayed until July 5th. During our stay here, the position of 1st Sergeant\nbecame almost unbearable and resulted in my resigning. Sgt. Bowman was\nthe unfortunate being my successor. This was on June 15th. On July 1st, Sgt.\nBowman resigned. Our Commanding Officer Capt. Thatcher, then had a\nHARRY U.S. GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES& TRUMAN \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN. LIBRARI\n24\nThe signs indicated the freight car capacity was forty men or eight horses. Most of the French railroad\nsystem was built to the standard 4 foot, 8 1/2 inch gauge as are United States railroads. Distances in Europe are\nrelatively short. There is a fine canal system that carries a large percentage of freight. European railroads were\nnot built for heavy duty, long range hauling as in the United States. Some countries varied their track widths\nas a national defense policy. Russia and Germany are prime examples.\n25\nAngers is a fair sized city in Brittany Province. Artillery officers and non-coms were sent to Heavy\nArtillery School for blackboard work and gun handling training.\n11\nSergeant from Batt. \"B\" transferred and was made 1st Sgt. He was small in\nstature and had a very sarcastic voice.²⁶\nIt was here we drew about thirty horses, French harness and our\nFrench 75's. Along with the guns we had a French Sergeant Instructor. In\nabout a week of intensive training of cannoneers and about two weeks in a\nspecial school for noncoms, we became very efficient with this gun. 27 About\nnine o-clock p.m. of July 6th we received orders to entrain for Camp\nCoctquidan.28 There were many men on pass in Angers and there was a\ngreat deal of work to get ready in time. Ammunition truck trains came for\nus about eleven o'clock to take the equipment and guns. I was put in charge\nof loading the guns. We got them there after having run one gun over an\nembankment as a result of a broken tongue in the limber. 29I was up all night\nloading and directing the unloading of other equipment from the trucks. I\nwas everything from stevadore to traffic cop, that night.\nWe left Angers the morning of the seventh and arrived there the next\nday. Where we spent six weeks of intensive training in actual firing, on the\nHARRY U.S. GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES& RECORDS \"NATIONAL ADMIN.\"\nrange, using both direct and indirect fire. We also had some experiences in\n\"\n'The PrzzyD\nthe\n26\nLieutenant Harry S. Truman was promoted to Captain and commander of Battery \"D\"/on July\n11, 1918. Captain Thacher was promoted to Major and then commanded a battalion. Captain Truman identifies\nthe new 1st Sergeant as a Sergeant Wooldridge. We shall hear more of Sergeant Wooldridge.\n27\nThe French 75mm quickfiring, recoilless mobile field gun was the backbone of the French artillery\ncorps. The French \"75\"was the first and finest of its type. The editor saw it still being used in 1990 and it will\nprobably be in use in the twenty first century. France manufactured over 18,000 of the 75mm field gun and\nequipped the Italian and American field artillery corps.\n28\nLocated southwest of Rennes in Brittany Province, this camp dates from Napoleon's time. It was\nthe permanent headquarters of Napoleon's artilley corps. It is still in use as a permanent artillery post of the\nFrench Army.\n29\nlimber\npole\nThe limber is the horsedrawn two wheeled vehicle the gun trail is attached to for moving the gun.\nThe tongue is the center pole running fore and aft. The crosswise section poles are attached to the tongue. The harness of the\nhorses are hitched to the section poles. is a Hached to the Neck Yoke\" at the front of the limber pole\nand to \"single trees\" that are in turn, Litached to the \"double tree\" at the base of\nthe limber pole.\n12\nbarrages. 30 Until one day Gen. Pershing came to inspect the firing of the\nBrigade, as a whole. 31 He observed from an observation balloon. When\nfinished we received the order to turn in all ammunition, much to our\nsurprise. We knew then we were bound for the front.\nThe order came a few days later to prepare to entrain. It was August\n16th we packed up, harnessed and hitched and pulled out for Gare a\nrailroad station about 5 kilos distance. We were at the loading platform at\ndaylight. We waited about three hours for the trains. 32 Each battery had its\nown trains of about thirty cars. From the time we started loading it was 48\nminutes when we had finished loading guns, caissons, horses, other material\nand men. We were given credit of breaking the record in loading a battery. 33\nOn Sunday August 18h we arrived at a beautiful little town named\nSalzures. It was located in a valley in the Vosges Mts. A clear water stream\nflowed thru the town making it very picturesque with its rocky bed and\ngreen meadows on either side. It was only a few days stay in Salzures until\nHARRY GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES& \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN.\" LIBRARI\n30\nThere are four \"basic\" types of barrages. The \"rolling\" '(creeping) preceded the attack by 150 yards\nand softened up the area for ten minutes then moved up to the next preplanned area. The \"box \"laid a three sided\ncurtain on the area to be raided and covered the withdrawal in the same manner. The \"protective\" was intended\nto protect the trenches by making the attacker launch his attack through a curtain of artillery fire. The \"counter\"\nwas directed at assembly points, supply depots and other areas in an attempt to disrupt or abort an impending\nattack. Indirect fire is the technique of firing on a position not visible to the gunner. The gunner gets his firing\ndata second hand from ground or air observers or preregistration.\n31\nJohn William \"Black Jack\" Pershing was the Commanding General of the American Expeditionary\nForces to France. When war was declared he was the Commanding General of the Southern Department of the\nArmy. He was selected over several senior Generals deemed to old or sick to command in France. His nickname\nwas actually \"Nigger Jack\" and was given to him when he was the commanding officer of the 10th United States\nCavalry. The 10th was a famous, hard fighting, hard drinking, Negro frontier regiment known as the \"Buffalo\nSoldiers.\" The Indians gave the troopers the name because of the buffalo skin coats they wore during Winter\ncampaigns.\n32\nThe translation of the French Gare to English is \"station.\" Sergeant Chaney obviously mistook a\nsign signifing a railroad station as a village name.\n33\nA caisson is an ammunition wagon for a gun. A caisson has its own horses and drivers. The drivers\noften act as loaders.\n13\nwe were ordered to move to the front. 34 With about 105 horses, firing\nbattery and five American caissons we pulled over a chain of mountains to\nKruth, a small village about eight kilos back from the lines and lying in\ndeep narrow valley. The trip was made at night and full pack, with all men\non foot except chiefs of sections and drivers. 35\nArriving in Kruth in the early morning, men dead tired from the all\nnight hike, we had some difficulty in locating a suitable place for our picket\nlines. 36 This was a first sign of incompetancy of our 1st Sgt. as he kept us\nwaiting on the road holding our horses for two hours after locating a place\nfor the horses. Daylight found horses tied to a picket rope, stallions fighting\nalong side mares, harness thrown back of the horses with men flopped near\nthem, most anyway to get a bit of sleep. It was necessary to have a guard\non the stallions to keep them from fighting. So, rather than have some of\nmy men stand guard that had hiked all the way, I stood it myself. Along\nwith the discomfort it had to rain, but the men slept on regardless.\nIt was noon before breakfast was ready, when the men were awakened\nand fed a scanty breakfast, hastily prepared. After breakfast came the work\nof grooming, feeding and watering of the horses. After which a suitable\nspot was found to pitch pup tents. Then came a good nights sleep. It was\nHARRISTA HARRY U.S. GOVERNMENT TRUMAN ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN.\" & LIBRARY\n34\nThe editor has been unable to locate this town or village. Saulxures fits the description, and locality.\nRecords of the 60th Artillery Brigade show the brigade had rested in Saulxures before moving into the line.\n35\nThe Vosges Mountains are a chain of big hills running roughly North-South in Alsace Province.\nKruth, as can be noted from the spelling, was not always a French town. A battery is usually four artillery pieces,\noccasionally six pieces, ammunition caissons, water tank, kitchen and other supporting elements. The AEF with\nwas almost totally supplied with artillery by the French. There was less than one hundred American made\nartillery pieces in France. The fact that the his battery had American caissons was unusual, but handy. An\nAmerican caisson carried one hundred rounds to the French caisson's eighty. A section is one gun and support\nstructure. The limber driver and a driver on each left horse and the sergeant in charge of the gun (section chief)\ncould ride.\n36\nKruth became the command post of the 35th Division during the period it was in the Vosges sector.\nPicket lines are ropes staked to the ground, strung between trees or posts and to which the mules or horses are\ntied to.\n14\nhere we found ourselves in German territory, Alsace-Lorraine.\" Many good\nmeals of eggs, fried potatoes, tomatoes, bread, butter and beer were bot and\npaid for at various little cafes, thruout Kruth.\nOur stay here lasted only two days when we got orders\nthat we would take up a position before the next dawn. We drew\nammunition and loaded up two days rations and began our long alnight hike\nover the mountain to the front. It was a long and tiresome hike with many\nrests. 38 It was on our way up that Chas. Burdge, one of my cannoneers, was\npushing on the piece limber, when his foot slipped and caused the piece to\nrun over his legs and arm. I was walking beside him when he fell, and it was\npitch dark, it seemed as tho I could see it run over him the entire length of\nhis body. The grade was steep, I yelled to stop, and he was pulled out and\nput on a wagon and sent back to camp and later sent to the base hospital.\nHe had only a few bruises.\nWe pulled over the crest of the mountain in view of the lines, had it\nbeen daylight they would have made us good targets! We went into position\nin the edge of the woods lying just far enough below the crest for a flash\ndefiliade. It was a new place and we were safe as long as we stayed under\nTRUMAN\ncover and did no firing. 39 The day after our arrival here we spent the\nHARRY U.S. GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES& \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN.\" LIBRARY\n37\nAlsace and Lorraine are historic provinces and the source of much friction and several wars\nbetween Germany and France. Germany controlled both at the outbreak of World War One. France was forced\nto give them up after losing the Franco-Prussian Warof 1870. France never forgot this insult and recovery of\nAlsace- Lorraine became a national fixtation and a major cause of World War One. The French War Plan XVII\ndirected an all out attack into Alsace-Lorraine and almost cost them the war. The Germans, following a modified\nSchlieffen Plan and attacked through the lowlands of Belgium while conducting a holding action Alsace-Lorraine\narea.