CHAPTER VICHEMIN DES DAMES
Early plans of the War Department for training troops in France included a period during which the "Yanks" were brigaded with French or British units to spend a probationary time in the lines, when they received instruction in trench routine, were taken on raiding expeditions by the veteran fighters of the Allies and received their baptism of fire, often very severe when the Hun discovered the presence of green troops on the front. It was on this course of training the Company was bound when just at dusk on February 7 packs were slung and the men began their struggle up the ice-covered hill on the road to Chatenois.
Experience in hiking to the trenches soon taught enlisted men that the primitive life on the front line did not call for various accoutrements thought necessary in the barracks, or at least it was much easier to do without certain articles than it was to carry them. This first trip, however, saw packs, bundles and bags such as had adorned the men when they left Niantic. By the time they reached the top of the hill back of the camp, although many rests had intervened during the climb, resolutions galore were made concerning the amount to be packed on another trip. With very little climbing to do on the rest of the journey, it was made in good time, and under the supervision of Lieutenant Paton the gun carts and wagons were loaded onto the waiting train, after which rations for the trip were drawn for each car and the men made themselves comfortable for the night.
Sleeping on the floor of a box car had no terrors for the men who had spent the past three months on the hard bunks of the barracks, so the bumping, swaying progress of the train leaving early the following morning failed to disturb the rest of most of the sleepers. The next day as the train passed through Epernay, Bar le Duc and Chalons-sur-Marne, wooden crosses on the graves of the first valiant defenders of the Marne and houses wrecked by shell fire and flames brought clearly to their minds the step they were taking toward the completion of a taskother men had found hard. The naturally light-hearted spirit of the Company prevented any depression and singing could be heard from end to end of the train as it rolled along on the grand line of France through some of the prettiest scenery that land affords. Travelling most of the time through valleys where the tiny villages dotted with white the green of early spring crowning the hills on all sides, "Sunny France" became more of a reality and the spirit of her men, fighting to preserve these peaceful scenes, became more thoroughly appreciated as some of its inspiration dawned upon their brothers in Democracy.
Early evening found the train at Dormans, a short distance east of Chateau-Thierry, and from there a branch line was followed to Braisne, a town less than six months before in the hands of the Hun. War zone rules prevailed here and the unloading was done mainly in darkness but accomplished quickly. At the end of a ten kilometer march the Battalion was billeted in the ruined city of Vailly. To D Company fell a hut of similar type to the ones used as barracks in Certilleux. Sleep was curtailed the next morning by orders to move to the security of dugouts and cellars with which the city was filled. During the balance of the day explorations were in order, for the surrounding country offered limitless opportunities to observe the havoc wrought by war. Twice the opposing armies had battled through this portion of the department of Aisne, so that trenches, observation posts and graves of soldiers of both powers were plentiful.
Airplanes passed time and again on their missions over the lines. Men of the Company saw their first struggle between aviators, viewed breathlessly the feat of a German birdman who destroyed a French observation balloon and the escape of the observer from the basket of the "blimp" in a parachute. The camouflage screens used so extensively during the war were much in evidence here as the roads were open to enemy observation. All other artifices of war as it had been developed since the introduction of trench fighting were to be seen in abundance.
On the night of February 10 C Company of the 102d Machine Gun Battalion entered the line at Froidmont Farm and took positions turned over to them by the French along the slopes of the famous ridge crowned for the distance of about four kilometersby the Chemin des Dames, from which the sector took its name.
Packs were rolled on short notice in the afternoon of the 13th and a march of four kilometers to the east took the Company to the ruined village of Chavonne where the wagon train established quarters and above which the Company was billeted in caves called "Les Grenouilles" (the frogs). Here were electric lights and wooden floors and French Army canteens nearby, but luxuries lost their interest when a German aviator and his machine, felled perhaps three months before, were discovered in a shell-pitted field near the cave.
