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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": 40,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
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    "ocrText": "40\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.\nRECORDS\nADMIN.\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."
}