\n38\nThe mountain was Mount Herrenberg in Alsace. The 35th Division moved into a quiet sector of the\nline for indoctrination and training in the rigors of trench warfare from French veterans.\n39\nA flash defilade required the gun be placed in a position that would hide or diffuse the gun flash\nwhen fired. If the flash was obvious it could be ranged on by the enemy guns. A new place was a position not\npreviously used by anyone. The Germans would have the coordinates of a position that was previously used as\na position by either the French or themselves.\n15\nforenoon sleeping. We had a detail to carry our rations up from the foot of\na steep hill and shortly afterward had a delightful breakfast of cold salmon,\ncoffee and three pieces of hard tack. No doubt a very wholesome breakfast\nfor a husky hiking soldiers.⁴⁰\nAll the afternoon and next day was spent in pitching our pup tents\nand camouflaging them from airplane view. Then came the job of laying the\nbattery and digging trail pits providing an elevation of 27° and 39 with a\nsweep of 900 mils. 41 Well we soon had a place big enough to burry (sic) a\ndozen horses and it looked like an anti-aircraft battery. Every thing was\ndone with the intentions of having gun pits and dugouts connecting. Work\nwas soon started on the dugouts.\nAll the paths were wired so as to not make new paths as anything new\nlike that is recorded in a photograph from an aeroplane and might result in\na searching out fire by the Huns. We had a great deal of trouble getting\nrations as they all came over the cable tramway and the Huns made this a\nspecial target, so many a feed was put off on that account. 42 But not minding\nthe short feeds we kept on working with our dugouts and wearing our gas\nHARR) U.S. GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES& TRUMAN \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN.\" LIBRARY\n40 No doubt this was intended as a sarcastic remark. But is it really? Compared to Sergeant Chaney's\nprevious description of \"feeds\" it sounds quite edible. It maybe difficult to believe, but canned salmon was a staple\nin the doughboy's limited menu choices.\n\"goldfish\"\n41\nLaying the battery refers to leveling and adjusting the guns for proper deflection and elevation to\ncover the section of the sector the gun was assigned. The 75mm is designed as a field gun. One of its\nshortcomings in trench warfare, was that it had a single trailpiece limiting tube elevation to 19°. It was designed\nfor mobile warfare and for killing personnel, not battering or plunging fire. It was not designed as a howitzer and\nwas not heavy enough for that work. A partial fix to the lack of elevation, was to dig a hole with the wheels\noutside of the hole and the trailpiece in the hole. This neat little trick raised the muzzle elevation considerably.\nA ramp would serve the purpose also, although not as effectively. Elevation is the number of degrees the tube\nof the gun is above the horizon. Elevation is measured by a gunner's quadrant. One mil in artillery parlance is\n1/6400 of the circumference of a circle. Called the traverse, it is the angle the covered by the gun in a horizontal\nplane. 900 mil is roughly 50°.\n42\nStandard practice was to string telephone lines along trench walls, underground and in any way\npossible to keep them from being spotted by a German aeroplane. Searching out fire was random firing that\nattempted to located areas of troop buildup, supply dumps and concentration points. Any reaction by the\ndefenders brought in a heavy barrage of artillery fire. Sic: believe Chaney is talking about\nthe commonly used method of marking the paths so that troops would stay\non existing pathways.\n16\nmasks an hour each day for \"practice\". Any man caught breaking the\ncamouflage rules or showing an indisposition to work was sent back to\nKruth and was put to sweeping the streets of the village. Not many were\nsent back. 43\nOnly a few days here with a good order of discipline and hard\nwork until one night about nine o'clock brot an order for the chiefs of\nsections to report to the Captain at the kitchen, which was about a quarter\ndown hill. We felt something was doing and didn't miss it far. The Captain\nsays \"Take your men to the guns and get things ready to move as we are\ngoing to move up to another position and do some shooting tomorrow\nnight\". We were to get the guns out of the woods so as to limber up, but our\ntents and kitchen were to stay as we were coming back. 44\nThe limbers came up about one a.m. and we spent the rest of the\nnight hiking to our new fighting place. We took up a position down in a\nlow swampy place, about five hundred yards off the road. The 1st and 2nd\npieces were in the open, but were soon camouflaged. The second (sic) and\nthird pieces were put in old gun shelters more for weather and camouflage\nprotection than anything else. The guns all set shortly after daylight, limbers\ngone to the rear, we set in to laying the guns as to direction and elevation.\nUS GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES& TRUMAN \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN LIBRARY\n43\nEvery person, horse, mule and message dog in the AEF had a gas mask and woe to the person\ncaught without one. The punishment for being sent back from the line was, (much to the amusement of the\nvillagers) cleaning eons of horse manure from between the street cobblestones with spoons.\n44\nIt is infuriating to the editor that nowhere does Sergeant Chaney mention the name of his battery\ncommander. That captain happened to be Harry S. Truman. \"Captain Harry\" became 33rd President of the\nUnited States of America.\n17\nThe forenoon was spent in digging trail holes, for elevation, and\ncarrying 500 rounds of gas shells. 45 Much to our amusement the drivers and\nmen of the Supply Co. had some awful arguments about getting away from\nthere before the Germans spied them. At 7:45 we were to open fire and\ndrench them with gas, a weapon of their own invention, and something that\nhadn't been used on this front for nineteen months. 466\nWe were ready when the zero hour came. Chiefs of section with\nwatch, quadrant and firing schedule showing time, deflections, and\nelevations with number of rounds at each laying, flashlight for showing when\nbubbles were level, everything was set. 47\nWe had a French Officer with us that night and he with our battery\nofficers stood to the rear of our position. Then hell broke loose not only\nwhere we were but in the woods all around us spit out a flame that said \"we\nare with you\". It was good to look upon. Our firing went of without a hitch,\n125 rounds to the gun. At times our gun spit out as high as forty rounds in\nthree minutes and that is fast considering the gun was loaded and fired in\nthe dark, only the laying being checked by flashlight. The French officer\nremarked that we fired like French veterans. 48\nHARRY U.S. GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES TRUMAN \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN.\" & LIBRARY\n45\nGas shells for the 75mm weighed about 19 pounds, depending on the type of gas it contained. These\nparticular shells contained Chlorine gas.\n46\nWhen Verdun refused to fall and the British attacked at the Somme, the Germans shifted their\nmajor forces to the Somme sector. The Verdun and Vosges Mountain areas became quiet sectors. The French\nand Germans rotated their exhausted divisions through the sector for rest and refit. The French and Germans\nappreciated the sector and were very disconcerted when the brash Americans moved in looking for trouble. The\nexperienced and weary French and Germans veterans felt it was better to live and let live while you can. The\nFrench pulled out and the veteran German troops soon came calling on the American front.\n47\nA quadrant is a instrument having a bubble level to indicate when the fixed arm is level, and a\ndegree scale with a moveable arm to indicate the elevation of the gun tube. The bubbles were the spirit levels\n(similar to a carpenter's level) used to level the gun. If the gun was not level, all the calculations could be right\nbut the shell would not go where expected.\n48\nThe gun was officially rated at four to six rounds per minute. However, as Sergeant Chaney states,\nfive per second or thirteen per minute was very good. However, a really good gun crew could, when scared out\nof their wits, get up to twenty five rounds per minute for a limited time. Rate of fire was not the problem, cooling\nthe gun was.\n18\nAt the end of forty five minutes the guns were silent except one\nbattery who had to put up a barrage.⁴⁹ After fifteen minutes had elapsed,\nthe bore was cleaned and equipment in order for leaving. The limbers came\nup in due time but the 1st Sgt. had most everyone up in the air with his\nsquawking voice and as result the was some confusion in getting the right\nlimbers to the same guns as they pulled in. He didn't go out of the place the\nway we came in causing him to get stuck in the mud. 50 The 1st. Sgt. had no\nexecutive ability or leadership, just a nerve racking irritating way of telling\nsomeone to do something.\nThe horses having been on the go and working for thirty six hours\nwithout feed or water or rest, they were all in and were unable to pull the\ngun out even with the assistance of the men on the wheels. The second and\nfourth uns became stuck in this way. By this time the Huns were sending up\nflares and star shells illuminating every thing until it was light as day. These\ncontinued for some time. 51 Time flew fast and we were not moving.\nEveryone got pretty nervous. I was asked by the Captain, who had taken\ncharge, if I could get my section out. 52 I said yes, and I went out the way I\ncame in. With the men on the wheels, we got the gun up that steep dirt hill\nto the rock road. I was ordered to send the lead horses back to help on the\nothers. By this time the first section was on the road also in front of us, we\nTRUMAN\nHARRY\n\"NATIONAL\nARCHIVES&\nboth then waited for the others.\nRECORDS\nLISKARY\nADMIN.\"\nU.S.\nGOVERNMENT\n49\nThis barrage was to force the Germans to remain in their trenches and not launch a counterattack\nuntil all the guns could be removed.\n50\nIt is axiomatic that one should go out the way one came in. This is especially true at night.\n51\nStar shells come in many colors and release a shower of brilliant stars upon exploding. They are\nused for signaling and as flares.\n52\nThe Captain was Harry S. Truman. He describes the incident in several of his writings. Sergeant\nChaney was the section chief of number three gun in \"D\" battery.\n19\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. 54 The 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\nHARRID U.S. GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN.\" & LIBRARY\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.\n20\nhampered our getting away that was, it was pitch dark. 55 After about thirty\nminutes of shelling and they weren't coming so fast I mustered up enough\ncourage to get up and catch a pair of horses going by, driverless, and hold\nthem when one of our Lieutenants rode up and commanded to shoot the\nnext man that run.