Preparations for the coming trip to the front were continued, the guns polished and oiled to the last degree, carts thoroughly overhauled and personal equipment put in proper order. Aerial activity offered the only distraction from duty. One bright day when the entire Company was viewing a combat between Allied and German planes from the hill above its appointed home, General Peter E. Traub (at that time in command of the 51st Infantry Brigade, of which the Company was a part) made an impromptu visit, resulting in a comprehensive and forceful lecture from that officer on the proper deportment of soldiers when enemy planes came into view.
According to the routine established reconnaissance parties preceded their respective companies into the line by twenty-four hours to allow a relief without endangering the strength of the position. In conformity with this Lieutenant Condren, with a representative from each section, went ahead of the Company. On February 16 Lieutenant Thomas led the balance of the command up through Ostel, where dusk was awaited because of the exposed road to be traversed between that village and Froidmont Farm, the objective of the Company. From there they marched down the road in sections into the cave cut from the soft limestone deposit from which the first and second platoons took positions in the first line, with the third remaining in the cave as a reserve.
One of the wonders of the war, that cave had a capacity of about ten thousand men, most of whom could be furnished with sleeping quarters. It was equipped with electric lights burned only during certain hours of the day, officers' quarters andkitchens for a limited number of men and the ever present French canteen with its stock of wine and chocolate.
Passing through the cave, the men designated to take the first shift on the line found travelling difficult when they reached the stairs leading up and out at the front. These were narrow and steep with roof so low that "Duke" Rowley's equipment wedged him in and he was forced to have some of it removed before he could continue. Finally reaching the outside, guides were waiting to conduct the squads to the replacements they were to occupy, and after guns were set up all but a guard for each gun sought the dugouts, which were deep, small and unventilated.
DetailCHEMIN DES DAMES—RATION DETAIL.
CHEMIN DES DAMES—RATION DETAIL.
One of the difficulties of duty in this part of the line was the disposal of the kitchen which was finally left near Ostel in a depression which became known as the forerunner of a long line of "Shrapnel Valleys" for the smoke from the fires always presented a fair target to Hun gunners. From here the "grub" was carried to the men in the line in large marmite cans constructed with the idea of keeping food warm and fitted with handles supposed to make them more easily portable. Thesetrips accomplished twice each day by details from each section were often fraught with danger, for the Hun insisted on "strafing" the road at the most inopportune times, and hairbreadth escapes were daily topics while the gun squads waited in their dugouts.
Accustomed to activity of a strenuous sort during most of their waking hours, the men found trench warfare irksome, wondering at the businesslike attitude adopted by the doughty French soldiers who took their trips to the trenches much as most Americans take their daily work in peace times. Chaffing under the restraint, McAviney and Parmalee produced life-sized bombardments one night for the benefit of Lieutenants Bacharach and Carroll by throwing hand grenades over the parapet until their tactics were discovered.
Gas alarms and drills, airplanes passing over and one call for a barrage which brought a prompt response from the Company guns broke the monotony of the stay. The main source of amusement, however, was watching the shells from American batteries break in the village of Chevregny, which with Monampteuil occupied the ridge on the opposite side of the valley in the German lines. Through this valley ran the Ailette River, a tributary of the Oise, as did the canal connecting the Oise with the Aisne.
Relieved by C Company February 22, the Company proceeded back to quarters at Chavonne.
Turkey was on the menu for the 24th and arrangements were made with Dr. Johnston, of the Y. M. C. A., so that each man was allowed a limited amount of credit at his canteen, for all were penniless as usual. Added to these luxuries was a bath for everyone obtainable at a station in Vailly loaned by the French authorities.
Soupir, St. Mard and Cys-la-Commune, the latter two south of the Aisne, were visited by the men during the next two days. Some of the officers also made the trip to the neighboring towns. Lieutenants Nelson and Paton, returning from a purchasing expedition and failing to find the road leading across the bridge, commandeered a raft which failed them in mid-stream and their supplies were resting on the bottom of the river when they succeeded in reaching the bank.
On their second trip to the lines, made on the night of the 27th, the Company officers decided it would be necessary to pass through the cave, and after a long struggle through twisted paths, barbed wire, broken trench timbers and mud worse than ordinary because of a recent fall of snow, the men reached their assigned positions.
