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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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    "seq": 47,
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    "ocrText": "47\nbrigade moved to another point to advance pinching off this swamp, thus\navoiding driving thru this swamp.\n134\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\nMajors136 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\nS\nfrom the Verdun positions. 137 The next day battery \"E\" of our regiment went\nEs ADMIN\nGOVERNAND\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."
}