\nThe drivers soon showed up one by one and horses without drivers\nwere given to cannoneers. Many horses were without traces so I put to\nmaking traces out of halter ropes. As we had orders for the 1st and 3rd guns\nto move back to our old position we had to have traces for the harness so it\nwas the best that could be done. Then came another shower of shells, but\nthe men stuck, then came that racking sound of the gas horn from some\nother battery. We were ordered to put our masks on, but I kept on cutting\nand tying traces. The Leuit. asked if everyone had on his mask and I said\n\"yes\". A few minutes passed and the Leut. Jordan asked if I smelled any\ngas, I said \"no\". so off came his mask. I believed my assumptions, as to\nwhether, there was gas or not were correct so I left mine off, as I always did\nhate to wear it.\nWe finally had enough horses and traces for the two guns so we\npulled out. The fourth section having gotten out in the meantime followed\nus. A check was made on men and it was found the 1st Sgt. and one man\nwas unaccounted for. Shells continued to fall on the roads thruout the night\nand necessitated our stopping several times. It was a long and hard hike\nUS ARCHIVES& \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN VERNMENT\n55\nAs the war progressed, gas defense became more sophisticated, better gas attack warning devices\nwere developed on both sides. Originally, hammering on an empty artillery shell was the chosen method for\nalerting the troops. Later, air powered klaxon horns were the standard United States Army warning device. No\none could mistake the racking sound of a klaxon horn for any thing but a gas attack warning. When the United\nStates entered the war, several highly potent gases had been developed and were in use. Mustard, Chlorine and\nPhosgene used by both sides and usually delivered by artillery shells. Airborne gas had too many disadvantages\nand rapidly lost favor as an offensive weapon. Mustard gas, developed late in the war, is particularly disabling\nand persistent. It is heavier than air, highly toxic to exposed skin and able to penetrate most clothing. Rubberized\nprotective suits had been developed, but had not reached the front.\n21\ngoing back to our old position. I managed to ride an offlead horse and will\nsay I nearly fell off a hundred times. 56 Once I tried walking behind the guns\nbut would go to sleep walking, in spite of my efforts to keep awake. I would\nmake an effort to see something ahead and all I could make out was tall\noffice buildings and large residences. I knew then I was seeing things, optical\nillusions. I had often read of men dying of thirst, seeing rivers and lakes\nahead of them.\nIt was after 48 sleepless hours that we returned to our old position. 57\nWe slept all that day and had a big feed, bacon, gravy, bread and coffee, but\nnot near enough to satisfy our appetites. When rations came up that night\nthey brot the news that the 1st Sgt. and the one man we thot missing,\nturned up in echalon the morning after the shelling. As a result he was\nrelieved of his job and reduced to private. 58 The chief of the second section,\nalong with his cannoneers and drivers were sent back to get the gun that\nwas stuck. They brot back the news that three horses were killed and our\nposition was badly shot up, also that some other battery must have have had\nsome trouble in the darkness as a gun was run over an embankment. So\nended our first baptism of fire, a result of which every one benefited a great\ndeal. This battle was called by the battery, \"The Battle of Who Run. \"159\nHARRY U.S.C. ARCHIVES& ADMIN.\" RECORDS \"NATIONAL\nOVERNMENT\n56\nThe left forward horse is the lead horse, the offlead is the right forward horse. The horses in\nthe middle are the swing horses and the horses closest to the limber are the wheel horses.\nnot\nfind out what the center horses were called.\n57\nThe old position was on Mount Herrenberg. The battery had taken only its guns, ammunition\ncaissons and water tank into the firing position.\n58\nColonel Karl Klemm, the commanding officer of the 129th, insisted Captain Harry S. Truman\ncourt-martial Sergeant Wooldridge. Captain Truman was content to bust him to private and then transfer him\nto another battery. Ex Sergeant Wooldridge performed well for the remainder of the war.\n59\nCaptain Harry S. Truman describes this engagement in a very similar manner to Sergeant Chaney's\ndescription. \"The Battle of Who Run\" is an obvious pun on the Civil War battle of Bull Run. The Union Army\nwas defeated at Bull Run and left the field with unmilitary like alacrity.\n22\nThe second night after the battle we received orders to \"march order\"\nand the limbers would be up at twelve o'clock. It was a miserable night\nraining and pitch dark, no lights were allowed, and we had some difficulty\nmoving about thru the woods attending to this detail and that. The limbers\narrived in due time and we wound our way down the mountains slushing\nthru the mud and rain back to our echalon at Kruth. 60 It was at this time\nthat our horses began to show signs of breaking down, caused by endless\nhours of work, irregular feeding and not half enough of that. They began to\ngrow poor and showed a marked sign of weakening. We were in Kruth long\nenough to get a good two days rest when we left overland for \"somewhere\"\nto another front. 61\nWe left one morning at four o'clock taking the road going thru\nSalzures. It was on this hike that Col. Klemm became enraged at something\nand came riding along like a madman, yelling at the men for wearing caps\ninstead of helmets and jerking them from their heads and throwing them\ndown the mountain side. He threw a major's cap over and rode up to Maj.\nMiles and made a grab, for his, but Maj. Miles ducked, and remarked what\nthe hell was going on. A man in my section had an ingrown toenail and was\ntold to ride by Maj. Wilson, the Reg. Medical Officer, and I provided for\nhim to ride an offhorse. I explained the circumstances to the Captain and he\nsaid \"Yes it was all right\". Then came the Major and ask why the man was\nriding and of course he says alright. But along came the Col. and he saw the\nman riding and bawled out, \"Get off that horse\". An explanation was offered\nHARRY US GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES& TRUMAN \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN.\" (IBRAR)\n60\nKruth was the headquarters of the 35th Division while it was training with French divisions in\nAlsace.\n61\nGeneral Pershing was moving divisions out of the line toward the St. Mihiel salient. The first full\nscale American attack of the war was intended to reduce the St. Mihiel salient. However, the Germans were\nshortening their lines and abandoning the salient. Generalissimo Foch tried to persuade General Pershing to\nabandon the St. Mihiel attack and support a major French attack in the Meuse-Argonne sector northwest of St.\nMihiel. General Pershing refused. As a compromise he agreed to launch an all American attack in the Meuse-\nArgonne sector after reducing the St. Mihiel salient.\n23\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\nHARRY\n\"NATIONAL\narrived here about eight a.m. and had breakfast at 11 o'clock. 64 It was here\nARCHIVES &\nRECORDS\nLIBRARY\nADMIN.\"\nU.S.\nwe were entitled to a five days rest before taking up another position It was\nGOVERNMENT\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.\"\n24\nnecessary as the men and horses were badly in need of a rest. But at 4:30\nthis same day we were ordered to the front.\nWe left as scheduled. It was a down pouring rain that drenched us.\nThe French infantry were going to the rear and the roads were packed with\ntrucks and guns bound for the front. 65 We had some difficulty getting along\nas the right-of-way was questioned more than once. When we got it we\nmade it on the run. We went all the way, up hill and down, thru shell torn\nvillages and around corners. Until we came to a point where we could see\nthe flash of German guns and the railroading of the shells going overhead\nbound for some small villages we had passed thru or perhaps some cross\nroads.\n66 We wended our way around the base of a hill, thru mud to the\nhubs, to a patch of small trees. It was here that we backed our guns and\ncaissons into position, and camouflaged them. Then we went up on the side\nof of a hill and made our bed on the ground for a much needed sleep. All\nthe next day was spent in sleeping. We were almost to tired to eat, it\nwouldn't have done us much good to have been hungary as we had canary\nfeed most of the time anyway.\nNATIONAL\nHIVES&\nRECORDS\nADMIN.\"\nGOVERNMENT\n65\nThe Americans were relieving the French divisions. The Meuse-Argonne was to be an all American\nshow. However the French would supply artillery support and artillery pieces. All the guns were French made\nand half the gun crews were French. The 35th's sector was between the 28th National Guard division from\nPennsylvania on the left and the 91st National Army Division from the Northwest on the right. Both flanking\ndivisions were untried troops as was the 35th. The virtually impenetrable Argonne Forest to the left of the 28th\nwas the responsibility of the 77th National Army division from New York and New Jersey. The 35th was expected\nto attack up the Aire River valley flanked on left by the Argonne Forest and on the right by hills. Both occupied\nby German troops. The flanking divisions were expected to clear the high ground on the left and right.\n66\nThe chaos was poetically described by a participant as \"The roads were literally blocked, jammed\nand packed with men, caissons, limbers, trucks, field guns, heavy artillery, autos, ambulances, motorcycles, field\nkitchens, thousands of horses and mules and men fighting with them. Add to this two or three hundred tanks,\na night dark as Hades itself, and over all a drizzling rain creating a mud hole the likes of which the world has\nnever seen. You can imagine what an ungodly, tangled mess it was. However we eventual got into position on\ntime and \"layed\" the guns. I don't know how many guns were in the sector but I counted 64 in the immediate\narea of my battery. At 4:30 am they all opened up at the same time. Mother of God! I have never heard such\na hellish clamor. When the range limit was reached, we limbered up in a hell of a hurry and pushed forward and\nkept going until stopped by sheer exhaustion.\"\n25\nIt was the next day work was begun moving our pup tents down by the\nguns. The battery was layed and work begun on our trail pit, and digging a\ntrench for shelter against shellfire. We were assigned the mission of\nreducing barbed wire and then follow up with a creeping barrage. 67 For two\ndays there was constant aerial activity and German observation ballons\nmade it necessary to stay closely under cover. And for two nights they used\na \"searching out\" fire all thru the woods we were in, and at times they came\nwithin fifty yards of us. They must have suspicioned something going on but\ncouldn't locate it. 68 During the night hours we accumulated 3000 rounds of\nshells and like number of fuses. The woods all around us was fairly bristling\nwith guns. And all plans were made for a possible successful counter attack.\nOn the night of Sept. 25th all was set for a five hour barrage.\nOur time was set at 4:30 a.m. Sept. 26th. The night before, our doughboys\npassed our position and were on their way to go over at daylight the next\nmorning. They were enthusiastic and anxious to go, each saying that he\ndidn't have time to take any prisoners. 