With the exception of a raid conducted by the French in coöperation with members of the 101st Infantry Regiment, on the left of the Company positions, followed by intermittent bombardments of retaliation by both sides, the second shift in the trenches for the members of old Troop A was uneventful. Routine duties continued until Friday, March 8, when French soldiers relieved them and they returned to billets at Chavonne. The Hun's farewell was enthusiastic, high explosives and gas shells expressing his hatred for the new units in the line. A bombing squadron bound for Paris passed above the men as they trudged back through Ostel and gas shells were so numerous that much of the trip was made with the masks adjusted.
In preparation for eventualities, the French authorities were constructing defensive positions protected by barbed wire for several miles to the rear of the lines they then occupied. It was into some of these just to the rear of American batteries near Ostel that part of D Company was sent on the day following its relief from the front line. Life at these posts was ideal, duties were cut to a minimum, food was brought in plentiful quantities to the doors of the dugouts, and with pay day on the Wednesday following the relief, French canteens were liberally patronized. Excellent weather prevailed during the rest of the stay in this sector and when the Battalion left Chavonne for Braisne March 18 impressions concerning the character of war were of a high nature for the Company had passed through its training period with no casualties and but few real hardships.
On the march from Chavonne to Braisne, the men again passed through Vailly, following the same road it had covered in making the trip to the lines. All along the way were evidences that the thrifty French were making every attempt to cultivate all available land. Most of the fields the Hun had held for nearly four years up to the preceding fall were green with new crops and cattle grazed among the mazes of barbedwire both armies had left in their haste. Braisne seen for the first time during daylight bore few of the scars of war, for the retreat first of the French and then of the German armies had been precipitous in this particular region.
Leaving at 11:30 that night the train moved out in the rain always in evidence when D Company was moving. Travelling all the following day the troops were detrained at Brienne le Chateau in the department of the Aube, about one hundred miles from Neufchateau, where the march to Vesaignes sous Lafauche for that mythical rest began in the usual drizzle. The journey ended for that day when the Company arrived at La Chaise, where quarters for all the men were taken in a large barn. Twelve kilometers to Ville sur Terre finished the task for the next day and this quiet little village was made the scene of deeply felt orations delivered by Sergeant Curtiss and Maiden to the crowd in the village square on varied topics, the spirits of the entire Company apparently bolstered by purchases in the cafés. Two more days here and the Battalion again moved under orders to participate in a war game which German successes on the British front were soon to cancel.
Through Thil, Nully, Blumery to Dommartin le St. Pere the men trudged on a twenty-one kilometer march Saturday, March 23. Conversation with people at that place revealed that it was being used by the French as a refuge for many of the peasants driven from their homes near the Belgian border. Sunday's trip was to Nomecourt, a distance of thirteen kilometers. The following day the route lay through Joinville and Poissons to Maconcourt. The next day twelve kilometers more found the Battalion in Chambroncourt and Wednesday, March 27, Vesaignes sous Lafauche with its fleeting promise of a rest came into view, completing a hike which had required six marching days and during which over sixty-five miles had been covered.
The journey had not been tiresome, for the weather had been favorable with the exception of two days. The beauties of France, hidden by shell holes and barbed wire in the vicinity of the lines and mud and snow during the Company's early training period, had begun to be evident in the smiling countryside which greeted the men on their trip. Fields were eithergreen with new crops or brown where the earth had been freshly plowed, trees were showing the bright green of new leaves and the white roads in excellent repair which traversed the entire section seemed as ribbons binding together the tiny villages snuggled in the nooks among the hills, with neatly trimmed hedges and backgrounds of stately poplars along the banks of the little streams, producing an impression of peace and love in contrast with the hate and destruction of the front.
Assigned to barracks on the edge of the town, D Company proceeded to the task of unpacking barracks bags and settling down for a stay. This was rudely interrupted within two days when the smashing attacks of the Hun hordes against the British had met with such success that General Foch, in command of the Allied armies, found it necessary to use all available reserves. To this end the 102d Machine Gun Battalion, with the rest of the 26th Division, was ordered to the sector northwest of Toul as a relief for the 1st Division, which, with its record of nearly three months training in the lines, was needed where serious activity was impending.