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{
    "localId": "17343226",
    "label": "The Memoirs of Sergeant Verne Chaney",
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{
    "id": "17343226",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17343226",
    "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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    "productionDates": [
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            "logicalDate": "1919-01-01",
            "year": 1919
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{
    "seq": 41,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/26/3432/17343226/content/presidential-libraries/truman/648564/hst-vec-naid7453017-41.jpg",
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    "ocrText": "41\nIt was a moonlight night and everything was almost as visible as tho it\nwere daylight. The ghostly scenes we saw that night made an impression\nupon us that we will never forget. The ground being of a white rocky nature,\nwas completely plowed and re-plowed by shells making a terrain that was\nalmost impossible to walk over. Here and there were tall stumps of trees\nstanding like black ghosts with a white background. There was a flash thru\nour minds that this must have been a hell for someone, sometime.118 It was\nsuch a looking place that we went into position on the early morning of\nOct.24Th. We went into prepared positions, that is what was left of old\nprepared gun pits. There was old decayed camouflage to blend with rocks,\nthe supports were charred by powder fire, which was a result of a direct hit\nupon a magazine chamber adjoining the pit. (third section pit) Just a few\nyards to the rear of the pits were dugouts with about eight feet of rock\nTRU\nINATION\ncovering them.\nAfter our guns were in, we had to unbox and carry to the magazines,\n2500 rounds and then camouflage the boxes. I never will forget when we\nlooked at those empty boxes, they looked like a mountain but the seven\nmen in each section jumped in with the view of getting it all away before\ndaylight. The fact that the position was registered and there were no trees to\nprovide aerial cover for us, only had a tendency to urge us on. Daylight\n119\nfound us asleep in our dugouts and we were permitted to sleep all day,\nwhich was just great relief as we had had no rest for several days and nights.\nThe afternoon found us with our guns layed and we had a chance to squint\nat our surroundings. We found we were just a few feet from a rock road,\n118\nSergeant Chaney's battery was now in the Verdun sector. One of the most murderous battle in\nrecorded history had been fought here in 1916. Over 1,500,000casualties were taken in this sector during the\ncourse of the war.\n119\nE?\nThe seven men in a gun section were the section chief (Sergeant), the gunner (Corporal), the\nassistant gunner (Private) and four drivers (Privates), who also doubled as shell handlers.\nNote: Full strength sections were : 1st Sect. - 21 enlisted men, one officie\n2nd 3rd sect seet - - 19 19 enlisted enlisted men men, one officier\n4th seet - 19 enlisted men"
}