69 It was at 11 o'clock that night that\nthe firing started on our left. It was some sight. The flashes of hundreds of\nguns thru the darkness, that light up the horizon like a huge fire. The\nenemy's flares and star shells only added to its greatness. And as the hours\nwent past the flashes and roar became more distinct, as the line of fire was\nHARRY US GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES& \"NATIONAL TRUMAN RECORD LIBRARY\n67\nDestroying strung barbed wire, is at best a difficult process. Wire offered very little resistance to\nthe shock wave from the high explosive shells. It was difficult to blast holes or lanes in the belts of wire laid\nforward of the trenches. It was estimated 500 rounds from a 75mm could open a gap 15 feet wide and 30 feet\nlong. Huge quantities of shell was necessary to reduce adequate amounts of wire permitting an infantry attack.\nThe end result was always the same, the terrain was by then so tortured, blasted, cratered and slick with mud\nthat it was almost impossible to cross on foot, and of course all surprise was lost.\n68\nA \"searching out\" barrage is random firing in specific areas. The purpose is to probe for an enemy\nconcentrations or draw return fire. If successful in drawing a response, a full barrage is then laid down.\n69\nfour\nThe Doughboys were from the three infantry regiments of the 35th Division, Sergeant Chaney's\ndivision.\n26\nreaching our point. 70 At 2:30 we had a good feed then went to our guns to\nput the finishing touches to our guns and getting our equipment ready to\nmove forward when we had finished. Once more I had my quadrant, watch,\nflashlight and schedule at my fingers ends. It was a twenty phase barrage. It\nconsisted of changes in deflection and elevation and all must be put out, so\nmany shots a minute and at a certain deflection and elevation at a certain\ntime. We had short rest periods of ten minutes every thirty for cooling our\n71\ngun.\nAt 8:30 in the morning found us with 500 rounds to the gun having\nbeen fired and everything went of without a hitch. The officers were all well\npleased. The horses and limbers came up and we moved forward thru lines\nof roaring guns and wound our way thru the woods and over trenches until\nwe found our ourselves past the German's first line trenches. We passed\nhundreds of German prisoners and many wounded Americans being carried\nin by the prisoners.\nIt was at the crossing of a German trench that I saw a doughboy in\nthe trench looking over, its edge, with rifle in hand, evidently waiting for\nsomething to shoot at. It was only a few words he muttered that convinced\nme he was shellshocked and was not responsible for his being there. 72 We\ncould see a small town, shot to the ground, not far off. Machine guns with\nNATIONAL\nARCHIVES&\ntheir endless put-put-put-put. There were dozens of aeroplanes overhead\nRECORDS\nLIBRARY\nADMIN.\"\nU.S.\nGOVERNMENT\n70\nGeneral Pershing collected 2,700 artillery pieces to support the attack. Almost all of the guns were\nFrench made and half were manned by French artillery men.\n71\nEvery battery had a horse drawn water cart for the horses and mules. Under normal rates of fire,\nthe gun could cool itself if allowed 15 minutes out of 60. This time frame permitted 3 guns to be firing at all\ntimes. Under accelerated firing conditions it became necessary to cool the gun while firing. The generally adopted\nmethod was to use feed sacks soaked in water and laid over the breech area and kept soaked with water.\n72\nThe term \"shell shocked\" is now medically recognized as \"combat fatigue.\" Medically, it is a\ntraumatic psychoneurotic reaction or an acute psychotic reaction to extreme stress occurring under combat\nconditions. World War One was the first war in which this condition was recognized a legitimated war casualty.\n27\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.⁷⁵ 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\nRUMAN\nNATIONAL\nRCHIVES&\n\"stuck\" as tho there were nothing going on. Soon the Major ordered to\nRECORDS\nLIBRARY\nADMIN.\"\nunlimber and to take the horses to cover. One of my teams were coming\nGOVERNMENT\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.\n28\nsoon got another one in, a spare sectional pole we always carried. 76 A shell\npassed about ten feet over my head and burst about a hundred feet beyond\nme. That was enough for me I dismounted and led my horse as sitting up so\nhigh made too good a target.\nWhen darkness came we moved thru the ravine, putting ten and\ntwelve horses to the guns. 77 It was one o'clock when we stopped again and\nbacked our guns into some brush for the night. For the first time in 24\nhours we got some bread and butter. We were almost famished. It seemed\nas tho we would never catch up with our doughboys,78 they were going to\nfast for our worn out horses and men. We had up to this time killed by\noverwork, all but about forty horses, causing us to leave our combat train to\nthe rear. All individual mounts were put in the harness to help move the\nguns. All thru the night the rattle of machine guns and the screaming of\nshells could be heard, but we were to tired to mind that. 79 It was near here\nthat a friend of mine, Sgt. Shackleton was killed, making way for the tanks.\nAt five o'clock the next morning we pulled out to move forward.\nAfter moving around mined places in the road and pulling thru shell holes\nand mud holes we came upon a rock road, for which we were thankful, as\nthe horses were hardly able to wobble. 80 The ground we had covered so far,\n76\nA sectional poleVis \"Doubletree\" the cross piece between horses by which the pulling pressure is exerted.\nHARRY U.S. GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN LIBRARY\n77\nA United States Army field artillery piece was pulled by a six horse team.\n78\nIn reality the 35th's infantry was advancing very rapidly into a bad situation. The flanking divisions\nwere having trouble advancing, consequently both flanks of the 35th were in the \"air. \"The 35th would pay dearly\nfor ignoring the basic military tenet of keeping contact with flanking units.\n79\nThe 129th was trying to move its guns forward to support the 35th's infantry. At the same time it\nwas dueling with the German guns, fighting the mud, churned up terrain, lack of roads and extreme weariness\ncaused in large part by inadequate rest after the brutal trek from St. Mihiel.\n80\nSgt. Chaney is describing huge holes in the road made by German Minenwerfers or \"Minethrowers.\"\nThese were huge 25cm (9.5\") mortars. Land mines did not play a big part, if any in the war. Trip mines, pressure\nmines and more sophisticated mine devices were developed in future wars. One method of mining was by the\nuse of an electrically detonated artillery shell.\n29\nwas a scene of wrecked equipment, machine guns and rifles and signs of\nhundred of wounded men waiting for transfer to a dressing station.\nContinuous lines of wounded being carried to the rear. After traveling along\nthis rock road for about five minutes we stopped on account of the road\nbeing shelled just in front of us. Here we saw several small tanks that were\nshot up its operators wounded or killed. Men lying dead on both sides of\nthe road made a very depressing view. 81\nAgain we moved forward only to be stopped at a cross road, prior to\ncrossing a small bridge before going into Cheppy. Here seemed to be the\nso-called \"Knuckle of the Hindenberg line\" 82 There were countless machine\nguns lying, clips half used, hand grenades, mines, rifles and equipment. But\nhere was evidence of a one time strong point protecting the bridge\napproach. There were many of our men lying in the road blown to atoms\neither by shell or grenade.\nAt this point probably the greatest impression was made upon our minds as\nto what our infantry had gone thru. There I saw bodies without heads, some\nwithout arms or legs, some cut in two at the waist and parts lying several\nfeet apart. Here were officers and privates alike, having paid the price. 83\nAgain we moved forward thru Cheppy and toward Verrennes, where\nwe turned again toward the line. Our battery still leading the Regiment and\nHARRY U.S. GOVERNMENT TRUMAN ARCHIVES& \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN.\" LIORARY\n81\nCaptain Harry S. Truman describes this scene in his writings.\n82\nThe Hindenburg Line was three very strong trench lines running behind the forward trench line.\nHeavily reinforced with hardnened machine gun emplacements, concrete pillboxes and strong points and taking\nadvantage of every natural obstacle, the three lines were formidable indeed. The \"knuckle\" was where the lines\nstarted to converge in Alsace. The German trench system was so strong, that until after the Armistice, no foreign\nsoldier had set foot on German soil.\n83\nCaptain Harry S. Truman describes this scene in his writings.\n30\nBrigade we pulled into an old orchard and hastily prepared for work. 84 At\nthis time we were 3000 yards from the Hun. They occupied the valley in\nfront and the crest of the hills on both our flanks. 85 The wounded were still\ncoming by us and brot the news that the Hun was making a counter attack.\nIn the meantime the battery was layed and our Captain went forward with a\nunit of doughboys to direct our fire. 86 Communication was established.\nLater our communication was cut by a tank so we spent about three hours\nthere without firing a shot. We were soon in touch again with the lines. We\nopened fire on some batteries and silenced them and put up a barrage.\nAgain our wires were cut. Then came another wait.\nWhile we were waiting we amused ourselves by watching the Hunshoot back\nof us at the road we had just pulled off of and saw them give Verrennes and\nCheppy a severe shelling. Off in a distance we could see them shelling our\npacked roads, which were packed with men, ammunition and guns. We saw\none thing that held our attention for ten minutes, there was some heavier\nartillery pulling into position behind us. The Huns saw them and messed\nthings up for a while.8⁷\nHARRI ARCHIVES TRUMAN NATIONAL VMENT LIBRARY\nIt was nearing four o'clock and we had had nothing to eat since six\no'clock and our work around the guns making our position, created, for us,\nan enormous appetite. But no prospects of eating. However we continued to\n84\nCheppy and Verrennes were villages liberated by the 35th's infantry. The 129th moved through\nCheppy and then turned left towards the Argonne Forest, then turned right after passing through Verrennes. It\nthen moved back into the line.\n85\nThe 35th was still moving rapidly up the valley. The 77th and 28th were having real trouble in the\nArgonne Forest and the 91st was absorbing a beating from the Germans on the high ground on the right. The\n35th was receiving punishing artillery and machine gun fire from three sides. Casualties started to mount and the\ncommand structure falter.\n86\nCaptain Harry S. Truman describes this movement in his writings. \"Captain Harry\" as he was called\noften moved with the infantry to forward observation posts for better viewing.\n87\nThe area had been occupied by the Germans for several years and all the crossroads, landmarks\nand prominent features would have been preregistered to the millimeter. The guns behind Sgt. Chaney were\n155mm field guns, twice the size of the 75mm, they were more capable of destroying the pillboxes and\nfortifications than the 75mm.