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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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            "logicalDate": "1919-01-01",
            "year": 1919
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    "seq": 14,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "14\nhere we found ourselves in German territory, Alsace-Lorraine.³ 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\nEs ARCHIVES & \"NATIONAL RECORDS ADMIN FORM\nCOVERAGER\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."
}