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{
    "localId": "17343226",
    "label": "The Memoirs of Sergeant Verne Chaney",
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{
    "id": "17343226",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "The Memoirs of Sergeant Verne Chaney",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17343226",
    "collections": [
        "Verne E. Chaney Papers",
        "Subject Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972",
        "Spina, Frank E., 1887-1972",
        "Klemm, Karl D., 1880-",
        "Wooldridge, Glenwood F., 1893-1977",
        "Pershing, John J. (John Joseph), 1860-1948",
        "Thacher, John H., 1872-1960",
        "Miles, John L., 1878-1961",
        "Soldiers",
        "World War, 1914-1918",
        "Artillery"
    ],
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    "hasTranscription": false
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            "logicalDate": "1919-01-01",
            "year": 1919
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    "ocrText": "10\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\".24It 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.\nTRUMAN\nBowman resigned. Our Commanding Officer Capt. Thatcher, then had a\nis ARCHIVES & \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN GRAP\nGOVERNMET\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."
}