\n31\ncarry fuel for the guns, as the ammunition wasn't delivered to the guns. 88 We\nsoon accumulated several hundred rounds to the gun. During our wait here\nthere was marked aerial activity by both sides with the Boche planes and\nobservation balloons in view constantly. And at one time, when the valley\nseemed clear of Allied planes, a Boche ventured over to bomb some\nartillery, as it was massed to our rear, and seemed to make a roof over our\nheads. He flew around the valley opposite us and machine guns seemed to\nspit from every part of the valley. The machine guns would open up when\nhe came within their range. He flew over us at a height of about two\nhundred feet and opened up on us with his machine gun, they spat the dirt\naround us but, He being directly over us his machine gun shot at the wrong\nangle. However he dropped several gas bombs but did no damage. All\ntraffic that passed the place, where he dropped his gas, necessitated them\nwearing their mask.\nHARRI U.S. GOVERNMENT TRUMAN ARCHIVES& \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN.\" LIBRARY\nHe repeated the flights over us but evidently his purpose was other\nthan to destruct. He no doubt was getting the coordinates of artillery\npositions for their artillery headquarters. During his observation he opened\nup on our horses, which were on the road to our rear, killing about three\nhorses and wounding two. It was about this time we had a few men\nwounded while bringing up ammunition. One was my gunner, Corporal\nCoyle. 89 After the Boche plane went back to his own lines, that our Major\nthought it best for us to change our position. We did change, by only by 700\nyards. This time we took up a position right on a rock road. It was about\neleven o'clock that night we got something to eat, bread and rotten meat. It\n88\nShells and fuses were delivered by truck or a 60cm miniature railroad known as a \"two footer\" as\nclose as possible to the lines. Muscle power, animal and human, then moved the shells and fuses to the guns.\n89\nA gunner layed the gun. He was usually a specially trained corporal and was entitled to wear\na\nsmall cloth projectile emblem under his two stripes showing his special qualifications.\n32\nhad been on the way so long it had spoiled, it smelled so bad we couldn't\neat it. But the chunk of bread tasted good. 90\nWhen we had the guns layed, and trail pit dug and old \"Hungry\" layed\non \"Normal Barrage\" we thru our weary frames an a tarp for a bit of rest.\nBut a guard was kept on communications and each gun to get off the first\nshot, and us sleeping dressed just six feet from the gun we could be on the\njob in ten seconds. However our infantry had no cause to call on us to stop\na counter attack. 91\nThe next morning found us with the news that we were put in the orchard\nas a sacrifice battery during a counter attack upon our infantry. This, the\nthird day, found us somewhat in a very conspicuous place, on an open road\nwithout camouflage and our horses picketed just fifty yards to our rear. All\nday we fired on targets, mostly machine gun nests. artillery and stationary\nobservation towers. 92 From our position on the road could be seen a Boche\nobservation tower. We fired on it and thru the glasses we could plainly see\nsome Huns hurrying down the ladder. But some larger caliber gun beat us\nin wrecking it, making a direct hit on it.\nHARRYS U.S. TRUMAN ARCHIVES& \"NATIONAL GOVER RECORDS ADMIN.\" NMENT LIBRARY\n90\nThe meat was usually mutton. Supplied from an Abattoir far behind the lines. Usually, because of\nthe lack of refrigeration, it so slimy and rancid it could not even be used in stews. The canned corned beef from\nArgentina was so stringy and inedible it was called \"monkey meat.\" The canned corned and roast beef hash was\nby comparison superb. The canned salmon must have been a welcome treat. Sic: \"Goldfish\" was not too popular either\n91\nTypically, every gun had a given name. Laying for a normal barrage meant setting up the gun to\ncover its assigned sector in the battery sector. One man was always awake and at the telephone. Upon orders\nhe would fire and reload the gun. Awaked by the gun report, the gun crew would rush to man the gun.\n92\nThe Germans had issued orders to their machine gunners to fight as long as possible. This they\nwere doing with deadly determination and great stubbornness. The machine gunners were taking a grim toll of\nthe charging Doughboys and Marines. The use of obsolete tactics by the American command was to result in\nheavy casualties.\n33\nAt another time my gun alone, was called upon to shoot up a battery\nmoving out of position. 93 As one gun can be more readily adjusted than\nfour, I was lucky to be called upon for the job. After about three\nadjustments shots, word came over the phone to shoot as fast as we could,\nas every shot meant killing that many more huns. We fired about thirty\nrounds when the Captain phoned us that the job was finished. At such a\nmoment as this is when the \"75\" lives up to its reputation as a fast little\ngun. 94 During the day headquarters had information for us to have data\nmade for two barrages \"Eventual\" and \"Normal.\"\nSomeone from the Battery happened to have cause to be at our old\nposition in the orchard, and brot back the news that the position had been\nshelled during the night and in the exact place where the third section piece\nwas, was a hole large enough to bury three horses, no doubt the position\nwas shelled by \"210's\". 95\nNight brot us with more \"fuel\" which was brot right to the guns in trucks.\nAbout 1:30 the chiefs of sections were called to the Captains quarters, as he\nhad a new barrage for us. This necessitated all the cannoneers getting up to\ndig up some more rock road in order to give proper direction to the gun.⁹⁶\nARCHIVES& NATIONAL GOVERNMENT RUMAN RECORDS ADMIN.\" LIBRARY\n93\nCaptain Harry S. Truman writes about this. He had moved up to the forward observation post as\nhe usually did. He noticed a German battery changing position in the 28th division sector to his left. AEF\nstanding orders prohibited firing into another sector. He deemed the situation critical enough to disregard the\norder and used Sergeant Chaney's section fire to force the German battery to withdraw. Colonel Klemm\nthreatened him with a court-martial. The threatened court-martial never happened.\n94\nThe French, Model 1897, 75mm, quick firing, manually loaded, recoilless, field gun was by any\nstandard of the era a \"fast gun. The normal rate of fire (ROF), was four to six rounds a minute. A good gun\ncrew could routinely get off up to twenty five rounds per minute when under duress.\n95\nSergeant Chaney was the section chief for the third section gun. The German 210mm howitzer was\nthe workhorse artillery piece of the German Foo 1 Artillery\n96\nA new barrage meant that new trail holes had to be dug, and the guns layed to the new barrage\ncoordinates.\n34\nAfter going back to bed we had about another hours sleep, when the\ncall \"barrage\" came. We were on the job and were at it all day, firing about\nfive hundred rounds. It must have been this day that a counter attack was\nmade by the Hun as the doughboys remarked the next, day that it saved the\nday. They described it as being as if it was placed there by hand. They\ndescribed how the Huns fell back torn to pieces and in disorder. 97 Having\nfired most of the day (Oct 1st) we were very tired at night. We constructed\na shelter with our paulins and threw our blankets down for a bit of sleep.\nThat night it rained and we got soaked thru and the morning found us\nnearly frozen and laying in a puddle of water.\nBy sections we walked down to Cheppy to get breakfast. Still raining,\nwe plodded back to the guns feeling better for our wet night on the ground.\nWhen we returned, we found it necessary to bail the water out of the trail\npit before we could fire. It kept us busy most of the day keeping the water\ndown as it seemed as we caught all the water from the hill. During the day\nthe drivers took to scouting around in some trucks about seventy five yards\nto our rear and explored many dugouts. They made some good finds as they\nbrot back many German helmets, blankets, rifles and one officers helmet.\nThey all showed signs of being hastily evacuated. Further scouting found\nmany dead around the trench. There were some underground passage five\nhundred meters long with comfortable quarters far beneath the hill. 98 Today\nbrot the news that a whole German battery, guns, horses, men and all had\nTRUMAN\nbeen captured by our infantry and passed thru Cheppy going to the rear.\n\"NATIONAL\nHARRY\nARCHIVES&\nRECORDS\nLIBRARY\nADMIN.\"\n106\nARMENT\n97\nThe Germans were sorely pressed by the attacking Americans. They began to move divisions from\nquiet sectors to reinforce the Meuse-Argonne sector. Upon arrival at the Meuse-Argonne, these divisions went\nimmediately into counter attacks. Not familiar with the terrain or what their objectives were, they retreated in\ndisorder and confusion when in turn counter attacked by the Americans.\n98\nThis was a German Stollen. Constructed of thick ferro-reinforced concrete a Stollen was almost\nimpervious to all but a direct hit from a high caliber gun. The Stollen was 500 yards long, 40 feet deep and had\nexits every so many yards to enable the occupants to get to the front trenches rapidly. The Germans invariably\nconstructed Stollen when they had time. The Germans tried not to live like troglodytes and attempted to provide\nsome measure of comfort to their troops. The French, British and Americans had nothing similar.\n35\nAbout three hundred yards down the road from our position was a Hun\nbattery being operated by men of the 129th. It was fired as long as their\nammunition lasted.\nAside from raining, barrages, aerial activity, interrupted sleep,\nirregular eating, being fired upon but missed, we spent over six days on the\nrock road firing at an elevation as high as 39° ⁹During our stay here the\nfirst battalion moved ahead of us and had about seventy five casualties in\nkilled, wounded and gassed. 100 We were fortunate, in our position, we had\nshells fall in front and behind us, we had gas alarms most every night but\nbeing on the crest of a hill we were were comparatively safe. All during the\nday of Oct. 3rd our infantry came marching past us on their way to the rear,\nbeing relieved by the 1st Division. They were tired, ragged, muddy and with\nsunken cheeks showing many sleepless night and nerve racking\nexperiences.\n101\nIn the afternoon of the 3rd we were again machined gunned by\nabout ten Boche planes. We even shot at them with rifles, picked up from\nHARRY ARCHIVES& \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN.\" LIBRARY\nU.S.\nGOVERNMENT\n99\nThe design elevation of the French 75mm was 19 degrees. The elevation was good for a field gun,\nbut not adequate for plunging fire or in hilly terrain. Trail holes helped compensate for the deficiency.\n100\nIn 1918 the organization of an American artillery regiment was, section (1 gun), platoon (2 guns),\nbattery (4 guns), battalion (12 guns). An artillery regiment contained a total of six batteries. Four batteries\nof\n75mm field guns and one battery of 155mm field guns. Sergeant Chaney is referring to the first battalion or\n\"A,B,+C\"\nbatteries. Sergeant Chaney's battery was in the second battalion\nbatteries.