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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": "24\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. 66 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.\nTRUMAN\nARCHIVES & \"NATIONAL ADMIN.\"\nRECORDS\nCONTRACTED\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.\""
}