\nRegiments\nwere commanded by a Colonel, battalions by a Major, batteries by a Captain, platoons by a Lieutenant, section\nby a Sergeant. The gun was fired by a Corporal.\n101\nThe First Division was a regular army division and the first United States division in France.\nComprised of regular army troops, it saw more time in the line than any other United States division. The 1st\nhad no shoulder patch in World War One, but in Word War Two it became famous as the \"Big Red One.\" The\nsic\n35th had advanced so rapidly that the flanking divisions, who were meeting substantially greater resistance could\nnot keep flank contact. This exposed the 35th's flanks to the heavy German fire. The Germans guns punished\n1\nthe 35th badly requiring it be relieved by the 1st Division. The 35th suffered 1298 killed and 5998 wounded\noverall in France. The 35th fought well, but not smart, and paid the price ignorance usually extracts.\n36\ndead doughboys. 102 The planes succeeded in killing a few men in the\nbatteries stationed just to the right of us, but had a bomb been dropped in\nour midst it would have killed fifty of us as we were lined up for mess when\nthey flew over. Instead of scattering we amused ourselves shooting at them\nand expecting to see one of them fall as the whole valley echoed with the\npurring of machine guns and anti-aircraft guns the conduct of the men was\nmarvelous as they didn't seem to know what fear was. 103 Our kitchen was put\njust to the rear of the guns and one night about 2:30 a.m. a big shell fell\nabout forty yards back of it and the falling dirt and mud sounded like a\nstampede of horses. It fell all around us and about all that was said was a\ncasual remark, \"I guess that was that \"210\" that's been shooting around here\nall day. And believe me a 210 with a delayed action fuse sure makes a\n104\ngeyser.\nOn the night of the 3rd we were given 500 rounds of gas to shoot\nalong with a schedule which would last about an hour. But just before the\nzero hour arrived, the order came for \"march order.\" Gee! But it sounded\ngood as we had a hunch we were being relieved. Late that night we pulled\nout thru Verennes for the rear. We passed a sector of the Argonne that\nthere seemed to be some hot fighting. There was such a roar and flash of\nguns that one was almost blinded in the darkness and a conversation was\nout of the question. We marched all night long, traveling parallel with the\nHARRI US GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES& \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN. LIBRARY\n102\nThe \"Redlegs,\" so called in the old army because the scarlet piping on their uniforms identified\nthem as artillerymen, carried the American Colt .45 automatic pistol as their weapon. It could blow a plate size\nhole in a man and it was a great weapon for trench fighting, but it was useless past twenty five feet. The rifles\nSergeant Chaney refers to are most likely Enfields chambered for the 1903 .30 caliber cartridges.\nThe excellent Springfield 1903 rifle was like everything made in short supply.\n103\nThe French 75mm was the anti-aircraft gun of the war also. Mounted on trucks or stationary\nplatforms the gun could be swiveled 360 degrees on a mount that gave it adequate elevation. Very accurate and\nwith 16,000 feet of range, it presented a formidable deterrent to the slow, altitude limited aircraft of the time.\n104\nA delayed action fuse is designed to permit the warhead of a shell to penetrate the armor, sand,\nconcrete or any protective coating of the target before exploding.\n37\nfront lines. We could still see the wreckage of equipment, shell torn roads,\ndead horses and evidence of many a tragic death.\nPassing along a road on the side of a high hill had been a mine\nexplosion, causing a great breach in the roadway, but some \"colored boys\"\nwere on the job fixing it, so it wasn't long until we were passing thru shell\ntorn villages and wending our way to the rear. It wasn't long before signs of\nwar were soon left behind. 105\nFrom the time we left the Vosges Mts. until now we have lost about a\nhundred head of horses, mostly killed from overwork, lack of feed and\nwater. And no doubt exposure to the weather was responsible for most of\nthe losses. With thirty five head of horses we pulled guns and caissons for\neighteen hours, and finally pulled into a big woods for rest. Here we could\nstill hear the roaring of guns and there were thousands of troops quartered\nhere. 106\nHere we made camp along side the road and stayed the rest of the\nday and left the next noon. The entire remains of the division was camped.\nWe had an opportunity to visit some of our friends. I was fortunate in\nseeing Sgt. Bill of the 110th Eng. and he gave me more detail of Sgt.\n105\nThe editor cannot determine if the \"colored boys\" were United States Army, Service of Supply\n(SOS) troops or French Engineers. The French had Black infantry (Seneglese) and Black engineering battalions\nand supported the Americans on the both flanks of the American army. Black Americans were generally used\nas stevedores and rear echelon heavy labor. The \"colored boys\" were probably French. Several Black National\nGuard regiments served under French command and received many French awards.\n106\nthe fourquins of\nNormally a gun is pulled by six horses. This requires 24 horses at any one time to pull/a battery.\nThere was other horse requirements such as water cart, kitchen, and caissons Thirty five horses was at the critical\nedge. The AEF purchased 243,039 horses and mules and never had enough. As crucial a role that the internal\ncombustion engine played in the war, it was the horses and mules that moved the supplies and guns on the\nbattlefield. The big woods Sergeant Chaney refers to is the Bois Cheihemin in the in the Very-Cheppy area where\nthe 35th division reassembled before moving out of the Meuse-Argonne sector.\n38\nShackelton's death, also of Sgt, Ficken being gassed. Also met a friend of\nmine named Fowler, he also gave me some details of Shackelton's death. 107\nFrom here we hike to Seigmulles, about eighteen hours from the big\nwoods. 108 It was on this move that we got so hungry we picked up crusts of\nbread that was left by some other outfit. As we were passing thru some\ntown about 9 o'clock p.m. some doughboy kitchen had some bacon left from\nsupper. Well! Those that were fortunate enough to get some before it run\nout, ate it as tho it were cake. There was a truck load of bread dumped on\nthe ground near by and with the aid of darkness, nearly every man had a\nloaf of bread, we were desperate. I really believe \"corn willie\" would have\ntasted like chicken that night. 109 It was always a puzzle to me why we never\ndid feed or water when the time came. It seemed as tho the hikes were\nmade as long and as hard on the men and horses as possible. To prove the\nlatter hike could have been made in two days instead of one, we stayed in\nthe village of Seigneulles for about nine days. Our stay in Seigneulles was\nwithout events but was occupied with foot drill and \"cannoneers post\" and\ngun drill. 110\nThere were a few French canteens here which kept us well supplied\n\"NATIONAL\nwith jam, cookies and chocolate at exorbitant prices. Jam was $2.00 a can,\nU.S.\nGOVERNMENT\ncookies fifty cents for about a dozen. Chocolate was eighty cents and only\n20% sugar. It was nothing but bitter chocolate and small bars at\n107\nRegiment\nthe\nregimento\nof\nThe 110th Engineer\nBatration\nwas\nengineer\nthe 35th Division.\n108\nThe 35th Division records show that the division stayed for nine days in the Vavincourt area.\nVavincourt is located midway between Verdun and Bar le Duc and to the West of the \"Sacred Road.\" The editor\nhas been unable to locate Seigmulles on any map or in any reference. It may have been a suburb of Vavincourt.\n109\nThe canned corned beef from Argentina was called \"corn willie\" by the American troops. It was\ntough, stringy and almost totally inedible.\n110\nThe high command felt that it was better to keep the troops occupied than have them lay about.\nIt is a sure thing that the troops didn't feel that way. A \"cannoneers post\" was an inspection by the commanding\nofficer of the regiment.\n39\nthat. Grapes cost a dollar for a handful and ten cents would have bought\ntwice as much in the States. Where ever there were soldiers the price was\nhiked ten and twenty times its worth. But when one can find a place where\nAmerican soldiers have never been, things are about the same price as in\nthe states except fats and sweets. 112\nAfter spending several days here we hiked overland to Kruth taking\nour guns only as we had so many horses \"kick off\" here, that trucks had to\nbring our caissons and other equipment. We were about two days on the\nroad when we pulled into Kruth on the night of Oct. 16th. Here we spent\ntwenty four hours sleeping. On the next night we hiked all night to a\nposition near Verdun. It was about five in the morning that we pulled into\nprepared positions. 113 It was a hard night spent in the rain and then having\nto pull the guns in by hand. When the guns were in we made a dive for the\ndugout and slept until noon the next day In the afternoon the guns were\nlayed and data for a normal barrage made, after we were assigned a\n114\nsector.\nU.S.\n111\nThe canteens, called Estaminets and were sponsored by the French Government. The French troops\ncould buy wine, food and sweets to supplement their normal rations. Americans were very welcome, but were\nnot allowed to purchase wine.\n112\nNotice there is no mention of alcoholic beverages. The AEF was a dry army if ever there was one.\nThis was a deliberate policy of the United States government to pacify the mothers of America, the growing\nprohibition movement and powerful church groups. The French fought on oceans of cheap wine, the British on\nblack rum and the Germans on beer and wine. The Americans fought on what they could buy, steal or make.\nThe mountain boys could do wonders with a little water, sugar and horse corn.\n113\nThe 35th Division records show the 35th moving into the Sommedieue area which is Southeast of\nthe 129th's final position in the Verdun area. Kruth is in the Vosges Mountains and is just to far to hike in on\nday from Vavincourt or in one day from Verdun. The 129th's position was in the middle of the most heavily\nfought over ground, having the highest density of dead per square yard than any recorded battle ever. It was here\nthe Battle of Verdun was fought.\n114\nA sector is a subdivision of a military position that is assigned to a commander as his area of\nresponsibility. The sector is bounded by arbitrary lines on the flanks and rear and extends as far forward as the\nmaximum range of his guns.\n40\nNothing of importance took place until Monday night, Oct.21st. When\nwe were getting ready for bed, one of my men, Pierce, remarked that he had\nbeen on guard or carrying ammunition every night and now that he had a\nchance to sleep, he felt something just must happen. No sooner had he said\nit than the call \"barrage\" came. The guard at the gun had the first shot on\nthe way. We put out eighty rounds in twenty minutes as the barrage\nschedule called for and the rocket signals called \"repeat\". We did. We kept\nit up then as long as our ammunition lasted, as did the other batteries near\nus. It was confirmed over the phone, but it all proved to be a Hun trick.\nThey must have taken an O.P. and discovered our signal for barrage. We\nburned up only about $65,000 worth of fuel that night. The rest of the night\nwas spent in carrying more shells, which had to be carried about a mile. The\nnext day was also spent in the same way. ¹¹⁵We soon found an old engineers\ndump with plenty of narrow gage track and small cars. So we constructed a\nsmall track to haul our ammunition which made it so much easier. 116\nToday there was a plane shot down in no-mans-land and our\nCaptain went forward to shoot it up before dark. But before we got to shoot\nwe were stopped by orders from headquarters. 117\nThere has been marked aerial activity the last few days, in fact some Boche\nplane, real desperate, flew only above the tops of the trees trying to locate\nour position, maybe he did and maybe he didn't. We moved at two o'clock\na.m. the next morning to another sector about eight kilos away.\n115\nO.P. could mean observation post, or outpost. Both would be set up in \"no-mans-land.\" It probably\nwas an artillery observation post because it would have the data the Germans used. An infantry outpost would\nnot.\n116\nStrictly speaking this was not a narrow gage railroad. It was more like a big toy railroad. Called\na \"Decauville Train,\" Having a gage of 60cm or 23.5 inches, it was known as a \"two footer\" in the United States.\nThe tracks snapped together like toy train tracks and could easily be laid on a bed of crushed stone or wooden\nties. The miniature steam engine was fuelled with bricks of pressed coal dust. It was used immediately behind\nthe lines to haul supplies up to the trenches and guns, and the dead and wounded back. The train was tiny, but\nit could haul ten tons.\n117\nThe purpose being to destroy the aircraft beyond hope of salvage.\n41\nIt was a moonlight night and everything was almost as visible as tho it\nwere daylight. The ghostly scenes we saw that night made an impression\nupon us that we will never forget. The ground being of a white rocky nature,\nwas completely plowed and re-plowed by shells making a terrain that was\nalmost impossible to walk over. Here and there were tall stumps of trees\nstanding like black ghosts with a white background. There was a flash thru\nour minds that this must have been a hell for someone, sometime. 118 It was\nsuch a looking place that we went into position on the early morning of\nOct. 24Th. We went into prepared positions, that is what was left of old\nprepared gun pits. There was old decayed camouflage to blend with rocks,\nthe supports were charred by powder fire, which was a result of a direct hit\nupon a magazine chamber adjoining the pit. (third section pit) Just a few\nyards to the rear of the pits were dugouts with about eight feet of rock\ncovering them.\nARCHIVES&\nIBRARY\nAfter our guns were in, we had to unbox and carry to the magazines,\n2500 rounds and then camouflage the boxes. I never will forget when we\nlooked at those empty boxes, they looked like a mountain but the seven\nmen in each section jumped in with the view of getting it all away before\ndaylight. The fact that the position was registered and there were no trees to\nprovide aerial cover for us, only had a tendency to urge us on. 119 Daylight\nfound us asleep in our dugouts and we were permitted to sleep all day,\nwhich was just great relief as we had had no rest for several days and nights.\nThe afternoon found us with our guns layed and we had a chance to squint\nat our surroundings. We found we were just a few feet from a rock road,\n118\nSergeant Chaney's battery was now in the Verdun sector. One of the most murderous battle in\nrecorded history had been fought here in 1916. Over 1,500,000casualties were taken in this sector during the\ncourse of the war.\n119\nThe seven men in a gun section were the section chief (Sergeant), the gunner (Corporal), the\nassistant gunner (Private) and four drivers (Privates), who also doubled as shell handlers.\nNote: Full strength sections were Zud 1st Sect. Sect - 19 21 enlisted men, one officer\n-\nenlisted\n3rd 4th Seet 19 19 enlisted\nSect\nenlisted men, one officier\n42\nand a narrow gage track a few hundred feet across the road, a battery of\nFrench 75's, two batteries of 155's and a battery of anti-aircraft. All of these\nwere to our rear and on the same hill with us, on our right, was Fort\nTavannes, just a five minute walk from our position. 120\nThe ground was the most hard fought for ground in the drive for\nVerdun. Verdun lying just down the valley from our position. A million\nshells a day for seventy two days, were fired in this sector. Fort Duamont,\nFort Vaux, and a few others were all within view. 121 Every night of our stay\nhere the Huns were shelling the French positions to our rear and also the\nfort on our right. They seldom failed to open up about eight clock every\nnight with H.E., shrapnel and gas. We were annoyed a few nights with gas\nbut no harm done. 122 There was constant efforts, by the Boche planes, to get\n120\nRMENT\nThe French fortress system was based on the ancient citadel city of Verdun. Shaped in three arcs,\nthe fort line was comprised of 20 major and lesser forts, and forty strong points, many having only one artillery\npiece. The Meuse River running roughly North-South split the arcs resulting in a fortress line on the East and\nand one one on the West bank. Fort Travenne was a major fort the East bank, in the second arc and astride the\nrailroad. The French General Staff had secretly drawn a \"panic line\" around the inner ring forts. This was the\nline around which the last ditch fight for Verdun would be fought. Fort Travanne was an integral part of the line.\n121\nHowever one looked at Fort Douamont, it was chilling, menacing and deadly. At 1200 feet\nelevation it overlooked the fortress line. There was not a square yard its guns did not cover. Fort Douamont was\nthe strongest fort in the world and the cornerstone of the whole Verdun defensive system. It was a hollow sham.\nIn their infinite wisdom, the French General Staff (GQG) had depleted the forts of movable artillery and men\nleaving the forts virtually undefended. Fort Douamont fell almost immediately to a small force of specially\ntrained assault troops. It was retaken by the French on October 24, 1916. It was undefended then also. Inspection\nof the fort by French engineers revealed that despite the large number of heavy caliber shells impacting on it,\nit was practically undamaged. Artillery records show that during the ten month Battle of Verdun, the French fired\n27,000,000 and the Germans fired 28,000,000 shells. Fort Vaux was a outer ring fort on the East bank. Fort\nVaux was a critical position even though it was the smallest fort in the system and had only one 75mm gun and\nmachine guns. It was the bastion upon which the whole French Northwestern trench system was based. The\nGermans fought desperately to take it, the French fought even more desperately to beat them back. The\nGermans were dropping up to 2,000 shells an hour on it. The French village of Vaux changed hands thirteen\nduring the fight. Commanded by Major Raynal, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, a ragtag band of\nFrenchmen fought the Germans to a standstill until driven underground by massive artillery bombardments. The\nattacks went on, day after day. Cut off from France, Fort Vaux was short of food, ammunition, medical supplies\nand out of water, Major Raynal was forced to surrender. It is likely that Fort Vaux would never have surrendered\nexcept for lack of water. The Germans had been unable to advance more than forty yards underground in five\ndays of desperate fighting. The Germans lost 2700 men capturing Fort Vaux. Major Raynal was honored by the\nGerman Crown Prince and French nation for his courage.\n122\nThe fort on the right was Fort Travanne. The editor has Sergeant Chaney's original artillery chart\nof the position. The chart shows his gun position, ranges and field of fire. It shows the location of the forts,\ntunnel and terrain.\n43\ninformation on those French positions but all the shots went over us with\nthere usual whine. That didn't worry us as much as the klaxon that sounded\nthe gas warning. There is awful feeling when one is awakened in the early\nmorning hours, by the gas alarm. There is a thot of \"where's my mask?\" but\nthey are usually , with special care, layed, right by one's head with satchel\nunfastened. A second thot is \"How long has the alarm been going and is\nthere gas in the dugout?\" I always made it a point to arouse each man to\nsee that his mask was on. All day long, at almost regular intervals, long.\nrange guns would shell Verdun and the shell passed directly over us. We\ncalled them \"rolling kitchens\". 123\nThe Captain made daily trips to the forward O.P. I obtained his\nconsent to take me with him, sometime. Two Captains, the Major and\nmyself along with another Sergeant made the trip one afternoon. We\nentered a railway tunnel (Verdun-Metz Ry) and traveled perhaps two kilos,\nthru what had once been used as quarters for French troops during the\nsiege of Verdun in 1916. 124 This tunnel, at this time, was also used by 16 inch\nTRUMAN NATIONAL LIBRARY\nGOVER\n123\nA \"rolling kitchen\" was the shell from either a German 21cm or 24cm howitzer. They were called\nthat because of the peculiar sound the shell made when wobbling or turning end over end in flight. This\ncharacteristic was caused by worn tubes in the howitzers. At this time in the war Germany needed every gun on\nthe line and could not spare either the time or material for relining.\n124\nThe Travanne Tunnel is a single track railroad tunnel on the main Verdun to Metz railroad line.\nThe tunnel ran about 400 yards beneath the Meuse hills. It was a critical position to the French. If the Germans\ntook it, it would lead the Germans beneath the fortress and trench systems and directly to Verdun. During the\nfight for Verdun, the Germans got within five yards of the Northeast opening. The French held and the Germans\ncould advance no further. During the fight for Verdun the French used it as a command center, staging area,\nsupply dump, hospital and rest area. In the resultant chaos, French housekeeping, never a French strong point,\nfailed. A gasoline fuel leak resulted in a gigantic explosion that killed over 500 men and practically destroyed the\ntunnel.\n44\nnaval railway guns as protection after long range shelling at Metz. 125 At the\nend of the tunnel we found ourselves in a deep narrow ravine with trenches\non the left and front with Fort Tavanne to our rear and Fort Duamont on\nour right front. Here we entered the communication trenches and soon\nentered the front lines, just at the base of a chain of hills that faced a great\nswamp and plain that was continuous for forty kilos to Metz. With our\nglasses we made a search of no-mans-land, seeing only one German. Just to\nthe front we saw the remains of Dieppe, about a kilo away. The Hun strong\nfront trenches was about three kilos away in one place, on account of a\nswamp. Then it turned in, these lines came within a hundred meters of each\nother.\n126\nOur own infantry was holding these lines at this time. (35th Div.) One\nnight we were called upon to \"stand by\" and be ready to put a \"box barrage\"\naround Dieppe to protect our troops, in case of necessity, as they were\nmaking a big raid here to get some prisoners. But our infantry got what they\nwanted without calling on us so, we didn't have to fire. After repeated\nefforts by the Huns to get information, on battery positions, a Boche plane\nwas brot down about two hundred meters to our rear. Some of us took our\npistols and made a run for him. We got there along with some Frenchmen\n(Frogs) and found they had made the best of the fall, being practically\nLIBRARY UNITED\n125\nThe railroad guns were acually 14 inch naval rifles (naval term for large caliber gun) mounted on\nrailroad flatbed car specially reinforced with railroad track. The rifles were originally built for United States Navy\nheavy cruisers then under construction. Recognizing the ships most desperately need were destroyers to combat\nthe German submarines the Navy ceased work on the cruisers. The complete setup for five rifles was constructed\nand the rifles sent to France and mounted on special railroad cars. Each rifle was completely self contained\nexcept for ammunition, fuel and railroad track. Muzzle velocity was 2800 feet per second, range 42,000 yards and\nan elevation 43 degrees. All the rifles were active in supporting the AEF and the naval gun crews fired 782\nrounds. Four were active in the Meuse-Argonne offensives. Initially the rifles had difficulty in hitting their targets\nat 20 mile range. After some scouting around the navy gunners found a army captain named Hubble in the\ntrenches. Captain Hubble, a wizard at mathematics, was shanghaied to straighten the problem out. He did, and\nyears later had the Hubble Space Telescope named in his honor for his work in Astronmy. The rifles were\nshelling Metz, the railroad supply hub for all the German forces on the Verdun and Vosges fronts.\n126\nSergeant Chaney is referring to a very large bog called the Plain of Woevre.\n45\nunhurt, aside from a few bruises. 127 We covered them and made a search for\nweapons but found none. To see our men strip them of their clothing one\nwould have thot the American Army was an army of souvenir hunters. I\nlater went to the plane and broke off a speedometer which was on a wing of\nthe plane. The wings and propeller were badly smashed, but the engine\nappeared to be in good shape. 128 Then a French officer came up and took\ncharge, taking machine gun, camera, maps and photo-plates. The memos\nmade by the officer showed that had he returned it would have been hot for\nus, as the positions had been successfully plotted.\nThe prisoners yielded readily to our stripping them except when we\ntook the Lieutenant's Iron Cross. but his protests were in vain. Aside from\nthe shock and excitement they seemed glad that the war had finished for\nthem. But at a questioning given them and the finding of soft lead nose\nbullets found on the officer, they became very much disturbed, as the\nFrenchmen wanted to lynch or kill them then and there. 129 The French\nintelligence department came and took them and their plane away, ending a\nday of adventure for us.\nBrigade headquarters had a special mission for us to be started at\nARCHIVES &\nthree a.m. on the morning of Nov.2nd. 130 Our firing was destructing the\nRECORDS\nADMIN\nU.S.\nGOVERNMENT\n127\nThe mildly derogatory appellation \"frog\" was given to the French by the Americans supposedly\nbecause of their practice of eating frogs legs.\n128\nActually it was a pitot tube, which sensed the air pressure generated by the forward movement\nof the aeroplane and transmitted it to the airspeed indicator (speedometer) in the cockpit.\n129\nHollow core, dum-dum and explosive bullets were banned by the Hague Conventions. The United\nStates did not sign the conventions. The French and Germans had. To take cartridges of this nature on an\noperation in which one might be captured was suicidal. To have even near you if captured, was cause for instant\nexecution.\n130\nAn America artillery brigade was comprised howiteers of a headquarters, for and supply battalion. It had two\nregiments of 75mm and one regiment of 155mm field guns. One trench regiment of six-inch trench mortars, howitzers\nguns\nCommanded by a Brigadier General, it had 4908 men 48 field guns, 12 long guns and\n12 trench mortars.\n46\nHun's front lines, while other batteries fired at Hun batteries to keep them\nsilenced. Each gun of our battery fired 500 rds with perfect regularity,\ncompleting the firing at 7:30 a.m. This morning must be remembered as it\nwas cold, in fact freezing our water used for cooling and swabbing the gun.\nThe weeds and sticks were all coated with frost. The morning was fogging\nand freezing making it an ideal morning for our firing. Not one shot was\nfired by the Hun in return for our harsh message.\nIt was on Sunday the third the Boche found \"E\" battery's position and\nrun them out. Killing five of their men, causing them to change their\nposition. For several days the Hun continued to shell their old position, but\nto no avail. Aside from aerial activity, daily searching out fire by the Hun,\nwe had no excitement up to Nov 9th. when our infantry was relieved by the\n81st Division the \"Wild Cats\". Then we were attached to the 81st. 131 At an\nearly hour we were awakened by a stiff barrage to our right and left and the\ncontinuous fire of machine guns, which were plainly heard from our\nposition. We got up to find French infantry, artillery and supplies lined up\non the roads. It only brot the news that there was an other drive on, we\nbeing on the offensive. 132 We were ordered to pull our guns out in front of\nthe pits and open fire at 7:30 a.m. Here we fired barrages and fired on\nbatteries and fired on German towns, at long range. 133 Our battery along\nU.S.\nGOVERNMENT\nwith the French were left to hold a pivot, while the (81st) infantry and our\n131\nThe 81st National Army Division was made up from men from North Carolina, South Carolina\nand Florida. The divisional patch reflects a \"Wildcat emblem.\" The official records calls them \"The Stonewall\nDivision. Their histories call them the \"Wildcat Division. \"Oddly, the 35th Division had no nickname in World\nWar One. The constant demand for manpower and intense political pressure from the French and British forced\nthe American government to send over infantry divisions without their full complement of artillery and support\nservices. Many National Army divisions did not have artillery or machine gun regiments attached during the\nMeuse-Argonne offensive. Artillery regiments were borrowed from any available source and were under Corps\nheadquarters control not normal divisional control.\n132\nThe last great offense of the war had started. The second phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive\nforced the Germans to sue for peace.\n133\nMoving the guns out of their pits lowered their elevation and increased their range.\n47\nbrigade moved to another point to advance pinching off this swamp, thus\navoiding driving thru this swamp. 134\nFrom the reports we received the \"Wild Cats\" were making good\nprogress for several kilos. But were held up by a few machine guns. Having\ntalked to one of their men returning, He remarked they were held up for\nfive hours, in a \"bloody\" fight, with three machine guns. I ask him how many\ncasualties they had in his company. He said \"light\". I said, \"Go on fool, you\nain't done nothin' yet. 135\nI thot of the drive in the Argonne when our boys fought in the wood\nand captured hundreds of machine guns and how they would rush them,\nallowing nothing to stop them. And how privates became sergeants and how\nsergeants took command of companies, and how Lieutenants became\nMajors 136 I thot of that in contrast in the fighting spirit between the men\nwho enlisted to fight and the men who were drafted to fight. I thot of the\nmarked difference between the infantry of the 35th as they marched to the\nfront lines, in the Argonne, and how depressed and the show of fear showed\non some of the faces of the 81st as they filed past us, while we were firing\nfrom the Verdun positions. 137 The next day battery \"E\" of our regiment went\nHARRY\n\"NATIONAL\nARCHIVES& RECORDS\nU.S.\nADMIN\nGOVERNMENT\n134\nA pivot is a stationary point at which troops remain stationary while the troops on the right, left\nor both flanks swing around the pivot. An analogy would be a door swinging on a hinge.\n135\nThe 81st division was in the line for eighteen days and in combat for five. The division suffered\n249 killed and 856 wounded.\n136\nAfter suffering horrendous losses, the French, British and Germans had learned that frontal attacks\ncould not pierce a fortified trench line. They had long since given up frontal attacks in favor of infiltration tactics,\nenormous artillery barrages and tanks. The Americans had not been in enough bloody battles to realize Civil War\ntactics were no longer viable and that flesh and blood, no matter how willing was no substitute for steel.\n137\nThe United States Army was comprised of three types of divisions. The regular army divisions\nwere numbered from 1 to 20, the National Guard divisions from 21 to 50 and the National Army divisions from\n51 to 100. Many regular and National Guard divisions were brought up to and kept at strength by infusions of\nNational Army troops. Towards the end of the war, distinctions between the divisions was officially abolished.\nAll the divisions were United States Army. With the end of the war in sight, no rational person wanted to be\nkilled or wounded. The 81st had a difficult assignment, but they did it well.\n48\nforward with the infantrymen of the 81st and took up position right with it\nan firing point blank on machine gun nests. They did every thing but put\nbayonets on the muzzles of the 75's.\nThe next day brot the war to a close with the order to cease firing at\neleven o'clock. Every gun French and American were firing up to the last\nminute. The French in our rear, celebrated the event with cheering, drinking\nand playing like children. There was no more camouflage discipline, no\nmore troop movements by night. Daylight activities followed from there on.\nStar shells and flares were sent up on the night of the eleventh, in\ncelebration of the event.\nThousands of engineers were working on the Verdun-Metz railway. A\nvery unfortunate accident happened the afternoon of the eleventh, when\neight were severely wounded and three were killed by the explosion of a\n\"dud\" under a big tent built by the engineers. It was a fire built in a big shell\nhole and a dozen men were sitting around it that the explosion occurred. 138\nHARRIT U.S. ARCHORDS& ADMIN \"NATIONAL TRUMAN LIBRARY\nGOVERNMENT\n138\nTo this day France has a special government department called the Department du Deminage.\nMade up of a special breed of men called Demineures who have the sole purpose of finding and disposing of the\nunexploded ordnance from the many wars fought on French soil. The most lethal area is Verdun. Seventy five\nyears later Verdun still grows a continual crop of unexploded ordnance. After World War One, France closed\noff 16,000,000 acres of land near Verdun. It has been estimated 12,000,000 shells from World War One still lie\nunexploded in the fields. Approximately 2,000,000 acres have been reclaimed. Even now the reclaimed fields are\nnot safe for an occasional shell still pops up. These unexploded shells are extremely dangerous to handle. The\nshell is rusted, and its ingredients toxic and unstable. More than 650 Demineurs have been killed on duty since\n1946."
}